UVA Football has a game with Norfolk State on the schedule in the 2026 season. The legendary dogfighting guy, Michael Vick, will be on the sidelines on that particular fall Saturday for Norfolk State.
For some reason, Norfolk State is turning to Vick, the former Virginia Tech and NFL QB, to lead its football program.
“It’s an honor to announce that I’ll be the new head coach of Norfolk State University … looking forward to coming back home,” Vick wrote on Facebook on Tuesday.
Norfolk State hasn’t confirmed the hire yet, but David Teel, who is back at The Virginian-Pilot, where he belongs, is reporting that an introductory news conference is expected within a week.
In terms of the coaching side of this, it’s a reach, to say the least – Vick’s coaching experience is limited to a few weeks as an intern in 2017 with the Kansas City Chiefs and however long it was that he was with the AAF’s Atlanta Legends.
Vick was announced in 2018 as the offensive coordinator by the Legends, but ended up doing only some unspecified consulting work with the team.
So, he’s not what you’d call qualified, other than being the famous former QB at Virginia Tech, and a guy who I just learned through Google has been doing work as a TV analyst with Fox Sports for the past few years.
Seems like Norfolk State wants the name more than the coach.
Before you bring up Deion Sanders, Sanders, at least, had cut his teeth as a high school coach before declaring himself ready to be a college coach.
And the name Deion Sanders doesn’t come with the baggage of the dogfighting stuff that we get with the name Michael Vick, which we can’t just pretend isn’t always going to be out there with this guy.
I’m sure a lot of you will think I’m the bad guy here for dredging up the dogfighting, but whatever.
That story dates back to 2007, when Vick and three co-conspirators were indicted on state and federal charges related to an interstate dogfighting ring involving dozens of dogs and tens of thousands of dollars in gambling-related activities going on around it, with shocking evidence of brutal executions of the losing dogs by shooting the lucky ones; the unlucky ones were hanged, drowned and electrocuted.
Vick ended up pleading guilty and serving 21 months in a federal prison, before resurrecting his NFL career with the Philadelphia Eagles, who made him their starting QB in 2010, and he finished that year as the runner-up in the voting for NFL Offensive Player of the Year, which allowed him to hang around for a few years after, as a starter and then eventually a backup with the New York Jets and Pittsburgh Steelers.
You can argue that he has long since paid his debt to society, having served his time in prison, and having had to endure the fall from grace from being the #1 overall pick to prison to finishing up his once-promising career as a journeyman.
Again, whatever.
Vick, his co-defendants and their apologists argued that dogfighting was part of the culture that they grew up in, “that it was a proving ground for young men to demonstrate their strength,” according to one of the defense attorneys in the case.
Just to be clear where I’m coming from on this, my wife and I take in rescue dogs – dogs abandoned by their owners, dogs with disabilities that make it hard for them to be adopted.
That’s the other side of the coin from taking dogs, training them to kill, and punishing the ones that lose with execution.
Vick has since tried to come across as contrite, but it’s not hard to see that as a PR move, given how the criminal conviction led to a 2008 bankruptcy filing, and financial issues continue to, you know, dog him.
I see what Norfolk State is doing here – the school is trying to make a big splash, and Michael Vick is a football legend in Hampton Roads.
Vick, for his part, sees the Deion Sanders blueprint – do some time in FCS, then climb the ladder.
I’m not rooting for or against him – the guy doesn’t deserve people thinking about him one way or the other.
I do think the folks at UVA Athletics need to break the contract for the 2026 game with Norfolk State.
Norfolk State can hitch its wagon to this pile of human excrement to the end of its days, but that shouldn’t bind future opponents to give their blessing.
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Chris Graham
