Hey! It’s Michael Barkann! Again!
DeSean Jackson: “I’ve learned from that guy. Remember when he posed falling across the goal line against Dallas and was hit with the penalty? Dumb. But DeSean sees his moves, the showboating, all of it, as enhancing his value. He sees himself as an entrepreneur who needs to stay in the headlines to build the brand. I’d never looked at it like that before.”
Michael Vick: “When I heard he was coming to Philly, all I could think of was that old Humphrey Bogart line, ‘Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, he walks into mine!’ I mean, really, Andy, Michael Vick? Here? But now look. One slip and it’s over for him, but for now you’ve got to be impressed.”
Andy Reid: “I don’t know why the writers don’t all walk out on one of his press conferences one day. What a waste of everybody’s time. On the other hand, we’ve been in the playoffs nine of the past 12 years. What other coach would take a chance on Michael Vick? Maybe he did it because of what his two sons have been through, because he’s learned to believe in second chances. You don’t know, because he’s never going to say.”
Pro athletes generally: “Yeah, a lot of them are hard to take. There are good guys, though. Take the Phillies — Jimmy Rollins, Jamie Moyer, Chase Utley, all good guys. Ryan Howard, he gives back. But then you have other guys like Jayson Werth and Pat Burrell. To them I say, ‘See ya!’”
WHEN YOU’RE AROUND A GUY like Michael Barkann, a guy who’s so naturally up, who likes to keep it light, who could maybe clap you on the back or punch you on the shoulder at any given moment, it begins to rub off.