PITTSBURGH -- Just before lightning forced a half-hour delay in Saturday night's preseason matchup here between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Philadelphia Eagles, the thunderbolt from 700 miles away rocked the Heinz Field press box.

If the tremor wasn't quite enough to send reporters, team officials and visiting scouts scurrying for cover, the sudden headline that Atlanta Falcons quarterback Mike Vick had fractured his right fibula sent everyone crowding for elbow room in front of a large bank of television monitors in the media lounge.

You think this kind of news travels fast in the NFL?

Consider this: An Eagles scout who was attending the Atlanta-Baltimore game at the Georgia Dome phoned a high-ranking Philadelphia official even before Vick was loaded on to the emergency cart. Then an Eagles public relations representative tracked down yours truly to see if there was any further news of the injury. A couple hurried phone calls later, a lightning bolt or two exploding over Heinz Field, and the Eagles-Steelers game was rendered little more than an afterthought.

At least in terms of the NFL big-picture perspective.

Vick is lightning quick and also a lightning rod. The NFL perceives him, on the field and in terms of marketing potential, as its answer to Michael Jordan. A year ago, he was one of four players who graced the cover of the league's annual Fact and Record Book, and that is notable since he was the only member of the quartet who didn't lead the NFL in a single category. This week, the latest edition of EA's John Madden video game debuted with, you guessed it, Vick on the front of the box.

"I don't know how it happened, but somebody on our sideline actually heard about it, and the word kind of spread then," allowed Steelers linebacker Joey Porter. "I mean (Vick) is the league's new cover boy. Something happens to him and it's going to be big news."

It Atlanta, of course, it is bad news. Falcons owner Arthur Blank, thrust into the uneasy role of orthopedics expert in explaining the injury during post-game interviews, conceded he and his quarterback shared a cry in the locker room. Not surprising, since the rest of the league seems to believe that Vick is Atlanta's meal ticket, and Blank understands that all the duct tape on the shelf of every Home Depot franchise isn't enough to put his star player back together again.

That will require rest and rehabilitation, a period of six weeks, and the Vick hiatus could turn the buzz that has accompanied the Falcons training camp into buts. As in: But can the Falcons hold the fort during the first month of the season now that Mike Vick is Mucho Sick? But can the Falcons survive until Superman is sufficiently healthy to re-don that cape in which The Atlanta Journal-Constitution posed him for the cover of its upcoming NFL preview section? But can backup Doug Johnson, a guy admittedly hungry for a starting job, play as well as he did in a victory over the Giants last year, when he engineered the Falcons to a 17-10 victory when Vick was sidelined?

At least in the first few hours following Vick's injury, and in a hurried flurry of phone calls around the league, the predictions on the fate of the Falcons with their brightest star were decidedly mixed.

Said one Philadelphia defender: "They'll lose something on the field but, more important, between their ears. Let's face it, with Vick on the field, the impossible is always possible, you know? He was the guy who could make anything happen. I really don't much about (Johnson), the guy who has to play now, but I know this: He ain't Vick."

Then again, neither Ty Detmer nor A.J. Feeley of the Eagles will ever be mistaken for Donovan McNabb, but they performed estimably when the Philadelphia star went down last year with an injury eerily similar to the one Vick sustained on Saturday night. But it remains to be seen if the Falcons, who don't have quite the supporting cast the Eagles possessed in 2002 and who are still a young and impressionable team in its formative stages, can rally up around Johnson now.

Assuming that there are no complications to an injury that isn't likely to require surgery, Vick will probably miss the first four games of the regular season. Included in that stretch is a Sept. 21 home game against Tampa Bay. The Falcons quietly coveted the early game with the defending Super Bowl champions, who defeated Atlanta twice in 2002, and were the one team that clearly intimidated Vick in both outings.

Now, instead of relishing that early matchup, the Falcons are suddenly in a pickle. Odds were that Vick would, at some point, throw his body once too often into harm's way. And the harm has definitely been done.

The NFC South has become a formidable division and, with its most formidable player sidelined, the already fragile balance of power can't help but be at least temporarily affected. The Falcons have been this year's chic pick as a Super Bowl dark horse. Now having lost their thoroughbred, at least until they've completed the first quarter of the race, all those "win" wagers might be moved to the "place" or "show" slots.

Len Pasquarelli is a senior writer for ESPN.com.