As clichéd as it sounds, Michael Vick’s life has been a rollercoaster. A wave of unprecedentedly high peaks and humbling lows. They do say the higher you climb, the harder you fall. And Vick’s fallen hard, alright. A reminiscent Michael Vick speaking about how he healed from hitting rock bottom, both professionally and personally, has resurfaced on the airwaves.

Michael Vick was the cat’s meow in the early ’00s. With Virginia Tech and then the Atlanta Falcons, he set the blueprint for an archetype of quarterback that has had immense motion in the sport since. The likes of Cam Newton, Lamar Jackson and lately Jaden Daniels are all descendants of his lineage. Vick is the reason mobile, athletic QBs who can move the sticks with their legs out of the backfield went from an insignificant luxury to a crucial necessity. But while he carried this legacy and eminence from the early part of his career, there was a marked line in the sand in 2007 that made him lose everything. Everything but his wife, who became a pillar of support for his rehabilitation and subsequent redemption.

The very infamous and even more egregious dog-fighting scandal forcibly caused Michael Vick’s life to do a 180. He went to prison for 18 months at the absolute peak of his footballing career. He was cut off, isolated. Nobody wanted any association with Vick at that juncture, such was the nature and extent of his crimes. But he didn’t just lose his reputation among the masses and interpersonal relationships. Michael Vick’s pockets were hit, too. He lost his contract with the Falcons and lost all his endorsements. Couple this with legal issues and some poor off-field decisions. Both related to and independent of that dog-fighting debacle. Vick found himself broke, filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in ‘08. He was extended an olive branch by Andy Reid and the Philadelphia Eagles upon his release from jail, though. This segues into Vick rising from his slumber, monetarily and more.

After being reinstated as an NFL player, Michael Vick initially found himself third-string on the depth chart. The 2009 season passed, and starting QB Donovan McNabb got traded. But this wasn’t much respite for Vick, who was poised to continue being the second fiddle to Kevin Kolb. But a concussion to Kolb earlier in the season presented, morbidly, as an opportunity for Vick. He described this opportunity to show he’s still a starting-caliber player in the league over a podcast with retired NBA vet Gilbert Arenas. This was, as it transpired, his route out of bankruptcy.

“That season…life is different. I went through a bankruptcy,” Michael Vick said, before talking about how even though he had a healthy contract from the Eagles, it was relatively small for the predicament he was in. “It just wasn’t the money I was accustomed to and used to…So I’m just telling my wife: ‘I just need a shot. I just need a chance. I just need a chance again. Like, being a backup is not what I do. And she knows. She can hear the pain in my voice, [even if] I ain’t really stressing it,” he said. That chance did arrive after Kevin Kolb had to be taken out of the firing line.

But even though Michael Vick was preaching to his wife, Kijafa Vick, about wanting a singular shot at vindication, he proceeded to admit that he wasn’t actually ready for it when it arrived so abruptly. That he didn’t think he was prepared enough to grab his chance by the scruff of its proverbial neck. Meaning it would pass him by. Second chances don’t come around often in the NFL, let alone third chances. 

Michael Vick details his psyche when he was thrust into the starting role

“When [Kevin Kolb] went down, I really wasn’t ready,” added Michael Vick. “I talked all this trash to my wife [about how] I just need a shot. And then when he goes down I’m like, ‘Damn, I ain’t really prepared this week that hard!’” If he was right about his readiness to play off the bench in place of Kolb, Michael Vick would’ve likely never become a starting QB again. Never become Comeback POTY, a 4x Pro-Bowler, or an affluent person rid of his financial turmoil again. But we know that didn’t happen.

Michael Vick proceeded to say, “I came in and everything just clicked…It was like God just put everything back in my mind. Just executed at a high level that day. I was calm, and I was comfortable. I was like, ‘Yo, this is me.’ I’m really playing the position like, ‘I don’t think [Kolb] is gonna get his job back after this! There’s no turning back from here,” he remarked. You can take the player out of the game. Or in this case, he can cost himself his own place in it. But you can’t take the game out of the player. It’s not a surprise Vick more than held his own and ended up becoming QB1 over Kevin Kolb. He went on to have a very respectable career and has made amends off-field too. 

Adversity often nudges you down dark, treacherous alleyways that do have light at the end of them. You’ve just got to be resilient and make it through. What Michael Vick did to get incarcerated can never be absolved. But his rise from those adverse circumstances and what it brought about is gripping. Maybe, subconsciously, it was his confession to his wife Kijafa that forced his body and mind to align and perform at the requisite level despite his lack of preparation. Or maybe it was just the instincts of an all-timer kicking in. Either way, Vick pulled through. Elongated his NFL career and made his bread in the process.