NFLWeird But True

Michael Vick Didn’t See Those Cheerleaders There When He Kicked This Football

You’ll have to forgive Michael Vick for being excited. His Eagles took a big step toward saving their season yesterday, defeating the Redskins on the road 20-13, and Vick himself contributed 237 yards passing and 54 on the ground to the effort. Unfortunately, after his biggest run of the day, he got a little too excited.

Vick saw a football on the ground, apparently one used for kicking warm-ups, and decided he’d get some kicking practice in himself. The issue: Vick didn’t kick it into the net. He kicked it into the open…where the Redskins’ cheerleaders were standing. Though the camera angle doesn’t show the impact, it sure looks from Vick’s mortified reaction like he got one of the cheerleaders square. To Vick’s credit, he apologized both then and after the game.

Shutdown Corner’s Chris Chase noted that there was no possible good outcome of the kick; of course, being caught up in the excitement of the moment meant there was no way Vick’s mind was about to cycle through potential outcomes of the kick – he was just letting off energy.

Chase, though, also brings up the possibility that Vick could have “miss[ed the ball] like Charlie Brown playing with Lucy.” We like this not only because the idea of Vick missing the ball is hilarious, but because if Charlie Brown ever actually kicked the ball, there was no way it wouldn’t have hit some sort of rich, powerful person in the face who would have made Charlie’s life (even more of) a living hell. And imagine, just for one second, if there had been a dog in that area for whatever reason. We’d be looking at either an endless controversy or a Curb Your Enthusiasm plotline.