Mike Vick’s post prison NFL story is certainly a memorable one. What he’s done with his career (and some would say his life) after incarceration is certainly movie material. Vick is finding his groove on the field, cutting his braids off, staying out of trouble. Vick recently gave a candid interview to GQ magazine where he credits the Philadelphia Eagles with making him a much better quarterback, but said he initially thought the Cincinnati Bengals and Buffalo Bills were better options.
According to ESPN:
Those teams wanted him and might have made him their starting quarterback, while the Eagles, at the time, already had an established veteran starter in Donovan McNabb and a starter-in-waiting in Kevin Kolb.
That was well before the Eagles traded McNabb and Kolb got hurt, setting the stage for Vick’s remarkable comeback.
“I think I can say this now, because it’s not going to hurt anybody’s feelings, and it’s the truth … I didn’t want to come to Philadelphia,” Vick told the magazine. “Being the third-team quarterback is nothing to smile about. Cincinnati and Buffalo were better options.”
And look at were Cincy and Buffalo are today- big time QB issues and questions marks. The Bungles will have to go with TCU ginger-haired beauty Andy Dalton as the starting signal caller. The Bills are just biding time with their third rate options until nabbing Andrew Luck or Matt Barkley in the 2012 NFL mock draft.
Getting back to Vick, it’s clear the league might have had a role in finding his ultimate destination. After meeting with commissioner Roger Goodell and other NFL big wigs, Vicks says that the Eagles became the best choice. They were only the team that he claims did not try to change him. And he claims that it was in Philly where he learned to become a football player and not just an athlete.
Paul M. Banks is CEO of The Sports Bank.net, an official Google News site that generates millions of unique visitors. He’s also a regular contributor to Chicago Now, Walter Football.com, Yardbarker, and Fox Sports
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