Vick returns to Atlanta a changed man

In one of the greatest favorite-son-returns stories in sports, Michael Vick goes back to the Georgia Dome for Sunday Night Football. And if Atlanta were any kind of sports town, the fans would boo him unmercifully.

Look what this guy did to that town.

The Falcons were sailing along as one of the perennial contending teams in the NFC - a far cry from where they usually flew, which was at a much lower altitude - and Vick decided to get into that dogfighting nonsense. Behind Vick, the Falcons had upset the Green Bay Packers in the playoffs in subzero weather at Lambeau Field, at a time when it was unheard of for a dome team to do something like that. Vick led the Falcons to a division title in 2004, and they walloped the Rams in the playoffs before losing to the Eagles that season in the NFC championship game. But the quarterback had brought that city promise of better days and perhaps NFL dominance.

And then two years later, with Vick spending more time in the planning room at Bad Newz Kennels and considerably less time in the film room; with Vick doing things like trying to carry a fake-out bong on an airplane, giving the finger to his own fans; and then being led in handcuffs to jail, the Falcons were forced to make do with Joey Harrington, Chris Redmond, and Byron Leftwich, for crying out loud. If I were an Atlanta Falcons fan, I'd be ticked off. And the promise of Matt Ryan still wouldn't be enough for me to get over the whole thing.

If Vick had gone through all those things in Philadelphia, had joined another team after a two-year prison sentence and was returning to play the Eagles, The Inquirer would have had a special 20-page insert section for Sunday's newspaper. I was scanning the Atlanta-Constitution Journal this week, and I found more stories about the Georgia Bulldogs and NASCAR than Vick's homecoming. Atlanta is not a real sports town, certainly not like Philadelphia, so I'll have to do a bit of enlightening for the folks down there.