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Wednesday, October 12, 2005
Only Vick knows for sure if he’s ready to play
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
Flowery Branch — OK, let’s go through all of this again. When it comes to Michael Vick and to the aches that he’ll suffer for the rest of his football life, just leave the guy alone. If he says he can’t play, nod and move on with the rest of your life. If he says he can play, step aside, let this miracle of a quarterback tighten the shoestrings on his Zoom IIIs from Nike and prepare for another dose of the unbelievable.
It’s really simple: Pending medical clearance, a healing Vick should determine when it’s time for a healing Vick to return to the Falcons’ lineup.
Nobody else.
I’m repeating my stance here, because the way folks reacted to Vick’s injuries in the past is connected to the present and to the future. Two years ago, he got ripped unfairly for staying away too long after he broke his leg before the season. If you add that to his highly competitive nature, you had his contradictory messages during the past few days after he damaged his right knee. Yes, he was upset that he didn’t play Sunday during the Falcons’ tight loss to the New England Patriots. And, yes, he knew he had no business suiting up.
It was up to Vick to solve the contradiction in his mind. That’s why, before the opening kickoff at the Georgia Dome, a collective decision was made to keep Vick watching instead of playing. The bulk of that decision came from Vick. “Getting a little bit of work last week, and just moving around, I couldn’t do it, and that told me that I wasn’t going to be able to go out there and do what I am capable of doing,” Vick said on Wednesday, recalling his message to Falcons coach Jim Mora. As for Wednesday, Vick spent his relatively light practice wearing a sleeve. While he said he “just had to bite the bullet” against the Patriots and not play, he said he expects to be ready on Sunday when the Falcons meet the New Orleans Saints in San Antonio.
That’s fine. Whatever Vick says about his health. His playing status after injuries shouldn’t be up to somebody else’s concept of toughness or prudence. It should be up to Vick as to whether Vick has the ability to become Vick for a particular game. “(Thursday) is our long day,” he said. “We do red zone and a lot of other things, and I just have to be able to go out and carry out my fakes, take a hard five-step drop, seven-step drop, step into my throws and make sure I am feeling good about it. I have to be confident in my knee.”
Just like Vick had to be confident with the left hamstring that he injured earlier this season. The same also was true of that broken right fibula that he suffered in August 2003 to start this mess. Within weeks after he went down in that exhibition game to Baltimore, the murmuring over the growing length of his absence became an ugly epidemic. Among Falcons fans. Among the media. Even among some of his teammates and coaches.
Falcons tight end Alge Crumpler still fumes over the memory. “That was absolutely the worst year I ever had of fielding questions every single week about, ‘When is Michael Vick coming back? When is Michael Vick coming back?’” said Crumpler, in his fifth NFL season. “They said it was supposed to be a four-to six-week injury, and eight weeks down the line, I looked over in the middle of practice, and Mike is limping and trying to cut and do all of this stuff with the trainer.” Crumpler paused, before releasing his clenched teeth and adding, “Hey, it’s his body.”
Yes, it is, and Vick only is 25. As a result, barring something unforeseen (a blindside smack by a linebacker, a slip on a banana peel, an abduction by aliens), Vick has more than a few years left to zig and zag through defenders when he isn’t using his arm to zip a football over them. He’ll last even longer if he continues to listen to his body, studies the internal messages and then tells others what he hears. With those “others” listening, of course.
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Not buying Chipper’s theory
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
Here’s one of the biggest things that makes the Braves’ yearly October collapses so ridiculous: Except for a second consecutive loss to the Houston Astros in the NLDS and to the New York Yankees (twice) in the World Series, the Braves have flipped, flopped and choked in the playoffs since 1991 to a slew of different teams.
The Twins. The Blue Jays. The Phillies. The Marlins. The Padres. The Cardinals. The Diamondbacks. The Giants. The Cubs.
I mean, it’s one thing to lose to a team that traditionally has your number, but given the above, this Braves’ thing obviously goes way beyond that.
Braves third baseman Chipper Jones told me that, except for their choke against the Yankees in the 1996 World Series (Jim Leyritz), the Braves have had the misfortune to lose to the hottest team during that particular series.
Well, I could support such a theory from Jones if we’re talking about maybe a couple of times out of 14 straight trips to the postseason, but not 13 times. That’s excluding the apparent fluke that was the Braves’ 1995 world championship over the Cleveland Indians.
Take away David Justice’s home run back then and the shutout pitching of Tom Glavine and Mark Wohlers, and the Braves look even more like annual turkeys before Thanksgiving.
Permalink | Comments (68) | Categories: Quick Hit, Terence Moore
