A tale of two QB's
Two quarterback’s paths will cross this June when they are both guest instructors at the William and Mary football camp. A three-time pro-bowler. And a young man who hasn’t been to the pro bowl yet, but has a super bowl ring. Michael Vick and Ben Roethlisberger. Two NFL quarterbacks whose lives, careers, playing styles and overall reputations are vastly different.
Born in Newport News, Virginia, in 1980, Vick’s father wasn’t around much, and his mother worked hard and ran a tight ship with Michael and his three siblings. They lived in a cramped three-bedroom apartment in a housing project. Football was Michael’s passion. And he showed tremendous promise. He started halfway through his freshman year, and was famous before he even got to college.
A Findlay, Ohio, Native born to Ken and Ida Roethlisberger in ’82, Ben’s parents divorced when he was young. But a stepmother came along who he called Mom, completed the middle-class household and gave Ben a little sister. His birth mom’s death was the big trauma of his childhood. Basketball was Ben’s passion. He didn’t even start for the Findlay Trojans until his senior year.
Michael Vick had a stellar career at Virginia Tech. He nearly took the team to a championship in his freshman year, won the Heisman, and decided to go in to the draft after his sophomore year. He went to the Atlanta Falcons as the first pick in the draft, in 2000, a pick the Falcons traded up to get from San Diego.
Meanwhile, Ben was just about getting started with his college career. We know the stats. MAC freshman of the year, third team All-American, 4,486 passing yards. No #1 pick, Ben…who can forget Ben sitting in that Green room during the NFL draft—last one there. Never lost his composure, though – and the stars aligned when the Steelers took him with the 11th pick.
Michael Vick – seemingly destined to be an NFL star.
Ben Roethlisberger – little noticed until his final year of college ball. Expected to sit on the bench and learn behind Tommy Maddox. Won the superbowl instead.
In June, they’ll both go to William and Mary to teach young men the fundamentals of quarterbacking. Which one would you choose to demonstrate the fundamentals of life?
Both have made mistakes. Lets get Ben’s “big one” out of the way first. On June 12th 2006, he chose to ride his crotch-rocket motorcycle, a gift from a local ‘cycle dealer, to the Steelers facility without putting on a helmet and without a permit to do so. He nearly paid for that ride with his life…or his career. He seems to have learned his lesson from that experience, though. He certainly gained a new appreciation for the gifts he has been given.
I am certain that Ben’s critics would be quick to point out other mistakes, or shortcomings. And they would certainly want to discuss the noticeable drop-off in his play during the 2006 season – a drop-off which, in all honestly, the Steelers experienced as a team.
But this examination is as much of the men as of the football players. And if I were going to choose a role model for my nephews, there would be no decision to make.
Would I choose a role model who would choose to flip his middle finger at his fans in a moment of anger, or a role model who would stand tall in his press conferences and take full responsibility for losses he only contributed to and did not cause? Both men were booed by their fans. They chose different roads to handle it.
Would I choose a role model who was arrested for trespassing and, at last report, hadn’t paid the fine, or one who, at the end of a three-day minicamp went straight to a local football training session for high schoolers, because he made the commitment to be there.
Would I choose a role model who has rumored, though unconfirmed, connections to pit-bull fighting (and has a congressman calling for his investigation by the NFL), or one who spent two days last week going to local schools to give pep talks to young people, and congratulate them for their fund-raising efforts?
Would I choose a role model who, according to a published police report, had a substance that smelled strongly like marijuana concealed in a water bottle at an airport (and had to sit down for a ‘conversation’ with the NFL Commissioner), or one who last weekend spoke to kids about the dangers of drugs?
I am certain that Michael Vick has done some commendable things throughout his career as well. I recall him donating $10,000 to the families of the victims of the massacre at Virginia Tech, his alma-mater. I also recall Ben giving a playoff paycheck to the victims of a tsunami in a country I am sure he had never been to, this during his Rookie year at the ripe age of 22.
Certainly none of us knows every detail about either of these young man’s lives. But one thing is certain. When you read up on both Quarterbacks – as I have done – you will have a sense that one knows right from wrong, and the other is struggling to find his way. In Vick’s own words, "Things are going to get turned around. I have a game plan for it. ... The company I keep, a lot of things [have] got to change, and I mean that from the heart."
I hope he does turn it around. In the meantime, you may want to consider carefully the man you would choose to talk to your kids about the fundamentals of football – and of life.
Ben Roethlisberger and Michael Vick will both show the young men at the William and Mary Quarterback camp a lot of wonderful techniques on what it takes to be a good quarterback. But which of these two men’s lives demonstrates what it takes to be a good role model? Because in today’s day and age, kids need all the positive role models they can get.