AJC > Sports > Falcons > Blog > Archives > 2005 > October > 14 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USAll that you can fit in a 10-gallon hat
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Hello again.
Matt Winkeljohn checking back in, with tidings from several quarters. Geez, do we have a lot to talk about.
I’m not in San Antonio yet; I’m traveling Saturday. But I was there last month while working on a Saints story, and I’ve been there several times. Nice city. Hot as Hades about seven months outta the year, but it’s supposed to be mid-80s this weekend.
Anyway, much as I like the place, and especially how convenient it is to get around downtown, it’s kind of a disjointed setting for an NFL team. Then again, the Saints’ situation is pretty bleak by itself so maybe they’re in the right kind of place.
I’ve even spent some time in the Texas countryside as some in-laws live on a 900-acre ranch with about 50 head of cattle about 40 miles out of town. Talk about a different world. I enjoy it, especially getting in my brother-in-law’s jeep and trolling around the property with beer in tow.
Gotta watch out, though, when you get out for cow pies, scorpions and rattlesnakes. Seriously. Wish they weren’t outta town this weekend. I love that ranch; it’s so different.
I haven’t forgotten about when I was there last month, milling around in the bowels of the Alamodome where the Saints set up shop, how dazed some members of the organization seemed. Mostly, it was the younger members of the public relations staff, one who’d just been married, another who still was very uncertain about the status of his home back in Louisiana.
Players were kind of in sync, at that time at least. Just kind of plugging along even though their day-in, day-out regimens were changing all the time. I’m sure their emotional last-minute win at Carolina a few days earlier had plenty to do with that. I recall several laminated, and large, copies of the Saints on the cover of SI showing up in the PR office, and GM Mickey Loomis telling PR chief Greg Bensel what to do with each one, which ones to get signed, which one he wanted for himself, for the owner, for Jim Haslett, etc.
ESPN’s Suzy Kolber was sitting in the same room, a large storage room of some sort with cement walls. The place had been converted into the PR office. She was reading, Loomis and Bensel were speaking quietly, I kept bugging Greg and his staffer for information. There was no noise or commotion otherwise. All offices or whatever were fairly detached from each other. It was like several oversized tombs under a great pyramid or something. No buzzing in the (very long, wide, and cluttered) hallways or anything, like you’d find in a typical workplace. Strange.
In that and other interactions, Bensel just seemed to be in a different place psychologically. Not happy-go-lucky, mind you, maybe kind of detached from the reality everyone else seemed to be stuck with.
Eventually, I said something to this effect to Greg, and he didn’t shy away from stating his condition. I wrote some of this for the paper last month, more for on-line, but I’ll go back to it.
He explained that he and his wife just a few months earlier had finished this big remodeling gig at their house, with an indoor pool/rec room or something like that, a dream project of sorts. Bensel had tried to visit his home in New Orleans at some point, and even hooked up with the National Guard, but as they got close, the water was too deep to go further.
So when he got word from a friend (his builder) that the new wood floors in the rec room that he and his wife put so much time, energy and thought into designing were buckled and the walls were shot amid considerable damage, “It [the hurricane] attacked me physically,” he said.
In no time, Bensel began experiencing chest pains, an accelerated heart rate and other symptoms. He likened his condition to that of golfer David Toms, whom you may recall being taken from a PGA event last month on a stretcher when he was overcome with stress-related symptoms.
Anyway, Bensel was taken by a team physician to a San Antonio hospital. After a couple days of tests determined he was fine internally, he was told it was all about stress. He even mentioned that his wife’s stationary store in New Orleans’ warehouse district was in ruin, flooded and looted to boot.
So we’re talking, and he’s explaining that he’d moved on emotionally as best possible. “The only good thing that came out of it was this,” Bensel said, opening a satchel of prescription medications. “I’m over it, past it, moving on. It’s gone.”
Bensel’s wife and 17-month-old daughter were living in St. Louis, although they may be back in New Orleans now. I know coach Jim Haslett’s wife and three kids are back. She’s going to the game this weekend, but not the kids. Jim, who I like a lot, especially when he starts telling stories about his friend Jim Mora and how competitive and combative he can be, hasn’t seen his kids in a few weeks and doesn’t expect to for a few more.
Coaches are creatures of habit, inclined to want to do virtually everything the same over and over. Imagine what Haslett and the Saints are going through.
Changing gears, some folks asked on the blog last week what I was doing, others suggested I’ve been bumped off the Falcons beat, or that my editors were mad at me, even that coach Mora would probably welcome me back by now.
Folks, I never left the AJC. When Ken Sugiura was assigned to the Gwinnett Co. bureau in the spring, I was asked if I’d rather stay on the Falcons or cover the NFL and back up the Falcons. It wasn’t a real easy choice. From an egotistical standpoint, it’s nice being identified with a staple like the Falcons. But it’s also a lot of work, particularly from July-January, with a lot of late nights, etc. Plus, after seven years of it, I decided enough was enough and I wanted to start checking out other NFL precincts while still pitching in on the Falcons.
That’s what I’ve done. I’ve been to San Antonio, and to the Saints’ game against the Giants in New Jersey, the Bengals training camp, the Hall of Fame inductions, Newport News, Va. (for a Michael Vick feature series that will eventually run) and New England so far. There will be more trips. My involvement with the Falcons figures to cycle up and down. I was only at one of five preseason games, but I’ve been to four of five regular season games.
To my knowledge, my editors are not angry at me. The suggestions by some, including some local radio and TV dudes, that Mora got me pushed off the beat, or that owner Arthur Blank, because he’s on the board of Cox, which owns the paper, had me pushed, are kind of absurd.
I’m no longer required to blog, and I’ve laid off the blogs hoping that Steve Wyche, the new beat writer, will get a chance to establish his own style. He’s a very busy guy, both with his job and family, and as you’ve noted (some quite devilishly) he’s not prone to writing long missives. For my two cents, that’s OK. He’s not paid to write blogs, and he puts his meatier stuff in his regular stories. Writing these long deals the past two weeks, some of my colleagues would tell me, is insane.
Moving on to the game …
I think the Saints will be far, far more competitive this week than last. That just can’t happen again. I think they were doomed from the start at Green Bay, both because their emotional tanks were on empty as they played in their fifth stadium in five weeks, and the Packers were juiced up seeking their first win.
The Saints shouldn’t have a problem getting up for a division game with Atlanta. If their bad habits linger, though, they have no chance to win. By that, I mean if they turn the ball over a bunch, and Aaron Brooks the lesser shows up, they’re doomed.
Brooks is incredibly erratic. When he’s on, he’s much better than a lot of people realize, but there’s no way of predicting when he’ll be on. The Saints have some serious talent even without RB Deuce McAllister. DEs Darren Howard, Will Smith and Charles Grant come to mind.
On offense, WR Joe Horn is a monster, and Donte’ Stallworth has figured out what he’s doing, it appears. But Horn’s missed the past two games with a hamstring injury. There’s talk of him working in slot role Sunday, but I don’t know.
Return ace Michael Lewis is out for the year, and so is S Jay Bellamy. I think the Saints will be jazzed, but I expect that if they take a couple shots to the midsection, they may cave. I think their tanks will be full at game’s beginning, but I don’t think their tanks are as big as usual.
RB Antowain Smith’s big, and may still have something in him. There’s not enough evidence yet this season to say. We may find out. Even without McAllister, I think the Saints are going to try to run first. As the Falcons juggle linebackers, probably with three guys in new spots, a unit that has been mediocre at best against the run may be tested again. I wonder about communication issues.
New Orleans will have a hard time covering TE Alge Crumpler, and Atlanta’s running game figures to get back on track, not that it was completely de-railed last week. I see a somewhat high-scoring game, although if the Saints fall down big early, they’re done completely.
When New Orleans does throw, it’ll be interesting to see if they go after nickel back Allen Rossum, who’s got to get up to speed in the return game and on defense, or the safeties. Atlanta’s safeties both have to play better than last week if they’re going to be a playoff team. Reserve Ronnie Heard’s banging on the door for playing time. Keion Carpenter needs to get back to making solid, timely calls, and he needs to hit somebody. Bryan Scott needs to improve his field vision, and his tackling. I think both are capable. Thinking and doing are two different things.
Like some of you, I’ve wondered why with all the CB turnover the Falcons have had they haven’t re-signed CB Jonte Buhl. I saw enough of the preseason to see him make several plays. Apparently, I missed a bunch of big bad plays that he was involved in, though. Word has it that of the top six big plays given up in the preseason, he had some sort of breakdown on at least five of them.
Maybe he’s a hit-or-miss guy. I can’t say from actual viewing experience, but that’s the indication I get. The fact the undrafted rookie hasn’t shown up on another team’s practice squad, and from what limited information I gathered he hasn’t even been asked in for a tryout, probably says something.
Gotta wrap up and get some stuff done.
Before I go, though, how about that mess in Minnesota? Good grief. After this alleged lake cruise-turned sex party, some players were apparently leaking on local lawns as they high-tailed it.
This prompted Cathy Hough of Mound, Minn., whose grass was watered, to say after confronting some of them, “I said, Excuse me, do you mind?' And they looked at me as if I was crazy. One of them said,It’s only water, ma’am,’ and he continued peeing. I said, ‘No, it’s not.’”
This won’t be water under the bridge any time soon.
Former Viking player Bill Brown: “I don’t know what to say. These players today, they’re a whole different ballgame. Yeah, we had guys get in some trouble once in awhile. But I think these guys today, they get too much money and they got the world by the ying-yang, So they think they can act this way, and they don’t care what anyone thinks about it.”
Yuck.
Later.
Matt
Comments
Commenting is now closed for this entry.
By BUSHWACKER
October 14, 2005 03:58 PM | Link to this
Welcome back Matt,did not know you’ve been gone. I guess maybe that means as long as the Falcons are winning the beat reporter is pretty irrelevant?
By ADD
October 14, 2005 05:37 PM | Link to this
Great info, best blog I have read from the AJ-C yet.
By Brian Hunt
October 14, 2005 06:35 PM | Link to this
Thanks for another informative and insightful blog. I know that some of us have been jonesing for one of your blogs and this one did not disappoint. I think you’ve hit the nail on the head with Buhl. The staff has to feel that his bad plays are not correctable. It’s hard from the outside to see were he could be worse than Christian Morton. Loosing Cash was a tremendous blow to the pass defense and Rossum will be wearing a bulls-eye.
The Saints will be up for this game and it’s a sell out. I just wonder how many in the stands will be there actively supporting the Saints?
By Peter
October 14, 2005 08:07 PM | Link to this
Matt:
What a pleasant surprise to have you back. I love that Texas hill country but I prefer Austin to San Antonio. How was your birthday?
I’m not defending the Vikings, their players or the actions of those players. However I know this area extremely well. The lake, Minnetonka is one of the most wealthy suburbs in this country and believe me these players aren’t the only ones drunk and disorderly out there.
Everybody knows it and the shock is akin to Claude Raines being shocked at gambling at Rick’s American Cafe. One of the bays on the lake has a country club and there are really high stakes poker games there almost every night.
We live in a porno nation. A lot of guys (young and old) with money are doing the same thing and no it doesn’t make it right but it is what is is. What truly bugs the hell out of me about some of the personal preferences in the league now are the access that high stake gamblers have to the players, the gang associations that a lot of players have (giving gang hand signs during the game) and how many of the guys are carrying guns.
I hope that I’m wrong but IMO it’s a matter of time before a player in the NFL shoots a team mate. Shocked it didn’t happen in Oakland (Romanowski and some of his antics) or Carolina with Smith’s actions.
I think the fault is with us, it’s the culture and we’ve just gotten used to the abberant passing as the norm.
By mountain_jim
October 14, 2005 10:23 PM | Link to this
Matt-
Just steppin’ in to express appreciation for your time, writing quality, and information provided.
mj
By Matthew
October 15, 2005 12:19 AM | Link to this
Matt, man, it’s great whenever you can get with us.
Thanks for clearing up the whole why you’re no longer working the Falcons beat.
As for the Mora thing… I was being a smartass. As is my wont, which you know.
I’m still disapointed in the Falcons coverage we currently recieve.
The fact that you and Ken weren’t getting paid extra to blog makes it mean that much more to us.
It’s interesting that there are two more guys at this rag (besides Mr. Bisher) actually gave enough of a crap about their readers to do such a thing.
All good things, though…
Glad to hear you’re having fun and able to be with you family more.
Just be careful with those open containers in vehicles.
By ivynikki
October 15, 2005 10:56 AM | Link to this
Great blog. Thanks, Matt, for your insight into why Buhl had not been signed. So many of us fans have been wondering the same thing about the Buhl situation.
By Timothy
October 15, 2005 10:59 AM | Link to this
Thanks Matt for the info …it is greatly appreciated.
By Andy
October 17, 2005 02:14 PM | Link to this
Matt, reading this blog after the fact (game), but good peice. I enjoy the long peice vs the short things Steve writes. I will look forward to your weekly rants.
I think that after the BYE, Ronnie Heard will playing Safety and Dez White will be cut or at least benched. It can’t keep going on like this.
As far as the Vikes…it is over…that thing is getting blown up at year’s end and Mr. Z is gonna start over via the Arthur Blank method, limiting his misfits to a great Rod Coleman or two.