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Dream Team stumbles

Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Michael Vick (7) is helped from the field after running into one of his teammates during their NFL football game against the Atlanta Falcons in Atlanta, Georgia, September 18, 2011. REUTERS/Tami Chappell (UNITED STATES – Tags: SPORT FOOTBALL)

Michael Vick got hurt, again, and the Philadelphia Eagles wilted at the end to lose to the Atlanta Falcons. Vick is an exciting player and he’s improved through the years, but I still don’t see this guy leading a team to a Super Bowl win. He gets hurt too often and he turns the ball over as well. Meanwhile, Philly’s defense is still a work in progress.

Vick may miss some time:

He left the game late in the third quarter when blitzing Falcons safety William Moore spun Vick into right tackle Todd Herremans. Vick’s head snapped back like a crash-test dummy. Cameras showed him spitting up blood. He went to the locker room with 1:59 left in the quarter.

Afterward, coach Andy Reid said Vick suffered a concussion. Vick was to fly home with the team, but it appears he will miss Sunday’s home opener against the Giants and that backup Mike Kafka might have played his way into a starting job while Vick recovers.

All of a sudden, the Dream Team is running into some adversity in Philly.

Was Vick overrated? Only because media made him that way.

There’s something that still chaps my hide whenever the topic of Michael Vick (the quarterback, not the dog fighter) gets brought up.

ESPN.com is running an “All-Decade” feature this week and for one of their topics they listed the top 25 most overrated NFL players of the decade (Insider subscription required). Who is No. 2 you ask? Well the dog fighter former Falcons quarterback himself, of course.

2. Michael Vick: Even before Vick’s sordid off-field activities came to light, he was a disappointing No. 1 overall pick. Vick was a great runner, sure, but when he dropped back to pass, he turned into Tyler Thigpen or Derek Anderson, quarterbacks who are close to Vick’s career averages of 6.7 yards per pass attempt, 1.4 touchdowns for every interception and 52.8 completion percentage. His upside at this point is “Best Wildcat Quarterback,” not best NFL quarterback.

What I’ve always found funny is that the media was the one that built Vick into this Super Jesus Quarterback (SJQ) coming out of college, then when he never lived up to their lofty expectations, they were the first to say he was one of the most overrated signal callers ever to lace up the cleats.

The media were the ones who said Vick would reinvent the quarterback position, find a cure for lupus and solve the world’s hunger problem. And some fans bought into that because of all the hype that surrounded him coming out of college.

But what was he at Virginia Tech? A runner. And what was he in Atlanta? A dog fighter. A runner. So how is he overrated? Because he didn’t live up to the media’s expectations? That’s what makes him overrated?

Why is it such a conundrum that Vick wasn’t a great passer? Frank Beamer only gave him six plays to learn at VA Tech, so it’s not like Vick was Peyton Manning (a great passer who put up great passing numbers at Tennessee) coming out of college. Dan Reeves and Jim Mora did their best to try and make Vick a quarterback, but obviously he just didn’t have it in him.

The media saw Vick’s big arm and thought, “passer.” But the fact of the matter is that Vick was an athlete first and always. Fans are partially to blame in all of this because they hyped him up too, but they mostly loved his athletic ability and marveled at what he could do with the ball in his hands. It was the media that wanted him to reinvent the position as both a runner and a passer. Now they want to claim, “Vick wasn’t a good quarterback – he was overrated.” Really, Captain Obvious? Well you made him that way.

You know what’s overrated? The term “overrated” in sports. A player is only overrated when the media over hypes him and he fails to live up to those expectations. So let’s relax with all the overrated talk and just enjoy the damn games for once. Either that, or let’s only talk about the players who are underrated, because at least it focuses on those who deserve more attention for what they can do on a field.

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