Moving to a new location
AJC blogs are moving to a new technical platform. So check out Terence Moore’s new blog home and bookmark it.
Home > Terence Moore > Archives > 2008 > June > 25
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Urban Meyer draws a crowd in Braves’ clubhouse
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
You had Urban Meyer right there in a hallway on Wednesday afternoon at Turner Field. So, even though the setting was outside of the home clubhouse, and the Braves were struggling to go north instead of south in the NL East standings, you had to talk football. You had to ask the Big Gator about what nearly was the Big Brawl last October between his Florida team and the victorious one from Athens.
Meyer said, “It wasn’t a brawl.” Then he paused, before adding after he flashed a smile, “It was … I don’t know what you would call it.”
You would call it a classless move by normally classy Mark Richt, the Georgia coach. With his Bulldogs having dropped 15 of their previous 17 games against Florida, he decided they needed additional motivation. That’s why, after Georgia scored first in the game, he ordered his players to rush into the end zone and act crazy enough to get an unsportsmanlike penalty.
One, two, and then a slew of Gators threatened to leave their sideline to charge the massive Dog Pile, but Meyer kept pulling them back.
That was then. Will Meyer be as kind this year when the two teams meet in Jacksonville, with Georgia supposedly chasing a national championship and with Florida likely seeking revenge for the near-brawl, or whatever you call it? “Well, it’s not like we’re in a conference where you just have one game to play,” Meyer said. “We’ve got Tennessee. We’ve got Miami. We’ve got LSU. We’ve got Arkansas. We’ve got South Carolina. We’ll be ready to go for that [Georgia] game, though, but I’m not worried about that now. I’m not having my team worry about that game now.”
Instead, there is the meantime for Meyer in his fourth year at Florida. On Wednesday, “the meantime” had Meyer taking his daughter, Nicole, on a visit to Georgia Tech, where she is interested in playing for the Yellow Jackets’ perennially successful volleyball team. Then Meyer and his 9-year-old son Nate took a taxi from The Flats to Turner Field to watch some of the Braves’ 4-2 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers with roving passes for the ballpark.
Meyer also huddled with Mark Lemke, the former Braves second baseman and a current radio guy for the team. They roomed together when they were minor-leaguers for the Braves in the early 1980s. They both were infielders, but Meyer obviously had other plans. That was good for Florida, which won a national championship in his second year. Before the Gators, he was working miracles at Bowling Green and Utah.
So there was Meyer, sitting with his son near a picnic bench in the home clubhouse with a constantly beeping Blackberry in one hand and a sparkling new baseball in the other. He had a captive audience that kept growing. There was third baseman Chipper Jones, the Florida native, with blue and orange in his blood. There was right fielder Jeff Francoeur, who almost was a Clemson Tiger in football. Mostly, there were a bunch of curious Bulldogs lovers and others with allegiances to SEC teams away from Gainesville.
Braves pitcher Tim Hudson shook his head while walking and ignoring the crowd around Meyer. “If I’m going to sit in on that powwow, I need to put on my Auburn gear,” said the former War Eagle star, still walking and ignoring.
Permalink | Comments (102) | Categories: Braves/MLB, UGA/SEC
Stop paying attention to Imus
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
No, Don Imus shouldn’t be fired. Yes, he has an inalienable right to say as many wrong-headed, bigoted and ridiculous things as he wishes on the airways.
And, yes, all of this is getting too much attention.
Way too much.
Haven’t I said all of this before slightly more than a year ago?
Actually, I have, and it was back when that other Imus “controversy” involved the famous shock jock using a derogatory term in regard to African-American members of the Rutgers women’s basketball team during his former national radio show. Just like that, he was fired after much screaming from everywhere.
This time, Imus is causing public howling after his Adam “Pacman” Jones comments on Monday during his current radio show in New York. After Imus’ on-air partner mentioned some of the issues involving Jones as the NFL’s poster child for trouble, Imus asked, “What color is he?” When his partner replied, “African-American,” Imus replied, “Well, there you go.”
So here we go again. While many say Imus’ remarks were racist and want Imus fired again, Imus says he was defending Jones with what he claimed was a reference to the evils of racial profiling.
Whatever. Who cares what Imus meant or really meant? If you don’t like Imus or anybody else on the airways for that matter, just use your clicker. Otherwise, you’re giving the Imuses of the world exactly what they want - attention.
And higher ratings.
Permalink | Comments (101) | Post your comment | Categories: Falcons/NFL
.JPG)
-1.JPG)
Services »