Michael Vick admits to taking headset off late in game of Norfolk State's loss to NC Central where they chose to not take a knee

Norfolk State (FCS - VA) had North Carolina Central (FCS) right where it wanted on Saturday. 

The Spartans were up 28-23 with about a minute and a half to play, and the Eagles were out of timeouts. All Norfolk State needed was a couple of snaps under center to close it out. Typically, that calls for what most coaches call the best play in football - victory formation and taking a knee.

Instead, Norfolk State ran the ball. NCCU defensive lineman Khareem Thompson stripped quarterback Deljay Bailey, and the Eagles recovered at the Norfolk State 37. Five plays later, Joshua Jones found Mehki Wall for an improbable 26-yard touchdown with 27 seconds left. Marco Peery’s 37-yard field goal attempt sailed wide with four seconds remaining, and North Carolina Central escaped with a 29-28 win.

Here's a look at what transpired.

“I called victory formation. Just letting everybody know that,” Vick said after the game. “I don’t know why we even ran that play.”

By Monday, his tone had changed. In a video released by the MEAC and shared by HBCU Sports, Vick said he wanted two kneels to drain the clock to about 18 seconds. Then he planned to punt and make NCCU go roughly 80 yards. However, offensive coordinator Brian Sheppard wanted to pick up one more first down. Vick had already taken his headset off.

“I put the headset down, which was my mistake first and foremost,” Vick said. “That’s not his mistake. That’s my mistake for not staying on the headset and communicating.”

“So that’s on me. It’s not on him,” Vick added. He said he has to coach “until the clock strike triple zero.”

He also went out of his way to defend Sheppard’s work over the first 58 minutes. “He called an amazing game. He scored 30 points. Called a great game.”

The head coach owns the end-of-game plan, and once the headset comes off, that plan only exists in one person’s head. Every staff I’ve been on has a four-minute and two-minute script for a reason. The good ones rehearse who has final say while the clock is running. 

As a first-time head coach in his second season in charge, that's a tough lesson Vick learned that one the hard way, and to his credit, he took accountability publicly.

From Sheppard's perspective, he wanted the ball in the hands of one of the top players of the game to ice things out. Bailey had been sharp all day, completing 22 of 26 passes for 278 yards and two touchdowns with no interceptions. Norfolk State led 21-7 at the half.

Norfolk State is Vick's first head coaching job located in the area where he grew up after a 13-year NFL career that began when Atlanta made him the first overall pick out of Virginia Tech in 2001. The Spartans went 1-11 in his first season in 2025, and this year’s team has already won four games. A win over NCCU could have served as a signature moment in that rebuild.

Instead, it’s a teaching moment, and Vick chose to own it rather than point the finger to his staff.

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