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Since Deion Sanders assumed leadership at Jackson State in 2020, the names of NFL legends have become a central part of discussions surrounding coaching, particularly within the HBCU community.
From chatter about Ray Lewis's viability as an HBCU coach and Ed Reed's short-stint at Bethune-Cookman to the success of Eddie George at Tennessee State, there appears to be a fervent appetite to replicate the “Prime Effect” in the HBCU football space. Now, a new name has entered the conversation: Michael Vick.
Rumors have run abound of his possible candidacy to be Norfolk State University's head coach following the firing of Dawson Odums after a lackluster tenure over the past few seasons. Much of the discussion stems from enthusiastic HBCU fans and supporters eagerly speculating and seeking buzz reminiscent of Sanders’ impactful tenure in the SWAC.
Virginian-Pilot writer Michael Sauls, in his recent article outlining potential coaching candidates for the Spartans, subtly hinted at this possibility, adding fuel to the conversation.
“Word around the campfire is there might actually be legs to his candidacy, but that doesn’t guarantee anything when it comes to the coaching cycle,” Sauls said.
I don't have anything to add on the reporting front, but it would be foolish of me to quail my excitement and anticipation at the thought of Vick entering the HBCU space and potentially etching himself in history. As an HBCU alumnus and passionate sports fan, I hope that this does indeed happen.
I would be eager to see Vick's Norfolk State Spartans line up against Chennis Berry's South Carolina State Bulldogs or Trei Oliver's North Carolina Central Eagles.
I'd love to see a hypothetical matchup between Vick and Eddie George's Tennessee State Tigers fresh off of an appearance in the FCS Playoffs and, of course, the matchups with SWAC teams such as Florida A&M and Jackson State.
From a media perspective, I’m eager for the chance to leverage my skills and platform to cover a potential Vick coaching tenure while also educating new HBCU fans about Norfolk State and the rich history of HBCU football. But as someone with common sense, I know that this would be a slam-dunk hire for Norfolk State University.
If conversations are indeed happening and are heating up, the Spartans should close the deal and brace for the ride of a lifetime that only Jackson State faithful have experienced in the history of HBCU football.
We can easily state the obvious: Michael Vick is a native of Virginia. He's a hometown hero in the greatest sense. He was born in Newport News, Virginia, played high school ball at Homer L. Ferguson High School in Newport News, and he elected to stay in Virginia and play for Virginia Tech.
His legendary football career was jumpstarted from Virginia. How fitting would it be for him to enter the next act of his football life at Norfolk State University?
A potential Vick hire would be a new frontier for the Spartans. Norfolk State takes pride in its storied basketball tradition, home to two of the nation’s top-tier men’s and women’s basketball teams.
Both have seen success in and out of the conference, with both teams even clinching appearances in the March Madness tournament. The football team hasn't shared the same levels of success.
Since the Spartans joined the MEAC in 1997, they've only had five winning seasons. In 2016, the NCAA stripped Norfolk State of all of its wins from 2009-2011, including the 2011 MEAC title, after neglecting to oversee its eligibility certification process.
So due to this, Norfolk State has only enjoyed two winning seasons since 1997: 2007 under Pete Adrian (8-3) and 2021 under Dawson Odoms (6-5).
The lack of success at Norfolk State never fully made sense. The institution is stellar, with beautiful facilities, an engaged student and alumni base, and access to stellar recruits that predominate the state of Virginia.
Maybe it's time to try something new and instill a new culture of winning for the football program. Who better than Vick, the home-state hero who could build a successful program with the right staff behind him?
In this hypothetical discussion, several points could be made to highlight the potential drawbacks of Vick's candidacy. One is Vick's coaching background.
Although he served as a coaching intern under Andy Reid in 2017 and accepted a position as the offensive coordinator for the Atlanta Legends in the Alliance of American Football before he withdrew to become a consultant, he doesn't have any recognizable coaching experience typically befitting of a highly touted (or heavily rumored) coaching candidate.
It’s entirely reasonable to seek a coach with experience in football, whether at the high school, college, or professional level.
But we can look at the example of Eddie George to see that taking a chance on a candidate who is a former NFL great who lacks coaching experience could be a good bet. George entered Tennessee State with no coaching experience and, surprisingly, no real desire to become a college coach.
“I was like, ‘Are you sure you know what you're asking me? But it just resonated in my spirit, and it wouldn't go away,” George said in a quote obtained by the Tennessean in 2021.
Tennessee State, led by Mikki Allen, took the chance and recruited George to the position, and it worked out. George led the Tigers to win a share of the OVC-Big South Championship this season, won all four of their HBCU matchups, and took FCS National Championship runner-up Montana to their limit in their FCS Playoffs first-round matchup.
While Michael Vick's star power and cultural significance place him on par with Deion Sanders, the road map to his success has already been laid out by Eddie George.
But the Deion Sanders-esque recruiting fervor could possibly be the same. Vick helped reinvent the quarterback position in football with his speed and uncanny ability to run the ball and make plays. Quarterbacks such as Lamar Jackson and Jalen Hurts followed the formula that Vick created to massive success.
Why wouldn't dual-threat quarterbacks want to play for Michael Vick as they can learn from one of the greatest athletes to touch the football field? It's no doubt that other recruits and transfers would jump at the opportunity to play for a Vick-led Spartans team, benefitting from the attention and adulation that would come with winning in his tenure.
But perhaps the biggest obstacle to Vick's hypothetical hire to Norfolk State or any college football program would be his legal troubles, especially linked to the dog-fighting scandal that led him to facing federal racketeering charges and subsequently being sentenced to 23 months in prison.
His hire would surely cause conversations to shift about whether he would be right to lead young men in their personal and professional development.
But Michael Vick served his time and has seemingly committed himself to change in the years following his legal transgressions. Vick even supported the “Animal Fighting Spectator Prohibition Act of 2011,” a congressional bill designed to establish federal misdemeanor penalties for attending illegal animal fights and impose felony charges on adults who bring children to such events.
On February 7, 2014, President Barack Obama signed the bill into law as part of the Agricultural Act of 2014.
Vick has also made it his mission to advocate to young men, particularly young athletes, about making the right decisions and not making similar mistakes that he did in his career. He visited Alabama A&M in 2019 and talked about turning his life around following his legal troubles
“Second chances mean everything to me, man. People who stood at the forefront, who allowed me to be put in that space, they deserve all the credit. I was just a guy who needed them at a critical time in my life,” Vick said at the time per a report by WAFF.
Vick being a college head coach could allow him to use his diverse experience to further develop the young men on his team both on and off the field. Vick's potential coaching candidacy would bring nothing but benefits to Norfolk State, its current and future players, the Norfolk community, the state of Virginia, and the broader HBCU athletics landscape.
Though nothing is official and everything is still rumors and conjecture, I hope Michael Vick becomes the head coach of Norfolk State. It would be a fitting next chapter for the former Atlanta Falcons star and a tremendous story of triumph and redemption worthy of the attention of the sports world.
