Michael Vick speaks on his past at Convocation

In the discussion of the best mobile quarterbacks in NFL history there are multiple names that immediately come to mind – Randall Cunningham, Steve Young, Donovan McNabb and Fran Tarkenton, to name a few. But there is one name that is a clear outlier: Michael Vick.

At the quarterback position, he is the all-time leader in rushing yards and yards per rush. He was the first quarterback in NFL history to record 1,000 rushing yards in a season. At his peak, he was so good that there was a universal rule that you could not use his team in the video game, Madden, because he was virtually unstoppable.

Vick was one of the most electrifying athletes of all-time, but yet many people will not remember him for his incredible talent on the field, but for his biggest mistake that he made off the field.

On Monday, Jan. 29 Vick was a guest at Liberty University’s convocation to share his testimony.

According to ESPN, on Aug. 23, 2007, Vick signed a plea agreement admitting to conspiracy in dogfighting and four days later he plead guilty to a dogfighting conspiracy. Vick surrendered himself to authorities on Nov. 20, 2007, to begin serving his jail sentence early and was later sentenced to 23 months in prison on Dec. 10, 2007.

Vick’s lowest point did not come until April 26, 2008. It was the date of the 2008 NFL draft, and coincidentally also the date of his mom’s birthday. As Vick recalls in his letter for The Players Tribune, on a phone call his mother alerted him that his grandmother had a bad stroke. A few minutes later he would also find out that his team, the Atlanta Falcons, selected Matt Ryan third overall in the draft to become their new franchise quarterback.

In the span of a year, Vick had lost his job, his grandmother and had filed for bankruptcy. But it was Vick’s hardships while incarcerated that led him to reconcile with the element in his life that helped him stay on the right path while on his journey to the NFL – his faith.

Vick grew up in the East End area of Newport News, Virginia, an area known for being crime-ridden at the time of his youth. He had early aspirations of making it to the NFL, so Vick looked for something to keep him away from the troubles of his neighborhood. He found that in the Bible.

“I took a Bible and I put the Bible under my pillow,” Vick said in convocation. “At the age of 12 I said ‘If I’m going to start somewhere, I’m going to start with God.’”

Vick clung to his faith throughout his path to the NFL, but when he finally reached his lifelong goal, he lost sight of what had brought him there.

“When I got drafted and I got the $100 million contract and when I went to Atlanta, (my faith) didn’t come with me,” Vick said in convocation.

At his low point, Vick reevaluated his life and questioned what was truly important.

“What’s missing?” Vick said. “It’s a lot that’s missing. I (opened) the Bible back up, and my mom told me before I went in, ‘Psalm 23 will get you through.’ When I went to (Psalm) 23 it gave me strength.”

Along with the influence from his mom, Vick also found a mentor in two-time Super Bowl Champion Tony Dungy. Dungy was known for his devout faith, he had recently retired from coaching on Jan. 12 of 2009, and devoted more time working with his prison ministry.

“When I see him I (thought) I was about to go home,” Vick said in convocation. “(Dungy) said ‘This is not about you getting released, it’s about you getting released from the things that you’ve had covered all of your life, and the things that you’ve been hiding all your life – it’s time to release that, not to be released from prison.’ He wanted to know that I was remorseful, he wanted to know that I was willing and accepting of the fact that I did wrong.”

With a renewed faith and new company of better council, Vick was set on correcting his wrongs and showing the world why he deserved a second chance. Two weeks after Vick’s conversation with Dungy, he was released from prison to serve the remainder of his two months confinement from his home in Hampton, Virginia.

On July 20, 2009, Vick completed his sentence, and he would eventually be reinstated into the NFL. He went on to play a total of seven seasons after returning to the league. He eventually retired as an Atlanta Falcon on June 12, 2017.

Although Vick was grateful for a second chance at the NFL, he is more proud of his opportunity to prove himself as a person, and help others learn from his mistakes. He also believes it is important not to shy away from his past.

“I still get the questions about it and I’m open to talk about it,” Vick said. “I don’t want people to ever forget. I want people to understand that it happened and I learned from it.”

Vick also had to be vulnerable within his own household.

“My daughters, from the time they were two years old, wanted a dog so bad. I had to explain to them, we can’t have a dog because of what (I) did. ‘Well daddy what did you do?’ And then I had to tell the truth, because I felt like being honest was important.”

Today Vick works as a sports analyst for Fox Sports and continues to do humanitarian work such as partnering with the Humane Society to help prevent dogfighting. But of course, there are still those who are outspoken against the retired quarterback.

“Critics are going to be critics,” Vick said. “There are people that are going to criticize me on TV. There are people that criticize my career. There are people that are going to criticize the work I do in charity. But I’m going to continue to do great things within society.”