Mike Vick was just bursting onto the scene when he suffered a devastating blow.
Everyone growing up wanted a No.7 Atlanta Falcons jersey.
Vick entered the league as something that no one had ever seen before. He could throw it the length of the field with just a flick of the wrist, or he could take off for 60 yards in the blink of an eye. Vick revolutionized the quarterback position.
He paved the way for the likes of Cam Newton, Lamar Jackson and Jayden Daniels.
However, Vick’s stardom also almost never happened thanks to the Madden curse.
The first of his kind, the dual-threat quarterback exploded onto the scene in 2002, leading the Falcons into the playoffs and upsetting Brett Favre and the Green Bay Packers in the first round.
He made his first Pro Bowl that year and was named the Madden cover athlete the following season. Then disaster struck.
Madden 2004 was released in early August 2003 with Vick plastered on the front. Cue the Madden curse, as not even a week later, the quarterback was lying on the home turf in Atlanta with a fractured fibula during a preseason game against the Baltimore Ravens.
He missed the first 11 games of the season, before returning late in the year, helping the Falcons finish 3-1 in his starts, but 5-11 overall on the year.
While he was able to regain his Pro Bowl form in 2004 and 2005, leaving many to believe he had left the curse in the rearview mirror, however that wasn’t the case.
In 2007, Vick pleaded guilty for his involvement in a dog fighting ring and spent 21 months in federal prison. His career came to a screeching halt.
The Falcons released him before he was released from prison.
In 2009, with his NFL career on the brink of never returning, Vick signed a one-year deal with the Philadelphia Eagles.
Head coach Andy Reid revitalized Vick’s career when he gave the QB the starting job in 2010, and he won Comeback Player of the Year.
“I’ll never forget the opportunities given to me by this organization and by Andy Reid,” Vick said back in 2013. “That will never change.”
What seemed to be two curses, one out of his control and one very much self-inflicted, Vick was able to reconcile his actions and picked himself up, literally and figuratively, from off the map.
He is now in his first season as head football coach at Norfolk State University. Vick’s old head coach even sent him a thoughtful and celebratory message when he learned he got the job.
“Michael Vick: The new head coach of Norfolk State. Man, is that school lucky to have you? You’re gonna do a great job,” Reid said in late 2024 on the FOX NFL Sunday pregame show.
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Those kids are fortunate to have you, probably most of all, to learn from, and you’ll be awesome.
“You’ll be great for the University, and I love ya, and I know you’re gonna do a great job for ’em. So all the best going forward, and I’m now a Norfolk fan.”
In typical Reid fashion, he was nothing but class.
Vick eventually shook the dreaded video game curse. After finding NFL success, losing it all and regaining much of it, he’s now on the straight and narrow path, leading young men himself.
It’s been a whirlwind journey for the man out of Virginia Tech, one that included triumphs and defeats, but in the end, has put him exactly where he needs to be.
Curse be damned.