Michael Vick learned chess, and learned to love chess, while he was in a federal prison— “When I was away,” as he called it… He taught himself chess, first as a way just to kill the boredom. But then he discovered it helped him think, taught him to make better decisions, and brought out his competitive juices. “I liked going head to head, mano a mano, with my chess opponents in prison”, he said. He still plays three or four games a week at home in Virginia.
Vick spent a good part of his Tuesday playing against some children at the Eagles Youth Partnership’s annual chess tournament, then said he thought the game helps with his decision-making.
Michael Vitez of the Philadelphia Inquirer volunteered his coverage of this feel-good piece with some play-by-play commentary on Vick’s performance against the smart kids…
When the Eagles Youth Partnership scheduled its annual chess tournament for hundreds of city children on Tuesday at Lincoln Financial Field, Vick asked whether he could play. The organizers picked two of their stars, hoping to give Vick all he could handle, but they were finishing games when Vick arrived.
Jowel Ammons, 18, a senior at Philadelphia Military Academy at Leeds, a public school in North Philadelphia, has played chess since middle school. It has taught him patience, how to analyze and strategize, and given him great confidence. That confidence was tested when he sat across the chessboard from Vick. Television cameras and microphones were inches from their faces. The crush of the crowd smothered them.
Vick was cool, calm. No big deal. That’s life as he knows it.
But as soon as young Jowel moved his first pawn, the noise and cameras faded away. He was home, in front of a chessboard, where he is in control, and the intimidation factor started to turn. Vick moved aggressively, overconfident, leaving himself vulnerable. Jowel knew he owned the quarterback on the sixth move.
“When he didn’t want to trade his queen, I said, ‘He’s intimidated by me now,’ ” Jowel commented. “That’s when I gave him my moves.”
Vick has the Superman emblem tattooed on his right hand, but it didn’t help. At one point, showing mercy, Jowel said, “I don’t think you want to make that move, Mr. Vick.”
Jowel piled up pieces. “Apparently, you’re in a mess right now,” Jowel told him.
“You get a ticket for every win,” Vick said. This brought a giant smile to Jowel’s face. “One ticket for every win?”
And he turned to the crowd. “Who wants to go to an Eagles game?” Jowel asked.
In seven minutes, just 17 moves for Jowel, it was over. Checkmate. Jowel went off to face stardom and television cameras. Tomyra Wilson, a sixth grader at Rudolph Blankenburg School in West Philadelphia, took his place. She was first in her division in the Pennsylvania State Scholastic Chess Championships, beating more than 100 other fifth and sixth graders.
Vick started this game more conservatively. Their pieces were traded evenly, but steadily Tomyra began to control the middle of the board. “She’s good,” Vick told the crowd. “She’s good.”
More than 3,000 city children play chess in programs run by the After School Activities Partnerships, funded in part by the Eagles Youth Partnership. Through the program, many children have earned significant college scholarships, gained confidence and skill, and avoided the streets after school. There were 4,000 children in the program until last year, when the Philadelphia School District had to cut funding for some of the after-school organizers, and some locations had to be closed.
Against Tomyra, Vick seemed to be losing control of the game. A reporter shouted, “Wearing you down?”… “No, no,” Vick insisted.
He moved his own piece into check, but didn’t see it. Tomyra politely but immediately moved it back. She knew right away. Soon the game was over. His king was toppled. Vick had fallen to a sixth-grade girl.
“They set me up right here, man!” he protested, in jest.
Vick actually wanted to play another 10 games. He was loving it. He wanted a rematch with both Jowel and Tomyra, and he wanted to face all comers. This was no act. He wanted revenge. He wanted to win. But his handlers had other ideas.
Jowel was impressed with Vick’s play. Vick was skilled, patient, and thoughtful. But you could tell these young people were serious chess players thinking, as Jowel said, at least five moves ahead. Vick loves the game, but Tuesday he was the amateur, and Jowel and Tomyra showed just how good their after-school instruction can be.
In a postgame interview, Vick said he learned that chess is a game of patience, of avoiding mistakes, of making carefully measured decisions. He grew to love it, and played it more and more.
“I found it might have been a calling for me to play chess,” he said. “Sometimes things happen in an ironic fashion.”
My personal reaction: For the trolls who continue to hate Vick, this human interest story will not change things… They will condemn this outing by Vick as an absurd public relations stunt. But I beg to differ…
This was Mike Vick connecting with his sad miserable childhood and getting a do-over… and putting chess in the equation cannot possibly hurt his decision-making abilities as a quarterback.
And for me, that bodes well for Michael Vick not only as our QB#1 but as a person…
Meanwhile…
A new NFL Collective Bargaining Agreement with a simplified rookie wage scale is making the process of signing draft picks so much less complicated these days. That’s why the Philadelphia Eagles expect to have all of them signed long before training camp begins.
Tuesday, for example, they announced they had reached agreements with defensive end Vinny Curry, tackle Dennis Kelly and wide receiver Marvin McNutt on four-year deals. This comes a day after they came to terms with second-round pick Mychal Kendricks, a linebacker from California.
“It’s an easy formula right now,” Eagles general manager Howie Roseman said. “I don’t think it’s going to be a long process with most of the players. They want it to get done, they know there’s not any incentive to waiting … so I think it will be a fairly [easy] process here so that when they come in here for minicamps they’re signing contracts.”
These deals leave just five picks to go, including first-rounder Fletcher Cox, a defensive tackle from Mississippi State. Because the new CBA calls for the contracts of this year’s picks to fall within very narrow margins of last year’s corresponding picks, there is almost no room for negotiations. Previously, it was more of a free market that would set itself as teams would begin signing picks, usually from the bottom up.
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