I’m a bit of a Virginia Tech fan; it was one of the stops in my academic career. They did the right thing here, IMHO.
They gave him a warning last summer that he’d run through his second chances, and his next fuckup would be his last, which was the right thing to do then. He apparently managed to keep clean from then until his speeding without a valid driver’s license last month, which Tech didn’t find out about until after his stepping on the opposing player in the bowl game. And it was no accident. So the refs tossed him from the game, and Tech tossed him from the program.
After the gun incident, it’s hard for me to envision a GM desperate enough to take a chance on him. Even without the baggage, he’s gonna be a pretty big project, just in terms of bringing his understanding of the game and ability to make good on-field decisions up to where they’d need to be, given his thin college experience. His total absence of understanding that the rules apply to him makes him a project every which way.
Two weeks ago, he was a little over a year away from hitting the NFL draft jackpot. After Tech showed him the door and before the gun incident, he was still going to at least get drafted, and get some money out of the deal. Now, he’ll be lucky to have the opportunity to ride a bench in Canada.
Before the gun incident, I think he had a decent chance at the NFL. Now, though, I think what’ll happen is that he’ll get a chance in NFL Europe and if he can keep his nose clean there, he’ll eventually move to the NFL. But, frankly, I don’t think he’ll be able to stay out of trouble, and he’ll be out of that league inside of a couple of years.
I don’t think the CFL will want any part of him at any point.
Europe might be safer. They’ve got pretty tight gun laws over there. Of course, Canada’s are considerably tighter than the U.S.’ too.
The CFL used to favor a more wide-open style of play than the NFL - more hospitable to scrambling QBs and the like. Don’t know if that’s still true, but it’s one reason why I thought of Canada in Vick’s case.
