Nobody, not even the PETA protestors who latched on to the Michael Vick publicity mother lode like pit bulls, should feel good about what has happened to the former Atlanta Falcons quarterback.
No one can believe Vick will play for the Falcons again, and it is a stretch to believe he ever will step on an NFL field again once he officially pleads guilty to federal charges involving a dogfighting ring.
No, this is a tragedy for everyone involved. That’s not a call for sympathy for Vick, just a recognition that this is nothing to celebrate.
However, some people should at least breath a sigh of relief that they were not in the wrong place at the wrong time — which, in this case, is the Atlanta Falcons organization in 2007.
Joe Gibbs almost was in that place.
The Vick controversy easily could have wound up Gibbs’ problem if not for a set of circumstances at the end of the 2003 NFL season that led to Gibbs returning to the Washington Redskins after a 12-year absence.
Gibbs was a part-owner of the Falcons, purchasing a small piece, but a piece nonetheless, in March 2002 from team owner Arthur Blank, a friend and confidant of Gibbs. Blank’s company, Home Depot, had sponsored Tony Stewart’s car on Gibbs’ racing team. In a press release on his racing team’s Web site, Gibbs talked about Vick, who was entering his second season with Atlanta when Gibbs became a minority owner.
“I saw him in college, and I’ve seen him play, and I would say that he is probably one of the best athletes I’ve ever seen in college,” Gibbs said. “Obviously, [coach] Dan [Reeves] has talked about him, too. However that goes, whether it’s Michael Vick right now or in the future, obviously Dan will be making all those decisions. All of us are going to be there to try and support Dan and the coaching staff. It’s going to be neat.”
It turned out to be anything but neat.
Gibbs could have wound up in the middle of this nightmare far deeper than simply a celebrity name with a piece of the team. When Blank fired Reeves at the end of the 2003 season, the owner made a run at trying to convince Gibbs to return to coaching. And if Steve Spurrier had performed at any level resembling an NFL coach and decided to stick around for another season, Gibbs might have been convinced to take the Falcons job. For a coach who loves quarterbacks, the chance to coach a talent like Vick might have been too strong for Gibbs to pass up.
But once Spurrier skipped town and the Redskins’ job became open at the same time, the Falcons were out of the picture. This was how Blank described Gibbs’ decision to pass on the Falcons and come back home to Washington: “It was kind of like in ‘The Lion King’ when Simba goes back home and saves the land or like ‘Lord of the Rings’ with the king going back and killing all the bad guys.”
It turns out the bad guys were in Atlanta.
Maybe if the Redskins’ job had not opened up and Gibbs did return to coaching in Atlanta, Vick might not have found himself so deep in the abyss in which he now resides. Maybe someone with Gibbs’ stature, influence and spirituality could have found a way to reach Vick. Then again, it’s clear no one has been able to reach Vick throughout his young life, and it may be too much to expect that Gibbs could have made a difference.
The coach has had players self-destruct in the past, such as Dexter Manley. In his second stint as Redskins coach, Gibbs has found that today’s players don’t respond as they did during his first tenure. They don’t return your phone calls sometimes (see Sean Taylor, problem child).
No one may have been equipped to deal with the damage Michael Vick has heaped on the Falcons because this is something no one in sports has had to deal with before — a player of such magnitude committing such despicable crimes at the height of his career.
So the next time Clinton Portis says something stupid, Joe Gibbs might stop for a moment, think of Michael Vick and say, “There, but for the grace of Steve Spurrier, go I.”
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