Vick is down.
 

He's being carted off the field. Knee or ankle injury.

They're saying it is an ankle injury.

Wow! Sounds like bad bad news.

Sideline reporter says they're thinking ankle sprain at this point.

Arthur Blank has gone into the locker room to be with him.

Doug Johnson hits a 42-yard completion on his first play of the night.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/football/news/2003/08/16/vick_injury_ap/

Here is a link at CNNSI

That really sucks!!!:(

Lets hope it's not a serious injury....

Fractured fibula...just reported on Falcon's broadcast.

Just not good. Good thing we have Doug Johnson.

FBPro beat me to it, fractured right fibula.

Braves broadcast is saying out 8-10 week.s

:( So much for my football season having excitement :(

fractured right fibula - hey, its not an ACL

It was only a matter of time.

This was just a matter of time. A wonderful talent, but these guys who run so much inevitably get hurt in the pros. Steve Young is the only exception I can think of.

The Madden cover curse continues...

That sound you hear btw is the hissing of the air being let out of the Falcons balloon.

Meanwhile, here's a recent column by veteran Atl sportswriter Furman Bisher about the value of Doug Johnson
Bisher on Johnson

And since this is FOFC & the thread is about Vick, here's an AJC article about the "Video Vick" & what the real thing thinks about himself in the new Madden.
http://www.ajc.com/falcons/content/s...4vickgame.html

Reason #88 I wait until pre-season is almost over to draft my fantasy teams.

Yeah, I had to run over to Yahoo and ink Doug Johnson to a deal before my season was over before it began. I hate drafting fantasy teams early, but I put up with it because it is free. In my money leagues, we always do the draft mid-week before opening weekend.

Falcons fans, could this be a blessing in disguise?

1. Doug Johnson isn't exactly chopped liver.
2. Spotlight and pressure is now on offensive line. Vick covered up their mistakes quite often. Johnson won't. Perhaps this unit, which is pretty young other than Whitfield, to re-focus and step it up and notch in the first half of the season and then....
3. Vick returns mid-season, isn't quite as mobile, but is playing being a much-improved offensive line.

Looking for a silver lining,

--Ben

go panthers

I'm a Dallas fan but I was really looking forward to watching Vick this season. Hope he recovers quickly

Could be, let's hope this is the case.

six weeks isn't complete devastation. Vick has usually been a pretty quick healer in the past. He may only be out 3 to 4 regular season games.

Not sure what the "it was only a matter of time" opinions are. Was it only a matter of time before Marino blew out his achilles? Vick was sacked moving up in the pocket looking for a WR, not as a RB 10 yards downfield. There have been a lot of running QB's who have stayed pretty healthy in their careers.

In other news. . . the Jake Plummer from Arizona showed up tonight in Denver. He was terrible.

TroyF

One of my friends drafted Vick 9th overall, sucks for him.

Atlanta certainly has a big drop off with Johnson but their WR's are improved over last season and HOPEFULLY someone has sold TJ Duckett a clue and their running backs improve. All is not lost if he is gone for 3-4 weeks.

I will explain my position, Troy.

Yes, he was hit in the backfield, but because of the amount of times he runs, he gets hit a lot, and eventually the odds catch up with you. And let's face it, he is not the biggest guy on the field. He just looks like he is going to get broken in half out there. I thought so when he was drated and I still think that he will suffer many more injures in his career as long as he is being a part time running back.

LOL!!!

Bob Whitfield was just asked about Vick's injury on-camera. His response, and it got past the censors: "Well, shit happens." :D

Great, at least the Vick Hype machine will be silent for a few weeks - to me this guy is just another Randall Cuningham - looks great and exciting, but will probably never live up to the hype.

Give me Plummer any day of the week :)

Vick should end up with a more successful pro career than Cunningham. I think he's smarter. I was looking forward to watching him hooking up with Price. Hopefully he recovers soon.

Weird coincidence, In the season of Madden I was simming yesterdy and today Vick missed most of the preseason and about half the regular season. I can't remember what the injury was though.

Glady.......you can have Plummer, Leaf and I'll even throw in Andre Ware.

:)

Kurt Kittner baby! :D

"This was just a matter of time. A wonderful talent, but these guys who run so much inevitably get hurt in the pros. Steve Young is the only exception I can think of."

You mean other than all the concussions he got, right? :)

What did you expect from Jake Plummer???

I like Jake Plummer :(

Actually, I expected he'd suck. I was probably the only person in Denver who wanted Brian Greise to stay.

TroyF

I always thought that Vick would become one of those players who had so much potential but would end up being a player who has a career of injuries. I hope he comes back sooner then 8-10 weeks because he's fun to watch.

Drafted him 11th overall myself. *sigh*

Kept him in my keeper league, of course we drafted *yesterday*. Thankfully I picked up Brooks and McNair, so things could be worse.

Could be worse. I drafted Micheal Bennett 3rd overall in one league, and I knew he was injured. I'm so fucking stupid. :(

That's too bad, the Bucs will only get to shut him and his press corp down once this year...Stay healthy for week 16 Vic!!!!

Spoken like a true Illini!!!

On the other hand, this really stinks that Vick is hurt, damn I love to watch him play. Anyone who can whip the Pack in their own house, in the playoffs no less...has earned my lifelong respect.

Ahh!!! Vick!! Please get better! I was REALLY looking forward to watching the Falcons this year... this really sucks :(

Looked bad last night. If Johnson goes down, the Falcons will be in big trouble. I think Johnson will show his value.




I think you saw the same thing I did, SD. The second Doug got in there, the line could suddenly block. I don't know if Vick motivates the Defense of other teams so much that they really burn it while he is in there, or if the O-line gets motivated because they know they have to give Johnson more time. You definitely saw a 2-3 second difference in pocket protection between what Vick had and what Johnson had.

Only missing 4 weeks of the regular season isn't bad. I think it might benifit the Falcons by having the other skill players step-it up also. This team has much more talent on the offensive side of the ball compared to last year, so it will just be up to Johnson to show he can run a offense.

You guys won't believe this. You know what I was doing last night? Attending a fantasy football draft at a friend's house. You know what I did? Oh yeah...

We drafted the first round, with one guy running behind. He was the first pick and called his in on his cell. We finished the first round by the time he walked through the door, including me taking Vick with the sixth overall pick. He looked up at our draft board (yes, we had an imprmptu draft board :) ), and said, "Isn't Vick hurt?"

I stared bug-eyed at him and asked him what he was talking about. No one else did either--none of us had heard anything. But then when we presed him on it, it turned out he was talking about some offseason surgery that he thought was going to affect Vick, we all let let out sighs of relief, me a big one. So then it became a running joke, that Vick was hurt.

Ten rounds go by, and not only do I have Vick, but because of a confluence of receiver picks, I found myself forced to take Peerless Price (I usually don't like to match my receiver and quarterback, with byes and bad games putting you of action).

So we turn on a sports TV show around then, and what's almost the first thing we see? "Vick Injured"...NOOOOOO!!!!!

What are the odds? What are the freaking odds? :rolleyes:

Anyway, I also drafted Trent Green, who I think is going to have a huge year, and Tom Brady, who is effective. But you gotta know losing your first round pick like that isn't going to be doing me much good. :(

Get well, Michael. For the first time, I actually care that you're playing. :)

Chief Rum

At least it happened early in preseason. Imagine if it happened in the last week of the preseason. That'd be 2 more weeks of regular season action he'd be out.

WHAT ABOUT FAVRE?
Not a guy who runs up field a lot but he runs around the backfield enough to equal just about any "running" QB in being free of the protection of his lineman..........and he has never missed a start...until now cause i just jinxed him but anyways..........

Maybe the Cowboys will have a chance in Week 1 now...

I don't have an opinion one way or another on if running quarterbacks are more subjected to injury than pocket passers, and I agree that Favre is very elusive within a small space, but, Cringer, you're going to have to come up with an actual running quarterback who stays healthy to fight that point. As much as Favre dances around, he is still pretty much the ultimate pocket passer, and not a running quarterback at all. If I look up pocket passer in the dictionary, I don't look under 'P', but 'F'.

CR

I think there will be surprisingly little drop-off in the Atlanta offense. They've got 2 backs to carry the rushing load, and Doug Johnson has always looked great when playing. I think they'll certainly hold it together until Vick is ready. For his sake I hope the team is doing well so he doesn't have to rush his recovery.