Michael Vick’s Heartbreaking Admission on Wife & Kids During Incarceration Has Him Fighting Tears

Michael Vick’s journey in football and in life is filled with ups and downs. There are some decisions he regrets and some decisions that shaped him into the footballing legend he is today. It would have been shattering for anyone to go from earning a $130 million deal to spending 21 months in jail. And to rise up from such a tragedy? It takes guts, determination, and, most of all, the self-belief that Michael Vick had in those 21 grueling months. But it wasn’t all easy, as he tells his story.

August 28, 2007, is the date that Vick would want to forget, as he was handed a three-year suspended sentence in a dog-fighting scandal. His NFL dream started descending into oblivion, and whatever he achieved, that $130 million contract to NFL fame was put on trial. After all, the QB was a sensation in the NFL as he dominated with 2,474 passing and 1,039 rushing yards in 2006. Michael Vick sat in an interview with Melvin Rodriguez and opened up on how he tackled the circumstances that came after his conviction.

“In those circumstances, I mean, my thoughts about my family. You know, I went to a place where people don’t normally go, like 80% of the people in the world don’t go. So, I’m experiencing something different in life. So while I’m in that moment, I got to rehabilitate myself and at the same time stay strong.” Vick, even in his time in prison, remained connected to his family, and that helped him get through the tough time.

At Leavenworth, every inmate had a fixed number of phone call minutes in a month. But what Michael used to do, like many other inmates, was to save up those minutes, and when they accumulated, he would talk to his family. The former Falcons QB did that for his mother and saved up the minutes to talk to her on her birthday. However, the call didn’t go as Vick planned. His grandma on that day had a stroke, and his NFL team, the Atlanta Falcons, drafted Matt Ryan out of Boston College, ending his hopes of going back to the Falcons. However, he eventually rose and signed for the Eagles, and Vick tells exactly where he got the motivation.

“You know what I’m saying? Keep believing. And so, you know, it was the people in the outside world. My wife, my kids, my mom, my sisters, my brother, if they were in this situation, what would I want them to do? I want them to fight. Get up every day, even though you might cry in the morning, you know what I’m saying? You’re smiling at night…In those days, I was able to just build myself back up,” said Vick to Melvin Rodriguez. 

Vick, after his time in prison, didn’t have too many options in the NFL since no team wanted a convicted felon. Moreover, there were also questions of rustiness, as Vick was out of action for 2 years. However, one head coach finally showed belief in Michael Vick and signed him on a 1-year contract. Michael Vick paid back Eagles’ head coach Andy Reid’s faith and won the Comeback Player of the Year award with his electrifying performances in 2010. But the transition to producing 3,018 yards in 2010 wasn’t easy.

Michael Vick opens up on how he unintentionally hurt his grandmother

Vick was on a one-year contract with the Eagles and was to perform behind Kevin Kolb, who was the starter for the team. The QB1 spot, thus, at the time, was quite elusive, and all odds were stacked against him. But it took just one game for Vick to show his prowess, and Andy Reid from then on declared him to be the starting QB. Michael Vick opened up in an interview with Gilbert Arenas about how one game changed his career trajectory and how it might have hurt his grandma.

“First of all, that was my grandmother’s favorite team. When I was in prison, she passed away. You know, I used to always tell her when I was a kid, like, ‘I’m never going to lose to Washington. I’m like, ‘Hey grandma,’ like I’m looking in the sky, like, ‘Grandma, I hate to go do this, but it’s about to go down tonight.’ First play from some scrimmages and I’m like ‘I got to hurt him, hit him with the bomb… That day I just felt a sense of calm. Just the whole time in the whole game, I’m just thinking about my grandma.”

Well, the game Vick is talking about is the 2010 game against the Washington Redskins in which Vick passed for 333 yards and became the hero for the Eagles. From then on, Kolb, who was already sidelined due to injury against the Green Bay Packers, didn’t really get a chance to take his QB1 spot, and Vick from then on became the starter for the Eagles. The game might have hurt his grandma since Washington was her favorite team, but at least her grandson’s legendary trajectory began with the game.

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