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DEL.ICIO.USVick’s Blank check turns into a liability
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Furman Bisher
There are times, you might imagine, that Arthur Blank must run a hand through his hair and across a furrowed brow, wondering to himself, “How did I ever get myself into this mess?” When he had a problem at Home Depot, it never got beyond his office door. It surely didn’t break out in headlines. Nor did it bring about a public exploration of thuggery, and could it be that it applies to his most valued employee? (Which strikes me as being somewhat of a stretch, but who am I to say?)
With Michael Vick, it seems there can be no peace. Six years have passed, and it seems it’s like waiting for a child to get potty-trained. The quarterback’s highs have been inevitably followed by lows, promising starts followed by slides down a slippery slope. There has even been a depression in the “Vick” jersey market, I read, something that only indicates a recession in popularity. It always has struck me as being rather juvenile to see grown men, and women, walking about with the name of some athlete across the shoulders.
When a businessman invests as much as $137 million in a commodity as fickle as a human body, the risk is clearly calculable. In Vick’s case, it has not been for lack of patronization, for Blank has done everything short of warming his bottle for him. (No intended reference here to that mysterious bottle that surfaced in Miami.) He brought in a new coach, young and personable, one who might relate better to the young and capricious nature of Vick than, say, the older Dan Reeves. Not necessarily so, as that turned out, for Vick was a more effective passer under the Reeves school of offense than Jim Mora’s.
Under Blank’s smooth hand, it all got off to such a warm and cozy start. First, into the playoffs, all the way to the conference championship game. There was a brilliance to the future. All speed ahead. Michael Vick owned the town. He owned his owner, a frequent sideline companion, sharing the sweet nectar of victory again. Where on earth a man, so successful in one business, should have felt so confident in one in which he was a neophyte that he made Vick “the franchise” still is puzzling. He surely could have had him for less. Just look at the lesson learned by the latest Home Depot regime. At least he didn’t have to deal with Bob Nardelli.
For that matter, things have not gone that swimmingly (no pun intended) for Bernie Marcus, Blank’s old partner in Home Depot. The aquarium has been the most exciting new attraction in town, a place everybody must see. But, first one of the beluga whales expired, then the biggest fish in the pond, Ralph the whale shark, took his leave. None of this involved controversy, only sadness.
So Bobby Petrino arrives on the scene just in time for the latest Vick headliner. They had barely met. First, Rich McKay and Blank had a quiet moment with their quarterback, and out of that it was established that Blank was “upset.” And why not? How many bungles can you allow a bungler to get away with? Then Petrino was next, and what else did you expect?
“Unfortunate … we decided to get past that … moving on,” and so the new man, of roughly the same age category as Mora, gets his shot at dealing with a quarterback who doesn’t have to go to class and makes about $14 million a year. Pretty big order for a young fellow just off the campus, but who, by the way, has a pretty short fuse himself. Oh, yes, we shall see, we shall see. For all of that, I doubt that you’ll be seeing the season start with Matt Schaub working behind the center, though there is a growing number of cynics out there weary of waiting for Vick to take his place in the adult nation.
Behavioral matters run in the family. Remember his brother Marcus, of Virginia Tech, kicked out of a game and out of school for stepping on a prone opponent in the Gator Bowl? The victim played for Louisville, coached by guess who? Bobby Petrino. Just a thought in passing.
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