Michael Vick reveals real reason for Falcons never winning a Super Bowl - "Thought it'll be easy getting back"
Michael Vick might have a lot of regrets with his life, but not winning a Super Bowl with the Falcons seems to be at the top of his mind. He highlighted a couple of reasons why it did not work out.
The first thing he identified was the change in coaching midway through his tenure there, saying,
"I don't think we won a championship because one, it was like as soon as we got into a groove, like as soon as I started learning about the position, we fired Dan Reeves. We fired coach Reeves, who drafted me... And so, we [were] still young, he was a little older, and he'd like to dictate like, what [and] how things should be."
He also added that there were back office issues going on with changing personnel and his broken ankle also slowed him down.
"We got new ownership and people's, you know, new players, and, you know, it was a new era. And they was like, ‘Yo, there's too much dictatorship. He gotta go.’ And so, we fired him. Two years into my career, we made it to the divisional round my second year. And then my third year I broke my ankle, so I didn't play that whole year. That was the year [we] fired him."
With the new coaching system, Michael Vick said he had to relearn the offense just as he was getting into a groove. But once he did, he found it relatively easy and thought that it will always be so easy once they reached the NFC Championship. He added,
"And so, in 2004 I had to learn the whole West Coast system. Brett Favre ran it, Steve Young had ran it, Joe Montana had ran it. I think the Shanahan's ran a version of it with John Elway when they won in Denver. So, it was a good system... We went to the NFC championship that year, and it was so easy to get there. It was so easy that year. I thought it'll be easy getting back."
Essentially, his ease at getting the system contributed to a decreasing work ethic, with Michael Vick readily admitted, saying,
"So, I kind of like the work habit started to decrease and it was like it was so easy to get there, bro."
Michael Vick's own success with the Atlanta Falcons possibly contributed to the downfall
Michael Vick also added that because he was such a feared offensive opponent, the Falcons defense started getting weaker over the year, which also caused issues. He said,
"They started changing up the team because I ball so hard... So, our defenses got worse. And we just couldn't pick up the slack of offense. And then I ran into my issues and so you know, it just never materialized."
And finally, his involvement in dog fighting tarnished his reputation and ended his tenure with the team prematurely. It remains a big what-if for the Falcons fans even today, given they have yet to win the Super Bowl as a franchise.