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Michael Vick, DeSean Jackson, & HBCU Football's Hopeful Reawakening

The arrival of Vick and Jackson at Norfolk State and Delaware State is flashy, but is it a shooting star or a new trend that could restore relevance to HBCUs?

When an athlete is drafted by the NFL or NBA, the term generational wealth is often used. Many athletes come from poor backgrounds, so the contract and fame of being a professional often allows them an opportunity to set themselves and their family up for financial success for multiple generations. But what if they wanted to expand beyond that?

Many players become coaches after they retire, with the intention of being a teacher for the next generation of athletes. For some this is at the NFL as a position coach, for others it is at a Division I program in college. But now there is a new wrinkle that gained steam in popularity: coaching at the HBCU (Historically Black Colleges & Universities) level. What started with Deion Sanders at Jackson State has extended to Eddie George at Tennessee State and most recently with the hirings of Michael Vick and DeSean Jackson at Norfolk State and Delaware State, respectively.

These former players that were stars in the NFL are taking their knowledge of football, name recognition as NFL stars, and trying to parlay that into a successful coaching career. But is this an indication of an HBCU resurgence or is it simply a springboard for bigger and better things down the line?

The Challenges of HBCUs

During the 1960s and 1970s, some of the best football that was played on the collegiate level was by HBCUs. Programs like Grambling State, Southern, and Jackson State. The schools produced elite NFL talent like Doug Williams, Ed “Too Tall” Jones, Harry Carson, and Walter Payton. A driving force of this was the fact that many Southern Black players were not being recruited by the dominant teams in the south like Alabama.

While some schools in the Northeast and West Coast of the country were recruiting Black players, this often meant moving away from their families and the culture of the area that they were accustomed to. Attending an HBCU kept them close to home while also fostering a sense of community for Black people in the South. This all started to change in the 70s and 80s as the white schools in the South started to recruit Black players to be able to compete with schools like USC that had already broken down their racial barriers.

The scale of funding between HBCUs and more traditional land grant universities (which comprise the upper crust of collegiate athletics) is massive. This is shown through a disparity in endowments where land grant universities often receive double the support of their HBCU counterparts. This means that Grambling State, a historically dominant HBCU, could not compete with LSU in terms of facilities and access. As a result, the players started to flock to schools in the SEC and other conferences across the country.

Since 2000, we have seen schools in the South dominate the landscape, winning 21 national championships. These teams were filled with elite Black athletes that in previous decades would have attended an HBCU school. The lack of funding created a downward spiral that led to poorer facilities, decreased recruiting edges, lower quality coaches, and limited media coverage.

In 2024, ESPN aired eleven HBCU games, providing a bit of exposure for the schools. But this pales in comparison to a conference like the ACC, which had more than ten games aired on ESPN’s family of networks per week. Coaching at an HBCU football program, as a result, is generally a labor of passion and teaching. For former Black NFL players, it can be theorized that it is a calling.

Giving Back to the Community

HBCUs, while traditionally exclusively black, are open to non-Black students. Today, roughly 80% of an average HBCU is Black, while predominantly white universities feature between 5-15% Black students. While more and more Black Americans are choosing to go to bigger land grant universities for their education, there are still a variety of factors that Black Americans continue to attend HBCUs. These reasons could be a sense of community, cultural identity, family legacy, or financial opportunity that is provided by an HBCU.

When considering these factors, it is easy to understand why NFL players find the jobs at these universities to be appealing. In their NFL careers, Michael Vick and DeSean Jackson have made a lot of money. Vick earned over $115M in his 13 years in the league, while Jackson earned over $91M during his time in the NFL. They were both stars in the league, and even played together in Philadelphia for a few years. This status exposed them to the financial and business side of the game that they love, and it can be argued a certain perspective on the industry of football.

Both men grew up in challenging environments. Vick was brought up in the housing projects of Newport News, while Jackson grew up in the Crenshaw neighborhood of Los Angeles, firmly in Crip territory. Football was an escape for both men and the path for them to escape their difficult situations. And escape it they did. But this wasn’t a clear separation, as both players had their share of controversies.

In 2020, Jackson made a post on Instagram that promoted an Anti-Semitic conspiracy theory that Jewish people have a plot to oppress African Americans. He apologized and the Philadelphia Eagles, the team that employed him at the time, said they were disappointed in his comments. He would not return to the team, and eventually played out the rest of his career with a few different teams.

Vick’s controversy is much more well documented. He was sentenced to 23 months in jail in 2007 for his involvement and funding in a dog fighting ring. He served his time, lost all his endorsement deals, and was deemed an enemy of the animal-loving public. In the wake of his release from prison, he salvaged his NFL career with the Eagles, and has paid restitution for his actions by donating to animal shelters and becoming a spokesperson against animal cruelty. Many people will not change their opinion of Vick, but if nothing else he remains an example of making mistakes and recovering from them.

Both Jackson and Vick faced turbulence in their careers and feel that they have wisdom to impart on a younger generation. Considering how the top level of college football has become a bit more professional in nature with the transfer portal and NIL (name, image, and likeness) contracts, it is easy to see why coaching at an HBCU would be appealing to both Vick and Jackson.

Coaching at these schools would give both men an opportunity to speak to the struggles and trappings that come with a life in football. They will have an opportunity to educate the next generation of Black players on how to navigate this world if they have the chance to make the league.

For the schools, the name recognition of Vick and Jackson is vital to re-establishing their programs. Vick takes over a Norfolk State program that has only had two winning seasons since 2005. Jackson now inherits a Delaware State program that has won a combined two games in the last two years. These are programs in desperate need of something exciting. Having former NFL players that some players could remember from playing Madden over the years is an absolute recruiting advantage.

Both Jackson and Vick have said that HBCU coaching means a chance at mentorship, a way to mold the young men of tomorrow. But it is also an opportunity for them to run a program without much experience beforehand. The cynical view of this could be that these schools are being used as a bit of a launching pad for both men.

A Launching Pad

For many aspiring coaches there is often a ladder that must be climbed to get the job that they are looking for. It involves years of being a position coach, then a coordinator, and finally a head coach in the NFL. It is a prestigious position, with only 32 openings to be filled.

An example of this journey is Aaron Glenn. Glenn has been the defensive coordinator for the Detroit Lions for the last three seasons and is getting consideration for head coaching openings this offseason. Prior to this, Glenn coached in Cleveland as an assistant defensive backs coach and in New Orleans as the defensive backs coach. That is over a decade of coaching experience before getting a chance to be a head man. What Jackson and Vick have done is to take the college route to avoid the ladder.

There is a blueprint and precedent for an HBCU coaching job to be a stepping stone, because we saw it a few years ago with Deion Sanders. Sanders, after a few years coaching in high school, accepted the job at Jackson State. To say he made a splash on HBCUs in his time at Jackson State would be an understatement, as he went 27-6 and led JSU to two SWAC titles.

But more importantly, he brought in recruits to an HBCU school for the first time in decades. Sanders was able to flip Travis Hunter, the number one recruit in the country, from Florida State. That was a massive deal and put national eyeballs on HBCUs for the first time in a generation. This success, as it often does in college football, led to programs from bigger schools to be interested in Sanders. When he inevitably left for Colorado, many were disappointed with the move.

For many in the HBCU community, it was not just that a successful coach left, but it was the fact that he left after establishing himself as the face of modern HBCU football. Sanders would often talk about the collective goal of HBCUs outside of Jackson State, and in many ways, he became the sole person that people thought of when HBCUs were mentioned. So, him leaving came off as a selfish act to many.

There is plausible fear that the same may become of Vick and Jackson if they have success at their new schools. The natural cynical question will come up of whether they truly wanted to mold young men or if they are biding their time for an opening at Virginia Tech or Cal to arise (the alma maters of Vick and Jackson, respectively). Time will be the true indicator, but I would like to believe that both men are truly invested in teaching the game and life lessons at a very fundamental level.

If both men have success, I think we will continue to see more NFL players consider HBCU as a route to get into coaching. In that sense, it can prove to become fertile ground for developing coaching talent. Considering the struggles and complications that HBCUs have faced in the last few decades, that might be a welcome change. But for that to happen, Vick and Jackson need to win the hearts and minds of recruits and get results on the field. Personally, I hope they are successful.