This blog has moved! Yes, already!
As of Thursday, Feb. 12, this little blog has relocated to a new home on AJC.com. It’s the same newspaper, the same Web site and the same writer (feel free to groan) — there’s just a new URL.
New features: Bigger type, more graphics, comments that load 10 times faster and a larger and more recent photo that makes me look pretty doggone old. I think you’ll like it (the blog, not the photo). But I am, as we know too well, often wrong.
Home > Mark Bradley > Archives > 2008 > August > 25
Monday, August 25, 2008
Bradley’s Buzz: From Knowshon to Algernon
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Knowshon knows how to say nothing
I can say from recent experience that prompting Knowshon Moreno to speak consecutive sentences is a challenge on the order of getting Bobby Cox to say anything negative about one of his Braves. ESPN The Magazine — the publication lots of people buy but few actually read — has splashed Moreno on its cover, and Alyssa Roenigk drew the difficult assignment of profiling a player determined to keep a low profile. Her story runs for 22 paragraphs and features four direct Knowshon quotes. The longest of those runs 15 words.
Journalism 101: When confronted with a reluctant subject, the enterprising reporter must get other people to talk. Mike Ogle of The New York Times got even less from Moreno — his story includes only one direct quote and notes that “the [phone] interview has been going on for only a short time before Moreno asks if he is done.” So Ogle made the trek to Belford, N.J., to speak with Moreno’s grandmother and legal guardian, and that interview had to be arranged through Georgia’s media information department.
It’s a tricky thing, publicizing a Heisman candidate who doesn’t want publicity. The last Georgia Bulldog to take the trophy was a famously engaging conversationalist who was more than happy to call out-of-town reporters whenever Claude Felton asked, which the Hall of Fame publicist did almost every day over three event-filled seasons. And, having been on the receiving end of two of those calls, I can attest that Herschel Walker never once asked if we were done.
Why is this worth mentioning? Because reporters (though not AJC reporters) vote on the Heisman.
Cancel those Miami reservations
An online publication called The Money Line Journal dismisses Georgia’s chances of winning the BCS title and gives the Bulldogs only a 6.2 percent chance of finishing with just one loss.
This (unnamed) mathematician believes Georgia will play in either the Capital One or the Outback bowls and avers that Matthew Stafford isn’t a “credible” passer. Which I must say is a wholly incredible assertion. Ask Auburn if Stafford can hurt you. Ask Alabama.
Braves’ new (and ugly) world
It wasn’t so long ago that the Braves brimmed with talent both at the major-league level and below. Writing for SI.com, Nate Silver of Baseball Prospectus presents a list of players who would/should be the first 50 taken in a forward-looking fantasy draft. Only one Brave makes the cut — Brian McCann at No. 11. Chipper Jones rates an honorable mention.
I’m not a big stat geek, but I’d concur with that appraisal. And I’d use it to reach the following conclusion: The Braves aren’t apt to win again anytime soon because they’ve simply run low on top-shelf players.
Debating prospect Ryan
If nothing else, the Falcons’ decision to start Matt Ryan ensures that a team the wordsmith Boomer Esiason describes as “crappy” will get a disproportionate share of cyberspace. Esiason tells Clifton Brown of Sporting News Today that Ryan shouldn’t be starting. Boomer says the Falcons should do as the Bengals did with Carson Palmer and sit Ryan for a year. And that sounds like great advice, given that Palmer has gone on to reach so many Super Bowls. (Note sarcasm.)
Writing for ESPN.com, Pat Yasinskas offered a more measured take on the Ryan issue, and I can tell you the Falcons went through exactly the sort of on-the-one-hand-but-on-the-other mental gymnastics Yasinskas describes. But they believe starting Ryan is the proper course because Ryan isn’t David Carr and isn’t Tim Couch. They believe Ryan is more prepared to start than any rookie since Ben Roethlisberger. And Big Ben has won a Super Bowl.
PJ of GT and the OBS
Here’s an endorsement of Paul Johnson’s option-based spread by Gerald Ball in something called the Bleacher Report. That’s another online publication new to me, but Ball’s thesis makes some sense. Key sentences: “Teams did not abandon the option because it was ineffective. Teams adopted the passing game because it’s what gets you noticed by the media.”
Me, I think the reason teams started throwing the ball all over creation is because such a scheme is easier to sell to recruits and, even more significantly, easier to coach. The option requires precision on the part of all 11 players. The West Coast Offense requires only that some 300-pound offensive linemen hold their blocks for 1.5 seconds while a quarterback takes a three-step drop and chucks a 3-yard pass.
Algernon visits Leavenworth (but gets to leave)
Alge Crumpler, once a Falcon and now a Tennessee Titan, told Terry McCormick of The City Paper of Nashville that he’d visited Michael Vick in jail before the start of training camp. Crumpler didn’t reveal much about Vick’s state of mind or of the prison experience in general. But I’m sure Vick was happy to see him.
Then again, it’s hard to know these things. It has been nearly a calendar year since Vick addressed the public. And, giving his circumstances, you’d have to say he’s an even tougher interview than Knowshon Moreno.
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