How Michael Vick changed the game

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – What Geno Smith shunned, Michael Vick embraced. The dance that Smith could not artfully complete, Vick two-stepped with flair. The stereotypes that consumed Smith, Vick whisked aside.

A black quarterback running with the football.

There has never been a part of the NFL game that created more divergent and often ugly scrutiny.

Black quarterbacks who run with the football always hear spotted criticism that they cannot read defenses, cannot pass efficiently from the pocket and play the position foremost with their feet rather than with their minds. It is criticism that stings. Often, it sticks.

It is one of the reasons Smith mentioned this prior to opening the season as the Jets starting quarterback:

“I never wanted to be a running quarterback; I am a passing quarterback. And that desire has played a role in how much I run. That concept of who black quarterbacks are has always been there. I always have to fight that battle. It’s why I don’t want to be a running quarterback. It’s a stigma. That has been the case throughout history. But more and more teams want a quarterback who is mobile. The game has moved that way.”

Smith struggled to a 1-7 start before being benched, and it happened, in part, due to key instances where he refused to run with the football to maintain drives and increase his team’s scoring chances. “Running with the football” for black quarterbacks does not have to be a dirty phrase.

It takes a clearly determined mind and focus on making winning plays for black quarterbacks to tuck it, run with it and never look back.

Vick has always understood this. He never let narrow perceptions define his game in his 12 NFL seasons.

In the Jets’ 20-13 upset victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday at MetLife Stadium, Vick ran for 39 yards and much of it converted key third downs and led to points. He became the only quarterback in NFL history to rush for more than 6,000 career yards.

He also threw a 67-yard touchdown pass.

It was feet and arm first.

“He is the most well-rounded, athletic quarterback in the history of this game,” Steelers safety Troy Polamalu declared.

You think, just as a sampling, of Greg Landry and Fran Tarkenton, of Randall Cunningham and Steve Young, of Steve McNair, and that is a mouthful. But buy it.

Vick showed on Sunday that at age 34, he still has the ability to create doubt in defenses. That he can still keep them on edge equally feet-and-arm first.

“They had an old-school game, a throwback game on us where they kept the ball a lot and kept finding ways to get first downs and Vick’s running was a big part of it,” Steelers cornerback Ike Taylor said. “Vick showed the God-given ability that he has always had. He was the Wildcat in an offense before there was a Wildcat. His approach is different from Geno Smith partially because he is a veteran guy. He doesn’t care about the nonsense talk about running. But with a young guy, that is a different story. But maybe Geno is watching and learning that now. It’s always been a hard dilemma for black quarterbacks with this.”

From six seasons in Atlanta to five in Philadelphia and now this one with the Jets, Vick’s willingness to run equal to his eagerness to throw has never been accidental.

“On the outside, the critics have had their say, but my peers realize how I play this game with passion and how I try to play the game to win, whatever it takes,” Vick said. “Some of the criticism I’ve received for running has definitely hurt. But my teammates and my peers and some of the fans make up for that. On a day like this, I know I am appreciated.”

While Vick was running for critical gains in New Jersey, Russell Wilson was rushing 14 times for 107 yards with a touchdown and a long run of 26 yards for Seattle in its victory over the Giants. Wilson and Colin Kaepernick and Cam Newton — among the today’s best young black quarterbacks who are fearless runners — can all tip their caps to Vick. He has helped create the push for more acceptance.

Steelers linebacker Lawrence Timmons said the Jets offense guided by Vick kept them in quandary.

In two starts, Vick is 1-1 this season and has rushed 24 times for 149 yards. In Smith’s eight starts, he rushed 35 times for 10 fewer yards. It’s not just the numbers, insisted Timmons, it is the selection. The timing. The will.

“They have great clock management,” Timmons said. “Great calls. They did a good job mixing it up. They had some trick plays. You saw the speed reverse they did. They had a few screens that worked well for them. And the play-action down the field was huge. Things like that kept us off balance. That was the case for this game.”

It has been the case for plenty of Vick’s career.

A runner, a passer, a black quarterback who always tried to stomp overboard, disgusting racial stereotypes.

Six-thousand-plus yards worth.

“Mike Vick is a great player, a Hall of Fame player,” Jets linebacker Calvin Pace said. “Mike changed the game. Geno is looking at how Mike is approaching it and it has to have him thinking twice. It’s all a part of the difference sometimes between veterans and youth. But you look at the guys playing well, a lot of the quarterbacks including Andrew Luck and Mathew Stafford, and they are running for first downs and for touchdowns. It’s something defenses don’t like to see. It keeps chains moving.

“Mike Vick showed today and with the history he accomplished today that he is the best ever at it.”