Are We Talking About the Same Michael Vick?

I think we are

Thanks for reading The Dope.

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Hands in the air if you did not expect your Monday to include the news that Michael Vick is in conversation with not one, but two college football programs about coaching.

Check that: About being a coach.

Wait: About being the coach.

It is all true, assuming you accept that traditional media still have the capacity to bring you actual news — and even to surprise you.

In this case, Mike Vick himself, the former NFL quarterback, federal prisoner and FOX Sports commentator, confirmed in an interview with the Virginian-Pilot newspaper that he already has interviewed for the head-coaching position at Norfolk State University. Norfolk lies about 26 miles from Vick’s hometown of Newport News.

That report was just gathering momentum in the early afternoon when Adam Schefter posted to X that Sacramento State University “is in discussions to hire former QB Mike Vick” as its head coach, adding that the school is piling up $50 million in name, image and likeness (NIL) money with which to buy good athletes. This report was later amended to say that the university’s president had spoken to Vick about the position, with no imminent hire implied.

So Vick went from nowhere special to the brink of two college jobs in less than one news cycle. Pretty good work for a guy who has never coached. But hey! That’s what they said about Deion.

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What Norfolk State and Sacramento State have in common is lower-tier status. Each school competes in football at the FCS level, what we used to call Division I-AA. The California school wants to be invited to join the big boys in the Football Bowl Subdivision, or FBS. Hence the $50 mil, a stadium upgrade, and so on — “an investment Norfolk State cannot match,” the Virginian-Pilot report noted.

Norfolk, on the other hand, represents a chance for Vick to give back to the Hampton Roads region of Virginia. It may make less professional sense, but it’s closer to his heart.

None of this answers, or even addresses, the question of whether Mike Vick can coach. He was a college star who became an NFL sensation as a running quarterback, and he is a great what-if story, as in, What if Vick hadn’t gone to prison for 21 months in the middle of his career for his reprehensible involvement in a dogfighting ring?

Excellent question. But coaching? He’s done none.

“I know how to lead and I know what it takes,” Vick told the newspaper in Virginia.

I mean, okay. It can be done. Both schools currently pursuing Vick are planning to surround him with experienced staffs, which suggests that Vick himself would be more of a promoter, recruiter, speech-giver and NIL rainmaker than anything else. You almost have to have one of those in your program these days if you’re serious about getting ahead.

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By the time you read this, Vick’s decision could be made, or one or both of the universities involved could have either backed away or stepped up the pursuit. We often think of catchers in baseball as good manager material, and they are, so I’m not going to act shocked that somebody thinks a very good NFL quarterback could maybe figure out how to make a lower-level college program go.

Still — didn’t have this one on my bingo card. That makes it a Monday.

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