Michael Vick

Fun Fact: When Vick was a child, one of his favorite pastimes was to go fishing in order to escape the projects.

Claim to Fame: Dog fighting organization and legal squabbles aside, Vick was leading the Atlanta Falcons by the age of 22, and signed one of the biggest contracts in NFL history ($130 million with a $37 million signing bonus for 10 years). Vick is also a consistent player in the Pro Bowls.

Michael Dwayne Vick is a professional American football quarterback for the Philadelphia Eagles of the National Football League. He played for the Atlanta Falcons for six seasons before serving 18 months in prison for his involvement in an illegal dog fighting ring.

Vick played college football at Virginia Tech, where as a freshman he placed third in the Heisman Trophy balloting. He left after his sophomore year to enter the NFL and was drafted first overall by the Atlanta Falcons in the 2001 NFL Draft. In six seasons with the Falcons, he gained wide popularity for his performance on the field, and led the Falcons to the playoffs twice. Vick ranks third among quarterbacks in career rushing yards.

In April 2007, Vick was implicated in an extensive and illegal interstate dog fighting ring that had operated over a period of five years. In August 2007, he pleaded guilty to federal felony charges and was sent to prison for 23 months. With the loss of his NFL salary and product endorsement deals, combined with previous financial mismanagement, Vick filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in July 2008.

Vick was transferred from prison to home confinement in May 2009. Falcons owner Arthur Blank did not want Vick on the Falcons, and after attempts to trade him failed, Vick was released. He signed with the Philadelphia Eagles and was reinstated in Week 3 of the 2009 season.


Vick is the second of four children born in Newport News, Virginia to Brenda Vick and Michael Boddie, then unmarried teenagers. His mother worked two jobs, obtained some public financial assistance, and had help from her parents, while his father worked long hours in the shipyards as a sandblaster and spray-painter. They were married when Michael was about five years old, but the children elected to continue to use their "Vick" surname. The family lived in the Ridley Circle Homes, a public housing project in a financially depressed and crime-ridden neighborhood located in the East End section of the port city. A 2007 newspaper article published in the Richmond Times-Dispatch noted "not much changed" by observations of local people almost ten years after Michael Vick left. One resident said that there was drug dealing, drive-by shootings and other killings in the neighborhood, then suggested that sports were a way out and a dream for many.

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