Free Finally Free by Michael Vick, Tony Dungy

volunteered at an orphanage. It was a chance for me to love on those kids and give them hope. I also ran a Christmas toy drive for them each year that I played in Atlanta.
    During that time, I didn’t just try to make an impact in Atlanta; I tried to give back in Newport News too. I did a lot of work with the Boys & Girls Club in both places. As I have said earlier, the Boys & Girls Club was a great place for me to go as a kid, and it provided me with opportunities to grow. Working with the clubs allowed me to make that same positive impact on a new generation. Also, back in Virginia, I made it a priority to help feed people at the homeless shelter. I grew up around poverty and understood its impact.
    But my giving wasn’t limited to my time. I tried to use my financial situation to help less fortunate people as well. I bought toys, backpacks filled with school supplies, clothes, and generalnecessities to give away at the orphanage and homeless shelter. I also gave to my home church in Virginia.
    One opportunity stands out more than any other. In 2002 Susan Bass, the Falcons’ community relations director at the time, approached me about a young boy, a twelve-year-old. She shared that he was in need of a heart transplant and that his family was in a very difficult situation. She wanted to know if I would help. There was no way I wouldn’t.
    I briefly met the boy and his family and decided to make a considerable contribution to assist them. I didn’t want the press behind it because it wasn’t about that. I just wanted to give someone a chance to live so that he could dream like I was able to dream. I wanted to have an impact on him so that he could go out and have an impact on someone else. I wanted to give him a chance so that he could give someone else a chance.
    The game in Green Bay may have been my best moment, but helping that young boy’s situation was my proudest.

    Like the 2003 season, the 2005 and 2006 seasons were frustrating, and we regressed as a team.
    In 2005 we started out great, winning six of our first eight games, but then we lost six of our last eight to finish 8-8 and miss the playoffs. Oddly, though, we sent six players to the Pro Bowl, the most for the franchise since its Super Bowl season in 1998. It was my third and final Pro Bowl as a member of the Atlanta Falcons.
    We started strong again in 2006, going 5-2, but then lost our nextfour games en route to a 7-9 record. My mounting frustrations were evident after the fourth consecutive defeat, 31-13 to the New Orleans Saints. The loss made our record 5-6 and, just as importantly, was a huge loss to one of our NFC South division rivals.
    Individually, my season was going well. I was on the way to what would be one of the best statistical years of my career, with a career high in touchdown passes (20) and an NFL record for rushing yards by a quarterback (1,039). In many ways, I was finally playing the type of game I wanted.
    But losing, particularly that Saints game, really burned me up. While walking off the field, I heard a fan telling Alge Crumpler—my teammate and one of the best tight ends in the league—that he sucked. The guy was wearing a New Orleans Saints jersey; he wasn’t one of our fans. But he was with a guy who had on a Falcons jersey. They were together, and both of them started yelling to us, “You guys stink. You guys suck.”
    It was an odd situation. I was like, There’s a Falcons fan with a New Orleans Saints fan, and both of them are screaming that we suck . I just felt something wasn’t right with that picture.
    I became so infuriated that I put my middle fingers up at both of them, as if to say, You know what? If y’all feel that way, then @#$% y’all. And I didn’t even think anything of it. I just reacted.
    Right then, I didn’t care. My attitude was, So what? I stuck my middle fingers up. I didn’t think about who was watching or who was around.
    I got a