And now he’s gone.

It must be like some of the guys trying to tackle him felt over the course of Vick’s two seasons in a Virginia Tech uniform. How did he get out of here so fast?

As Will Stewart wrote on Techsideline.com’s main page, Michael, we hardly knew you.

His going away party, conducted at the branch of the Hampton Roads Boys and Girls Club where he spent so much time as a kid, was quite a scene.

TSL Extra was there, not that that makes us special. Everyone, it seems, was there. Family. Friends. Fellow Hokies. Coach Frank Beamer. Assistant coach Jim Cavanaugh. Media out the wazoo. And what seemed like half of Newport News. They applauded when he walked in, applauded when he walked out and applauded everything he said in between his entrance and exit.

Michael Vick the college kid became Michael Vick the professional athlete in a blur.

Here are a few thoughts on the whole scene and the whole subject:

It was actually a great choice of a venue.

For starters, he has too much class to go back to Tech and say, "I’m leaving." You just don’t do that. You have your "I’m staying" sessions at the school, your departure sessions at home. Standard operating procedure.

Vick sure couldn’t have had all those folks to his home, just a few blocks away. His future new home maybe, but not his childhood home. And good ol’ Warwick High, which would have been a nice option, didn’t need the disruption with school in session.

Warwick wouldn’t have been as nice a setting anyway. James "Poo" Johnson, the executive director of the Hampton Roads Boys and Girls Club, has known Vick for 13 years. Through those halls Vick ran as a kid. What better place to officially cut the ribbon on your manhood than at the spot where you had so much fun as a kid?

Absolutely. Daggone right. No question.

Absolutely not. No way. Talk about your mistakes.

How’s that for definitive? Actually, all of the answers are correct.

Vick, who won’t be 21 until June, talked many times of this being the hardest decision of his life. No joke. It was a decision where he’d be right and wrong all at once.

The right is simple. The money. Pro athletes today command the kind of cash that is often hard to imagine. Millions upon millions upon millions. It’ll be there next year? Probably. Maybe not. Ever hear of a knee injury? Not the kind that takes you out forever, but the kind that knocks your ability down several notches. Insurance can only cover so much.

If Vick doesn’t go No. 1 in the draft, someone isn’t thinking clearly and deserves to be fired. He’s the type of talent that comes along so rarely. He’s there and you have the pick, you take him. Be it the Chargers or some team that trades for the Chargers' No. 1 pick, that team ought to be "on the clock" for about ten seconds and only for that long if they say, "Michael Vick" very, very slowly.

At No. 1, Vick is looking at a $60 million deal. Try to imagine yourself as a 20-year-old with a mother who has worked hard her adult life providing for four children. Tell me you’d say no and mean it and I’ll call you a stew-mouthed liar.

That said, there’s no question Vick is NOT yet ready to be an NFL quarterback. Who is to say a year or two more at Tech would make him ready? He’d become fundamentally better, sure, but he’d still have to learn more about pro style offenses and the system of the team that drafts him.

History hasn’t been kind to early-departing quarterbacks. The week of Vick’s declaration, John Markon of the Richmond Times-Dispatch wrote an excellent column detailing that fact.

You’d darn sure think so, wouldn’t you?

Vick can run like the wind.

He has an extremely strong arm that’s generally pretty accurate as well. Some folks say his throwing fundamentals are off and, if so, correcting them can only help.

He has a head for the game.

Go back to his redshirt freshman season, the game where Tech kicked the smithereens out of Syracuse (62-0 in case anyone has forgotten). Two plays very early in that game sum up the multiple gifts of Vick.

On second and nine from the Syracuse 10, Vick found himself in serious trouble. A large loss was looming. He scrambled his way out of the jam. The play gained only three yards. It might have been the most impressive three-yard gain ever.

So now it is third and six from the seven. Vick comes to the line and, with about nine seconds on the play clock, sees something he doesn’t like. He backs up and changes the play, gets back under center and gets the play off on time. A simple handoff and off-tackle run that gains the necessary six and gets Tech a first down on the one.

Yowza. How many quarterbacks, freshmen or no, would have had the presence of mind not to panic and call a timeout?

None of the above, however, guarantees his success. He wouldn’t be the first guy with a bunch of talent to be less than successful.

Much depends on where he ends up. Norv Turner has landed in San Diego as offensive coordinator. He’s been lauded as been very good with quarterbacks but is that because he had Troy Aikman? He didn’t do much with Heath Shuler. Was that Turner or Shuler? Also, he’s thought to be more comfortable with an Aikman-style quarterback (like the Chargers’ Ryan Leaf).

Word seems to be that Seattle, with the seventh and 10^th picks in the draft, is going to make a bid to get that top pick. Mike Holmgren might be a better coach for Vick.

Wherever he ends up, the team and its fans are going to have to be very, very patient. Don’t you dare kill that golden goose to try to get more eggs now. If Vick gets into a good system and is given time, look out. Build a shelf that will hold many MVP trophies.

But if Vick goes somewhere and finds himself playing for different coaches and coordinators under different systems, he could end up as a bust through no fault of his own.

I seriously wonder if he changed his mind. It’s difficult to believe his mind was really made up when he made his Dec. 15 declaration to stay another year.

The thought was good, the plan was misguided. Get it over with and deflect attention before the Gator Bowl. That worked, didn’t it? A better plan would have been to say, "Folks, I have until Jan. 12. I’m not even going to worry about that now. I’ll play the Gator Bowl and then weigh the options. So let’s focus on the game."

Might not have worked any better. Couldn’t have worked any worse.

Don’t blame Vick for anything. He’s 20 years old, still very young. He’s been blessed with incredible gifts, but that blessing comes with a price. He had to make a difficult choice.

He’s made it now and, as he said at his press conference, there’s no turning back.

Good luck, good sir.