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Author 2 Samachar News -- Monday, December 7th, 2009

ATLANTA — Once again, we discovered why this is the worst sports town in America, maybe on the planet. Take the apathy around here for its NFL team, for instance. They’ve had Blitz Gritz fans, and they’ve had Deion Sanders fans. They’ve also had Dirty Bird fans, but they’ve rarely had Falcons fans.

So this wasn’t surprising: Long before You Know Who morphed into the local messiah again on Sunday afternoon during his return to Atlanta, the Latter Day Church of Michael Vick already was alive and well.

The pastor of a real church down the street told his members to perform a Michael Vick wave during service. A slew of folks inside and outside of the Georgia Dome wore No. 7 jerseys in red or white to honor Vick’s past with the Atlanta Falcons or green jerseys to honor his present with the Philadelphia Eagles.

Then there was the game. After the man of the moment was met mostly with boos instead of cheers, the Vick congregation grew. That’s because those early boos were from jilted Vick lovers who later joined the masses. In fact, when the Eagles began to obliterate a strikingly listless Falcons team early in the fourth quarter along the way to a 34-7 victory, many in the crowd went from supporting the home team in a desperate search to become a wild-card team during the postseason to chanting for the guy who hasn’t taken a snap around here in three seasons.

The true Eagles fans, the so-called Falcons fans and those who were just part of the Latter Day Church of Michael Vick were so loud in their support of No. 7 (“We want Vick! We want Vick! We want Vick!”) that dome officials tried to drown out the racket. They ordered somebody to crank up the sound on the dome’s PA system that was playing that old Hall and Oates song, “Kiss On My List.”

How appropriate for Vick. In the end, when he finished with a passer rating of 158.3 after throwing for a touchdown and running for another during his longest role yet as the Eagles’ third-string quarterback, he literally blew kisses toward all sections of the dome as he moved from midfield toward the tunnel.

“I want this to be an inspiring story for the kids,” said Vick, filled with emotion, knowing that his NFL journey began as a fairy tale and nearly ended as a horror flick. For much of his six seasons with the Falcons through 2006, he was the league’s hottest player. He also was its richest. Next thing you know, he was spending a couple of years in Leavenworth as the guest of the U.S government for his dogfighting mess.

Michael Vick Thus Vick’s current glee to match that of his delirious and plentiful followers. He couldn’t stop smiling in the aftermath on Sunday, while returning his thoughts to the youth of the world. “I want them to know that things happen and you have to persevere and overcome adversity,” Vick said. “I want kids to know that if you keep that support and have faith in yourself, things will eventually work out for you.”

That’s all great. So is the vanishing of those animal rights protesters who kept using Vick’s situation as their chance for momentary fame. On Sunday, only five such protesters bothered to brave the chill around the dome, and they were smothered by more than a few folks wearing No. 7. And here’s more greatness involving Vick: he truly gets it after not doing so for just shy of forever. He has Tony Dungy, the former NFL head coach and spiritual heavyweight, as his guru. And since Eagles star quarterback Donovan McNabb convinced team officials to give Vick a second chance by signing him out of prison, Vick hasn’t disappointed. He has been invisible to controversy.

As for on the field, Vick has been invisible, period. Before Sundays’ game, he carried 15 times for 65 yards, and he completed three of nine passes for six yards. This time, he rushed four times for 17 yards, including a five-yard touchdown plunge in the third quarter to give the Eagles a 20-0 lead.

Plus, the first of Vick’s two passes was a perfect spiral for 43 yards, and the second was a five-yarder on the run to Brent Celek for a touchdown.

Now get this: Before Vick’s long completion, the crowd began the first of its boisterous Vick chants, which makes you wonder if Eagles coach Andy Reid was influenced by them at all since he eventually told Vick to take McNabb’s place after a timeout.

“Those chants didn’t hurt,” said Reid, easing into a smile.

Vick’s story was nice and all, but this still was embarrassing. No, this was Atlanta, where the Hawks rank among the NBA’s most gifted teams and have just two home sellouts. During much of the Braves record run to 14 consecutive division titles, they played either before a slew of empty seats or fans cheering for the other team.

“Yes, but you have to remember that Michael Vick brought so much excitement to Atlanta when he first came here (in 2001),” said Beverly Hines, a retired school teacher from an Atlanta suburb, sitting among Falcons season ticket holders in the lower level with her husband. She reached deep into her closet to pull out her No. 7 Falcons jersey that she folded away for posterity after Vick was suspended by the NFL in August 2007. Added Hines, “I was a New Orleans Saints fan, because of my husband, but after Michael Vick came to the Falcons, he made me a believer.”

He made Hines a Vick believer, not a Falcons believer.

The same goes for thousands of others around here, which caused Jeff Timmerman to shake his head on another side of the dome. “I’m OK with Michael Vick coming back to the NFL, because everybody deserves a second chance, and I enjoyed seeing him play, because he was exciting to watch. But he didn’t win,” said Timmerman, 51, wearing a Falcons Santa hat and a jacket in the team’s colors. “I’m much happier with Matt Ryan (the Falcons’ injured franchise quarterback). Everybody knows that Michael Vick was the last person to arrive at practice and the first on to leave.”

Vick knows that, too. He has said as much. He knows his Atlanta days were filled with drama in more than a few ways. Courtesy of his magical feet and powerful left arm, he helped the Falcons become the first team to slay the Packers in Green Bay during the postseason, and he also took them to an NFC championship game. It’s just that he never improved. He actually digressed for a career passer rating of 75.

If you combine that with Vick’s other issues outside of dogfighting (lawsuit involving herpes, problems at security points at the Miami and Atlanta airports, flipping off Atlanta fans after a loss, blowing off a congressman on Capitol Hill preparing to give him an award), he was a mess. He isn’t now. You can see it on his face, and you can hear it in his voice, and you can tell it by his actions — and non-actions.

“I believe things happen at the right time and for a reason,” Vick said. “You look back at some of the games we played (involving the Eagles), and there just wasn’t an opportunity to get out there and be as effective as we want me to be. Timing is everything.

“Ironically, Coach Andy Reid told me earlier in the week that I was going to score two touchdowns and two came at a great time.

“Who cares what happened in the past?”

Atlanta doesn’t, and that’s fine — to a point.

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Atlanta Too Ga-Ga Over Vick