This was posted on Tuesday, August 22, 2017 by RODNEY HO/rho@ajc.com on his AJC Radio & TV Talk
It's clear after two episodes of VH1's "Baller Wives" that the drama is primarily among the women, the formula that works on these types of shows e.g. "Real Housewives of Whatever," "Married to Medicine," "Basketball Wives."
But for those curious about former Atlanta Falcon Michael Vick and his wife Kijafa, they appear to have a good marriage. (It helps that both are executive producers so that's certainly an image they want to project.)
Kijafa gets way more airtime than Michael, who was out of Miami for the second episode and didn't show up on the show at all.
The producers smartly opened the series with Vick and Kijafa addressing a very recent controversy that happened just a month ago: Vick said unemployed NFL player Colin Kapernick should cut his hair, then apologize for his kneeling during the National Anthem.
"I didn't look at his afro as a symbol for what he believes," Vick said on "Baller Wives." "I looked at it from a style standpoint." But he realized "I was wrong... Wifey coming at me. I really screwed up."
For Kihafa, any controversy concerning Vick reminds her of a much worse period of time in 2007 when Vick was sent to prison for dogfighting. "It's hard being married to a baller," she said. "I just want my husband to realize he has a voice, a very strong voice. He does something publicly, the world is watching."
Most of what happens next was clearly taped earlier.
There are two camps of baller wives, one supportive of Stacey Chambers and another centered around Kijafa.
Kijafa sees herself as the "queen bee," but some of the wives don't like her for that. In the meantime, some of the women look askance at Stacey because she supposedly was the mistress to former NFL player Chris Chambers, then married him. So some see her as a home wrecker and a stalker.
During episode one, Jeniva Samuels accused Stacey of sleeping at one point with her husband Asante. That caused tension two times and during the second encounter, a friend of Kijafa threw a drink on Stacey, who was pregnant at the time. Kijafa later revealed she was pregnant as well.
Miko - wife of Brent Grimes - stood out episode two as having a serious chip on her shoulder. She is still peeved at Aja's husband Channing Crowder, a former Miami Dolphins linebacker who is now a radio host. She thinks he had something to do with getting her fired two years earlier at the same radio station. (He doesn't think she's terribly talented.) Miko also doesn't like Aja, a realtor, calling her "fake." "Aren't they a package deal?" Miko asks during the second episode.
At an open house Aja hosts, Miko comes by. There, they question each other's parenting skills. "I feel like you're trying to break down my family," Aja said to Miko. Miko of course is hurt by her words as the second episode ends.
Next week, Miko confronts Channing.
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