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 > December > 14
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Bradley’s Buzz: Birds, Braves and … Chizik?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Falcons. Playoffs. Believe.
I know, I know. It still seems unreal that this team is 9-5. But esteemed former colleague Steve Wyche does a nice job on NFL.com describing the mindset of these remarkable Birds. No, they didn’t figure to be where they are, but in the NFL there’s never a guarantee a team will get this close again. Ergo, seize the day!
In his “Snap Judgments” on SI.com, Don Banks guesses San Diego is thinking it kept the wrong Turner — meaning Norv, who’s no Mike Smith, as opposed to Michael, who just might be another LaDainian Tomlinson. And, speaking of Smitty, Mike Freeman of CBSsports.com calls the Falcons the NFC’s scariest team and uses the coach’s sideline flareup with Antonio Bryant as a touchstone.
Meanwhile, a raspberry for the Bravos
Esteemed former colleague Gordon Edes of Yahoo! Sports declared the Braves one of the biggest losers at the baseball winter meetings , and it must be noted that he did this before A.J. Burnett spurned the local nine to [sign with some team up North, against the resources of which, notes Scott Miller of CBSsports.com, the Braves simply had no chance.
About here, we should all take a deep breath. The season doesn’t start tomorrow. It doesn’t start for 3 1/2 months, and it’s always risky to render a pronouncement on a roster still in the process of being built. Do I like what the Braves have done so far? Not really. I regard Javier Vazquez as a No. 3 starter at best. But there’s a good chance the Padres will come calling again. Here’s Jon Heyman of SI.com describing the frustration of Peavy’s agent.
If Opening Day 2009 arrives and the Braves’ biggest acquisition remains the career loser Vazquez, then they’ll have had a losing offseason. But the belief here is that they’ll eventually find something better. Maybe even Jake Peavy.
Atlanta QB leads team to championship game!
No, not Matt Ryan. (At least not yet.) Not Josh Nesbitt, either. (At least not yet.) The quarterback in question is Eric Ward, formerly of Southwest DeKalb High. Ward hoisted the Richmond Spiders into the title game of the Football Championships Subdivision — it’s what we used to call Division I-AA — by guiding his team 62 yards in 90 seconds to beat Northern Iowa on Saturday. (The title tilt against Montana will be played Friday in Chattanooga.)
Here’s John O’Connor of the Richmond Times-Dispatch on Ward’s performance during that epic drive, and here’s a sidebar on the winning touchdown pass, which came with 14 seconds to play and capped a 28-for-35 performance. And O’Connor quotes Spiders coach Mike London as saying: “You can yell at Eric and he won’t get disheveled.”
Me, I get disheveled if the wind blows. (My hair especially.) But we should file the quotable Mr. London’s name away for future reference. Jim Tressel won championships in 1-AA and went on to greater fame. So, too, did Paul Johnson. And so, at least for a year or so, did Jim Donnan.
(Thanks to reader Bill Norton, a former Atlantan and a Richmond grad, for bringing this to Buzz’s attention.)
Dogpile on the Dawgs!
Wasn’t only yesterday that we media types couldn’t say enough nice things about Georgia? How times change. Pat Forte of ESPN.com recalled a former Georgian as “a hero” this week — the late Jan Kemp.
And, just for the heck of it, here’s a column from the Dalton Daily Citizen in which Adam Krohn tweaks Mark Richt for endorsing carpets, for wearing sunglasses and, most of all, for losing to Georgia Tech.
Gene Chizik? What the heck?
I was off last week and therefore didn’t have a chance to write anything about Auburn’s new coach, but I couldn’t have expressed my feelings any better than esteemed former colleague Mark Schlabach did on ESPN.com. How exactly is hiring a coach who has lost 10 games in a row an upgrade? Is this guy supposed to outflank Nick Saban? What in the wide world of sports is going on?
Ah, well. To paraphrase the last line of one of the greatest movies ever: “Forget it, Jake. It’s TigerTown.” (And no, the Jake in question didn’t pitch for the Padres.)
Speaking of movies … here, via YouTube, is a Western-inspired salute to the new Auburn coach. Click the link. You’ll enjoy it. Guaranteed, or your money back.
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