MVP – Mike Vick’s Planet
I like it when people start to criticize and complain. He tells me that the fear of change
it’s in the air and that’s the way they are forced to deal with it. It means to me
that someone is doing something right. Of course, there are those who charge for
give a derogatory word to keep any due exaggeration in check, especially in sports where
The advertising business usually generates more income than the sports business.
itself. American football is the most popular sport in the world, so hype is something that
you don’t really need. But something is happening now that the league didn’t
ask: a thorough review of the entire look of the game.
Soccer is a team sport, much more than any other major sport. That in itself
makes this phenomenon even more significant than it would be otherwise. In sports,
there are few legendary talents. Athletes who possess intangibles that the players of
similar talent no. Then there are those who elevate the status of their sport to
heights never before seen or imagined. But there is another level of athletics
aptitude defined by players possessing so much athletic genius that the game can
it no longer contains them. They can’t help it, it just happens. They don’t just play the
play. They change the game.
We saw it in basketball with Michael Jordan. We are witnessing it now in golf with
Tiger Woods. Baseball had Babe Ruth. Wayne Gretzky did it in hockey. Can football
I thank Lawrence Taylor for changing the way defense is played. You can now point to
MVProdigy as the one who will raise the bar for the future of professional soccer.
Mike Vick is the most exciting player in soccer, if not the most exciting athlete in
Sports. He has led a perennial underdog to elite status in the National Soccer League.
His team, the Atlanta Falcons, are a legitimate contender to win the Super Bowl. Hey
He is the most feared player in the league. Period. While I was in college at Virginia Tech
it was touted as ‘The Future’. His movements with the ball cause a future hall of fame.
defensive backs seem to belong to Sunday school. It is appropriate that it be a
Falcon because once it takes off, you’re not going to catch it.
If you didn’t know that Mike Vick is a quarterback, you wouldn’t guess from this.
description of him.
Vick isn’t just a quarterback. It is a game breaker. An MVPlaymaker. He is he
Experience. He makes it happen. Without him, the Falcons have little chance of matching.
make the playoffs, let alone compete for a Super Bowl. The Falcons have quality
players who can win games, but without Vick they could beat USC.
Regardless, I don’t like what I hear about MVPeriod. People who think that
he knows that football says it is too one-dimensional. and will have to learn to pass first
if you want to take your team to championships. Why does it matter if you can collect 40
yards with the legs after the line protection is broken? Or if he is able to fight for
another 15 yards after he recovers the blitz at 3rd and 8th? But wait. It is not alone
running for positive yards that adds value to this player. Your legs have the ability to
avoid defensive pressure and knock out a 7-yard fast pass play on 1st or 2nd
down. Those are courtyards created by instincts created by the situation. This is the way
MV plays it. Other quarterbacks can lose 7 yards on that same play or throw an interception.
Vick throws picks or gets sacked like any other quarterback, but most of the time he
will create something out of nothing. That is the MVexPerience. The NFL does not
I still realize it, but the days when the prototypical 6’5 “dropback QB was a commodity
are passing quickly. That player won’t completely disappear, look at Peyton
Manning and Tom Brady, but over the next 10 years, as soccer produces more
and more MVP Pretenders at QB, NFL teams will need to adjust their offense
philosophy to harness these immensely talented players.
The strong winds of change are reshaping the landscape of American football. Some
are having a hard time accepting that the top players will rule the future, not
only football, but all sports. It’s not about 300 yards anymore, 2TD afternoons
it’s about the inevitability of the MVPrototype becoming the future of the NFL QB.
Eventually, critics will have to sing MVPraises.
© 2005 warmCHiL (TM) / MJ Style