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Home > Jeff Schultz > Archives > 2008 > April > 08 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USPutting Vick’s ‘comeback’ in perspective
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
THE TUESDAY COUNTDOWN…
10: Win tonight at Indiana and the Hawks will have all but clinched a playoff berth.
9: Win tonight at Indiana and the Hawks will have all but clinched a playoff berth. (I didn’t believe it the first time, either.)
8: Too much is being made of the fact that Michael Vick was seen playing football with fellow inmates at Leavenworth. I’ll be more interested if he gets transferred to Folsom, just to see how he does in the West Coast offense. (I know. Cheap.)
7: Seriously, though: For those who took Arthur Blank’s correspondence with Vick to mean that he’s holding the door open for the quarterback to return, don’t. It’s not happening. Blank is not going to give a definitive, “No,” on the subject at least until after the team’s attempts to recoup part of Vick’s signing bonus are resolved. And he may not even say it then, for fear of further alienating Vick’s fan base. But it should in no way suggest No. 7 has a future here.
6: I realize Roy Williams somewhat left his heart in Lawrence, Kansas, when he took the North Carolina job. And this should not in anyway suggest that the man’s affections for his former school affected his coaching job with the Tar Heels. But how did you feel about seeing him sitting 10 rows behind the Kansas bench at Monday night’s final?
5: Actually, it wasn’t just sitting 10 rows behind the Kansas bench that seemed curious. It was cheering and wearing a large Jayhawks sticker on his shirt and also doing an interview on CBS with a Jayhawks sticker on his Jacket. He did all but paint his face. Ask yourself: If this was SEC football, and Nick Saban lost a game as Alabama coach to LSU, then was seen the following week supporting LSU in the SEC championship game, how would Alabama fans feel? Would Georgia fans wince even a little bit if Mark Richt lost a game to Florida State, then stood on the Seminoles’ sideline in a bowl game the following week?
4: The Thrashers did not clinch a playoff berth.
3: The Thrashers did not clinch a playoff berth. (Actually, you probably believed that the first time.) Just one question: When Don Waddell keeps defending his position and says, “We need to keep moving forward,” doesn’t that suggest the franchise is actually moving forward? The Thrashers have made the playoffs once in eight seasons, never won a post-season game, just finished with the third-worst record in the league, had their fewest wins (34) in three seasons and lost their most games in regulation (40) since the third year of the franchise (47 in 2001-02). One more step forward and they’re off the cliff.
2: Congrats to Ilya Kovalchuk for speaking up about changes being necessary, because there’s really only two things that may force owners hands here: 1.) The threat of losing another superstar who sees no direction from the front office (see: Marian Hossa); 2.) empty seats.
1: Braves starters: 3-0, 2.33 ERA. Braves relievers: 0-4, 5.33 ERA. Did somebody hit replay?
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Comments
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By br
April 8, 2008 11:51 AM | Link to this
Wow, whoop-de-doo, the Hawks will make the playoffs with a sub-.500 record…I don’t know about you but if you can’t even finish .500 in the pathetic East you don’t really have a right to celebrate anything! Can you say 4 game sweep at the hands of the Celtics?! Hope it was worth it, Hawks! LOL
By Najeh Davenpoop
April 8, 2008 12:01 PM | Link to this
In a league where 16 out of 30 teams make the playoffs, it is likely that one team will be under .500.
If the Hawks had made the Bibby trade earlier, maybe they wouldn’t be that team.
Oh yeah, also, if Ray Lewis can come back to the Ravens, if Leonard Little can come back to the Rams, if Chris Henry and Pacman Jones lasted that long with their respective teams… f-ck it, my fingers hurt typing the same sh-t for you morons. Good QBs are hard to find, and regardless of who the Falcons draft this year their best QB is still gonna be in Leavenworth Correctional Facility.
By mars
April 8, 2008 12:23 PM | Link to this
I agree, Najeh. If the Ravens, the Rams, the Titans, and the Bengals can make incredibly stupid decisions, then so should we! Our team has just as much right to be morons as any other team. So come on, Mr. Blank! Let’s prove to everyone that when it comes to stupid, NO ONE does it better than the Atlanta Stupids! GOOO VICK!!!! GOOOO STUPIDS!!!
By Steve in DC
April 8, 2008 12:24 PM | Link to this
I’m no Carolina fan, but I think most of them know that Coach Smith put Roy in a tough spot in asking him to come back to UNC, and that his heart will always be in Lawrence. He recruited some of those guys who were on the floor that night, and if it was anyone other than Coach Smith asking Williams to come back, he would’ve never left Kansas.
I can’t speak for Tar Heel Blue, but I think most of the smart UNC basketball fans probably understood that. Shoot, most of them have a soft spot in their heart for Kansas anyway because of all the UNC ties with Dean Smith and Phog Allen, etc… I know my Carolina friends do, but they may still be smarting from the loss too much to admit it now.
By Dog Day Afternoon
April 8, 2008 12:26 PM | Link to this
So Artie Blank got caught in an “exaggeration”. (He’s too rich to call it a lie)
By br
April 8, 2008 12:28 PM | Link to this
Najeh,
Yeah they would be the same. Even with him in the lineup they have lost games they have no right losing. Plus, you mention out of a league of 30 teams at least one will be under .500 going into the playoffs, think of how Denver/Golden State/Dallas will feel with at or close to 50 wins and NOT make it. Now those are good teams…the Hawks will be lucky to hit 40 wins and WILL make it. I know that’s just the way it goes but it doesn’t mean they DESERVE to make it. Besides, how much better will Hawks fans feel when they get plastered 4-0 by the Celtics? Oh, that’s right, they’re just happy to be there!
By Najeh Davenpoop
April 8, 2008 12:29 PM | Link to this
Yeah, what an incredibly idiotic decision the Ravens made bringing back the best linebacker of the 1990s, who helped them win a Super Bowl.
By Najeh Davenpoop
April 8, 2008 12:37 PM | Link to this
Define “deserve”. The top 8 teams in the Eastern Conference make the playoffs. If the Hawks are one of those, why do they not deserve to make it? You can complain about the NBA’s playoff seeding system if you want, but under the current rules the Hawks are a playoff team. Sure, Denver is a better team (then again, the Hawks did beat them). But why exactly should the Hawks apologize for taking advantage of the current system?
It took the Hawks a few weeks to get used to the addition of Bibby and the sudden lack of bench depth. If they had made the Bibby trade earlier they would have been able to work those problems out sooner, and they would have had a better second half of the season. If they make the Bibby trade in December they are probably a 45-win team instead of a 40-win team.
I’m not saying the Hawks are a great team, but they are good enough, especially with Bibby’s addition, that they deserve to make the playoffs. Unless you are a Nuggets or Warriors fan, I don’t see why that’s something to whine about.
By Najeh Davenpoop
April 8, 2008 12:39 PM | Link to this
Oh yeah, last year the Warriors were 42-40 when entering the playoffs as the 8 seed. Did they not “deserve” to be there?
By mars
April 8, 2008 12:39 PM | Link to this
Before my comment creates a hailstorm of hatred, Najeh, allow me to clarify. For the most part, I consider the majority of your blog comments to be insightful and knowledgeable on the subject of football. However, the most important trait of a good QB is leadership, which Vick sorely lacks. Therefore, by definition, Vick is not a “good” QB. He is simply a incredibly talented athlete. Trust me, I wish it were otherwise.
By mars
April 8, 2008 12:46 PM | Link to this
Ummm, Santa? Uh…mmm…uh…what?
By Dawgs
April 8, 2008 12:46 PM | Link to this
Hey selfish, Meangelo didn’t come out and say we need to get the front office straight. We need to make some moves. We need to get better. Kov did. Wait J.J. did too with the Hawks and no one blasted him about it. Last I checked J.J. was black or is that shoe polish? D.Hall is a selfish b******* that should be considered an embarrassment regardless of race.
The reason D.Hall is called what he is? Constantly refernig to himself in the 3rd person. Countless stupid penalties when playing against his supposed buddy S.Smith. Countless stupid penalties against other WR. Sleeping on the job against people who half 1/4 the “talent” he has. With Meangelo’s “talent” only the top 5 - 10 WR in the league should ever be able to do anything against him.
Ever watch him explain getting beaten badly by the Random WRs of the NFL? He always pawns it off on something like um uuuh, We were in a zone coverage and I didn’t get safety help.
Do you know how rarely Prime Time was part of a zone?
Do us all a favor and go take a swim in a lake. Being the brick you are you will definitely sink.
I would take a deaf / Mute with 1/20th the talent and a beating heart (yeah its more than what hall has) over D. Hall and his super talented mouth.
People like you and Meangelo make me ashamed to be black.
By Najeh Davenpoop
April 8, 2008 12:47 PM | Link to this
Eh… I’d say one of the most, if not the most, important thing a QB can have is good coaching, which is also something Vick has sorely lacked over the course of his career.
I’m not even holding my breath for Vick to return to the Falcons, even though I’d like to at least see him get a chance to fight for the QB job in training camp when he gets out. I just think that based on the NFL’s track record it’s pretty idiotic that the media has pretty much decided that Vick will never play in the NFL again. That reeks of bias and lack of objectivity to me.
By JUNE_BABY
April 8, 2008 12:58 PM | Link to this
MIKE HAMPTON/NAJEH DAVENPOOP…. you’re wasting your time arguing with these nimcompoops! it doesn’t matter to them what’s right or wrong! if you have the faintest ting of color in your skin, you’re wrong, no ifs, ands, or buts about it. just ask ilya kolvachuk, dany heatley, or patrick kearney. so it doesn’t matter that d’angelo hall voiced his cons. protected “right to free speech”, or that m. vick will pay his obligation to society imprisoned for what would be a slap on the wrist to “OTHER CITIZENS”. just like the barbie doll bandits. as for as m. vick goes, it had nothing to do with dog fighting. just notice what the a.j.c notices(that’s why, almost every week, they run some article criticizing m. vick). he serves their purposes, whether free or imprisoned!!!!
By br
April 8, 2008 1:02 PM | Link to this
At least Golden State had a winning record (albeit a small one) and they play in the West which is loaded with good teams. My point is, yeah, the Hawks will make the playoffs but they will get destroyed by the Celtics…there’s that much of a talent gap. Heck, Washington, Toronto, Cleveland, and Philly don’t stand a chance against Boston/Detroit. It isn’t that way in the West…there are 9-10 50-win teams out there and ALL of them are capable of making a Finals run and easily could give the Celtics/Pistons a run for their money, if not beat them.
It’s the same thing the SEC fans gripe about during football. The SEC plays and beats each other up during the season and whoever comes out on top in the SEC title game plays for the National title and wins. Why? Because the talent and competition are greater than any other conference and they can take the best teams that other conferences have to offer. Simple as that.
Sure, the Hawks will make the playoffs, but a 4-0 butt-kicking sure wouldn’t make me happy to be there if I were a Hawks fan…even if they hadn’t been there in a gazillion years!
By Najeh Davenpoop
April 8, 2008 1:05 PM | Link to this
Although DeAngelo did force the Falcons’ hand in trading him, I will stick up for him when it comes to getting burned in the zone, because for the most part when he got burned it was because he played his zone and the safety didn’t come over the top. The reason Prime Time never played zone coverage is because his coaches were not complete imbeciles like the Falcons’ coaches have been for the last five years.
Seriously, Jim Mora, Greg Knapp and Ed Donatell did more to set back this franchise than Dawon Boddie ever did.
By Najeh Davenpoop
April 8, 2008 1:09 PM | Link to this
Well yeah, the Hawks are gonna get destroyed by the Celtics (unless they move up beyond the 8th seed, which is still possible). I don’t get it though… it’s not like we have a lottery pick if we don’t make the playoffs, so what’s wrong in making it?
By mars
April 8, 2008 1:11 PM | Link to this
That’s a good point, Najeh. I can appreciate your point of view. As for you, June_baby, thank you for ruining the blog. The rest of your racist friends on both sides of the color chart will be joining in shortly for vulgar commentary. I look forward to the day when we can converse without knuckledraggers.
By mars
April 8, 2008 1:16 PM | Link to this
Najeh, you left out the Great Offensive Line Guru, Alex Gibbs. I believe he did the most damage.
By White=Right,Black=Selfish
April 8, 2008 1:16 PM | Link to this
Dawgs,
If anyone would have responded as you did, I would have expected their name to be “Dawgs”. If your intensely dumb @ss knew anything about football, you would realize that the Falcons have never played to their personnel’s strengths. Why would you draft the most gifted man coverage corner and then put him in zone coverage 95% of the time? You don’t understand that, do you? Watch D. Hall shine in Oakland and come back this year and have 3-4 picks against whatever QB the Falcons have left by then. I would love to see him in the defensive backfield with Harrington at QB. There would be an edict from the front office that Harrington is not allowed to throw the ball on his side of the field because they know there will be an (maybe more than one) exact re-enactment of Deion’s return to the Georgia Dome. Hall picks if off and starts high-stepping from the 50 yd line.
You sir and your kind, make me ashamed to be white.
By br
April 8, 2008 1:19 PM | Link to this
My point is, if I were a Hawks fan, I wouldn’t be happy with just making it. I would at least like to go into the off-season knowing that “we’re not far away from seriously contending.” The Hawks ARE far away from seriously contending. Like I say though, the Hawks haven’t been there in forever so maybe they consider it a success. I don’t know, 40-42 or 39-43 plus 0-4 in the playoffs is not a success in my opinion, though!
By mars
April 8, 2008 1:22 PM | Link to this
Yup! It has begun! Well folks, it appears that intelligent sports talk has ended, and I’m not going to wait for the hate speech to flood the ether, so I’ll be signing off now. Toodles!
By falcondawg
April 8, 2008 1:39 PM | Link to this
Ye gads!! If there was only some way to have decent debates such as Najeh’s and mars’ without the idiotic racist posts. One would think that in this day and age, we would have matured enough to recognize the intent of these blogs and make a conscious effort to show our ignorance and intolerance. We wish to talk sports, people!
By justin
April 8, 2008 1:54 PM | Link to this
I find it interesting nobody has anything to say about the bullpen on this. We’ve played seven games. If you go back and look at any of the past world series champions since the save has been a statistic, I gurantee you at some point in their season the starters were 3-0 while the pen was 4-0. You forget, if you pitch one inning out of the pen and give up one run, thats an ERA of 9 right there. But if you give up one run in the first inning,then go five more without giving up a run, that’s an ERA of 3.00. It’s early with baseball guys, chill out.
As for Vick and the Falcons, when he comes back he’ll still be one of the top 10 or so QB’s in the League. Serious, how many good QB’s are there in the NFL right now?
By morris
April 8, 2008 2:18 PM | Link to this
How do you know if Blank embellished the story of vick playing prison football? My first thought was vick had just lied to blank for the umptenth time. I very seriously doubt that Blank just made up that whole story. I think vick told Blank that story because he has some kind of hope that Blank might give him another chance one day.
For the life of me I can’t understand how some of you think the falcons can wait around for vick to get out of prison. His earliest release date is july 2009 and Goodell will likely make him sit one more year under a suspension. Do you really think the Falcons can wait around until 2010 or do you think the team should draft a QB and move on? GEEZ. Even if the falcons don’t draft their QB of the future this season next year’s draft could have guys like Tebow and Stafford if they decide to leave early. Besides how well will vick be able to man the QB position after not playing for three years? A 30 year old running QB who’s been out of the league for three years. Yep. Teams will be lining up to get this guy to run their franchise. NOT.
By Brendan
April 8, 2008 3:16 PM | Link to this
I support Ilya. When the Falcons stink, they KNOW they stunk, and they try to make corrective action. When the Hawks and Thrashers stink it up, their ownership shrugs and says, “all part of our ‘business plan’ to flip the teams for a profit.”
Ilya is trying to effect a positive change for the hockey team, including its fans. But just you wait, when his contract comes due, people will slam him! They’ll call him “selfish.” They’ll claim “he’s not a team player.” When the truth is, Ilya carries this team on his back. It’s ridiculous spin. Kovalchuk, when he hits the open market, will be able to claim a ‘King’s ransom’ in offers on the FREE AGENT market. His “value” will be in excess of $9 million, whether he gets it from Atlanta or some other team. That’s not being “selfish.” That’s just the market setting the value. If Kovalchuk declines the $9.0M+ “market value” contract from Atlanta, on the basis that the Thrashers organ-I-zation is not moving in the right direction, will you BLAME HIM for that?? If so, you expect a Tier I free agent to languish in Atlanta in the PRIME of his career. Players want to win. When they reach unrestricted free agency, that’s THEIR TIME to choose where they WANT to play. The ASG better start thinking about competing against the other 29 markets for #17’s services, before it’s “too late,” if it isn’t already.
By jmt
April 8, 2008 3:25 PM | Link to this
Mr. Schultz and I am trying to stay as respectful as I can with your kind it make cheap joke to you but, I fail to see your humor but then again who does. No one that knows Michael or is a fan of Michael wants him to return to Atlanta. He will be just fine, there are too many people praying and pulling for him and he knows that now and understands so you just keep making fun and being as ignorant as you always are. Do not worry about his money or his life he will be fine. Rewrite your article in 3 yrs if you still have a job. Good luck with that such losers.
By Chiefs fan
April 8, 2008 4:37 PM | Link to this
Roy Williams is a class act and always will be, regardless of where he coaches.
By honest_abe
April 8, 2008 5:08 PM | Link to this
the braves starters look sharp. tommy g and smoltzie are ageless wonders. jurrjens looks like a gem. now how bout that damn bullpen. gonzales should help stop the bleeding.
playoffs? playoffs? you talking playoffs? the hawks just need to win tonight and not even think about the playoffs. one game at a time. lose tonight and there might not even be a playoffs.
only several weeks left until the nfl draft. sweet. and to think mckay won’t be calling the shots, even sweeter.