Vick is just helping things along...
...both were raised in poverty by single mothers living in the Newport News, Va., area. Both were born in June — Iverson arriving on June 7, 1975; Vick following five years later on June 26. Both raced through high school as national phenoms, coveted by nearly every college in the country, despite Iverson eventually spending five months in jail for a fight outside a bowling alley. Georgetown signed him anyway.
Both stopped growing at 6 feet, though Vick weighs close to 50 pounds more than AI — 215 to 168. Both list fishing as their favorite hobby.
Both wound up as the No. 1 overall picks in their respective sports, Iverson chosen by the Philadelphia 76 ers with the top pick in the 1996 draft, Vick going to the Falcons with the top pick in the 2001 NFL draft.
And both have garnered the kind of awe and fame reserved for only the most special of athletes, guys with names such as Michael and Tiger and Bjorn and Babe and Joe, as in Montana and DiMaggio.
To use but one quote on each, said former Arkansas basketball coach Nolan Richardson after facing Iverson’s Hoyas in an NCAA tournament game: "I’ve been to three calf shows, nine horse ropings and seen Elvis once. But I’ve never seen anything like this in my life."
Wrote William C. Rhoden of the New York Times concerning Vick: "Michael Vick is the closest athlete the NFL has to Michael Jordan."
And there is no denying each player’s box-office appeal. They fly where others walk, they create while others mimic, they make athletics high art, delivering one-time wonders we may never see again, except on tape.
But much as Iverson eventually wore out his welcome in Philly, running off both good coaches and bad despite leading them to the NBA Finals a few years ago, Vick is fast approaching his point of no return in Atlanta.
Yes, he ran for more than 1,000 yards this season and passed for 20 touchdowns. Yes, he sells tickets. But the Dirty Birds went 7-9. One imagines that should the Falcons go 7-9 next season with the princely Bobby Petrino running the show, it will be Vick, rather than the coach, who is on the hot seat.
"There are no plans to trade him or cut him," a spokesman for team owner Arthur Blank said Tuesday.
And there probably aren’t right now. Blank hired Petrino away from Louisville for the express purpose of getting the most out of his confounding quarterback. But Vick has already cost two good coaches — Dan Reeves and Jim Mora — their jobs.
... After Water-bottle-gate, it would surprise no one if the Falcons reach a similar conclusion on Vick this time next year.
E-mail Mark Wiedmer at
mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com
Taken from...
http://epaper.tfponline.com/WebChannel/ShowStory.asp?Path=ChatTFPress/2007/01/24&ID=Ar03104
