Jets backup quarterback Michael Vick did a dumb thing this week when he kinda-sorta admitted that he wasn't all that prepared to play in the second half of the Jets' 31-0 loss to the Chargers on Sunday because he didn't take his weekly scout team reps seriously enough.


From ESPN:

"I felt like I, for some reason, being a quarterback in his 12th year, sometimes you to take things for granted," Vick said Wednesday. "I think I took the scout team for granted." Earlier Vick said, "Maybe I didn't prepare or I wasn't prepared, but let me tell you it won't happen again." But later, he backtracked, saying, "I didn't say I wasn't ready because of the [scout team] snaps."


Since this is a story involving the Jets and Michael Vick, it has a very good chance to become A Thing. In fact, if you do a Twitter search for "Michael Vick" right now, you can see it already becoming A Thing:

Given that the Jets' current starting quarterback is Geno Smith, who is crappy and bad, it's fair to say that Vick shouldn't have been entirely caught off guard when he was asked to enter the game. But it would be dumb to automatically assume that Vick is any lazier or more unprepared than other backup quarterbacks throughout the league.

Because here's the thing about the scout team: it's the scout team. A backup quarterback can take his reps—which he has to split with the third-stringer—with the scout team as seriously as he would the final drive of the Super Bowl, but scrubs are scrubs, and no amount of practicing with them is going get a guy 100 percent ready to run with the first team. Backups surely know this, and it would be naive to think that they don't loaf every now and then as a result.


Vick's mistake wasn't taking his practice reps for granted, but thinking that he could talk honestly to the media. He's probably going to be answering a lot of questions about his work ethic and preparation in the coming weeks, so that should be fun for him.

[ESPN]