first, HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!
For those who don't know, the following is a response to Axe's article today in which he poses the question I wonder what Donovan said to Vick's mom? Here it is and far more important what she said to him.
In the immediacy of the moment, McNabb seriously considered Florida State, but Tallahassee was just too far away from Chicago. Instead he choose to play both football and, for a time, basketball at Syracuse.
Ironically, “distance” would also come into play a few years later when McNabb himself was a recruiter at Syracuse and hosting Vick, who Syracuse hoped would be his heir-apparent at quarterback.
Like McNabb’s run-in with Ward, Vick grew up idolizing McNabb, and like Bowden in Tallahassee, the Syracuse coaching staff made no secret about wanting him. Scouts had Ronald Curry as the top player in Virginia that year. Syracuse’s coaching staff thought otherwise.
“Our coordinator told me personally, ‘He’s the best quarterback in Virginia,” McNabb explained. “This is the guy. We’ve got to have him. I’m like, ‘All right coach, I’ve got this.’”
For most of the weekend, McNabb did have it. Right before Vick was set to head home, he was ready to commit to the Orange.
McNabb just had to convince one more person.
“He’s like ‘Man, I want to come here,” McNabb said, describing a starry-eyed Vick. “But you’ve got to talk to my mom.’”
No problem, right?
“I get on the phone with his mom,” McNabb said. “She says, ‘You know, he talks about you all the time. I’m glad you guys got together. I really want him to make the best decision.’”
The problem: She didn’t make it clear whose decision it ultimately was.
“I really want him to stay in Virginia,” Vick’s mother, Brenda, said.
Unperturbed, McNabb went into sales mode.
“If he comes here, he’ll get a great education, we’ll win and it’s not far from you guys,” McNabb told her. “We’re like a family.”
Vick’s mother didn’t budge.
“We’ll see,” she told McNabb. “But I really want him to stay in Virginia.”
And it was at that point McNabb realized sometimes mama really does know best — even if her son hoped for something different.
“He was right next to me,” McNabb said of an eager Vick. “He’s asking me, ‘What’s she saying? What’s she saying?’”
She was saying her boy was staying close to home, a decision that obviously worked out fine for Vick. He went to Virginia Tech, where the school went 22-2 in his two years as a starter, and played for the 1999 BCS title.
