A former NFL quarterback who had a reputation for ignoring coaching has become a coach. Setting aside for now the question of whether karma will connect with Mike Vick when he officially launches his coaching career in the AAF come February, Vick is spending some time quasi-coaching in advance of the real thing.
Via MontanaSports.com, Vick made an appearance at Marty Mornhinweg’s football camp in Missoula.
“Coach reached out to me about three weeks ago and asked if I could come out to the camp,” Vick said. “He always told me about the place he was building out here. We always talked about when I retired spending some time together.”
But it’s about more than spending time with Mornhinweg, who served as Vick’s offensive coordinator in Philadelphia and who currently is the offensive coordinator in Baltimore. It’s about preparing Vick for the next phase of his career.
“The more I work with kids and the more I work with quarterbacks the more attached I get to the game again,” Vick said. “To watch them get better, and better, and better as the practice goes on, it’s so well worth it.”
Vick continues to have a rock-star vibe, notwithstanding his 2007 indictment, guilty plea, and incarceration on federal dogfighting charges.
“You know, he’s like Elvis in Atlanta,” Mornhinweg said of Vick. “In fact, at the airport and at dinner last night he was kind of like Elvis here in Missoula, too.”
Elvis will soon be coaching in Atlanta, where he once notoriously gave fans the finger. He’ll need to have a much greater commitment to the Xs and Os if he hopes to thrive in that phase of football.