A word on the bird

Forgive Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick for displaying the wrong kind of Dirty Bird after Sunday’s home loss to New Orleans. He wasn’t around when the Falcons created the Dirty Bird touchdown dance craze during their Super Bowl run in 1998. He probably heard ‘‘Dirty Bird’’ and thought it meant the sort of middle-fingered salute he gave a jeering fan as he left the Georgia Dome.
Vick has already issued multiple mea culpas for his inexcusable act of anger and the NFL has fined him $10,000. Normally it fines players $5,000 for an obscene gesture, so we can only assume the league bumped up the penalty because Vick executed a double digit defense.
We don't know what Vick heard from his heckler. There are certain trigger words that would set off any normal person, but athletes are conditioned over the years to block out crowds. At the same time, Vick and his teammates have little reason to bother with booing fans. They deserve the jeers, having lost four straight games — including a pair to the terrible duo of Detroit and Cleveland. Remember, this was a team that thumped its chest and declared itself a playoff contender when the season began.
The best course of action for Vick would be to focus his anger on different targets -- the wide receivers who dropped five passes Sunday and the offensive linemen whose porous pass blocking kept him on the run all day.