Mike Tomlin wanted Steelers to sign Michael Vick

It's a game that could have looked a lot different if Steelers coach Mike Tomlin got his way back in 2009 when Michael Vick was leaving prison. Tomlin wanted to sign Vick, notes Ed Bouchette of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Two major factors stood in Tomlin's way. His bosses, the Rooneys, were "dead set" against it. That can't help. Tomlin was willing to look past that, but quarterback Ben Roethlisberger's situation at the time ultimately prevented it. Roethlisberger was accused of raping a woman in a civil suit filed just before training camp.

"He's going through somewhat of a trying time with the civil allegation, a case against him," Tomlin said of Roethlisberger on NBC that year. "I didn't want to do anything that was less than supportive to Ben."

Vick and Roethlisberger have both bounced back from their personal struggles. Roethlisberger is easily the superior quarterback, but Vick has more support from his defense and running game. A lot can change in three years.


http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap100...ce=twitterfeed

The Rooneys were dead set against it because they knew it was a stupid idea

This, and the idea that the Steelers were interested in Plexispike Burress leave me scratching my head...

Gotta call bullshit on this one.

Steelers Will Do 'Due Diligence' on Vick, Not Much More

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"If people are capable of helping us win we're going to have a level of interest in those guys," Tomlin said today at a news conference at St. Vincent. "I'm never going to discuss free agents individually. I don't think that's appropriate. I think that that conversation could be endless. If I start commenting on Michael Vick then I'll be commenting on Plaxico Burress and everybody else that turns up on the (waiver) wire. We do our due diligence on guys that have a professional skill level and of course (Vick) is one of them."

And via Jim Wexell's Twitter feed, this nugget:

Tomlin doesn't deny interest in Vick .... or Plex ... or Bradshaw. "Hell, Mel Blount looks good out there, too."

Which I take to mean: no way in hell Ron Mexico ends up in Pittsburgh. Anything's possible, I suppose, but like I wrote at the time: the Steelers are set at quarterback. Charlie Batch looks like he'll win the No. 2 job, and Dennis Dixon, who appears just as capable as Vick in the Wildcat, will hold down the backup-to-the-backup assignment.

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Mike Tomlin Explains Why Steelers Never Considered Michael Vick

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Despite the speculation, the organization never considered signing Vick, although Tomlin suggested that the former Falcons' star deserved a second chance.

"I spent some time with Mike this summer. Mike's from my hometown, I've known Mike a long time," Tomlin told Sanders. "It was bigger than business for me. There were gangs and so forth when I grew up there, but when you played ball, you played ball. It was different. They respected what you did, and you kept it moving."

"Where we're from now gangsters play ball. I believe that his redemption and his second opportunity is pivotal for those young guys from my area to see a guy come through the other side and make it right."

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That's a pretty big inferential leap to "I want us to sign him."

If they had signed Vick, regardless of Ben' situation, I'd have taken a leave of absence from football until Vick was no longer with the team.

"Plexispike" hehehe never heard that one

And I'm glad they never did.