Mike Vick Recalled Crying in Frustration Over Dealing With Chip Kelly

Super Bowl Radio Row in Atlanta is a who’s who of former and current players right now. It’s like every scene of Ballers rolled up into one week. Minus probably the scene where the guy from 8 Mile goes from car salesman to GM of the Miami Dolphins. I got sidetracked but,  today, on the Simms and Lefkoe show down there, two of our old pals, Desean Jacksøn and Mike Vick joined the program.

They had a lot of attention grabbing stuff to say. Desean wants to be a Ram next year (McVay connection). Gotta be careful saying you want to ditch your current team and play in LA these days. But this story from Mike Vick opened my eyes in a way those Shark Tank poppers that are going viral never could.

“I’m sitting in my hyperbaric chamber with tears in my eyes, crying because I’m like, I did everything I could for Chip Kelly. The leadership, play on the field speaks for itself, galvanize the team when we had a tough time with what happened with Riley Cooper. And I’m like, this still not enough. Like Desean said, we did everything we could to show him we will give you everything we got. But it was more about him and his system than us.”

Imagine doing prison time…and dealing with Chip Kelly was more disheartening than that.

Mike Vick had an $100 million contract basically shredded, endorsements wiped away, OUT of the league but IN jail. That’s enough to break anybody. But, what really broke him down was dealing with Chip Kelly’s ego and stubbornness. That’s mind boggling someone could drive people to those lengths.

Now, to be fair to Kelly and the Eagles, the year Vick is referring to is the famous “27 and 2” season. Vick did end up the starter to begin with and he played lights out. But then the Eagles hit the AFC West death stretch of the schedule and things went into a tailspin. After Vick got hurt (twice), Nick Foles stepped in and never looked back. Foles left the field of the Wild Card game against the Saints with the lead, people forget that! So, in hindsight, there was a legitimate case to be made for Foles.

Mike Vick did seem like the leader of that team though. His point about Riley Cooper was very fair. That season could have ended in training camp but Vick’s leadership really saved it. He basically watched the ship careen into an iceberg and kept it afloat long enough for Foles to commandeer it to safety.

Just thought this was an interesting Radio Row story: Chip Kelly was such a pain in the ass that he could cause a mental breakdown for even someone who served time in a federal penitentiary.

By Aidan Powers | January 30, 2019