Growing up in Newport News, Virginia, in the Eighties and Nineteen Nineties, Michael Vick didn’t know much about elections or voter rights.

Thanks to his parents, Vick understood the scale of electing leaders in this country, especially the president, but the former NFL quarterback was surrounded by violence and poverty in his hometown (nicknamed “Bad News” because “a lot of bad things happen there,” compatriot Allen Iverson once said). As a youth, Vick’s only concern was entering into the NFL and getting over his illness, so things like voting and laws took a backseat.

A federal dogfighting conviction in 2007 sent him to 21 months in prison, further alienating Vick from the electoral process and his desire to exercise his right to vote.

“At a young age, I lost the right to be involved,” Vick told Andscape. “So for an extended time I used to be distant from it, I didn’t concentrate to it since it didn’t mean anything.

“It had no effect on me.”

While in prison, Vick made a listing of things he wanted to achieve after his release, which included: voting for the first time. In 2020, greater than a decade after his release, Vick’s voting rights were restored, allowing the 40-year-old to solid his first ballot this yr.

On the eve of Tuesday’s presidential election, the former dynamic quarterback is recommending that others register to vote in order that their voices may also be heard. He partnered with the Vote or Else campaign to engage more Black communities in the political process to improve their social standing after the four-year election cycle.

“People didn’t do this for us when we were growing up,” Vick said. “So this is a campaign where I felt like if someone watches me and idealizes me in a way, they can look at everything I do outside of playing football.”

After a two-year collegiate profession at Virginia Tech that included a national championship berth and a third-place finish in Heisman Trophy voting in 1999, Vick was chosen No. 1 overall in the 2001 NFL Draft by the Atlanta Falcons, making him first, the Black quarterback can be chosen with the top pick. It only took one season for Vick to turn into one in every of the most fun and unique players in league history, combining a sprinter’s speed with the elusiveness of a kick return and a cannon for a throwing arm.

His Jump 46 meters during a game against the Minnesota Vikings during his sophomore season in which Vick’s lightning speed caused two defenders to run into one another trying to attack him, it felt like something out of a movie. At the start of the 2002 playoffs, he traveled to Lambeau Field to face the Green Bay Packers, who had not lost a house playoff game since 1933. At 31 degrees Celsius Vick made something out of nothing in almost every performanceleading the Falcons to a 27-7 loss.

From there, Vick became a cultural icon. Nike gave him his own signature line of shoes, a first for an NFL quarterback. His cover of the 2004 video game Madden and its almost indestructible gameplay of the game’s characters is one in every of the most significant covers of a whole generation of gamers and continues to be talked about today. In each his game and appearance (dark skin, cornrows hairstyle, streetwear), Vick displayed a coolness that was more present in the NBA than the NFL at the time. Wearing a Falcons jersey backwards with Vick’s name and No. 7 on the back was a trend, and although in 2004 he was principally just standing in the music video for Atlanta rapper T.I.’s single “Rubber Band Man,” his mere presence was a moment. itself.

“Michael Vick was the Michael Jordan of our football,” said Marvin Bing, founding father of Mobilize Justice in Philadelphia, which organized the “Vote or Else” events. “It was Jesus on the gridiron.”

Vick signed a 10-year, $130 million contract with the Falcons in 2004, a then-record amount, but by April 2007 he was under investigation for running a dogfighting ring out of several of his Virginia homes for six years. In July 2007, Vick was indicted by a federal grand jury and on December 10, 2007, he was sentenced to 23 months in prison. (In September 2007, Vick was also indicted in reference to two state dogfights in Virginia; in that case, Vick pleaded guilty and received a three-year suspended sentence.)

After serving 19 months in prison – where he refused to eat for the first three days of his stay, missed his grandmother’s funeral and witnessed various things, – he told an ESPN reporter things that “should have stayed in prison” at the time – Vick was released in July 2009. Within weeks of his firing and after consulting with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, Vick signed with the Philadelphia Eagles as Donovan McNabb’s backup last season, becoming the starter for the 2010 season. Vick resumed his great play – in 2010 he had a historic 400-yard game and 6 touchdowns against the Washington Redskins – and later signed one other $100 million contract with the Eagles in 2011.

While serving his sentence from 2007 to 2009, Vick didn’t participate in the election of then senator. Barack Obama for president. He knew who Obama was because he had examine the election and watched the debates, but witnessing the historic election of the nation’s first black president made him feel more misplaced in prison. So he finally decided to vote when he was free.

“I felt like on a small scale this was something that would be the most important thing at some point,” he said. “It’s about having your rights to do certain things in life.

“I screwed it up and I wanted to at least fight for it, and if I missed then at least I gave it a chance.”

But when Vick tried to vote in Florida with family and friends in 2011, they found he was ineligible due to his felony conviction. Before 2018, the Florida Constitution permanently prohibited individuals with felony convictions from voting. (Vick owned a house in Broward County, Florida). But in November 2018, Florida voters passed Amendment 4, restoring voting rights to 1.4 million returning residents like Vick. Months later, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis added a requirement in 2019 that those affected by Amendment 4 first repay any fines, fees and restitution before they’ll regain the right to vote.

Although Vick paid nearly $1 million in restitution for his conviction, he still had not registered to vote as of early 2020. He partnered with the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, which works to restore voting rights to individuals who have served their sentences for crimes, and led the effort to pass Amendment 4 to each regain his rights and lift funds to help other returning residents pay court fees. During that time, the coalition raised greater than $4 million to cover the fees, with some support from the More Than a Vote campaign backed by Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James.

“(If) people can call you a criminal, it means they can treat you differently” – Desmond Meade, executive director of the coalition, he said in a 2020 documentary about Vick’s electoral journey. “We deserve to be treated with dignity and respect, and the best way to achieve that is to make our voices heard.”

Vick voted for the first time in November 2020, filling out a Florida absentee ballot from his home in California. “I felt that younger generations, seeing me do this, whether they were white, black or indifferent, would strive to do the same,” he said.

Across the country, in Philadelphia, Bing was mounting a campaign for Tuesday’s upcoming presidential election that relied on people like Vick for support.

In addition to founding Mobilize Justice, Bing also served as national artistic director for the human rights organization Amnesty International USA and is co-founder of Justice League NYC, which advocates for criminal and social justice reform. Bing’s father, Malik Aziz, was a Philadelphia civil rights activist who in 2000 successfully challenged a state law barring residents with returning felonies from voting.

“He was one of the first people to actually engage in advocacy for this organization and partner with it to actually challenge the legal system in the states to gain voting rights after he got out of prison,” Bing said of his father.

For the Vote or Else campaign, Bing invited athletes and entertainers to connect with Black communities who may feel forgotten between election cycles and support collective change to improve their social standing. That list includes Vick and Iverson, rappers Beanie Sigel, Freeway, Jadakiss and Killer Mike, and actor Woody McClain.

Bing said he selected these stars because their upbringing and background made them credible messengers.

“They come from what I consider ‘mud,'” Bing said. “They know what it’s like to fight, they know what it’s like to just play this sport to get out of a bad situation and change their family and (their) circumstances.”

Vick walked through neighborhoods in Philadelphia and Atlanta, knocking on doors, talking to residents, hugging them and taking photos to educate them about their right to vote and the importance of getting their voices heard. A girl Vick met in Atlanta told him her father was an enormous fan and hung his Falcons jersey on the wall.

“It makes me persevere and achieve more in life,” said Vick. “I’m not a young man, but I still have a lot of life ahead of me, God willing, so I continue to set goals for myself. People like that encourage me to hear stories like that and people appreciating what I did in the time I spent there.”

Bing said Vick brings a novel perspective as a talented black athlete, entrepreneur, husband and father who managed to escape Virginia and the criminal justice system. Vick, who retired in 2017 after 13 seasons, speaks the languages ​​of the Black community and the resilience he has shown over the past twenty years is an indication of hope.

So much in order that, according to Bing, Vick inspired no less than one person in Philadelphia to fulfill his civic duty.

“One woman said, ‘S— I could go vote early now,'” Bing said.