Player Storytelling: Michael Vick (Part 1)

know just a little but highly respect his story. And that's none other than Michael Vick, who I believe today's quarterback is really uh Michael uh in the year two dollars and twenty. When I think of Pat Mahomes, I think of Watson Jackson in Baltimore. When I think of them, I think of Michael Vick. The ability to night just run with the ball, but the ability to throw the

ball with precision and depth. So, as we discussed Michael's personal journey how it led to his involvement with initiatives geared towards combating recidivism, I'm so excited Mike played fifteen season at quarterback with the Falcons, Eagles, Jets, and Steelers. It was a four time Pro Bowler and the recipient of the NFL's Comeback Player of the Year Award. In his groundbreaking career forced all of pro football to rethink the quarterback position, and his work today continues to challenge

conventional thought. I'm so excited to have you on, Michael Welcome, Thank your niggas. I will say this, man, I always judge your interview, you know, at the end by the introduction and uh, so far, so good. I really appreciate those kind of words. And you can always alleviate the juke move um that I put on you and my rookie season. You know, you always find a way to bring that up, and I appreciate that, man. You helped

keep me relevant. But hey, look, then is to be able to do that against it a great player such as yourself. You know, I know you was, you know, respectfully older at that time and I was younger. And you know how it is when you get them young guys in the league and they're fresh man, because I

was a victim of it when I got older. You know, those you never know what could happen to you, man, So I appreciate you always paying respect to that moment because I don't know if it would happen if if men you would have been playing against each other and maybe a year two or three of your career, then that that would have been a conversation. But thank you well, Michael, Happy but lated birthday, by the way, you celebrate birthday on and that's my son's birthday as well. He turned nineteen,

just graduated from high school. Glad he has the same birthday with you. So happy but lated birthday. And you you've turned forty man, I turned forty. Yeah, so it's hard to believe Michael Vick is forty years old. Yeah, I know, I know, And when I think about it, I feel very proud. Um. You know, I look back at my life over the last twenty years. You know,

that's just that interval it's been. Um, it's been an amazing journey and uh to find myself at this point where you know, I look at life and it's just not all about me anymore. You know, It's about my family. It's about the people that I can help, the people that I can have an effect on. It does have been, you know, my legacy as well as the people around

me who helped me get there. So you know, I'm just I'm thankful that I made it to see forty, you know, because you know that's a mouth stone within itself. And what did you do to celebrate your birthday? Michael? I just had family and friends come over. I was down in Virginia visiting my mom and my sisters, and I've been down there for the last three and a half months during the COVID. You know, I wanted to

be close to my family. Uh so my mom, my sisters, you know, family and friends, people that I had a lot of a lot of love and respect for. I was invited over and I kept the group real small. You know, still wanted to stay conscious of not not wanting to be around a lot of people and invite everyone into space. So uh still thinking about you know, the pandemic that we in so but so it was a nice crowd, man. It was just good to have you know, my loved ones over and celebrating a special

day with me. So there's a question at the age of forty, and you mentioned, man, not thinking about yourself as much and thinking about family, thinking about your children. Does that mindset come with age or does it come with experience? M I said, it comes with a little bit of both. Um I say, I say age because you know, every year you grow older. At some point, I think any individuals to look at this age and say, okay, at this age, you know, it's it's no set barrier

for what I should be doing in my life. But I know I should be growing in a lot of different areas. Like when you turn thirty, you don't do the same things that you did when you was tween five or you know, we turned thirty five, you're looking at thirty like, man, I was a little while and out of control then. So you know, I do say

age player player factor. And then experiences like everything that you go through within those you know, five year innivals or however you look at your life, so many things that you're gonna that's gonna happen to you're good and bad. You know, ups and downs and mistakes are gonna be made. So as you grow older, you know, because of those experiences, I think you should kind of create your life story

and chronicle everything to get better. Um And and That's what I've been able to do over the last, you know, twenty years, but still knowing that I have another twenty years to go. God bless me. I gotta continue to grow and get better. So um, yeah, it's it's aging experience both, you know, combined. I think, what would forty year old Michael Vick tell Michael Vick when he was

a rookie? What's one thing if out of anything you've learned and experience, what's maybe one thing that comes to mind that you would say too Michael Vick when he was a rookie. Well, I tell you what. I would have gave him an earful um, but I don't know if he wouldn't necessarily listen. You know. That's the thing. I was hardhead, you know, at the age of twenty and then you know, we're talking about age and experience. When I turned twenty, I really thought that I was wrong.

And I wasn't even twenty one yet, you know, so you know, but you couldn't tell me anything. I thought I had all the answers, um, And you know, like I turned twenty five and I'm looking back at twenty like, man, I really thought I knew something about life, and I

really didn't, you know, So you know, right now. I would just tell Michael Vicker the age of twenty years old one and you know you're you're not grown, you know, respect your elders, continue to you know, rely on the people who you know guided you throughout the last five or six years of your life, whether that has been high school coaches, college coaches, coaches that I had in the NFL, because I knew they all had, you know, my best interests at heart, and I think it would

have took me down a different path. And um, you know also to to to be real conscious of the people that you hang around. You are what you eat, so to speak. And uh, you know I would have just drilled that into him and hopefully he would have listened. I will say this, I did. I respect people who wanted to give me advice in life. I never just kind of like gave him the cold shoulder. You know. I wasn't that stubborn or or you know, that ignorant.

I would say, you know, I gave him that respect, and I tried to listen to take bits and pieces of what they gave to me. But I still was just young with a lot of money, and uh, it just kind of made me look at life different, you know, like I had all the answers, but I really didn't. How would you help today's player, And I know we're talking later about mentorship that that you do. How would you help them understand how to go forward as a

professional athlete with the friends that they have. How do you help them understand the necessity what needs to happen when it comes down to their friendship when they've been having friends their boys for a long time. Yeah. Yeah, What I learned at the age of forty is, and I stopped using that as a reference as I grew older, is that my real friends don't really ask me for anything. Um, my real friends, you know, we go out and we

have dinner. You know, we can split it four ways if I decided to pick up the tad and that's what I decided to do. But the friends that I have, my real friends that I had since I was younger, they pick up the tab for me, or they won't allow me to pay that bill, you know, just because they know I got it. It was a it's a respect level and the respect you know, it's labeling ourselves as friends. You know, we don't owe each other anything, you know, we owe each other respect and loyalty, you know,

if that's a week and provide. So you know, I've learned that those people in my life, you know, are the ones that I want to continue to be around every day because the relationship, the friendship don't come with any strings attached. It's like, I know what drives you and what motivates you, and what you like and what you don't like and and vice versa, and we can kind of keep it at that and just have fun and enjoy life. And and you know, those are your

real friends. And that's a word that comes to me having listen to you describe the type of friend you want around you. It's it sound like it needs to be mutual. Yeah, yeah, like an understanding, like, um, every time we go somewhere, I shouldn't be happy the one And you know, I know it's not all about money. But I've learned through my experiences because of who I was and what I had, that you know, some people

are just aren't your friends. They're around just to get what they can get, you know, and friends have come and go, but you know who the real ones are. And I just tried to stay in that space. Um, and I had to learn that over time. You know, I think throughout this whole conversation, we'll talk about age and we'll talk about experience, and that's just another example

of it. You know, I had to find out who my real friends were, and the majority of them was the ones that I grew up with, you know, from the age of seven to eleven. You know, they understood me better than anybody else. They knew me, I knew them, and Uh, we can be grown and and have that same kid relationship in a sense, but being grown man,

you know, so to speak. So it's even better now. Yeah, I churched those friendships now even more as we shifted now and some of the work that you're doing as a as a result, some of the experience you have. I find it's fascinating when we talk about recentivism, we're talking about the tendency of those released from prison to re offend. For those formally and coarcerrated, their release is

a second chance at life. Michael, what are your thoughts on release being a second chance to do things differently for those formally incarcerated. Uh, it means a lot. It means so much to me to have a second chance, Like over the last ten years more than people will ever know. You know, I was trying to take the time to thank Tony Dungee and Roger Goodell and Andy Reid and author Kevin Winston from the Atlanta Falcons because they cared about me as a person, as a as

a man more than anything. Um. I didn't even come back and play for the Atlanta Fiul because I went and play for the Philadelphia Eagles. But author blank was there every step of the way. Um, And that that was my second chance. Like so if you know, if I would have been just like the average um, you know, citizen, which I was, you know, when I came home, I I came home to nothing. I had no money, I was in bankruptcy, and I knew I had a long walk and a you know, a journey ahead at me.

So you know, they have a chance to you know, have people in my corner. Was that was my second chance, you know, And and I thank god I had a platform before that second chance, and that was my re entry was back into you know, society, my family, and then the National Football League, which was my profession that I really loved. You know, it was a dream of mine growing up. So it meant a lot to me. Those people was there to help me. That was my

second chance, and I had that platform. When ninety of men and women come home from prison, they don't have an opportunity. They don't have a chance to exhale through their re entry, you know, mainly because of the things they have to go through. One if they have a felony on their record, and and to you know, you perceived different. You know, you your stereotype and that's just real. You know. What I want to do is create change, create an opportunity for you know, men and women coming

home to have a second chance. They have a second chance to to have no excuses and to do it right through the program that we're in the preliminary works on building. Um this is gonna be amazing. Um. I found out what the root of the problem was. You know, talk to a guy who had just been released from prison after a crime he didn't do for twenty six years,

didn't come out better. Are the ones it was a chance opportunity met him over the last three months and we've been able to come up with what the root of the problem is. And and that's housing in transportation. You know, when they do have that, they have a chance that making every entry and success. So we kind of stopped right there, and I looked at that as them having a second chance, and what would that look like, Um,

if we can create a program centering around that. So I found out that that was the root of the problem. I when continue to talk about and you might have some more questions, but I get excited when I talk about it because I look at the amount of people that we're gonna have an effect on, and this is something that can last a lifetime. As it stands now, most current second chance efforts aren't aimed at African Americans.

Michael talk about the just a system you're involved in and how your second chance was a driving force pairing you with it. Well, I feel like my second chance wouldn't have happen without certain people, and those people know who they are. And the great part about it was that, you know, I had a platform. But in today's time, you know, just realistically, everyone don't have that platform. And for the last forty fifty years, we don't have that platform.

You know, I think somewhether black or white, predominantly black. We just don't have resources and we don't have people who can reach in and pull us out of the situation that we're in. So know, I found out when doing some research that you know, when most inmates come home man and women, did they come home to um no form of housing and no phone transportation. But what it happened is that they'll go through the entire process

of passing courses and curriculums whilet andconcerated. I know because I did it myself. You come come home with with a lot of accolades and a lot of certificates, but it don't equate to you know, the change that's necessary

and need it needs to be made. So what they do is they end up, you know, after about a month, when they feel like they don't have anything or they don't have any hope, they end up going back and you know, just regressing into the person that they was, not the person they came out as when they was

rented back into society. It's because the housing, the transportation, you know, that they don't have a chance to carry out, you know, what their dreams may they become because now they're worried about what they're gonna stay and how and how they're gonna get there. And I just felt like I was a great starting point, man. Um. You know, I was forcing enough to come home and have people in my corner, and it's just the zillion people who don't.

And uh, if I can help, you know, fifty sixty people a year, you know, create some type of platform for themselves where they can believe that, you know, the system actually works. You know, we take these classes, we go through these courses. You know, we come out, we can become come, We can come out better because we have people who are going to reach in and help us get to where we need to go. I think that's very important, man, because it'll it'll keep the crime breakdown.

People won't be with repeat offenders, and you know, those people can go off and teach other people how to you know, become successful in life. And then they'll just get assistance, you know, whether that assistance come from the state, local, the Bill of prisons, you know, transitional programs, things that we're getting involved in, people that we're gonna be you know, in direct connection with to help us to make sure

our program and can sustain for years. We want to as a program, go out and buy property, create housing situations for it, and make create transportation opportunities. For the inmates, whether it's through you bood Counts, whether it's through partner with with the local car dealership, whatever it may be. Like I said, everything is still in the work says it right now. But this is something that hasn't been done.

The surface hasn't been scratched. And I know that you know, inmates come home and they come home to nothing, They come home to no opportunity. Uh and you know they end up going back to prison. Uh and and it's proven fact um. So you know, I decided to create this program where people don't actually look into you know, helping people when they re enter it, when they re

enter back into society, because it's so important. Like these are the same people that you walk past in the grocery stores and you might see, you know, at the local gas stations, and you know they might be sitting there thinking about doing some crazy because their life is in a bad mental state. You know, they don't know who to turn to, they don't know where to go,

they can't find a job. Okay, this has been such an important issue that we're going to make it a two part Stay tuned for part two of our podcasts. This has been the NFL Legends podcast. To provide feedback or request the topic for discussion, email us at NFL Legends at nfl dot com.