Michael Vick said Ray Rice has a friend in him.
Credit: Getty Images
Being an NFL backup quarterback is an American dream.
Everybody loves you (because you haven’t had the opportunity to screw up), you don’t often have to do much (depending on who you’re backing up) and you get paid pretty darn well.
But for Michael Vick, whose comments after the Jets’ recent 31-0 loss have him under fire — again — he seems to have forgotten the only thing a backup needs to be: prepared.
“I felt like I, for some reason, being a quarterback in his 12th year, sometimes you to take things for granted,” Vick said Wednesday. “I think I took the scout team for granted.”
Couldn’t Vick just tell a little white lie? He all but admitted he mentally and physically checked out. And his career could very well be over.
Earlier, Vick said “Maybe I didn’t prepare or I wasn’t prepared, but let me tell you it won’t happen again.”
There are a lot of men who would give everything they have to be a backup quarterback. And have an opportunity, even for a fleeting moment, to lead an NFL team.
But does Vick have a point? With Geno Smith getting first-team reps Vick has been working out with the practice squad. The scrubs who weren’t good enough to make an NFL roster. The players who, like Vick, go through the motions every week to pick up a paycheck.
Perhaps Vick would be better served (by Jets head coach Rex Ryan) to get a little more involved with the first team.
He did a yeoman’s job in Philadelphia after rehabbing his reputation and becoming a respectable pro athlete again. But it looks like the ride for Michael Vick is finally over.
Follow Metro Philadelphia sports editor Evan Macy on twitter @Evan_Macy
