The Ballad of Ron Mexico

Is it still racist to say Michael Vick is overrated? Back in 2001 when Mike "Ron Mexico" Vick was still a collegiate prodigy at VaTech, I stated that he would be a bust, but I was 16 and couldn't legally buy porn, so who cares what I said. With the prototypical scrambling quarterback finally spilling over from college to the NFL, the jury was still out on the success of these athletic (see: black) quarterbacks in the pro game. Hindsight being 20/20, we see now that the scrambling quarterback failed, while the "mobile" quarterback succeeded. My assessment of Vick at the time was that he was likely the most gifted quarterback to come into the league in years, maybe ever, considering his 4.3 speed and monster arm, but he would fall victim to the overall athleticism he would have to face in the NFL, coupled with his inconsistent throwing arm, being that he completed only 177 passes in college of 313 attempts. 6 years later, it would seem that my original assessment of Vick was correct, he is in fact a bust. Partially due to the inconsistent arm, and his propensity to run first pass second, but mainly due to dog murder.

Yes, the amusing stories of Michael Vick's adventures as his venereal disease toting alter ego Ron Mexico have fallen by the wayside for his more disturbing adventures involving dog rape. Once the face of the Atlanta Falcons franchise, Vick is now the face of, well, Dog Murder. But I pose this question. Is this not the best thing that could have happened to Michael Vick?. Vick had a career passer rating of somewhere in the 70's. The equation to come up with a quarterback passer rating is very complicated and involves many "numbers" as they say in the math world. This equation is heavy on quarterback success metrics, such as completions and touchdowns, and light on the effectiveness of corn-rows and Gatorade commercials, which some would say, is disproportionately weighted towards Vick's deficiencies. Nonetheless, Vick was headed downhill as opposing teams realized Vick is what some may call a "terrible quarterback", leading him to throw far more interceptions, and far less touchdowns, which was also detrimental to his quarterback rating.

Many speculate that Vick will not play in the NFL again, which doesn't necessarily mean he failed as a quarterback, he simply failed as a human. Sure, he had some rough seasons here and there, but so did Kyle Boller, and he turned out just fine. Vick's legacy will be seen as an immensely talented individual, who on the cusp of becoming a great quarterback, rewriting history books and renewing faith in the scrambling quarterback, was brought down by PETA and people who would rather have had Vick allow a beaten dog to suffer, rather than soak him in water and electrocute him. These are probably the same people who consider themselves proponents of Dr. Kevorkian; hypocrites. Yet I digress. Vick, in my humble, uninformed, uneducated opinion, would have continued his fall from athletic effectiveness, especially considering his new coach, Bobby Petrino, was dead set on allowing Vick to make more decisions on the field, and we all know how Vick fares with decision-making. Ultimately, Vick circumvented his impending downfall on the football field, by pleading guilty to Dog Killing; that my friends is what we call an excuse.

Somewhere, deep down in my heart of hearts, I will miss Mike Vick. I'll miss watching Falcons games with the loyal #7 jerseys, reading both "VICK" and "MEXICO". I'll miss watching Vick complete 45% of his passes; undaunted by his many ill-advised triple coverage induced interceptions. I'll miss watching good ole' MV give his own home crowd the finger, in defiance of their distaste for his supposed poor play. I'll miss Mike Vick, because he was in fact a very entertaining character to watch, but ultimately I can say in complete confidence, that he was a bust, and I was right.