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December 2005
Shockley’s legacies: Loyalty, perseverance
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
It poured down his shirt, stuck to his face, filled his mouth.
Some might have considered it a nuisance. But D.J. Shockley treated a photo shoot like a sweet victory dance.
“I had a pound of it on my lip,” he said. “Most people don’t get a chance to do stuff like that. But after everything else I’ve been through, it was fun. I mean, I was like one of those people on the milk commercials.”
Got sugar?
Reward?
Redemption?
Monday night is Shockley’s final game in a Georgia uniform.
Question: Given his talent and accompanying options, has any player ever shown more loyalty to a program?
Wait your turn for four years and three seasons, then lead your team to an SEC title and the Sugar Bowl.
Question: Has any college quarterback ever impressed people to this degree, yet left behind such a feeling of incompleteness?
“Half my body says I want to come back and play another year with this team,” Shockley said. “The other half says you’ve got to move on.”
Not that either half has a choice. There was a time Shockley had the option to leave Athens but passed. When he was a redshirt freshman, David Greene, a sophomore, led the Bulldogs to the school’s first SEC title in 20 years. From that moment, Shockley’s choices were clear: sit and watch, or pack and leave. He chose the former.
Question: Has any college athlete with a similar upside intentionally pulled his future over and parked on the shoulder?
“He’ll leave a legacy of patience and loyalty,” coach Mark Richt said. “People will remember what he did. He’ll be an example for other players who come through here.”
And you wonder why the kid rejoices when a photographer asked him to pour sugar on himself.
“The last three years, just wanting to play so much, playing only sparingly, there were a lot of things up in the air,” Shockley said. “To go out and play well and win the SEC championship, and to end up in this game, everything has been justified.”
He was the guy some feared too fragile to replace Greene, who represented the epitome of resolve. Now he is the guy nobody wants to see leave.
He was the guy unfairly blamed for losing to Florida in 2002, because, well, somebody always has to be blamed for losing to Florida. But this year when Georgia lost in Jacksonville again, the only fault wasn’t Shockley — it was the sprained left knee that prevented him from playing.
He started 11 games and won 10 of them. The only loss, his coach suspects, might have come despite his quarterback’s best performance of the season. Shockley threw for over 300 yards and two touchdowns in a 31-30 loss to Auburn. “I thought he played his best game against a great defense,” Richt said.
In his first start, he went 16-for-24 with five touchdown passes against Boise State. In his fifth start at Tennessee in October, Georgia beat a top-10 team on the road for the first time since Greene did it in 2001. (At the time, the Volunteers weren’t a punch line.)
In his 11th start, he threw for two touchdowns and ran for a third against LSU and was named MVP of the SEC title game. One season, one conference championship, one MVP award.
“The only uncertainly I had before this season was if D.J. felt like he wanted be a hero every down,” Richt said. “If he tried to run the ball, would he cough it up? I told him, ‘Look, if you hang on to the ball, protect it. If you throw it, you better have a good reason to throw it.’ The Boise State game was huge for him. He had an All-American-type performance. Some fans and media weren’t sure he could do that. That game helped the public perception of him.”
He has gone from off-the-radar, to let’s-take-a-look-at-him, to possible-first-day pick in the eyes of NFL scouts. After one season. What if he had transferred? What if he had started elsewhere for two or three years?
“I think [NFL scouts] looking at what he did in one year, which is really remarkable, and how much better he can get,” Richt said. “If he had been a four-year starter, imagine where he’d be.”
There is the flipside. Waiting his turn, overcoming a broken foot in 2002, knee surgery in 2003 and this year’s knee sprain — there is a value to that.
“I’m more knowledgeable and patient,” he said. “Just being in a position, learning so much and learning that I can deal with a lot of things that I probably didn’t think I could deal with — that’s gonna help me.”
When he hurt his knee against Arkansas, an injury first feared to be season-ending, Shockley recalled: “I thought, this can’t be happening. I really thought that was the end of everything. All of the hard work and summer workouts would be for nothing. But it was just another obstacle I had to go through.”
He walks around campus “amazed,” because people stop him to say, “Thank you.” Thanks for staying. Thanks for the game. “Sometimes they say thanks just for being the kind of person you are,” he said.
And now a photographer wants him to pour sugar on his face. No wonder he wants to drink it in.
Permalink | Comments (115) | Categories: Jeff Schultz, UGA / SEC
No long division needed today
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
Look at this way. Things just got a whole lot simpler.
If the Falcons lose today, they’re out.
If the Falcons win today, they’re out.
If the Falcons tie today, they’re out, although Jim Mora is entitled to at least one fourth-quarter cellphone call that probably should have been made on Tuesday.
I read several NFL tiebreaker scenarios Friday. One involving an AFC team took 68 words to explain, detailed four what-if scenarios, and factored in the record of common opponents, the barometric pressure in Belize, mating habits of the South African springbok and the odds of Greg Knapp becoming the first “West Coast” offensive coordinator to make it through 16 games without telling a receiver to run a friggin’ inside slant!
But the Falcons?
Ahh. Simple.
Today’s goal: Don’t play dead. Beat Carolina and the Falcons finish with a winning record. It means absolutely nothing to you and me, but it gives the marketing department and speechwriters something other than “improved parking” to work with this offseason.
But there’s this problem.
See, the game really does mean something to the Panthers. They may need to win to make the playoffs. They almost certainly need to win to take the division.
Carolina also has Steve Smith, who will be going against a Falcons secondary that was pieced together from this week’s malfunctioning returns to Safeties ‘R Us.
The line is 4. Is that for the first-quarter or the final? Panthers cover.
FOUR BAGS
• Bengals at Chiefs: Dick Vermeil is still coaching at an age when even crossing guards are being run off. And he may want to come back next year at 70. Dude, here’s your bag of breadcrumbs. See the park bench across the street? Use it. Bengals win (take the gift 7 1/2).
• Bears at Vikings: A Minneapolis reporter this week wrote a story about how great Mike Tice would be as a studio analyst. Now, I’ve never been a coach. But I’m pretty sure if I was a coach, I wouldn’t want anybody pushing me for a studio job. Vikes win, but take the Bears and 4.
THREE BAGS
• Dolphins at Patriots: I know it’s fashionable to pick the Colts or Seahawks or Bengals for the Super Bowl. But would you really feel comfortable picking against New England right now? The Pats are 6-1 since a 4-4 start. It’s nice to see a team overcome obstacles. We don’t get that around here. Champeens cover 5 1/2.
• Redskins at Eagles: The ‘Skins have won four straight. Make it 5 (or a Dallas loss) and Joe Gibbs is back in the postseason. The Eagles claim they won’t roll over, which seems logical, given that they’re dead already. Wash covers 7 1/2.
• Shams at Cowboys: Dallas needs a win and help, otherwise Bill Parcells will have to retire (again) with the knowledge that he failed to make the playoffs in two of his three seasons and hasn’t actually won a postseason game since 1998. The next NFL owner who thinks he still has it in him needs a cranium overhaul. Hey, look, there’s Tom Benson! Cowboys win, but take St. Louis and the 12 1/2.
TWO BAGS
• Ravens at Browns: Kyle Boller has thrown six touchdown passes in the past two weeks, a miracle that might have saved Brian Billick’s job, not that Billick would count it as a miracle because, well, it’s all in a day’s work for a deity. Baltimore covers 3.
• Lions at Steelers: After threatening to miss the playoffs, Pittsburgh has won three straight by a combined score of 80-12, which is good for me, because, unlike most women, my wife’s mood swings are dictated by Jerome Bettis going over right tackle. Steelers cover 13 1/2.
• Cardinals at Colts: Indy has lost two straight and it won’t matter beyond aesthetics if the streak reaches three. But just a hunch: Tony Dungy’s return will provide enough of an emotional lift to leave 6 1/2 in the dust. Colts cover.
• Titans at Jaguars: Another game that means nothing but trash talk. Like the time Jeff Fisher made a joke about how dumb Marcus Stroud was because of his score on the Wonderlic IQ test. Problem was, Stroud’s score was pretty good and Fisher got him mixed up with a geranium teammate. Oops. Is there a coaches’ Wonderlic? Jax covers 3 1/2.
• Schlep Bowl: Lose to the 49ers, and the Texans clinch the right to screw up the first draft pick. They haven’t done anything right all year, you think they’re going to start now? Houston covers 1.
• Packers: They’re actually favored to beat Seattle because the game means nothing to the Seahawks. I don’t get it. Games have meant something to Green Bay all season and it hasn’t made a difference. Take the 4 1/2 and Fishbirds in an “upset.”
• Saints: The Bucs, 12-20 the past two seasons, can clinch the NFC South. Jim Haslett will be available to mow lawns, starting at about 4:06 p.m. Tampa covers 13 1/2.
• Jets: Lose to the Bills and the Jets could be one of five teams at 3-13. What’s the tiebreaker? Emotional abuse? Buffalo covers 1 1/2.
DOWN THE STRETCH!
(Not a great week, but the place in the Caymans was paid for by Week 12.)
Last week
11-5 straight up
7-8-1 against line
Fiscal season
154-65 straight up
116-94-9 against line
AFTER YOU — NO, AFTER YOU!
Coming attractions: Prediction on the Georgia-Central Florida opener that defies belief! Also, Jim Mora’s true confessions. All in Weekend Predictions ‘06.
Permalink | Comments (4) | Categories: Falcons / NFL, Jeff Schultz
Year’s sports wishes, tempered by realities
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
There are so many things that I wish to see during 2006. World peace becoming more than just a cliche. Those new set of Pings helping my golf game. The end to this growing epidemic of every cookie baked having nuts.
As for reality, global conflict is eternal, it’s not the clubs but my swing and the folks at Emerald of California (you know, the sponsors of the San Francisco bowl game that featured Georgia Tech’s latest meltdown in football and the prolific makers of nuts) must have strong lobbyists in Washington.
Here are some of my wishes involving sports this year followed by reality.
• Wish: Bobby Cox is not only the best manager of his time, but of all time. Critics say otherwise, mostly pointing to the Braves’ flips, flops and chokes during their unprecedented 14 straight trips to the postseason. Anyway, to silence critics, I’d like for the affable Cox to conquer the loss of Rafael Furcal, the current lack of a stud closer and the ghosts of those past collapses in the playoffs with his second world championship.
• Reality: Cox will maneuver the Braves past the rejuvenated Mets to grab the National League East. Then the Braves’ October will end with another Ed Sprague, Jim Leyritz, Eric Gregg, Sterling Hitchcock or Chris Burke moment.
• Wish: Speaking of San Francisco, I can’t keep up with the changing names of the ballpark for the Giants. One moment, it’s Pac Bell, the next SBC or whatever. This madness involving corporate names in sports is the worst in golf (Where is the Mercedes Championship, and does it come before or after the Nissan Open?) and in bowls. That said, I’m hoping for the Peach people to change their minds and tell the Chick-fil-A people to go stuff their mouths with waffle fries.
• Reality: Money, money, money. If Coca-Cola offers the new owners of the Braves enough pennies, they’ll switch the name of Turner Field to something like Sprite Stadium by next Tuesday.
• Wish: There isn’t a more bluntly honest coach in the NBA than Mike Woodson, and such a thing often causes his young Hawks to whine along the way to forgetting (or make that ignoring) his teachings on the court. When they listen to Woodson, they’re pretty good. So, from now through spring, I’m hoping that the young Hawks listen to Woodson more often than not, and that he continues with the team through his second season and beyond.
• Reality: He’s gone. Woodson won’t last, because this generation of athletes is into pampering instead of prodding. Even Larry Brown, among Woodson’s mentors, is having problems with his plain-speaking ways (see Stephon Marbury). And unlike Woodson, Brown has been around a while as a head coach.
• Wish: The Falcons don’t raise ticket prices again before next season. I mean, didn’t much of the fanfare surrounding Arthur Blank as their new owner four years ago involve his lowering a bunch of ticket prices in the upper deck? Yep. Now the price of an average Falcons ticket is at an all-time high, and after a disappointing finish this season, that average should drop. That is, if the Falcons’ ownership really is as fan-friendly as advertised.
• Reality: I’m still laughing. Not only won’t Falcons ticket prices drop, but they will continue to rise. As long as the Falcons have the Michael Vick Show, the demand for Falcons tickets will stay insatiable at nearly any price. And the Falcons know it, and the Falcons will flaunt it.
• Wish: Nothing would be more of a reward for D.J. Shockley’s patience at the University of Georgia than going as high as the third round in the NFL draft. Despite sitting three seasons behind David Greene, Shockley spent his only year as a starter for the Bulldogs leading the SEC in passing efficiency and other things. He also won a conference title. He’s athletic, he’s a leader, and he’s good. In a league filled with the likes of J.P. Losman and Todd Bouman, Shockley is beyond their equal.
• Reality: The days of Al Davis thinking out of the box are over. As a result, that box will have a bunch of NFL scouts crammed inside and shaking their heads over Shockley’s lack of height (6 feet 1) for an NFL quarterback and his delayed move into Georgia’s starting lineup. He’ll go closer to the sixth round than the third, but here’s the good news: He’ll develop as a wonderful surprise for somebody.
• Wish: I’m pulling for everybody’s favorite team, athlete, horse or car to prosper throughout the whole year.
• Reality: Somebody or something (with hooves or tires) will lose.
Permalink | Comments (16) | Categories: Other, Terence Moore
These Tigers couldn’t be tamed
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
When a natural disaster turns your campus into a relief center and calamitous weather reschedules three of your games, you grow accustomed to adjusting. LSU arrived at the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl minus the quarterback who’d taken the Tigers to the SEC West title, and for most teams you’d figure that would be a disadvantage. LSU, as has been proved, isn’t most teams.
Twenty-seven days ago, the Tigers exited the Georgia Dome looking like a team that had borne an unusually heavy burden and had, finally and inevitably, buckled from the strain. Georgia beat LSU badly that night, and the concurrent loss of quarterback JaMarcus Russell (shoulder injury) cast a shadow over the Tigers’ upcoming return to Atlanta. Come Friday night, the shadow gave way to a tantalizing glimpse of what might be an even brighter tomorrow.
Making his first collegiate start, Matt Flynn presided over an offense that stacked 301 yards on Miami in the first half. How significant was that? Well, the Hurricanes’ average yield this season — for both halves, not just one — was 252 yards. The Tigers led 20-3 at halftime. How significant was that? Well, only one Miami opponent had managed 20 points in a game. Either the Hurricanes just graduated from the Chan Gailey school of bowl preparedness or LSU spent the last 27 days getting exponentially better.
On paper, this Peach Bowl looked delicious — two Brand Name programs, each with a national championship of some sort in the new millennium, each of which was ranked No. 3 in the land until a team from Georgia intervened. Naturally, what happened was an utter thrashing, the rejuvenated Tigers waxing favored Miami 40-3, the biggest margin in the Peach’s 38 years of operation.
The Tigers looked fresh and fast and fearless. Miami looked like Tennessee did in those listless Peach losses at the end of the 2002 and 2003 seasons. (Must be something about orange shirts.) Miami, which beat Florida here a year ago, looked as if it was bored with its surroundings and football in general. The Hurricanes couldn’t cover Craig Davis and couldn’t tackle Joseph Addai and didn’t really seem to care.
Down 17 at the break, the Hurricanes had a 25-minute halftime to plot their comeback. This was their first series of the third quarter: Two dropped passes and a punt. Soon it was 34-3 and a bored guy in the press box was counting how many Tigers figure to return next season, and here’s the answer: Of the 53 Tigers listed on their offensive and defensive depth charts, only 19 are seniors. (Both Russell and Flynn are sophomores.) This team could well be back in the Dome next December, playing for yet another SEC title.
Miami, by way of contrast, has issues. The Hurricanes lived off their defense this season, but that defense was overwhelmed by an LSU offense working with a new quarterback. Apart from an emphatic victory over Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Miami really didn’t handle anybody of note. It lost to Georgia Tech and Florida State and needed three overtimes to win at Clemson, and now it has this egregious loss — the Hurricanes managed 3 yards in the second half — to live down.
This was a year of transition (from Nick Saban to Les Miles) and tumult in Baton Rouge, and the Tigers can pride themselves on having finished with such oomph. Indeed, LSU was so full of itself that it ran a fake field goal and a fake punt in the fourth quarter, neither of which was necessary. (Certainly the Hurricanes didn’t think so, many of them lingering on the field to exchange unpleasantries with LSU players and fans afterward.) But after the season the Tigers have just endured, you can’t really begrudge them a little fun at the end. If any team ever deserved a night to howl, it’s this one.
Permalink | Comments (59) | Categories: Mark Bradley, Tech / ACC, UGA / SEC
I really like the Peach Bowl — honest
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
The Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl people believe I hate their bowl. I don’t. I like the Peach Bowl. I like the thought of Atlanta having a signature bowl, which is what the Peach has become since it moved indoors in 1992. I even like Chick-fil-A sandwiches.
I just wish the Peach could have gotten its corporate act together about 10 years sooner. Were that the case, this game might have done what the Fiesta Bowl did — supplant the decaying Cotton Bowl as the fourth major. The way was clear for some up-and-coming game in the middle ’80s, and the Fiesta stole a march by paying big money to match No. 1 Miami against No. 2 Penn State at the end of the 1986 season.
And what was the Peach Bowl doing in 1986? Just coming off its ‘85 installment, which drew 29,857 for an Army-Illinois pairing in old Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium. The Peach was going nowhere — actually, it was sliding downward — in its al fresco manifestation. Indeed, we Atlantans coined a phrase — “Peach Bowl weather” — to describe a damp and chilly day because so many Peaches had been played in just those conditions.
(Personal note. The Peach claims a warm place in my heart and a cold place in my memory as the first bowl game I ever saw. It was in 1976. I was a student at Kentucky. I sat near the top of the old stadium and watched the Wildcats beat North Carolina on a 28-degree day that felt much, much colder. For a half-hour after the game, we worried that my girlfriend — now my wife — had developed frostbite in her hands.)
The Peach Bowl began to change in 1986 when the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce moved to take over. Things got better on the organizational side, and the opening of the Georgia Dome gave the game an exponential jump. The idea of playing to its two regional bases — the ACC and the SEC — was positively inspired, and the games themselves soon became the most competitive of any bowl. I’ve written this before, but here it is again: The Peach Bowl stands as one of the great reclamation projects of our time.
So why, you’re asking, do Peach people think I hate their baby? Because I’ve also characterized it as a “third-tier bowl,” which shouldn’t be confused with being third-rate. My tiers go thusly: 1. the four BCS games; 2. the traditional New Year’s Day bowls (Cotton, Outback, Gator, Capital One), and 3. everything above Shreveport or anywhere Georgia Tech has visited lately.
Me, I see nothing wrong with being the best third-tier bowl on the board. I wouldn’t mind seeing the Peach become one of the second-tier games (which would mean a fixed date on or about Jan. 1, as opposed to the changing calendar the bowl now tracks). But I don’t see the Peach as a BCS game anytime in the future simply because the four BCS games are too entrenched and, as such, are disinclined to enfranchise a fifth game.
The Peach Bowl is a splendid event that is a credit to its city and its participants, the likes of whom get more prestigious every season. (Miami versus LSU, this year’s card, might well be the best bowl shy of the Rose.) Does that sound like faint praise to you? The only quibble I have the one every right-thinking Atlantan has already expressed: Why, just when things are going swimmingly, drop the “Peach” and give itself completely to a fast-food chain? “Peach Bowl” fairly trips off the tongue. “Chick-fil-A Bowl” is a typographical nightmare.
And now you’re asking: Will this reservation lead me to boycott the products of the restaurants in question? Heck, no. Those chicken sandwiches are good.
Permalink | Comments (4) | Categories: Mark Bradley, Tech / ACC, UGA / SEC
Jackets mired in muddy mediocrity
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
San Francisco — The field was mostly fit for mud wrestling. You also knew this wasn’t, oh, say, the Rose Bowl since both teams were required to operate from the same sideline. In fact, under this makeshift configuration of the San Francisco Giants’ ballpark, the Georgia Tech bench was just in front of the wall that Barry Bonds often clears to reach McCovey Cove.
How do you say rinky dink, as in something called the Emerald Bowl, as in why is the ACC even sending one of its members to this thing?
If all of that wasn’t enough to make the Yellow Jackets feel a little inadequate Thursday afternoon during their latest postseason experience, they spent the early part of the first half getting absolutely torched by Utah’s backup quarterback making only his second start. The Utes led 20-zip after Brett Ratliff threw all three of his touchdown passes within the game’s first 16 minutes to Travis LaTendresse, owner of a ridiculous seven catches for 108 yards at that point.
Suddenly, there were two choices for the Jackets before the sparse crowd of 25,742 that nevertheless was red (as in Utah) and loud (as in relatively speaking): They could continue to get pounded as much as their quarterback Reggie Ball did by a pack of Utes after his first interception. Or they could ignore all of the game’s previous ugliness to show the grit of those Jackets teams with two consecutive blowout victories in the bowls before this one.
So much for grit. Try groans (as in what those in the Jacket Nation should be doing right now over the Tech’s latest dance with mediocrity for a season).
“As a whole, we were pretty consistent most of the year defensively, and I think a couple of games we did play up to our potential,” said Tech safety Chris Reis, referring to the Jackets’ shocking victories on the road over Auburn and Miami. Then again, maybe those were just a couple of shocking flukes for a highly inconsistent bunch that finished 7-5.
When this one was mercifully over, Tech’s 38-10 beating was its worst in a bowl game in terms of margin of defeat since, well, ever. And the Jackets have played in bowl games since they actually did go to the Rose following the 1929 season. That’s 34 bowls overall, which means you have to wonder if Tech was ready to play against what was an average Utah team that improved to 7-5.
Senior Tech linebacker Gerris Wilkinson thought and thought, before saying, “Man, it might have been a factor when we first found out about [playing in the Emerald Bowl], but you have to be able to let that go as a team, and that’s when the leaders on the team have to get everybody focused. I guess we didn’t do a good job of it.”
No, they didn’t. Not Tech’s leaders, and certainly not Tech’s coaching staff that just finished its fourth consecutive season with seven victories under Chan Gailey.
Did I say something about mediocrity, and how can somebody from the Mountain West Conference do all of this against supposedly a decent bunch from the ACC? Not only did Ratliff finish with outrageous numbers (completing 30 of 41 passes for 381 yards and four touchdowns), but Quinton Ganther rushed for 120 yards while LaTendresse ended with 16 catches for 214 yards and four of the easiest touchdown catches that you’ll ever see.
Tech entered the game as one of college football’s premier defenses in every category from rushing to passing efficiency to interceptions. So, given the statistical evidence from Utah, it looks as if the Jackets sort of quit after the rout gained momentum. “I don’t think our guys ever quit,” Gailey said. “They never feel like they’re not going to pull the game out. But quit is a pretty strong word.”
Strong but accurate, especially since this wasn’t the same Utah monster of Urban Meyer from last year. Still, the Jackets played as if these Utes had fangs.
This time, Wilkinson sighed, but not just because of recent history. “We’ve been close at times and far at times, and that’s been the problem ever since I’ve been here at Tech. We just can’t play consistently an entire season.”
Exhibit A: This season.
Permalink | Comments (424) | Categories: Tech / ACC, Terence Moore
Thriving bowl game should stay ‘Peachy’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Furman Bisher
So they want to take the “Peach” out of the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl, eh? So why? They might as well take the air out of the football. Peach is the game’s symbol, and the fuzzy little fruit whose namesake came so close to extinction so many times deserves more for toughing it out. How do they replace it, with a cackling hen or the portrait of a sandwich, even one that I savor so much?
Perhaps “Peach Bowl” shouldn’t have been its birth name, in the first place, but this is the “Peach State,” though South Carolina may produced more peaches. It would be like taking the “Sugar” out of the Sugar Bowl, or the “Orange” out of the Orange Bowl. Surely no one has considered plastering a corporate name on the Rose, grandaddy of all bowls. I know, Chick-fil-A and the Cathy family have put $22 million into this project, but they came on after it was already standing on its own. And besides, they still get top billing.
Let me take you back to the roots of this game. It was created by the Lions Clubs of Georgia for their charity, Lighthouse for the Blind. They were amateurs, well-intended, but out of their league. There was internal bickering, charges of conflict of interest against some executives, sad management and foul weather, as if somebody up there kept trying to send a message.
The first two games were played in slop at Grant Field, then the weather gods let it all fly when Arizona State played North Carolina in the third game. Rain, sleet and snow all in night. Then, in all their ingenuity, the Lions decided to move to Atlanta Stadium, pulling out of Grant Field at the same time Georgia Tech was putting in artificial turf. The change of venue changed nothing. Foul weather followed, and ironically, so did the Georgia Tech team, but instead of being able to play on their own carpet at Grant Field, they lost in more slop to Ole Miss.
The Peach Bowl had attracted teams from the Big Ten, the Southwest Conference, the SEC and ACC, of course, even pulled in Army one year, but the amateurs had to throw in towel, at which time the Chamber of Commerce moved in, brought in professionals and the Peach Bowl came to life in 1986. These people had no intention of allowing Atlanta’s one attempt at this bowling business to fall on its face. The Lions have long been out of it and for all their good intentions, the Lighthouse for the Blind had little to show for it.
All of this, you see, under the name of Peach Bowl, which, after all it’s endured, should have the privilege of sharing in its ongoing success. Sound, broad-based civic leadership, under the hand of Gary Stokan. The financial infusion of Truett Cathy and Chick-fil-A. Now ardently pursued by prime time television. And, of course, the game is now foul weather-proofed, played in guaranteed 70-degree temperature.
All this took place when the game moved into Georgia Dome after 25 years camping out. So the game has grown, with all these modern inconveniences, and prospered, and no reason the Peach, which suffered through those dismal years, should not be allowed to move along and share the luxuries with Chick-fil-A. Why should it ever have been considered otherwise?
The bowl venture has been a fractious one for a number of corporations that took a fling leap into sports poorly equipped. Whatever became of the Continental Tire Bowl, Carquest, Weiser Lock, Diamond Walnut, all the way back to the Copper and the You-Name-It. The Peach Bowl was created with all good intentions and a worthy beneficiary, and Chick-fil-A came on with a worthy mission of its own. But don’t dump poor old “Peach” after all it went through and the bruises bore.
Permalink | Comments (10) | Categories: Furman Bisher, Tech / ACC, UGA / SEC
Lehtonen starts again, groin willing
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
Kari Lehtonen, possessor of the most overanalyzed groin and core muscle group in Thrashers history, rises from Dr. Frankenstein’s laboratory Friday night.
He will be in a uniform, on the ice and in net. Now there’s a confluence you don’t see every day. He hasn’t played since the first period of the Thrashers’ first game 12 weeks ago, before day-to-day turned into let’s-see-who’s-hot-in-the-East-Coast-League.
“I feel like a little boy getting candy or something,” Lehtonen said Thursday.
Not quite how Boris Karloff greeted life. But stick around. Because if Lehtonen doubles over again, there will be no shortage of loud, freakish groans emanating from Thrasherville.
“Every day we see him go down,” coach Bob Hartley said, “there’s going to be fears in our mind.”
Comfortable yet?
Lehtonen is a goalie. At least, that’s the rumor. It has been assumed the Thrashers’ postseason hopes rest largely on his groin, and assorted appendages. That the team has climbed back to .500 (NHL version) at 16-16-6 without him is either a positive omen or the tease before the collapse. We’re about to find out.
Muscle tissue aside, it’s hard to imagine a kid acting cooler in a pressure situation. The 22-year-old has played only 20 minutes, but an NHL franchise is relying on him for a playoff berth, and Finland is relying on him to lead the Olympic hockey team to a medal in Turin. Lehtonen became Finland’s starter by default when Calgary’s Miikka Kiprusoff pulled out of the Games.
But Lehtonen shrugs when asked about expectations. “It’s been like that the last five or 10 years,” he said. “The expectations are what keeps me going.”
Poorly conditioned body parts notwithstanding. Lehtonen suffered an injury in the groin area in training camp and then crumbled in the opener at Florida after a collision. He knows it’s his own fault. He should have reported to camp resembling something closer to a professional athlete. If he didn’t know, his coach reminded him.
“I was unbelievably ticked,” said Hartley, except he didn’t really say “ticked.”
“I thought coming from the Finnish army, he could at least do five pushups.”
You’ve heard of “Body by Jake”? Teammate Andy Sutton had another description for Lehtonen: “Body by neglect.”
He has an underdeveloped upper body and a soft belly. Goaltenders aren’t required to look like, well, Jake. But it would nice if their shape was closer to a “V” than a beer bottle.
“I don’t know if I should blame myself or my family for giving me these genes,” Lehtonen said. He was joking. He knew the answer.
“I’ve been young and dumb,” he said. “I thought everything would be so easy. I’ve always been a goalie and I kinda thought, I don’t have to work that hard. Then I realized these guys are pretty good.”
Groin and lower abdominal injuries are slow to heal, assuming they ever do. It follows that as much flexing and strengthening exercises as Lehtonen has done these past several weeks, there are no assurances he won’t have a recurrence with his first kick save.
But he does have everything else going for him: positioning, instinct, reflexes, attitude. “He has the right mentality to be a goalie,” Hartley said.
The way Lehtonen views things, he has overcome the worst: the waiting. “It was tough for the first couple of weeks. But then I realized I have to look at the big picture.”
Put five goalies in a locker room — as the Thrashers have this season — and it’s easy to tell which ones were part of the original plan. Their leg pads, glove and blocker all match, trimmed in team colors. The mask also is dipped in team colors, possibly with a local theme. Everybody else looks like they were dressed for another city in another league.
Lehtonen’s gear matches. His mask is Thrasher blue. On either side are slim blonde women dressed in shorts and thigh-high boots. OK, not quite the hockey theme.
“It’s from the Final Fantasy [video] game,” he said. “I’ve never played it. But I saw a couple of commercials about the game and just thought it looked awesome.”
There is one problem with the equipment. It all looks just a little too new.
Permalink | Comments (8) | Categories: Jeff Schultz, Thrashers / NHL
Jim, meet Achilles
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
From the moment Jim Mora chose to belittle the history of his franchise, you could feel this coming. November had just arrived and the Falcons were 5-2 and riding high and Mora, in seeking to defend his team’s indefensible “policy” of muting its offensive linemen, dismissed the honorable likes of Jeff Van Note and Mike Kenn by saying, in essence, those guys couldn’t have been all that great if they weren’t part of consecutive winning seasons.
Ahem.
Here we are, January fast approaching, and Mora’s team needs to upset Carolina to secure the second consecutive winning season that he made sound like a fait accompli. The man who seemed to have all the answers has been stumped repeatedly in the second half of 2005. Even worse, Mora has been revealed as a bit of a brat.
In the grand scheme, this comeuppance could be good for Young Jim. He was so successful as a rookie head coach that he seemed to lose contact with reality. The cold truth is that there a lot of smart guys coaching NFL teams, and just because you work really hard and consider yourself quite clever doesn’t mean your team is going to win the Super Bowl, or even break .500, every single year.
Almost two months after trashing the Falcons of old, Mora presides over a team that has lost five of seven games and has fallen from the playoff mix. Hubris doesn’t play so well in pro football. The old saw still cuts deep: Pride really does goeth before a fall.
Permalink | Comments (60) | Categories: Mark Bradley, Quick Hit
Tech’s Johnson the ‘anti-TO’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
San Francisco — You have those celebrated wonders for Southern Cal. Vince Young also is gifted. The same goes for Brady Quinn and the rocks on LSU’s defensive line who look more fit to play on Sundays than Saturdays. Even so, between now and that little game in Pasadena, when the bowls change from Peach to Sugar to Rose, nobody will surpass Georgia Tech’s Calvin Johnson as a double miracle.
If I could, I’d adopt Johnson as a son, and it goes back to that double miracle: Not only is he so good as an All-America selection during his sophomore year along the way to becoming so great as a pro, but he is so humble to the point that you wonder if he is too good to be true. For three decades, I’ve covered more than a few athletes who were princes when it came to attitude before they evolved into frogs.
Turns out, we can believe in a fairy tale that is flirting with a happy ending after a nice beginning and a promising middle. This one wears No. 21 for the Yellow Jackets, and it won’t change easily. Let’s begin by dispensing with the least impressive part of that double miracle regarding Johnson: He can play. Chances are, he’ll do an incredible thing or three at wide receiver Thursday against Utah during the Emerald Bowl before a nationally televised audience. Why? Because he always does.
Tech wide receiver Damarius Bilbo laughed, saying, “Even in practice, he’ll do something that looks amazing to us, but it’s just simple to him. He catches with one hand like I catch with two. Sometimes you don’t know whether to be jealous of him or in awe of him.”
You can’t ignore him, though. Johnson hasn’t stopped making folks rub their eyes raw since he went from impressing at Sandy Creek High School in Tyrone to playing beyond his hype at Tech as a freshman to operating as the extraterrestrial receiver that he is now. He could become known as that other Johnson with perennial Pro Bowl ability after he joins the one called Chad in the NFL as soon as his junior year ends.
Whatever the case, this Johnson won’t resemble that other Johnson regarding post-touchdown celebrations. In fact, this Johnson will become the anti-TO. He also won’t, say, fake a moon or something in an opponent’s stadium a la Mr. Moss. That’s because this Johnson is so stunned like the rest of us by his Flying Wallenda moments that he often responds with a “Wow” under his breath.
“Well, I’m not your flashy type of guy,” said Johnson, with a hint of embarrassment. “I might get excited and spike the ball in the end zone every once in a while, but I won’t have any antics.”
Then Johnson smiled after we discussed some of the best of his best, including his catches for the ages against N.C. State last year and Miami this year. “I surprise myself sometimes,” he said. “I’ll be watching film of something I did and it’s like, ‘Man.’ ” Which brings us to the most impressive part of that double miracle regarding Johnson: He keeps his fame in perspective.
“All gifts given to you can be taken back, and Calvin realizes that, because he’s a really spiritual guy who knows where his blessings come from,” said Bilbo, a senior, who was among the Jackets who sought to adopt Johnson as a brother after they discovered his talent was accompanied by humility and dedication.
“True, he works hard, and he takes advantage of his ability, but he’s not one of those guys who is changed by all of these people asking for his autograph,” Bilbo added. “He also is the type who won’t be changed by money.”
He won’t be changed, partly because he has a dose of the bad to keep all of that good from swelling his head. And, yes, there was bad for even the mighty Johnson, when he dropped a potential game-winning catch in the end zone during Tech’s home loss this year to N.C. State.
According to Johnson, he has yet to get over the memory, and that’s not necessarily an awful thing. “It’s always in the back of my mind, and it drives me,” Johnson said, with his slew of impossible catches in the aftermath to prove it.
Permalink | Comments (28) | Categories: Tech / ACC, Terence Moore
Games not larger than life
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
Two moments.
Just like that, the all-mighty games took a back seat to life. That’s exactly the way it should be every once in a while, because that’s the way The Almighty wants it.
First, you had James Dungy, the 18-year-old son of the beloved Tony Dungy, the coach and eternal good guy of the Indianapolis Colts. For reasons unknown, the son took his life last week, and much of the NFL joined many around the nation in grieving with the father.
A few days before James’ death, the Colts lost a game. It wasn’t just any game. It ended their quest to join the 1972 Miami Dolphins as the only undefeated team in league history.
Suddenly, after the tragic news surfaced about James Dungy, that game for the Colts that wasn’t just a game was just that.
Once, Jeff Reardon lost a game for the Braves that wasn’t just a game. He was the reliever in 1992 who threw a home-run pitch to Toronto’s Ed Sprague that lost a World Series game. Reardon also gave up a single that lost the following World Series game for the Braves.
Now Reardon is charged with armed robbery after allegedly holding up a jewelry store in his Florida neighborhood. He blames it on a combination of depression and taking the wrong medicine while, among other things, grieving the recent death of his 20-year-old son.
Compared to Reardon’s current plight, those games that weren’t just games that he lost for the Braves …
You know the rest.
Permalink | Comments (22) | Categories: Quick Hit, Terence Moore
The Tuesday Countdown
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
Falcons owner Arthur Blank said he planned to get together with coach Jim Mora and general manager Rich McKay for dinner after the season to discuss several issues. Mora’s temperament aside, the offense might be a good thing to bring up between appetizers and dinner.
The problem isn’t merely that the Falcons’ offense is bad or inconsistent. The problem is we never know what to expect from game to game. There is little sense of philosophy, at least none that lasts longer than five minutes. I mean, what’s the plan?
Come to think of it, maybe Greg Knapp should be at the dinner.
This is not to minimize the Falcons’ problems on defense. But on that side of the ball, it might be more of a personnel issue. Bottom line: This team will go as Michael Vick goes, and right now Michael Vick ain’t going. Is the onus on him? Partly. But it’s also a coaching staff’s job to put their players in a position to succeed.
Gee, I’ve got all these great ideas. How come I wasn’t invited to dinner?
There will be an EA Sports Arena Football League video game this year. Question: Shouldn’t you have to be a game before you can be a video game?
There goes my dinner invitation.
The Texas Rangers, the same organization that gave Alex Rodriguez a ludicrous $252 million contract, just gave Kevin Millwood a five-year, $60 million deal. I know Millwood led the American League. I know Millwood led the American League with a 2.86 ERA, but a $60 million commitment for a guy who had ERAs of 4.01 and 4.85 the previous two seasons in Philadelphia?
Bill Parcells shot down a report that he is contemplating retirement. But when a reporter said he could easily end speculation by saying he would be back next season, Parcells responded: “I’m not saying anything. I don’t want any more questions about that. Thank you. I’ll say what I want to say when I want to say it about those subjects.”
I hate the media. Let ‘em buy their own dinner.
Permalink | Comments (88) | Categories: Jeff Schultz, Quick Hit
Mora must avoid meltdowns
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
Sometimes good coaches have bad seasons. Maybe they deal with it well, maybe they don’t, and the ones who don’t can go one of two ways: grow up or melt down.
Jim Mora is a good coach who has had a bad season. He also needs to grow up, because the meltdowns are getting old, and the ramifications of such often evolve into something far worse than an embarrassing sound bite or acid reflux.
Mora doesn’t think it’s an issue. He actually said Monday, “I don’t have a trigger,” a remark that may cause others at Falcons headquarters to pass out. The man is a walking drum of plutonium with a red button that reads, “Don’t even think of pushing me.”
“To me it’s a non-issue,” Mora said Monday of his outbursts. “You can write your article and make it an issue. But it’s not an issue in this building.”
Tell that to the guy who owns the building. Arthur Blank was en route to Flowery Branch Monday when he returned a phone call. He said he planned to talk to Mora about imploding on his postgame radio show following the loss in Tampa Bay Saturday and about his coach’s emotions in general.
Blank said he wasn’t angry, but called Mora’s actions “unacceptable.” He said Mora needed to be reminded of the responsibilities that go with his high-profile position.
“He’s the face of the organization right now,” Blank said. “Long-term, I might be the face of the organization. But during the season, it’s not me and it’s not Rich [McKay]; it’s him. He needs to realize that. This is the dark side of his emotional capacity.
“Jim’s emotional and he’s passionate, but he has to learn how to channel that so that it’s not destructive. My father was that way, and I tried to learn from him. … Passion and standing up for things can help create a sense of unity. But you still have to act a certain way. If something happens, you have to realize that you can’t just yell at people all the time.”
Mora slammed down his headset and microphone after analyst Dave Archer asked about a decision to punt late in overtime. Mora spewed expletives again later with a team official following his formal news conference, then walked to the team bus and cleared the air with Archer, who had to be summoned off the bus.
This follows nearly inadvertently hitting an official in Chicago during an eruption the week before. That followed previous outbursts, which followed trying to defend the practice of the Falcons’ offensive linemen not talking to the media by theorizing that Mike Kenn and Jeff Van Note often spoke but never won a Super Bowl. (Guess this season kills that connection.)
The Falcons have gone from 6-2 to out of the playoff picture. When a team wins, a coach’s flaws are glossed over, even embraced. When a team loses, flaws get magnified. You don’t hear, “Oh that Jimmy’s a real pistol,” when you lose to Green Bay.
Last year was all smiles. But coaches, like players, are judged in bad times as well as good times. This year Mora has faced more questions about his decisions, his actions and the philosophies of his coordinators. His reaction too often has been to stomp his feet, scream and hold his breath — all the things he probably teaches his children not to do.
Mora was an effective NFL assistant in New Orleans and San Francisco. But life is different as a head coach. As the ultimate decision-maker, he’s always in the spotlight, whether it’s on the sideline or in a news conference.
Some young coaches can make that transition. Others find it their undoing. Mora complains because he has to do a radio show “10 minutes after the game.” But it’s not like he’s the only head coach who does a postgame show.
Mora complains he pays for the sins of his father, a temperamental guy in his coaching days. That’s bunk. Do and say dumb things and you get attention, regardless of your bloodlines.
Passion is good. Emotion is to be expected. But meltdowns are uncalled for. And if Mora doesn’t want this to become an issue, he shouldn’t make it one.
Permalink | Comments (62) | Categories: Falcons / NFL, Jeff Schultz
Falcons’ lowered expectations no consolation
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
Tampa — When the season starts with a win over your consensus chief competition for a Super Bowl, you don’t expect this.
Not playoff extinction with a game left in the season. Not the starting quarterback saying, “We have to re-evaluate a lot of things around here.� Not the combustible head coach taking such offense to a question on the team’s postgame radio show that he throws a microphone and spews expletives.
Last season, the Falcons’ regular-season finale didn’t mean anything. This season, for completely different reasons, the Falcons’ regular-season finale won’t mean anything — unless you count this: “We’ll try to bring two consecutive winning seasons back to the fans of Atlanta. That’s not a bad consolation prize.�
Big wow. Welcome to the new Falcons talking points. Suddenly, a winning record qualifies as tangible progress.
When you miss the playoffs in a season with Super Bowl aspirations, there is no consolation prize. All through the season, the Falcons maintained their goal this season was to win a championship, not to win nine games. So let’s not start now.
Postseason elimination had been looming for weeks. It merely became official with Saturday’s 27-24 overtime loss to Tampa Bay. But the reason the Falcons lost this game is the same reason they’re 8-7 despite a Monday night win over Philadelphia.
It’s the same reason they have lost five of seven at a time when good teams, hardened teams, smart and well-coached teams, are coming together.
It’s not luck. It’s not bounces. It’s not officiating. They’re not that good. For most of this season, there has been no sense of belonging among the NFL’s elite, or even the NFL’s pretty good. On paper, it may say otherwise. But on grass or artificial turf, the Falcons are exactly what they deserve to be.
“Sometimes you look for a break … you look for something that will change a season,â€? running back Warrick Dunn said. “But that never happened. When we had opportunities, we didn’t take advantage of it. That’s our fault.â€?
Mora didn’t address fault. He instead talked about how proud he was of his players. But all effort and mistakes get you are three-point losses.
Michael Vick fumbles without being touched, leading to the second Tampa Bay touchdown. DeAngelo Hall makes a great interception and returns it 65 yards to set up a late-first-half field goal. But he suffers a shoulder injury on the play and spends the second half with his arm in a sling. Vick hits Roddy White in stride for an apparent 62-yard touchdown. But he fumbles when he hits the ground and the play is ruled incomplete.
Instead of leading 24-14, the margin is three points — a lead that evaporates when Bucs kicker Matt Bryant ties it with a field goal. The Falcons take a lead late in the fourth quarter. But they allow the Bucs to come back to tie it when Carnell Williams runs 6 yards into the end zone on fourth-and-1.
Both teams blow chances in overtime. The Falcons have a 28-yard field goal get blocked. The Bucs botch a 27-yard attempt. With 1:02 left, on fourth-and-2 from the Falcons’ 24, Mora — normally an aggressive coach — elects to punt, even though the season is on the line. (Earlier in the game, he and team officials had conferred about playoff scenarios and it never was clear whether a tie would hurt or help the team. So he played it safe.) But when he was asked about the decision later, he took it as being second-guessed and went ballistic. One more game and he’ll have an offseason to recover.
This past week, tight end Alge Crumpler called his team “front-runners,� not exactly a term of endearment, and questioned the Falcons’ ability to adjust to situations. If that wasn’t a direct hit on play-calling and the coaching staff, the shrapnel at least spread in that direction.
“We didn’t play championship football when we needed to,� Vick said.
Now they play for a consolation prize — as if a consolation prize was ever what this was supposed to be about.
Permalink | Comments (157) | Categories: Falcons / NFL, Jeff Schultz
A wishful Christmas list indeed
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Furman Bisher
A few little gifts and wishes I’d like to leave under the tree for Christmas:
*A MARTA station at Turner Field.
*Just one more Masters for Jack Nicklaus, so he can finish on the 18th green this time.
*A prayer for Leo Mazzone, who has no Smoltzes or Glavines or Madduxes waiting for him in Baltimore.
*A ban on traffic jams.
*An apology from Lou Holtz to Steve Spurrier.
*That every man out there has a chance to be a granddad.
*A golf season that never ends, whether Tiger or Phil choose to show up or not.
*Some suitable explanation to make to the little one who wants to know how can reindeer fly.
*Tickets for everybody to the new aquarium — what a smashing attraction to brighten Atlanta lives.
*A book of Dan Kolb’s pitching memoirs. (Just kiddin’.)
*Ted Turner back on the Atlanta sports scene, doing something. Anything. (He brings life to the party.)
*Something that guarantees I can see the hockey puck into the net, something besides, “He scores!�
*A return, if only for one time, of Dandy Don Meredith to “Monday Night Football.�
*A lifetime guarantee that comes with Jeff Francoeur’s contagious personality.
*A holiday on taxes — in fact, make it a year.
*For Georgia Tech, invitation to a bowl game it can drive to.
*A little touch of snow, no shovel required.
*A make-believe golfer who takes only three minutes on the green.
*A Lexus for everyone, with lifetime fuel supply.
*A clock turned back to the time gasoline cost 65 cents a gallon.
*No partridge in a pear tree; make it a turkey for you.
*One more World Series played in nature’s light.
*A trackless trolley rolling down Peachtree one more time.
*A commissioner of potholes for Atlanta, pothole capital of the South.
*OK, if Jim Mora doesn’t care to be known as Jr., I give you Jim Mora II, neatly wrapped.
*One more Derby horse for Cot Campbell and Dogwood.
*Deck the halls with boughs of holly, and all that jazz.
*No “X� in Christmas, no “happy holidays,� but a Merry, Merry Christmas to all. (Signed: S. Claus).
Permalink | Comments (13) | Categories: Furman Bisher
A game for Vick to earn his pay
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
There comes a time when a Franchise Quarterback has to take his franchise by the scruff of the neck and make it win no matter what. This is such a time. Michael Vick isn’t being paid $130 million to be one of the guys. He’s being paid to win games like this.
Vick has had an odd season. He has had a handful of productive games, but overall it hasn’t been the breakthrough he and his coaches — and yes, this correspondent — foresaw. His team, tabbed to make a Super Bowl run, is on the brink of elimination. His completion percentage, never high, is down from last season’s. Even if we agree that the NFL’s convoluted passer ratings don’t offer an entirely accurate appraisal, it’s still jolting to see the $130-million man ranked 27th among quarterbacks. (His rushing numbers — 902 yards on 120 carries last season, 534 on 90 this time — are also down, presumably by choice.)
Yes, Vick made the Pro Bowl again, and this tells us two things: 1. The NFC is lacking in big-time quarterbacks and 2. Name recognition is a mighty commodity. The Franchise Quarterback hasn’t even been his team’s MVP — Warrick Dunn has — and in the two games the Falcons needed most to win, the famous Vick presided over an offense that couldn’t generate a touchdown.
He has another chance today, a last chance. History teaches that Vick is capable of winning games by himself, and that’s what he’ll need to do in Tampa Bay. His wide receivers still aren’t ready and T.J. Duckett hasn’t done much lately. That leaves Vick, with Dunn and Alge Crumpler as wingmen, to outdo a defense that has traditionally trumped him. It won’t be easy, but if being a Franchise Quarterback were easy then we’d all hold contracts for $130 million.
For all that has (or hasn’t) happened on the field, the most distressing part of this season has been the change in Vick’s mindset. He has gotten caught up in trying to Answer His Critics, which is human nature but seldom the wisest course. After an uncommonly precise showing in Miami, he told the world never to question him again. Well, the world is a funny old place, and not everyone in it is apt to look on the sunny side. Heck, Peyton Manning has detractors. (Can’t win the big one, et cetera.) Vick needs to grasp that nitpicking comes with the exalted territory of being rich and famous and outrageously gifted. Heck, Bob Dylan got booed at Newport.
This was Vick’s exasperated response, via conference call, to Tampa Bay writers who asked this week about his lack of success against his nemesis: “You’re still saying it’s tough for me to handle that defense after what I did to them last time?” He passed for 306 yards against the Bucs in November, but he fumbled late and Tampa Bay won. And now Vick seemed to be using a statistically bountiful loss as proof of his excellence. Over the years, Vick’s many fans have written off his tepid stats by noting that he wins games. Are we to believe the bottom line has shifted?
Neither Vick nor his team has been as good as anticipated this season, but there’s still time, just, to salvage something. The Franchise Quarterback has to forget about naysayers and numbers and do whatever it takes to win this immense game. If that means rushing for 200 yards while completing only two passes, so be it. He can’t worry about how he looks or what people will say. He can only concern himself with the final score.
He couldn’t beat Carolina in Charlotte or Chicago in the cold, but that doesn’t mean he’s incapable of beating Tampa Bay on Christmas Eve. He’s still Michael Vick, still the most talented player in his sport. He has greatness, and great games, within him. He can do this.
Permalink | Comments (141) | Categories: Falcons / NFL, Mark Bradley
Pro picks: Birds can’t block, won’t win
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
On the first day of Christmas the Falcons promised you, win number 9, which like playoff hopes are dying the vine.
On the second day of Christmas, the Falcons promised you, the future’s looking bright, dismissing signs that reality might bite.
On the third … anything clean rhyme with Duckett?
Sorry, it’s the best I can do. Besides, Edgar Allen Poe stunk against the spread.
The Falcons play today, which is one more guarantee than they have two weeks from now. If they lose to Tampa Bay, postseason hopes could officially be declared kaputski. If they beat Tampa Bay — which they have done only twice in the 10 meetings — they’ll still need another win against Carolina and help from another dimension.
Which is fine, I guess, because owner Arthur Blank said this week that missing the playoffs would not make this season a failure. Right. I’m sure that’s what every season-ticket holder would be thinking. “The Redskins made the playoffs instead of us. Let’s throw a parade.”
There is hope. There is always hope. You gotta have hope.
Of course, it’s better to have an offensive line.
The Falcons don’t protect Michael Vick. They pour honey on him in the huddle and yell, “Bees! Attack!� And then Greg Knapp opens the playbook and releases the bees.
This team is hanging its hat on wins over Detroit and New Orleans in the last six weeks. Not a great hat rack.
The line says Tampa by 3. Wrap this one up for the holidays. Bucs cover.
4-BAGS Cowboys at Panthers: Bill Parcells has come down with Falconitis. His team has lost three out of the last four, but he wants everybody to know: “I know we have a better team now than when I came here. I know that. So, that’s what I know.� Thank you, Mr. Wizard. And pay no attention to that season fizzle behind the curtain. Carolina puts a wrap on the South and covers 5.
Giants at Redskins: The Skins’ resurgence under Joe Gibbs is one of the season’s great stories, unless of course you work for the organization that let him get away. New York will win the East, but fortunately there has been a market correction in the Eli Manning Hype Machine (2 touchdowns, 6 interceptions in the last 3 games). Washington covers 3.
3-BAGS Chargers at Chiefs: Beat the Patriots, lose to the Eagles, beat the Redskins, lose to the Dolphins, beat the Colts. In Indy. If you can figure out the San Diego Chargers, you’re on the same hallucinogens they are. And thanks, but I’m trying to cut down. Chargers win in KC. Don’t ask me why.
Colts at Seahawks: There are only two things keeping this from being a Super Bowl preview: 1. Indianapolis won’t get there; 2. Seattle won’t get there. Trust me. I’m all knowing. By the way, your shoe’s untied. Neither team has much to gain and has shifted into protect thyself mode. When bubble wrap collides: Seattle wins but take Indy and 8.
2-BAGS Bills at Bengals: Chad Johnson claims he accidentally drove into a deer and he’s going to use it as a prop in a touchdown celebration Saturday. Now that’s what you call burning a Blitzen! (Sorry. Maybe I will take that hallucinogen after all.) In other news, Buffalo quarterbacks coach Sam Wyche gets to see what his former team looks like when it’s well-coached. Cincinnati covers 13 1/2.
Steelers at Browns: Pittsburgh’s final two opponents (Browns, Lions) have a combined record of 9-19. Coach Bill Cowher called this week’s game: “a big challenge.� Yeah? Well, blow it and the challenge may be making back into the city limits. Steelers win but take Cleveland and 7.
Titans at Dolphins: Miami has gone from a 3-7 start and a 22-0 loss to Cleveland to winning four straight. “I think we’re building on something,� Nick Saban said. Tennessee isn’t building. Tennessee is the landfill. Fins cover 5 1/2.
Eagles at Cardinals: Rule of thumb in Week 16: When there’s a game matching two teams not going anywhere, take the one that didn’t make the Seahawks look like the ‘62 Packers. Arizona covers 1.
Raiders at Broncos: Oakland’s offensive line has allowed 18 sacks in the last four games, give or take a kidney. Denver can clinch its first division title and first home playoff game since 1998, the year it met the Falcons in the Super Bowl and Eugene Robinson went looking for love in all the wrong places. But I digress. Broncos win but take Oakland and 13.
Vikings at Ravens: Speaking of love brokers, Federal Express dropped stripper skipper Daunte Culpepper from commercials. There’s a line there somewhere about the hazards of overnight shipping. Ravens win, 4-2.
Reggie Bush/Implosion Derby Texans: Dan Reeves is 1-0 as Houston’s consultant. My guess is he’ll be shopping for a house in a few weeks, assuming all of the knife wounds have healed from Flowery Branch. Jaguars win but won’t cover 6.
Phoney Niners: Just what San Francisco needs, another No. 1 pick. Last year’s fine selection, Alex Smith, has developed nicely: 0 touchdowns and 10 interceptions. But when you’re guaranteed $24 million no matter how much you stink, it’s all relative. Rams cover 9.
Saints: The NFL reaffirmed this week that it wants to keep the Saints in New Orleans. My God. Hasn’t the city suffered enough? But this week: Saints win, but take Lions and 3.
Jets: Because sitting in a cold stadium in New Jersey to watch a 3-11 team play a night game apparently isn’t torture enough, the Jets banned beer sales for the New England game. Think of it as root canal without the Novocaine. Patriots obliterate 5.
Packers: Brett Favre will start his 240th straight game. Considering his 239th straight game was a 48-3 loss to the Ravens, I’m thinking he’s not in the mood for cake and ice cream. Chicago covers 6 1/2.
Last week: 9-4 straight up, 7-6 against the line. Fiscal season: 143-60 straight up, 109-86-8 against the line.
Permalink | Comments (17) | Categories: Falcons / NFL, Jeff Schultz
Reindeer Games
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
ajc
Nothing says Christmas like the holiday hit “Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer.” The man behind the song, Elmo “Dr. Elmo” Shropshire, listed the five sports personalities he wishes would get run over by a reindeer:
Barry Bonds, San Francisco Giants: You can say here’s no such thing as BALCO, but as for me and Jose Canseco, we believe.
Brett Favre, Green Bay Packers: Better a reindeer than another linebacker.
Terrell Owens, Mouth of the South: And we just can’t help but wonder, should we keep him off the field or send him back?
Reggie Bush, USC Trojans: Before the 49ers draft him and ruin his career.
Jean-Marie LeBlanc, Tour de France president: It’s not a Tour without Lance Armstrong, all the sponsors dressed in black. Jean-Marie, don’t point your finger. Just get on you knees and beg him back.
OK fans, it’s your turn. Who else would you like to see trampled by Santa’s fleet?
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Turner buying Braves tops my wish list
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
It won’t happen. R.E. (Ted) Turner III owning the Braves again? No way the choppers and the chanters will get that lucky. Then again, maybe we all can believe in flying reindeer by assuming that he will go back to the future.
Turner’s old obsession is for sale, you know. So why wouldn’t he wish to return to the team that he relinquished to that thing called Time Warner soon after the 1996 season? Despite his tendency to sleep before, during and after pitches in playoff games, he was the people’s choice. We’re guessing he could squeeze in the Braves somewhere between saving the world and his new obsession with getting folks to chew buffalo instead of beef.
The voice on the other end of the phone belonged to Terry McGuirk, a hidden force behind the Braves’ 14 straight trips to the postseason. He once spoke to Turner every day and often for 25 years during a steady climb to his current role as Braves chairman and president.
“I have a great deal of respect for Ted, and he obviously has had a lot to do with my career. Whatever success I’ve had, I owe to him, and I’m very loyal to Ted,â€? said McGuirk, which brings us to the obvious: If anybody knows whether we might see Dasher, Dancer, Prancer or Vixen (as in Turner declaring with his drawl, “I’m back.”), it would be McGuirk.
“Honestly, I have no idea of Ted’s interest in returning (to the Braves),” said McGuirk, based in Atlanta, while those involved with the investment bank trying to sell the team are in New York. “Is Ted interested? I just don’t know the answer.”
That’s fine. At least McGuirk’s response wasn’t “Puhleeze,� or even worse, “No.� Let’s take that as if there remains a chance for Comet, Cupid, Donner and Blitzen to zip among the stars. We’ve already seen what previously was thought to be fantasy come true: Time Warner is selling the Braves.
Time Warner never should have owned them. That’s because no “thing” should run a pro sports franchise over a person. See the Los Angeles Dodgers, still reeling from that Fox media thing doing all sorts of crazy stuff out of baseball ignorance. There also is the Tribune Company, which purchased the Chicago Cubs in 1981 and boasted of ending the franchise’s then 36-year absence out of the World Series. It’s 60 years now.
In fact, it isn’t a coincidence that the only “things� to have their teams win a World Series were the (pick one or more) Anaheim, Los Angeles, California or Mickey Mouse Angels of Disney, and those Toronto Blue Jays during the early 1990s owned by a Canadian brewery. You need a face for a sports franchise instead of a symbol on the New York Stock Exchange. And, no, Arthur Blank shouldn’t be that face for the Braves. He has enough worries with the Falcons. There is a reason why Wayne Huizenga only owns the Miami Dolphins these days. He sold the Florida Marlins soon after they won a world championship when he discovered that you can’t function effectively as an NFL and baseball owner.
That leaves Turner as our best choice for the Braves. If nothing else, he’s our romantic choice. “In short, he’s not like you or me,” McGuirk said of the eccentric spirit who invented 24-hour cable news and the Goodwill Games. He reportedly is somewhere in India doing, well, who knows what. “Genius sort of comes in different packages, and he has done things that mortal men don’t even try. This empire, he created out of his own head. He thought it up and made it happen.”
Is that Rudolph’s red nose shining in the distance? Guess not. McGuirk sighed deeply, before saying, “Part of the success that Ted has had is thinking out of the box, and I’m not sure that baseball is a game that will allow such a thing today. It really seems a little far-fetched to me that Ted would want to do this.�
Then McGuirk laughed, adding, “But he’s the only guy in his heart who could answer that.�
Unless Turner answers with “Puhleeze� or “no� any time soon, the choppers and the chanters should spend Saturday night putting milk and cookies under their Christmas trees.
Permalink | Comments (62) | Categories: Braves / MLB, Terence Moore
Rights and wrongs on Accountability Scoreboard
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
In a nod to our ever-changing world, the annual Accountability Scoreboard goes online exclusively for the first time. And I’m happy to report that, for the first and surely last time ever, I hit Georgia and Tech’s records on the nose. I had the Bulldogs going 9-2, which they did, and Tech going 7-4, which it did. (Two months earlier I’d had the Jackets going 8-3, but I ratcheted down after they lost so many defenders over the offseason.)
More glad tidings: I had Southern Cal playing Texas in the Rose Bowl, Reggie Bush winning the Heisman, LSU winning the SEC West. I was wrong about Florida taking the SEC East, wrong about Tennessee finishing second in the division, wrong about Georgia winding up third.
I was right about D.J. Shockley, I’m proud to say. I was wrong about Steve Spurrier going 6-5 at South Carolina. (He went 7-4.) I was wrong about Auburn going 7-4. (It went 9-2.) I was wrong about Clemson losing its first four games but right about the Tigers beating Florida State and South Carolina at the end.
I was wrong about Illinois beating North Carolina for the NCAA title. I was way wrong about Georgia Tech making another Final Four. (Three of my Final Four picks were duds, by the way.) I’m on the record as believing the Hawks would have done better to take Deron Williams instead of Marvin Williams and, while it’s way to early to render a verdict, I don’t believe the early returns make me look too silly.
I was right about the Braves winning the NL East, which doesn’t really qualify as much of a pick after all these years. Over the summer I wrote in a blog that the World Series winner would be one of five teams and was savvy enough to include the White Sox therein. I also included the Braves, but I backed off the home team when it struggled down the stretch and — more to the point — when I saw the Astros looming in Round 1. I was wrong about the Marlins being the greatest threat to end the Braves’ run of division titles; turned out the Fish were a threat only to Jack McKeon’s run as manager.
I was wrong about Boise State leading Georgia after three quarters. (Boise didn’t lead for a single second.) I was right about Tech leading Auburn after three quarters and also at the end. I was right about Virginia Tech and Florida State playing for the ACC title, but I would never have picked the ‘Noles to win that game. Still wouldn’t. I was wrong about Bobby Bowden and Joe Paterno retiring by now, though I’ll take full credit if they have a dual resignation party after the Orange Bowl. I was right about Georgia beating LSU in the SEC championship game, but I figured by a field goal, not by 20 points.
I was wrong about the Falcons beating the Eagles for the NFC title, right about the Falcons beating the Eagles in the 2005 opener. Beyond that, however, I’ve pretty much whiffed on the Falcons. I kept expecting them to win a big game, and they still haven’t. I expected them to reach the NFC championship game again, and I can’t see that happening now.
In all, I’d call it a pretty good year. You might choose to call it something less, but I remind you that it’s the holiday season. And, in the spirit of giving, I close with the Accountability Scoreboard tradition of making one pick for the year ahead.
Tech will miss the (men’s) NCAA tournament. Georgia will not.
Permalink | Comments (31) | Categories: Mark Bradley, Other, Quick Hit
Jackets think Emerald Bowl is no gem
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
The Georgia Tech players are doing their best to put on a united happy face, but sometimes one of them breaks ranks. During a media gathering Wednesday, publicist Mike Stamus — acting as the interviewer in Tech’s satellite feed package — asked tailback P.J. Daniels what he thought when he learned the Jackets were bound for the Emerald Bowl.
Said Daniels: “We got screwed.”
Said Stamus, turning to his cameraman: “We won’t use that part.”
The Jackets have become connoisseurs, for want of a better word, of the far-flung fete. Over the last five winters, Tech has been an invited guest in Seattle, San Jose, Boise and now San Francisco. (Last December’s rare appearance in the Eastern Time Zone — the Champs Sports Bowl in Orlando — happened only because Virginia decided to take exams rather than travel the week before Christmas.) That’s some recruiting pitch: Sign with us, young man, and you’ll cover more Western terrain than Lewis and Clark.
“I’d never been to California before my freshman year [meaning the Silicon Valley Classic],” said Chris Reis, the safety from Roswell. “And I’d never been to Boise [the Humanitarian Bowl].”
These weren’t complaints Reis was issuing; they were, on the contrary, endorsements of the broadening that comes with travel. Every collegiate player’s preference would be to suit up in Pasadena on Jan. 4, 2006, but only the heavyweights Southern Cal and Texas get to do that. “You always want to be in a bigger bowl,” Reis said. Failing that, what’s wrong with seeing some sights and making a few memories?
“I don’t think any of the guys wanted to go to Boise,” Daniels said, “but that was a great trip. A lot of us had never snow-skiied or snowmobiled before. I think about that a lot.”
He also has reason to recall the game itself. Daniels gained 307 yards against Tulsa that day, the second-biggest rushing yield in school history. So maybe something good with happen against Utah in SBC Park, which isn’t the place the 49ers play but is instead the baseball stadium that nuzzles up to San Francisco Bay. (And please, no jokes about Reggie Ball overthrowing Calvin Johnson so egregiously that the ball splashes in McCovey Cove.)
Speaking of whom: Ball can cite chapter and verse on how a mediocre bowl can generate an outsized return. He arrived in Orlando not sure if he’d be Tech’s quarterback in 2005, and he left as the bowl MVP, left having thrown a hammerlock on the job. Some Jackets will think unkind thoughts about the Emerald — which is named for a snack nut, not some rare gem — but not Mr. Ball.
“It’s just an opportunity to play another game,” he said. “That’s all I wanted. Once I knew we had that, I was satisfied.”
Is Tech too good for its bowl? Absolutely. You beat two Top 10 teams and finish the regular season in the Top 25, and your reward is a 6-5 opponent on a Thursday afternoon in Barry Bonds’ bailiwick? “I thought we’d be going somewhere else,” Daniels said, “but this is just how everything unfolded. Other teams didn’t go where they thought they would — Boston College, for example. You have to make the best of it.”
And surely the Jackets will. The Silicon Valley flop against Fresno State notwithstanding, they’ve become the scourge of the lower-rung bowls. They’ve won their last two postseason games by the aggregate score of 103-24, and they should hang five or six touchdowns on Utah. And they’ll ride the famous trolley and take a tour of Alcatraz and come back with a big trophy and be home in plenty of time to watch the big bowls on TV.
Permalink | Comments (152) | Categories: Mark Bradley, Tech / ACC
Food for thought: Cox or Schuerholz?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff D'Alessio
Hey all, AJC college sports editor Jeff D’Alessio here. Lots of good feedback so far. Keep it coming. We’re whittling down the list.
Here’s another couple questions for you to ponder as we ponder our Sports Person of the Year pick: Who deserves more credit for the Braves’ improbable 14th consecutive division title: Bobby Cox, who managed the Baby Braves to the NL East crown, or general manager John Schuerholz, who assembled the team?
And which player deserves more consideration — hometown hero Jeff Francoeur or home run hitter Andruw Jones?
Permalink | Comments (73) | Categories: Sports Person of the Year
Steinbrenner again shows why he’s the best
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
All hail, King George. As if it wasn’t already apparent, Mr. Steinbrenner is the greatest owner in baseball history.
No, sports history.
This Johnny Damon thing is just another example of how Steinbrenner will do whatever he thinks is necessary to keep the Yankees working toward world championships.
That’s opposed to, oh, say, toward division titles (hello, Braves).
It’s all about mindset. Steinbrenner HAS to win, but the majority of his peers in sports only would LIKE to win. Even during the 1980s and parts of the 1990s, when the Boss used to throw foolish money at big names, his heart always was in the right place.
Now the Yankees are talking about a new Murderers’ Row of Damon, followed by Derek Jeter, A-Rod, Gary Sheffield, Jason Giambi, Hideki Matsui … I mean, wow. Teams are shivering already, and not because of the December breezes.
Commissioner Bud Selig should hand this year’s World Series trophy to Steinbrenner right now — just for his effort, if nothing else.
Permalink | Comments (24) | Categories: Quick Hit, Terence Moore
PGA changes still causing confusion
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Furman Bisher
A quiet has fallen over golf in the U.S. these wintry weeks and that catches a lot of us sitting on the edge of our chairs, an uneasy society. The PGA Tour is in the last year of the old Tour as we have known it. Commissioner Tim Finchem sprung all this on us when the Tour Championship visited East Lake in November, and it came out sounding like a spin-off of NASCAR, a kind of points system that even at lot of the race car drivers don’t appear to care for.
The tour players themselves aren’t exactly sure what to make of it, mainly because a lot of the commissioner’s presentation included such phrases as “that’s still in the works,” and “it’s going to take several months to get that sorted out,” and “we feel very bullish about it.”
But about what? As Billy Andrade said the other day, “We’re all sort of in the dark right now,” and that speaks for the lot of us.
“There will be a points system, but we all know the World Rankings have been a puzzle all along,” he said. “The Ryder Cup system has been changed to put the emphasis on the second year. Will there be a new point system (for the FedEx Cup), or what will it be?”
I remember something Greg Norman once said: “The PGA Tour plays things close to the chest. You really don’t know what’s going on until Finchem decides to say something and then when he says something he really doesn’t tell you anything.”
Of course, Norman and Finchem have been at odds ever since the commissioner shot down Norman’s plan for a world tour, which he then established on his own. Tour players have little grounds for a beef with the commissioner. When he moved into Deane Beman’s chair, total prize money on the tour came to $56 million a year. It has since soared to about $252 million, which should get him a round of applause until you consider that that’s about the size of the 10-year contract Alex Rodriguez signed with the New York Yankees.
Did you notice the other day that both Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson said they wouldn’t be playing in the Mercedes Tournament of Champions in January. Mickelson had already pulled out of the Tour Championship. Said he just didn’t care to play any more golf. Woods said he needed “some off-season.” Did it ever occur to him that he might have taken a pass on the Skins Game and his Target Championship and got a headstart on refueling that much earlier?
There’s an ugly supposition that the guys at the top are making too much money already. This, though, is the year when all this shakes down. The television contracts expire after 2006. Negotiation begins and Finchem has his new points plan to present to the networks. You hear all sorts of gossip, that ABC is wearying of it all, that even the Tour itself is thinking about creating its own network, which would fly in the face of the Golf Channel, and the truth is, nobody has an inkling. About the only thing we’re sure of is that The Players Championship will be moved to May.
Finchem’s points plan is aimed at getting the Tour Championship on the board in September and out of the way of football’s television onslaught. The FedEx Cup would be a tour within a tour, leading up to the Tour Championship, about six or seven tournaments to follow, both ending the season and starting the next. (Beg pardon?) Oh, well, if you are confused, consider Billy Andrade and the guys of the tour and the addled heads of those of us who write about it.
The last two times contract negotiations came up, Tiger Woods has been the tour’s ace card. There are no guarantees with him. If he decides to start staying home, bad news. Or what if he decides to start his own tour? Perish the thought.
Permalink | Comments (7) | Categories: Furman Bisher, Golf
Blank insists Falcons moving in right direction
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
Owner Arthur Blank spoke with the Journal-Constitution’s Jeff Schultz about the state of the Falcons and said, among other things, he would not consider the season a failure if the team missed the playoffs.
Q: As soon as Saturday, you could be out of the playoffs. Can you contrast that to how you felt a year ago?
A: As soon as Saturday, we may still be in the playoffs. My attitude is we’ve still got two games left to play, we’re going to go out and play them, and until we’re eliminated, we’re not eliminated. The team hasn’t played with consistency, but we’ve won eight games and we’ve got two to go. We have to get some help, and we’re not in the condition we’d like to be in. But when was the last time this team could not win two games in a row?
Q: But it’s safe to say it’s not a situation you expected to be in.
A: It’s not a situation we like to be in. I’d much prefer to be on top of our division where we control our own destiny.
Q: In a sense, do you feel jolted, given the season that you were coming off, the season-opening win over Philadelphia and the high expectations that followed?
A: The issue is there’s two weeks to go. We have a reasonable chance of winning those two games, and hopefully we can get some help and find a way into the playoffs.
Q: You seem a lot calmer than I think you actually are.
A: I’m not angry. Am I jumping up and clicking my heels, no. But our players and our coaches aren’t either. My viewpoint has always been a long-term viewpoint. That’s the most important thing for our fans and the folks in this building. If we make the playoffs this year, it’ll be three out of three years when Mike’s [healthy and played]. If we don’t make it, it’ll still be two out of three years. We’re doing a lot of things well, we’re playing a lot of young guys, and that bodes well for the future.
Q: Most people don’t focus on next year or the year after. They focus on today.
A: They do, but you have to focus on today as well as tomorrow. You can’t run a football club or a company from year to year. We’re trying to build toward something, something that will be a sustained winning organization over a long period of time. I’m happy with our decisions in the personnel department. I’m happy with the coaching. Is every game perfect? No. But it’s Week 16 and we’re still in the hunt.
Q: Last season, the first of the regime with Rich McKay and Jim Mora, it seemed like just about everything went right. This may sound harsh, but in some way did you think you had it all figured out?
A: No. What I’ve said consistently is I want our team to be in the hunt every year. Is this year better than last year? Clearly it’s not, but the year’s not over yet.
Q: If you don’t make the playoffs, is the year a failure?
A: No, it’s not a failure. Does it mean I’ll be disappointed? Yes. But it’s not a failure. We’ve played hard. We’ve won a lot of games. Our players, both young and old, will be more comfortable with the schemes. So I don’t think we’d be failures.
Q: Try selling that to fans.
A: NFL fans today, including those in Atlanta, don’t expect you to be in the playoffs every single year. That’s unreasonable to expect, unless you’re the Braves. It’s become a birthright for them. Given the parity in the NFL, we want to be competitive every year. We want it so that two out of three years, three out of five, we’re in the playoffs. The question to me is: Are you moving in the right direction. The answer to me is that we are. There’s no sense of defiance in the building. There’s no sense of defensiveness.
Q: But wouldn’t you agree that whether you make the playoffs or don’t make the playoffs impacts how you evaluate the team after the season?
A: I’m not sure. Take last year. Other teams in our division played horribly. Let’s assume we got to the playoffs with a 9-7 record. Would I feel good about that? No. It’s not just a question of getting there, but how did you get there and what did you do with that opportunity. Last year I was happy with the way we competed. We can’t use injuries as an excuse. But you do have to look at that this year and ask: How did it affect us?
Q: But people don’t want to hear that.
A: I know, and I don’t use that as an excuse. The year Michael broke his leg — it was a reality, that was a factor. The injuries we’ve sustained this year are significant. But, yeah, other teams have had them, too.
Q: New England won a Super Bowl despite injuries. So your injuries not withstanding, what would it tell you if you didn’t reach expectations?
A: It would tell me that we’re dealing with an industry that, by design, is very competitive. And that we probably didn’t play with the consistency we need to play with.
Q: Is it inconceivable, or even up for debate, that you would make changes in the personnel department or coaching staff if you don’t make the playoffs?
A: That would be the worst kind of knee-jerk reaction. We studied every club who are winners on a consistent basis and they had that batting average I spoke of — two out of three years, three out of five. One thing you see with those organizations is staying the course. You don’t swap out coaches every year. You don’t swap our general managers. It’s so disruptive to what you’re trying to do that you don’t go up, you go back a year or two. We’ll look at the whole roster again, and we’ll do that with our marketing people and the whole organization. Do we have the best people, the right people, to best move us forward?
Q: I asked that because at various times this season, people have wanted to tie [defensive coordinator] Ed Donatell or [offensive coordinator] Greg Knapp to their front bumper.
A: You’re exactly right. Sometimes we haven’t been consistent on offense or defense. But you have to ask yourself: Are they making the right decisions? Are we moving in the right direction? I think we are. Sometimes it shows up immediately. Sometimes it doesn’t show up for a year or two.
Q: So as a fan and owner, when you’re watching your offense struggle in Chicago, whom do you focus on: the quarterback or the offensive coordinator?
A: I focus on the whole team. Obviously Michael gets the ball every play, and to some extent how Michael goes that’s how we’ll go on offense. But that’s not always true because we’re a running team, and that’s not all Michael Vick. But, yeah, you get frustrated.
Q: Do you want to make a prediction for the Tampa Bay game?
A: We understand if we don’t win, it is over. I feel like our team isn’t intimidated and we’ll go down there and play hard and do whatever it takes to win. How it ends up at the end of day, I don’t know. Obviously I’m betting on our team.
Permalink | Comments (181) | Categories: Falcons / NFL, Jeff Schultz
Mora couldn’t just chill out in Chicago
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
Flowery Branch — Hopefully, for the sake of the Falcons and those within swinging distance of her husband on the sideline, Shannon Mora is correct. She once told me that, even though your eyes may disagree at times, Jim Mora isn’t out of control. “I know him, and I know he’s not losing it,� Shannon said back then, reflecting on nearly 25 years of watching the guy up close and personal. “He’s just emotional, and he’s really into it, but he knows exactly what he’s doing.�
Whatever the case, Jim Mora needs to calm down.
Like now. To say that Mora is highly intense is to say that it was sort of chilly in Chicago on Sunday night when the Falcons coach heated up the temperatures around single digits by slinging a fist in anger a few feet away from an official after his idea of a blown call. Somehow, he escaped punishment from the same NFL judicial system that fined Kansas City Chiefs defensive coordinator Gunther Cunningham $5,000 for extending his middle finger toward an official.
Guess Cunningham should have extended his fist, or maybe Mora is just lucky, and I mean very lucky. There have been other examples of Mora’s rage during his two seasons with the Falcons. Just last month, he spent part of a home game rushing between screaming at an official on the field and grabbing a phone behind the Falcons bench while pointing and screaming some more.
Excitable is fine for a coach. Vince Lombardi was excitable, but he kept his hands in his pocket. Then you had excitable coaches who didn’t. Among other things, Bobby Knight threw a chair across a court, and Woody Hayes threw a punch at an opposing player’s head.
All I’m saying is that Mora should be careful. I mean, Jim, do you think that you’re a little too intense?
“No, I don’t think so. I think I’ve really learned to balance it,� said the easygoing version of Mora on Monday at the Falcons’ practice facility. “I was not intense at that moment [Sunday night toward the official]. I was irritated by the call. I really feel like I’ve learned how to balance the intensity and the passion with rationale, and that comes with maturing as a coach and with maturing as a person.�
Rich McKay agrees with Mora’s analysis of Mora, which is wonderful news for Mora. After all, McKay is Mora’s boss as Falcons general manager. When McKay speaks about Mora’s temperament on game days, you can’t tell if you’re hearing McKay or Shannon Mora. For instance: “Jim’s a very prepared guy, so there’s not a lot of things that happen in a game that aren’t anticipated,� McKay said. “Sometimes there are, but I think he has pretty good control over that, because he’s always in good communication with his coaches. Sometimes he can get pretty passionate, but I always view that as a positive, and I think the players do, too.�
Yeah, well. Three things here, and two of them aren’t good. First, McKay is right about Mora functioning as a player’s delight. No NFL coach brings more energy to a roster. Courtesy of Mora’s fire, he has turned what often was a team without a spark into an inferno.
As for the bad, let’s start with this: If you go by Shannon Mora and McKay, Jim’s explosion against officials Sunday night on national television was calculated. That’s not the bad part. More than a few coaches and managers have screamed at referees and umpires at crucial times with hopes of inspiring their players from a deficit to a victory. Here’s the bad part: Contrived or otherwise, no coach or manager should do what Mora did. He was so wound up over that call down the stretch of the Falcons’ beating at the claws of the Bears that he ranted and raved within striking distance of officials while yelling something unprintable for a family newspaper.
Worse, if you don’t go by Shannon Mora and McKay, Jim’s tirade wasn’t calculated. That would mean that he really was out of control. That also would mean that he really should take a few deep breaths these days and count to 5,000 or more — you know, the amount of the fine that he somehow didn’t get from the NFL.
Permalink | Comments (75) | Categories: Falcons / NFL, Terence Moore
Who is Georgia Sports Person of the Year?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
AJC
Andruw Jones did his best Hammerin’ Hank at Turner Field.
D.J. Shockley drove Georgia to its second SEC championship of the decade.
And Jeff Francoeur … well … what else is there left to say?
Which Georgia sports personality do you think had the most significant impact in 2005? Was it Marietta tennis star Robby Ginepri, who made Andre Agassi sweat at the U.S. Open? Michael Vick, who had the Falcons a win away from the Super Bowl? How about Hawks GM Billy Knight for giving ex-owner Steve Belkin the cold shoulder in a Boston court room?
Let us know by nominating your favorite athlete, coach or executive here. We’ll name our Georgia Sports Person of the Year on Jan. 2.
Permalink | Comments (332) | Categories: Sports Person of the Year
My predictions…because
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
Despite all of the fancy moves during the offseason by the Mets, they’ll still finish behind Atlanta. Why? Well, because they always do.
Georgia Tech football players will spend another season with a shocking victory – and a shocking loss. Why? Well, because they always do.
Somebody will take a chance on Terrell Owens and Ron Artest, and then both players will make national news for something absolutely ridiculous. Why? Well, because they always do.
We’ll still be talking about the Falcons’ lack of a passing game, and whether Mike Vick has progressed or regressed with his arm. Why? Well, because we always do.
The Hawks will continue as the team that nobody outside of their locker room really talks about. Why? Well, because they’re the Hawks.
I predict…
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
- One year from today, the Braves will still be for sale and Steve Greenberg, the investment banker handling the case, will still claim “phones are ringing off the hook.” Never mind that the only thing that will really energize the fan base - and therefore increase the value of the team — is winning another World Series.
- Terrell Owens will have only one team make him an offer this off-season, and he’ll take it. Fortunately, he’ll will be somewhat humbled by the market and the Dallas Cowboys will get one of the best receivers in football for $6.50 an hour — plus tips.
- The Indianapolis Colts will not win the Super Bowl. They won’t even get there. (It’s all about going against the grain.)
- The Atlanta Spirit will go 1 for 2. The Hawks will lose the lottery. The Thrashers will make the playoffs for the first time in franchise history — and they’ll win a round, setting up a second-round series with Ottawa and Dany Heatley.
- Dan Kolb returns to Atlanta as the Milwaukee Brewers’ closer, blows a save opportunity in the ninth — and for the first time at Turner Field gets a standing ovation.
Cold truth is Falcons just aren’t that good
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
Chicago — They might still make the playoffs, but the bigger question was answered here on a night as wretched as their performance. Even if the Falcons somehow wriggle into the postseason, they won’t linger there long. They’re just not that good. They’re not good enough to go on the road and beat a big-time team. Heck, they’re not even good enough to score a touchdown against one.
Two weeks after losing 24-6 in Charlotte, the Falcons lost 16-3 in the frigid grip of Bear Weather. The Chicago Bears aren’t much on finesse, but they didn’t have to be Sunday night. Their defense never let Michael Vick get started. Their defenders hit hard, and the Falcons’ offense couldn’t hit back. On the first play of the second half, the famous Vick was reduced to catching one of his own passes, the ball having been redirected by the onrushing Alex Brown.
This time a year ago, the Falcons were a bold and resourceful team. Now they’re the sort of aggregation that will spend the week — and probably the offseason — blaming the fates and the refs. They’re not stout enough to overcome a bad bounce or a bad call. They’re not precise enough to sustain any sort of offense against any sort of defense. They’re 8-6, ninth in the playoff pecking order with two games to go. They still have a fighting chance, but they haven’t showed much fight lately.
Nobody said it would be easy here, not on a night when temperature at kickoff was 12 degrees, five degrees colder than in the snow-blown NFC championship game in Philadelphia. The Falcons made it even harder on themselves by settling for an early field goal by calling three consecutive runs in the red zone, and then the Bears, who’d done nothing to that point, popped a long reverse and the game changed.
There was a time when the Falcons might have changed it back, but it was clear by halftime that the Bears were simply outhitting the thin-blooded visitors. And then the home side benefited from two plays so weird that you wondered, not for the first time, if Somebody Up There really doesn’t want the Falcons to stack winning seasons end to end.
The first was a flashing Keion Carpenter interception that became — yikes! — a crushing Keion Carpenter fumble, the ball nudged loose by a teammate’s inadvertent bump. That led to the game’s only touchdown. Then, down 16-3, Vick mustered up his best series of the night, throwing precise passes and driving his team goalward. He found Michael Jenkins down the left side, but Mike Green whomped Jenkins, who lost the ball at some point. Replays seemed to show that Jenkins was down before the ball popped free, but apparently Bear Rulings walk hand in hand with Bear Weather. The bizarre interception stood, sending Jim Mora into a cursing and gesticulating — and penalized — tizzy.
The game was probably gone by then, but soon there came a sequence that illustrated the difference between these teams. When in doubt, the Bears simply hit somebody harder. When faced with third-and-1 and then fourth-and-1, the Falcons twice handed the ball to T.J. Duckett, their big hammer, and twice he got hammered.
We all marveled at the resolve the Falcons summoned up to beat Philly that night in September, but that was a long time ago and the cold truth — a truth colder even than Bear Weather — is that they haven’t been half as forceful since. They’ve lost four of their past six, and nothing that happened here, or in Charlotte, suggests that they’re gathering speed for a closing kick. They came here with a point to prove, and instead they proved something rather different: They proved they’re just not that good.
Permalink | Comments (343) | Categories: Falcons / NFL, Mark Bradley
Spirit LLC no longer hangs by a thread
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
What’s this we see? Blue skies?
“Yes, I do see the clouds lifting,” Michael Gearon said Saturday night. A basketball team that starts 2-16, then wins three of four? A hockey team that roller-coasters through the first third of the season, then goes 4-0-1?
What happened to Atlanta Spirit LLC (Losingest Losers Consolidated)?
“We’ve taken some lumps,” Gearon said.
He was standing in the Bank of America club at Philips Arena. At the time, the Thrashers trailed Florida 1-0 after two periods. But there was hope because Gearon apparently was dressed for success. He wore blue jeans, with a gray sweater and a blue Navy-style jacket. The ensemble is on a winning streak.
“See this outfit?” he said, when asked if he was superstitious. “I wore this for the Red Wings game [a 7-6 Thrashers win this past Tuesday]. Then I wore it [Friday] night for the Hawks game, and we beat the Knicks. I’m really not that superstitious, but I thought, ‘You know what? I’m wearing it tonight.’ I bought this coat in Europe when I was in college 20 years ago. It’s been in my closet. I hadn’t worn it for 10 years.”
Now he may not take it off. The Thrashers rallied behind rookie goalie Michael Garnett, goals by Jim Slater and Ilya Kovalchuk and Gearon’s threads Saturday night to defeat Florida 2-1.
Nobody wants to jump up and scream, “Ain’t no stopping us now!” Like superstitions, the Thrashers have learned trends are not bulletproof. But the team certainly is playing with a level of confidence and consistency now that hadn’t been evident. They have nine out of a possible 10 points in the past five games, and the only defeat in that streak came in a shootout. They are suddenly only three points behind Toronto for the last playoff spot.
“Are you coming to the Hawks game tomorrow?” Gearon said afterward. “I’ll be wearing this.”
The Hawks play Denver Sunday. There is reason to believe Carmelo Anthony may come down with a sudden virus.
Imagine the positive karma that will be generated when the paperwork is complete on the Steve Belkin exorcism.
The Thrashers have held things together in the least-expected way imaginable: with a goalie few humans outside of the team’s personnel department had ever heard of or, at the least, expected to see for a few years.
Michael Garnett has now started 12 consecutive games. That’s four short of the franchise record. He has played in 15 of the past 16. People, Michael Garnett wasn’t even expected to play in 15 out of 16 with the Chicago Wolves, let alone the Thrashers.
Yet, he now has a 7-7-2 record and has wins to his credit over two of the NHL’s best goalies, New Jersey’s Martin Brodeur (Thursday) and Florida’s Roberto Luongo (Saturday). He has allowed only three goals on 54 shots in the past two games (six periods and one overtime).
“It’s awesome. It’s crazy. It’s really fun,” Garnett said.
And that quote pretty much sums up this kid’s attitude. He has been this way since he was forced into action after the blur of injuries to Thrashers goalies. The only thing that has changed is his confidence level. The game has slowed down. He no longer stands in the crease like he has lit matches stuck between his toes.
“I’ve adjusted to this level, just like I made five other jumps in the last seven years,” Garnett said. “I’m right where I want to be right now. I’m trying to stay here as long as I can and earn a permanent spot on the team. That’s my goal.”
His teammates can read Garnett’s confidence. Team captain Scott Mellanby said, “He’s in a good mood every day. He’s handled the ups and downs of the situation well. There were nights when people have talked about our goaltending [being a problem], but we just didn’t show up. It wasn’t his fault.”
Still, Mellanby wouldn’t be baited into believing it will be all glory for the Thrashers now. “I choose not to get into that,” he said. “We just need to go out and play.”
But results suggest gloom is in the past. And if you happen to see Gearon at Philips Arena Sunday, compliment him on the outfit.
Permalink | Comments (14) | Categories: Hawks / NBA, Jeff Schultz, Thrashers / NHL
Dry numbers can’t measure any Braves sale
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Furman Bisher
So the Braves, owned by the Time Warner Corp. in New York, tenants of Turner Field in Atlanta, are for sale. And for the first time. “Time Warner has never seriously put the Braves up for sale before,” said an executive who should know.
Considering the alarm sounded across the area, the amount of space and the number of headlines devoted to this speculated transaction, it’s as if another aquarium is upon us.
You want to know what an impact this would have on Time Warner, the largest entertainment corporation in this world?
According to Merrill Lynch, the brokerage firm, the Braves amount to about .4 percent of Time Warner’s value. That’s less than a drop in a bucket. Yes, it’s important to the baseball fan in the South, but since fewer than 3 million paying guests passed through the turnstiles at Turner Field last season, it cannot be viewed as a such a pressing issue, say, as the ravages of Katrina.
Even when the Braves and Hawks were under the aegis of Ted Turner, on Turner Broadcasting’s scale of ownership, they were included among “Others.” Have we not more critical matters on our hands?
The Braves are certainly not a pressing matter to Carl Icahn, the Minneapolis investor who once controlled corporations. Icahn would bust up Time Warner and unseat the current chief executive, Richard Parsons. Turner’s downfall began when he fell under the influence of Gerald Levin and Time Warner, then AOL, who put Turner, a dashing success story in the South, in deep water. Sadly, Turner is a mere figurehead now in the life of the Braves, which he once owned and who now play in the stadium bearing his name.
Time Warner did not exactly hang a “For Sale” sign on the Braves. As it came out, the corporation merely announced that it had hired an investment banker to evaluate two assets, the Braves and Turner South, the regional channel that’s a mere blip on its screen, “which could result in their sale.” That laid Time Warner wide open to wild speculation in our precinct.
First, attention centered on Arthur Blank, which I’d suppose is a logical move, considering the rise of the Falcons against those owners of the dreary Hawks and Thrashers. However, neither the NFL nor major league baseball looks upon dual franchise ownership with favor. Blank is not viewed as a glutton for power, and the fact that he is a baseball fan, lukewarm at best, would hardly indicate that he’d care to double his load with the Braves. He is happy in his role and any interest in the Braves, in my opinion, is unimaginable.
Whatever takes place will be a long time in the process. Terry McGuirk, chairman and president, and key figures in the Braves organization have held a meeting, and it’s business as usual. Rather strangely, he had not been included in the flurry of speculation. “Whatever happens, not much will be changed,” he said. “All will probably remain in place, and that’s way, way off.”
Just about all the likely suspects have been covered. Even Stan Kasten has been rejuvenated, though his prior interest had centered on the ownerless Washington Nationals. The prospect of his rising to the fore as a Braves frontrunner are slim and none. And though Icahn once was a figure in the Minnesota Vikings, it’s safe to say the last thing in his financial planning is another sports franchise.
As a longtime shareholder in this firm, beginning with 100 shares of Turner Broadcasting years ago, the plight of the Braves is of little concern as an investor. As a guy who grew up on baseball, it’s in my blood. Talk about overreaction: This has taken our people by the throat.
But that’s baseball for you. That’s the game, and let us not forget, this is not a matter of business, it’s a matter of heart.
Permalink | Comments (17) | Categories: Braves / MLB, Furman Bisher
Weekend Predictions
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
Falcons forecast: Cold, defeat
Before launching into this week’s big game between the Chicago Bears and Michael’s Vick’s ribs, we have an update from the intersection of sports and far more important stuff.
Penthouse Magazine announced this week it will host a party Super Bowl week in Detroit featuring female brain surgeons (or not) wearing a full length coat of body paint, and possibly an earring. Penthouse therefore joins Playboy, Maxim and FHM in a combination of Super Bowl week parties that should help the Detroit Chamber of Commerce reach its primary objective, which is to help everybody forget that they’re in Detroit.
NFL Family Values commissioner Paul Tagliabue declined comment to Weekend Predictions, but noted that 10 percent of the proceeds from Super Soft Porn Week and the new Daunte Culpepper Check Out My Dinghy Interactive Exhibit at the NFL Experience will not go toward helping the city of New Orleans. Because, in his words, “We in the NFL are rich swine.” OK. So they were my words.
Which leads me to the Falcons. (Not really. But I’m running out of space.)
I don’t have a medical degree, but there are at least three things I know about bruised ribs: 1) It hurts to inhale; 2) It hurts to exhale; 3) It hurts to be hit by Brian Urlacher. Even if you use really good body paint.
The Falcons are coming off a short week. As the season has gone on, they’ve been pushed around on both lines with increasing regularity, They are not physical. They are not even partly physical. They’re barely “ph.”
Vick is tender. I don’t mean that in Elvis way. The Bears’ defense is banged up in the secondary but they’re fine up front. After allowing Pittsburgh 190 yards rushing last week, I’m also assuming they’re not real happy.
It will be cold tonight. The forecast calls for a low of 6, or minus-712 with the windchill. Cold, Urlacher, sore ribs. Bad threesome.
I know it’s Michael Vick vs. Kyle Orton. I know the Falcons feel like they have to win the game to make the playoffs, and they’re probably right. I know not being invited to the Penthouse party explains my bad mood. But wins over the Saints and Lions in the last five weeks don’t tell me this is their kind of game.
Chicago wins and covers 3.
FOUR BAGS
• Chargers at Colts: San Diego blew a home game to Miami, meaning it’s basically a three-team race (Chargers, Steelers, Chiefs) for one AFC wild-card spot (Jacksonville gets the other). Soon, a two-team race. Then there’s Indy, which is merely challenging teams from other decades. And planets. Colts make it 14 straight to tie ‘72 Dolphins — and cover the 7 1/2.
• Cowboys at Redskins: Wow, a Dallas-Washington game that actually matters again. Bill Parcells loosened up the offense last week against Kansas City (445 yards, 31-28 win) and is getting a little tired of griping from his players. He said he offered his whistle to them, but snapped, “No one has stepped up and taken it.” If Bill is grumpy, things are good. This team is going to the playoffs. Take the gift 3 but Dallas wins this straight up.
THREE BAGS
• Steelers at Vikings: So I get the whole “indecent conduct” and “disorderly conduct” charges against four Vikings. But why is the third, “lewd or lascivious conduct.” Can’t you just pick one, or is the prosecutor still breaking down game tape via Spectravision? On land, Minnesota has won six straight. I’m thinking that takes a back seat this week. Back seat — it’s an expression! Steelers cover 3.
TWO BAGS
• Eagles at Rams: The three greatest moments in the Civil Rights Movement: 1) March on Washington; 2) Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat on the bus; 3) Donovan McNabb, back when he was a running quarterback. I think I speak for every Philadelphia fan when I say, let’s just forget about the game this week and have the head of the NAACP and its Philadelphia chairman go at it. Rams cover 3 1/2.
• Ark of the Lost Raiders: Kerry Collins was so bad that Oakland’s coach decided last week to start Marques Tuiasosopo, who responded by throwing for 124 yards, with two interceptions, two fumbles and six sacks. Hey look! Cleveland’s getting 3! Browns in an upset.
• Panthers at Saints: The last thing Jim Haslett needed to do was provide another example of why he’s a knucklehead. But he did so this week when he benched Aaron Brooks for the season and said: “It’s not an indictment of Aaron whatsoever.” Right. Remember that when Haslett is fired in three weeks and the Saints announced, “It’s not an indictment of Jim whatsoever.” Carolina covers 9.
• Bengals at Lions: As a Web crawler, I’ve got to give the nod to FireMattMillen.Net over FireMattMillen.com. It has an old picture of Millen (the player) slugging former Patriots general manager Patrick Sullivan and a free video game where you try to hit Millen (the target) moving around the stadium. I’m sorry, you expected something on zone coverages? Bengals cover 7 1/2.
• Jets at Dolphins: Nick Saban won’t win Coach of the Year but nobody has done more with less this season. The Fish have won three straight and have beaten three playoff contenders (Broncos, Panthers, Chargers). And if they lose to the Jets, I take it all back. Miami covers 8 1/2.
• Seahawks at Titans: Seattle has won nine straight and its last two by a combined 83-3. If the Seahawks keep this up, somebody might start to think they’ll actually win a playoff game this year. Naaaw. No blowout today, but 7 is covered.
• Phoney Niners at Jaguars: If things break right, Jacksonville could clinch its first playoff berth since 1999. The Niners counter with a perfect chemical imbalance: 32nd in offense, 32nd in defense. Jags win but won’t cover 15 1/2.
“KURT BROWNING’S GOTTA SKATE V” ON NBC
• Cardinals at Texans: I don’t know how much Texans owner Bob McNair is paying Dan Reeves as a consultant for six weeks, but it would seem to me the analysis is going to be fairly straightforward: Dude, your team stinks. Houston covers 1.
• Packers at Ravens: Monday Night Football has gone from a centerpiece to that indefinable substance that wraps itself around the hair you pull out of the drain. Eeeoo. Could be a big week for Brett Favre. I think he finally found a quarterback he’s better than, although I’m not sure because I can’t remember who starts for Baltimore. Take the 3 1/2 — and the Pack in a straight upset.
DOWN THE STRETCH
(I was starting to get too good. So I had to blow a few on purpose last week.)
Last week: 12-4 straight up; 4-9-3 against the line
Fiscal season: 134-56 straight up; 102-80-8 against the line
Permalink | Comments (14) | Categories: Falcons / NFL, Jeff Schultz
Ex-Hawk Glenn honors African-American heroes
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
Nothing causes eyes to bulge more around Mike “Stinger” Glenn than when the old player and broadcaster for the Hawks uses his new role as philosopher and historian to tell the truth about Babe Ruth.
Let’s just say that whenever the conversation involves baseball’s all-time elite trio regarding home runs, Glenn doesn’t bother to mention the slugger who made pinstripes famous.
“The three guys with the most home runs are Hank Aaron, Willie Mays and Barry Bonds,” said Glenn, defiantly but pleasantly, before recalling what he usually hears after such a statement. “It gets people shouting, ‘Oh, Babe Ruth. You forgot him.’ And I’ll quickly say, ‘Nah. I’m talking about in integrated play. Babe Ruth played in a white league. I don’t think anybody should forget any of [Ruth’s] accomplishments. At the same time, we also have to acknowledge the great accomplishments of [African-American] forefathers and foremothers, including the father of athletics in America.”
He wasn’t Babe Ruth, by the way. He was Tom Molineaux, Glenn’s wonderful obsession these days. Molineaux was a freed enslaved man from Virginia who fought for the heavyweight championship of the world in London around the turn of the 19th century. We’re talking about 1810. Not only that, since Sunday is the 195th anniversary of Molineaux’s bout, Glenn will commemorate it all by launching a national tour of his rare collection involving African-American sports heroes with a free exhibit called “From Molineaux to Michael.”
That’s Michael as in Jordan, not Vick. The exhibit will take place at 3 p.m. inside of historic Ebenezer Baptist Church. Glenn laughed when thinking of the gathering, which will include local dignitaries, and said, “We’ll even have a cake with Molineaux’s picture on it and words of gratitude. This man impacted overall history, because there was so much slavery in the world and talk that blacks were inferior, and then, boom. Here was this guy fighting for a world championship from America during the Colonial period when this country wasn’t respected in athletics. It put us on the map.”
If you’re wondering, Molineaux battled Englishman Tom Cribb for 31, 32, possibly 33 rounds (the records are incomplete) and was robbed. Thrice, if not more. Most strikingly, during the 19th round of what was a bare-fisted mix of boxing and wrestling, Molineaux pinned Cribb against the ropes for the longest time. A mob rushed the ring to pry Molineaux’s hands from the defending champ. At the end, a groggy Cribb was declared the winner over a groggy Molineaux.
Even so, Molineaux’s legacy lives, with an assist from Glenn, more noted for his shooting than his passing. During his decade as an NBA guard that included four seasons with the Hawks, he was as cerebral as he is now, but in a different way.
It was in the business way. “My last year with the Knicks, I got my stockbroker’s license and worked for Merrill Lynch, and I also got my MBA during the offseason,” said Glenn, a Snellville resident after growing up near Rome, where his parents were educators. In fact, he was his mother’s student in the third, fourth and fifth grades, and he had to recite quotations of historical figures on a daily basis.
Such memories resurfaced during Glenn’s broadcasting career with the Hawks when he spent his free time on the road in ways other than dissecting the Wall Street Journal. “I began to go to museums, rare book stores, auctions, and I was constantly reading about these different events in the past involving African-American athletes. I also started collecting items,” said Glenn, with items from the noted, such as Jesse Owens, and also from the obscure, such as Isaac Burns Murphy, the first jockey to win three Kentucky Derbys.
Glenn will take those items from Ebenezer, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s home church, to college campuses and elsewhere. When the tour ends, Glenn wants to have revolutionized how folks put sporting events into perspective.
“In a lot of cases, black athletes are made to be invisible, like they don’t have a history beyond a certain point,” Glenn said. “Folks will talk about the White Sox winning their first world championship since 1917. But why not mention, ‘Oh, by the way: The Chicago American Giants won 100 games that same year?’ They challenged anybody who would play them, and they may have been the best in the world.”
Folks could mention that.
Just like they could mention that Josh Gibson was better than Babe Ruth.
Permalink | Comments (13) | Categories: Hawks / NBA, Terence Moore
It’s all downhill for next Braves owner
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
The next Braves owner will be a failure. The next owner could be a He (like Arthur Blank, who would surely want to coach third base from the seventh inning on) or a She (like Jane Fonda, whose first order of business would be to rename the ballpark) or an It (like the ultra-unsuccessful Atlanta Spirit LLC), but the result will be the same. This buyer of this property had best beware. Nothing in the future will ever match what we’ve just seen.
The Braves have won 14 consecutive division titles. Many have argued that division titles don’t mean anything, but those voices are simply wrong. The measure of a team is in the sixth-month regular season, not in the alternate reality of the truncated playoffs. Since 1990, the Braves have sustained the best brand of baseball the game has ever known.
Think of any form of new ownership as Gene Bartow. He inherited UCLA basketball in 1975 and was a demonstrably excellent coach, but he had no chance of succeeding in Westwood because he followed the best there ever was. Bobby Cox and John Schuerholz are the baseball equivalent of John Wooden. Just as Wooden won with every sort of team, Cox and Schuerholz have finished first with all manner of aggregations. These men are the best in their business, maybe the best in the history of their business.
And they are, alas, closer to the end than the beginning. Cox is 64, Schuerholz 65. They’re under contract through the end of next season, and after that nobody knows. But it was telling that Leo Mazzone, the loyal first lieutenant, just bolted for Baltimore. If he’d known this seamless regime — “seamless” being a favorite Schuerholz word — had 10 more years in it, he wouldn’t have budged.
New ownership might get a year or two from Cox and Schuerholz, but surely not much more. And then new ownership would have to find a new GM and a new manager, and there aren’t any next Schuerholzes or next Coxes. Their pairing was a harmonic convergence engineered by Stan Kasten, who might or might not be part of the Braves’ future, and a check of Kasten’s resume shows that this inspired move was a one-off. (Let’s think. How’d that Babcock-Kruger tandem fare?)
New ownership promise to spend money, and soon it will learn that money spent guarantees nothing. (If it did, the Yankees, who haven’t won a World Series since 2000, would have taken 10 consecutive championships.) Then ownership will seek to cut payroll without a dropoff in performance and only Schuerholz has mastered that trick. So then new ownership will fire somebody and seek to start anew, and the Braves will officially have become Just Another Team.
The Braves of the last 15 years have been the best and brightest organization in professional sports, and we Atlantans have been spoiled rotten by their, ahem, seamless excellence. We’ve persisted in wanting more, failing to grasp that what we’ve been given is without precedent. We’ve seen a team go out every spring and finish first over every single completed season, and we’ve come to take this as our civic birthright. We’ll learn soon enough how it is to follow the Phillies or the Mets or the Orioles or the Dodgers, teams that spend big and try hard but never quite get there.
The realists among us have known all along that this run can’t continue forever. That it has gone on this long is a blessing of the sweetest kind. Any new owners will face the grim task of presiding over the end of a golden era. Any new owners will, three years on, be asking themselves why they were so keen on buying this club in the first place.
Permalink | Comments (72) | Categories: Braves / MLB, Mark Bradley
Against all logic, I like Falcons’ chances
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
Only an idiot makes the same mistake twice in a year — or twice in a lifetime, for that matter — so I’m officially an idiot. But I keep thinking the Falcons have a big run left in them, just as I believed the Georgia Tech basketball team had one in it. And I’m doing it for the exact same reason. And I could well be wrong for the exact same reason.
The Jackets played for the 2004 NCAA title but were a demonstrably lesser team come 2005. Being idiotic, I kept flashing back to the intrepid run to the championship game and expecting the same guys — Jack, Bynum, Elder, Schenscher — to revert to that same dauntless form. I kept doing this even though they hadn’t really showed that form on a sustained basis in the new season. In sum, I went on memory, not on the evidence at hand. And I picked Tech to reach the 2005 Final Four. And it lost badly to Louisville in Round 2.
I keep waiting for these Falcons to play the way they did in 2004 and in that smashing January playoff performance against the Rams. This team has worked 13 games now, and in only two or three has it been truly impressive. The Falcons have beaten only one team — Minnesota — that has a winning record. This rather obviously isn’t last year’s team, but I see enough of last year’s team on the field — Vick, Dunn, Duckett, Crumpler, Kerney, Brooking — that I hold out hope for a big finish.
I can see the Falcons taking two of the last three games and building the sort of momentum that would lead into an extended playoff stay. Heck, I can see them winning in Chicago this Sunday night, even though the temperature is expected to be in the teens. Then again, I figured the Falcons would go to Charlotte and play their best game of the season, and they offered up something much less.
Nothing the 2005 Falcons have yet done stamps them as a gathering force. Being idiotic, I see not just the 2005 Falcons but their more fearsome predecessor. Again, I’m going on memory. But what can I say? I believe what I believe, no matter how silly it seems. And it seems, I’ll admit, pretty silly.
Permalink | Comments (33) | Categories: Mark Bradley, Quick Hit
Blank owning Braves would be too much
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
So I was just wondering about Bobby Cox’s reaction the first time Arthur Blank comes down to the dugout to watch the last two innings of a Braves game. (Arthur: Duck.)
Since the Journal-Constitution blared, “Braves for sale” in a headline Wednesday, responses have overwhelmingly fit into two categories:
— Those who equate Time Warner’s exit with having a moon-size mole removed from the middle of your forehead;
— Those who would rejoice if Arthur Blank buys the team. And run the government. And helps Earth fulfill its potential.
None of the above makes any sense.
Let’s start with the easy one: Blank. Despite paying $545 million for the Falcons and claiming he personally will finance $150 million in Georgia Dome upgrades, I’m assuming he could leverage another some-$300 million for a baseball team. He has a high credit score. You know those come-ons you get in the mail for high-limit credit cards? Blank gets those all the time.
The problem is Blank, the man. This is no silent owner. This is someone who invests himself not only financially but also emotionally in everything he does. He not only attends Falcons games, he goes to practices and meetings. He goes to sleep thinking, “sponsorships.” He wakes up thinking, “Pass rush.” Inhale. Exhale.
These aren’t toys. This is the NFL and Major League Baseball. Running two franchises the way Blank runs things would require 48-hour days and double the body parts. It would turn an energetic, 63-year-old to mush.
Stan Kasten, who went from president of one team (Braves) to three (add Thrashers and Hawks), said Blank is a “superior talent who loves baseball.” He said, “I know he toyed with the idea” of buying the Braves two years ago, when they were for sale, and speculates he could do it.
But when asked how his own life changed when his responsibilities tripled, Kasten said: “It wasn’t the hours. It’s the emotional and mental rigors of there being a final exam every day. Your career, your livelihood hinges on a score every single night. There’s a rhythm of the year. There’s a time to play games, a time to draft, a time to sign free agents, a time to trade. But when you’re running more than one team, that’s every time of the year.”
Secondly, sports are about competition. Four pro sports teams in one city should have four owners. Franchises should not only be competitive within their league but also within their city for fan investment. It’s no different than Burger King and McDonald’s being under the same corporate roof. Sometimes, it works. But overlapping ownerships increase the possibility of conflicts and diminished competition. In Detroit, Mike Ilitch has been named among both the best and worst owners in sports. Why? Because he feeds the Red Wings prime rib and the Tigers Spam.
Now, about Time Warner. Corporate sports owners generally get bashed, presumably because most of us relate better to a face than a stock report. But there are as many bad “face” owners as there are good ones, and as many success stories as failures on the corporate side.
We have seen the Braves have cut their payroll by $20 million. It’s not that Time Warner can’t absorb the losses — $20 million to them is a Ho-Ho to us. But losses don’t look good on quarterly reports and there are stockholders to answer to. That’s what led to Time Warner selling two of their “non-core assets,” the Thrashers and Hawks.
But do you really believe a local owner would not have cut payroll? Rising salaries and declining attendance is a losing formula, regardless of who’s writing the checks.
At the risk of painting Time Warner as blemish-free, certain facts are undeniable: The Braves win. They have a nice stadium. They generally are considered a blueprint for other organizations and, with John Schuerholz and Bobby Cox, have been a model of stability.
Time Warner hasn’t been all that bad. Before you go celebrating its exit, realize that there are no guarantees with the Braves’ next owner.
The priority shouldn’t be having a face to complain to. The priority should be not having a complaint.
Permalink | Comments (79) | Categories: Braves / MLB, Jeff Schultz
Why not Artest here?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
Ron Artest to the Hawks? It’s not going to happen. This wacky but talented player who wants to leave the Indiana Pacers likely is going to the Los Angeles Clippers for Corey Maggette.
But we can dream, can’t we?
Sure Artest has more than a few problems dealing with all of those gremlins flying inside his head. Sure he’ll never be completely happy no matter where he plays or how long he plays.
He plays, though, and he plays extremely well in all aspects of the game. He also plays with enough of an edge to do two things that would help the Hawks: Make his teammates better on the court and put fannies in the empty seats at Philips Arena. He’d eventually flip out as usual, but the struggling Hawks (their two-game winning streak notwithstanding) have nothing to lose, and they could enjoy the show why it lasts.
It’s like this: If Artest for Maggette doesn’t work, the Pacers may agree to go back to the future. They could send Artest to the Hawks for former Indiana player Al Harrington, already rumored to be out of Atlanta before the NBA trade deadline.
Oh, well.
Time to wake up.
Permalink | Comments (31) | Categories: Quick Hit, Terence Moore
Could ‘85 Bears have wrangled Vick?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
Once, during a three-game stretch for the ages, the Chicago Bears did the unfathomable. With a lot of grunting, growling and grinding along the way, they mauled Detroit, Dallas and Atlanta by a composite score of 104-3.
That was the Atlanta of David Archer, not of Michael Vick.
That also was the suffocating Bears defense of 1985, not of 2005.
Which begs the question: Two decades ago, when Chicago’s NFL franchise had the second among its notorious trio known as the Monsters of the Midway, how would the Fridge, Gary Fencik, Wild Eyes (you know, Mike Singletary), Otis Wilson and the rest have dealt with the Falcons’ No. 7?
The silence over the phone from The Loop on Tuesday was replaced by a sigh before Richard Dent said, “Well, I’ll tell you one thing: During the game, Michael Vick would be looking at me quite a bit. It’s my job to make sure that you see me. I don’t care how many people you’ve got blocking me. You’re going to see me.” There was more silence, and then came the hint of a chuckle from the old defensive end who lived to smack the will out of quarterbacks while charging from the right side of the Bears’ line.
Added Dent, the best defender of his generation that nobody ever talks about, “I especially liked going against left-handed quarterbacks, because they would come right in my direction.” Vick is left-handed, by the way. The thing is, when the Falcons visit Soldier Field Sunday night, Vick needn’t worry about getting knocked silly by the combination of those wintry winds of Lake Michigan and this tough guy with the tender heart.
For one, Dent now has 45-year-old legs during his ninth year in retirement. For another, he still flings energy around, but he does so in ways other than through his body that was a speed and power machine at 6-foot-5 and 253 pounds. He’s the founder and CEO of a Chicago-based company called RLD Resources, which helps clients reduce costs for everything from natural gas to telecommunications. He also is a philanthropist through his “Make a Dent” foundation that “tries to keep kids in school, start school and finish school,” said Dent, who nevertheless has these football moments. They involve how he’d make Vick just another one of those guys that his Bears used to blast toward oblivion while they were doing their Super Bowl Shuffle to a world championship.
Said Dent, the MVP of that Bears’ Super Bowl victory, “Yeah, I’ve studied (Vick) quite a bit, and I know how I could get a jump on him. The objective is to see how a quarterback comes from underneath the center. Dan Marino used to step up on his right foot, so when he did that, you knew the ball was getting ready to be snapped. Those things allow you to get off the ball quicker, and (Vick) kind of has something like that going on with is feet. I mean, the man has speed, but can he run a circle faster than I can a straight line?”
We’ll never know. This is what we do know: Although Brian Urlacher, Alex Brown, Adewale Ogunleye and the rest of the new Monsters of the Midway have the Bears as the NFL’s No. 1 ranked defense, Dent isn’t impressed. “I really don’t see any comparison between their defense and ours,” said Dent, preferring to ignore that both are similar regarding yards allowed (270 per game for this one; 258 for the other) and points allowed (11 for this one; 12 for the other). “Yeah, but until you win a Super Bowl and have people at minus yards at halftime like we did, you can’t really say much of anything.”
In case you didn’t know, Dent is an Atlanta native, with emotional roots to the early Falcons. He was Tommy Nobis and Claude Humphrey during a football career that spanned from Atlanta’s old Murphy High School to Humphrey’s alma mater Tennessee State to an eighth-round draft pick that lasted 14 NFL seasons.
So will Dent cheer Sunday for the Bears or the Falcons? He laughed. “The Falcons had a chance to recruit me (out of college), and they didn’t like my forearms, so they didn’t want me,” he said, still laughing. “Who to cheer for? That’s a real easy one.”
Permalink | Comments (16) | Categories: Falcons / NFL, Terence Moore
Only NFL pre-empts Christmas bowl game
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Furman Bisher
Let me start this by telling you a little story. Understand, it goes back awhile, to the day when the NCAA had a conscience. It begins with Bill MacPhail, before he settled in Atlanta and became head of CNN Sports. He was sports director of the CBS network at this time in the mid-60’s and he had a brainstorm.
“I’m thinking about having a bowl game on Christmas Day in Atlanta, and we’ll call it the Santa Claus Bowl,” to be televised on CBS, of course. “Whatta you think?” he said.
Naturally, I thought positively, but first the game had to be cleared by the NCAA Committee on Post-Season Events, or whatever it was called then. The committee would be meeting in Chicago during the College All-Star Game week, and I agreed to join MacPhail and support him in his pitch.
My plane was late reaching Chicago and I was checking in at the hotel desk when I saw MacPhail coming off an elevator carrying a handbag. “Where are you going?” I asked.
“Back to New York,” he said, resignedly.
“What about the meeting?” I asked.
“It’s over. It didn’t take long,” he said. The committee was horrified, he said, at the idea of desecrating a holy holiday by playing a football game. How irreverent, how could CBS have even been so crass, or words to that effect.
So much for the Santa Claus Bowl. So much for this mad man from television, and so much for that exalted committee from the NCAA, all of whose members, I’d guess, are no longer with us. Otherwise, the NCAA’s stand on bowl games today would blow one of their gaskets or two.
We leap forward, say, 40 years. There is no Christmas Day bowl game this year, and that has nothing to do with keeping the holiday holy. It’s Sunday, and Sundays belong to the NFL. Oh, the colleges have played games on Christmas Day. I know, I covered two, the Peach Bowl in Atlanta, and the Aloha Bowl in Honolulu, the longest Christmas Day of my life. It began checking out of the hotel at 6:30 in the morning, then arriving in Atlanta the following morning at 8 o’clock.
The point here is that the NCAA has seen the light, hallelujah! The fiscal light. Fifty-six college teams will play 28 bowl (for lack of a better designation) games, beginning in Lafayette, La., on Dec. 20 and grinding to a conclusion on Jan. 4 in the Rose Bowl with a crashing of the till. Altogether, those 56 teams will be playing for over $190,000,000 in purses. That’s so institutions of higher learning, such as Texas, can afford to pay football coaches $3.6 million for the year, Mack Brown’s approximate salary. That’s so those schools may also be able to afford to pay a president $1,000,000, which is becoming the going rate at these sprawling academies.
Now, just for the record, the highest paid faculty member at University of Texas draws a salary of around $400,000, and Steven Weinberg has a Nobel Prize in physics, according to the syndicated columnist Froma Harrop. The question arises in the mind of Dr. Perry Snyder, executive director of the Phi Kappa Phi honor society, “Is Mack Brown worth nine times as much as a Nobel Prize winner?”
Of course he is, in the minds of the “Hook ‘Em Horns Society,” if there is one. Of course he is, if he takes them to the Rose Bowl, where the football team will get approximately $14 million just for showing up. These teams will keep showing up for whatever bowl, the Meineke, the MPC Computers, the Emerald, the Music City, or whatever. (And whatever became of the Weed-Eater, the Weiser Lock, the Carquest, and such old friends long forgotten?)
Don’t think any of us expects this to change. It’s just sort of an exercise in considering the evolution of college football from the purists who wouldn’t allow a bowl game on Christmas Day in the ‘60’s to the character of the school that’s more concerned about the number of players drafted by the pros than its graduation rate.
Permalink | Comments (17) | Categories: Furman Bisher, Tech / ACC, UGA / SEC
The Tuesday Countdown
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
Quoting the press release: “The Miami Heat announced today that Stan Van Gundy has resigned as head coach due to personal and family reasons.� So why is everybody in an uproar? That’s accurate. If Van Gundy didn’t resign, he would have been fired and replaced by Pat Riley, anyway, thereby causing both him and his family public humiliation. So he resigned to avoid both.
Bad things happen to good people. This was one of them. Van Gundy deserves better and any NBA team looking for a head coach should look at him. This is all about Pat Riley and his ego and wanting to get back to the bench.
That said, Riley can coach. When I covered the Lakers in Los Angeles, many nationally viewed him as overrated because of the talent he had to work with (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, Norm Nixon, Jamal Wilkes, James Worthy, et. al). In truth, he was underrated for the same reason. Few gave him credit. But this still stinks.
Anna Kournikova says she’s making a comeback on the tennis tour. She plays tennis?
Jim Mora said Michael Vick (sore ribs) is fine and will practice Wednesday and play at Chicago. I’ve certainly got no reason to doubt him when it comes to an injury report. Um, what did that press release say again?
I’m assuming Arthur Blank and Bob McNair don’t go to the same business seminars.
Blank didn’t like the power structure in the Falcons’ organization. Dan Reeves lost much of his power over personnel and eventually was fired as coach. McNair didn’t like the way things were going with in the Texans’ organization, so he has hired Reeves as a consultant. So I guess this means he’s not an idiot, anymore. Here’s wishing Reeves good luck. He deserved a better fate than he got here.
Went to temple the other night. During silent prayer, my daughter whispered, “Dear Santa, I would like…â€? We’re a confused household.
Does Dennis Felton get a bonus if he finishes with a better record than Paul Hewitt?
Michael Vick is now 3-0 on Monday night. Past Falcons quarterbacks: 6-18.
Permalink | Comments (5) | Categories: Jeff Schultz
One more win makes history, but not playoffs
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
They’re on the brink. No, not of the playoffs. On that front, there’s much work to be done and at least one team to catch. This brink involves something else. This achievement, should it come, would be at once less auspicious and more momentous. This achievement would have been 39 years in the making.
The Falcons are on the brink of consecutive winning seasons. In business since 1966, the Falcons have never had consecutive winning seasons.
One more victory will do it. Three regular-season games remain. You might think the Falcons would be a lock to win one, but nobody ever went broke underestimating this franchise. To win even once more, the Falcons will have to play better than they’ve played in a month. There are no gimmes left, and these Falcons have already proved that not even a gimme is a gimme.
They lost to 1-7 Green Bay last month, a failure that threw a wrench into the gears of progress. The Falcons have since been coughing and wheezing and trying to recalibrate themselves, and Monday night they showed John Madden and a nation of football-watchers that the process still has a ways to go. The Falcons played New Orleans, a team almost as lousy as Green Bay, and for 2 1/2 disjointed quarters they let the discombobulated Saints believe they had a chance.
The Falcons would make a play, and then they’d yield a play. They got a cheap touchdown after Joe Horn’s fumble. The Saints got a cheap touchdown after a tipped interception of a Michael Vick pass. Then the Falcons got another touchdown on a bewildering interpretation by the replay official. (Apparently you can score without the ball breaking the plane of the end zone, so long as a part of your body — Vick’s right hand, in this instance — passes over the pylon. There’s the Tom Brady Tuck Rule and now there’s the Michael Vick Pylon Bylaw.)
The Falcons got their third touchdown off a trick — Vick lined up wide and took a pitch from Warrick Dunn and threw long for Roddy White — that didn’t fool anybody but worked because White outmaneuvered the New Orleans safeties for the underthrown ball. That made it 21-10 inside the final two minutes of an interminable first half, but the Saints moved downfield against a backpedaling defense to cut the lead to four points 11 seconds before halftime.
A second Vick touchdown — same rule, different pylon — made it 28-17, and finally Antwan Lake’s sack/safety put the Saints down to stay. And here we pause to salute another Falcon feat. Entering this season, they held the worst record on Monday night of any NFL team. (They were 6-18, which is only slightly less awful than the Hawks on any night of the week.) They’re 3-0 on Monday this season, and here’s a sliver of perspective: In the ’80s and ’90s combined, this franchise won but one Monday-nighter.
If nothing else, these Falcons have made it safe to watch football on Monday again, and now they’re within a game of eradicating this organization’s most unsightly blemish. Trouble is, the Falcons’ last three games come against teams ahead of them in the standings, and the next two are on the road. If winning seasons are indeed to be stacked end to end, the final step won’t be a walkover. And now Vick has bruised ribs. Ouch.
Thirteen games in, the feeling persists that the Falcons haven’t reached peak capacity. The time is at hand. There are crags to be scaled. There’s a stigma to be cleansed. This franchise has worked four decades and has come close to the back-to-back thing only in the long-ago seasons of 1971 and ‘72. To fail now after drawing so near would be the biggest failure of all.
Permalink | Comments (147) | Categories: Falcons / NFL, Mark Bradley
Multiple personalties collide on ice again
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
A team takes a 3-0 lead. The other team scores four straight. The first team rallies to win in a shootout. Spin central refers to this as the “new NHL.” Not sure if the “H” still sounds for hockey or hooey. But I digress.
It’s no excuse. The new NHL is all about 5-on-4 or 4-on-3 or anything but 5-on-5. But the lack of flow that defines the sports now doesn’t full explain what has happened to the Thrashers. Or, more accurately, what hasn’t happened to the Thrashers.
Hockey is a free flow game. “Systems” are another way of saying, “When the puck is at point A, we do this. When the puck moves to point B, we do that.” But it has little in the way of set plays or structure.
But what teams can have, even in today’s NHL, is an identity. The Thrashers don’t have one. They have 12. They are Sybil on skates.
They opened Sunday’s game at home by falling behind 3-0 to the Chicago Blackhawks, who haven’t won a Stanley Cup since 1961 and might not win it again until 2061. Then they rallied to take a 4-3 lead only to fall in a shootout.
Here’s the rose-colored perspective: The Thrashers earned a point in the standings, giving them three out of a possible four in the past two games. Despite the team’s injury problems in goal, they aren’t close to playoff extinction with more than half the season to go.
Here’s real life: From period to period, from game to game, we still don’t know what to expect.
It’s not about the goaltending. It’s not about the blur of power plays and penalty killing situations. It’s about a team of players not having developed any sort of playing personality through 31 games.
That’s on the coach. Bob Hartley has been asked often about his team’s consistency problems. More often than not, like Sunday, he points to the rule changes. But it’s on him to make five players on the ice actually look like they’re on the same team.
“Unfortunately for coaches, you see a lot of games like this,” he said.
“You don’t know what kind of flow you’re going to get. It’s going to take weeks. Maybe it’s going to take months, it’s going to take years. The players are making huge efforts, but you still see plenty of hooking, holding and tripping. Why? Because that’s the way we taught them how to play for the last 15 or 20 years.”
But that doesn’t explain everything. It doesn’t explain trailing Chicago 3-0 after 12 minutes.
Sometimes the Thrashers look like a force. Sometimes they drift. Sometimes you witness both ends of the spectrum in a two-minute span.
There is little to their game right now that says, “This is who we are and what we do.” Because right now, guessing which direction the Thrashers will go is like anticipating the direction of a whiffleball when it’s thrown into the wind gust.
“I don’t know how to explain it, but I know the problem has to be fixed right in this room,” Bobby Holik said. “The thing is, we know how to play every game. We’re just not doing that. Words are cheap. Obviously we have a problem. A serious problem.”
Holik has been part of the problem. He admits it. A Chicago player went around him, leading to the first goal of the game. Holik came back to deliver some vicious checks and won a key face off to set up a goal by Ilya Kovalchuk near the end of the period.
But Holik was signed to be a force and prevent lulls like the one the team has been in. He was minus-2 Sunday, and is now a minus-12 on the season, worst among the team’s forwards.
“I feel a lot of responsibility — I’m a big part of it,” he said. “But we’re all looking for the exact formula to be consistent.”
The rules aren’t changing. So the team has to.
Permalink | Comments (22) | Categories: Jeff Schultz, Thrashers / NHL
Dungy knows perfectly how to reach Colts’ goal
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
No NFL coach is more of a clear thinker than Tony Dungy. So when it comes to the slew of those among the short-sighted who want the Indianapolis Colts to do the foolish (you know, whatever it takes to join the undefeated ranks of the 1972 Miami Dolphins), Dungy likely realizes that his pal Herm Edwards is wrong: You don’t play to win the game.
You play to win championships. As a result, there isn’t a reason outside of ego for the Colts to chase that shadow of aqua, coral, blue and white. The best thing that could happen to the Colts today is to leave Jacksonville at 12-1. Such an occurrence would punt away the debate that really shouldn’t be. We’re talking about the debate involving whether Dungy should rest or play his starters during the three games after this one. That is, if the Colts clinch the division and home-field advantage throughout the playoffs with a victory over the Jaguars. It would push the Colts closer to making the Dolphins’ perfect season a duet instead of a solo.
Which brings us to why this debate is irrelevant: Dungy should rest his starters with a victory today. It would give the Colts their best chance to win the Super Bowl, and you know what? It’s all about championships. I mean, it would have been nice if Walter Payton had scored a touchdown during his first and only Super Bowl, but Mike Ditka remained Mike Ditka by continuing to use William “The Fridge” Perry as his short-yardage guy. These were the same Chicago Bears who ruined their chance to join those ‘72 Dolphins by losing in the 13th week of that 1985 season to the new Dolphins.
Afterward, the Bears were so distraught that they did the cocky: They recorded “The Super Bowl Shuffle,” and they didn’t lose again until the fall of 1986.
What this means is that Dungy should remain Dungy. Among other things, no NFL coach has won more than his 76 times during the past seven years, and he also is on the verge of taking the eighth of his 10 Colts and Tampa Bay Buccaneers teams to the playoffs. He knows what he’s doing, all right, and he should do exactly what he has done in the past whenever one of his teams enters the final stretch with the playoffs already a reality.
You needn’t go further than last season, when the streaking Colts were on their way to another battle against New England for AFC supremacy and beyond. With an eight-game winning streak, Dungy rested Peyton Manning, Edgerrrin James and the rest of his stars at Denver for the meaningless finale to the regular season. The Broncos pounded their way to victory. A week later, when the two teams met in the first round of the playoffs, the Colts used their strikingly fresh group of starters to pound the Broncos before facing the Patriots.
If ever there was a time for Dungy to remain Dungy, it is now, with James owning a ridiculous 304 carries and needing a break sooner than later. Plus, what happens if Manning goes down with a fluke injury before the Colts’ championship run really starts? Can you say Jim Sorgi, as in Manning’s backup, as in goodbye championship?
Thus the reasons why a loss to the Jaguars wouldn’t be a reason for the Colts to jump into the nearby St. Johns River. This isn’t to say that the Colts should play to lose the game against a team that is good enough to win anyway. This is to say that, should the Colts happen not to win after trying their absolute best this afternoon, so be it. A Colts defeat would end all of that disruptive noise in their world regarding this and that about the ‘72 Dolphins. Mostly, a Colts defeat would allow this highly gifted team more time to concentrate on obtaining true immortality, and that involves capturing the first of several Super Bowls.
As for fake immortality, we could see something like this: The Colts sprinting like crazy to finish 16-0 during the regular season, and then huffing and puffing during the postseason as that “0” evolves into the ugliest “1” you’ll ever see.
Permalink | Comments (9) | Categories: Falcons / NFL, Terence Moore
Renteria Braves’ next rent-a-player
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Furman Bisher
It may have come to your attention that the Braves have a new shortstop. His name is Edgar Enrique Renteria, former hero athlete of the year in his native Colombia, who once hit as high as .330 and drove in 100 runs, who once played on a team that won the World Series, so maybe the bleeding hearts can loosen their tourniquets and rise from their mourning rugs now that a successor to Rafael Furcal has been located.
Notice the first four letters in his name? RENT-eria? That’s what major league baseball has become. Teams don’t own players. They “rent” them and when the lease runs out, they turn up someplace else. That’s what major league baseball has become, made up of a band of gypsies who are here today and gone tomorrow. Take Reggie Sanders, for instance. With the Cardinals, he is now playing for his seventh team in eight years. Some teams win the World Series and a few seasons later everything’s different, from manager to the broadcast team.
Remember when Arizona reached into the broadcast booth for a manager, and Bob Brenly won the Series from the Yankees, and in no time was back in the booth again. Fired. Arizona gutted the team to get Richie Sexson, who was soon wounded and out for the season.
Nobody has a record like the Marlins. This bunch has won two World Series, then dismantled both teams, and now is trying to find an escape route out of South Florida.
Edgar Renteria went from Florida to St. Louis to Boston, where he was elected “goat of the year.” Yeah, Edgar made 30 errors for the Red Sox last season. Ye gods, with all the furor swirling around Johnny Damon, Manny Ramirez, David Ortiz and the other fat David, Wells, I’m surprised they even noticed Edgar was in town.
Well, it’s not as if Furcal hasn’t made an error or two in his time, 27 in ‘02, 31 in ‘03, 24 in ‘04. And yes, he tapered off to 15 last season, and yes, in September I did conclude that he was the Most Valuable Brave, Andruw Jones and the long ball notwithstanding.
John Schuerholz has to deal with a tight budget, compared to some. You see, that’s what major league baseball has become, a game of bankroll against bankroll. “Team” is an obsolete term. It’s “every man for theirself,” as Dizzy Dean once described it.
At the end of each season, rosters are thrown up in the air and it becomes a game of fruit basket turnover. Grab what you can.
I’m sickened when one of these overpaid stiffs moves from one town to another, awkwardly pulls on a new logo over his shirt and tie and says how much he has always wanted to play there. Then there’s the guy from some town in south Georgia who signs with Baltimore because he wanted to be close to his family. Obviously he can’t read a road map.
Schuerholz worked a pretty slick deal bringing in Renteria, but maybe all the pieces aren’t in place yet.
For instance, have you noticed the absence of Wilson Betemit’s name in all of this market jabber? Not a word for a guy who hit .305 in 115 games, which I’d suppose means he’s the designated utilityman.
And what of Nomar Garciaparra, the Cub, former American League batting champion, still just 32 years old and will work for food, board and $4 million?
Now it seems the Braves’ next pressing need is for a closer, one of those one-inning wonders. The scout who recommended Dan Kolb last year should be looking for work.
Closers are a disgrace to the pitching profession. The Braves have traded away a handful who could fill the bill, and it’s my suggestion, rather than reel in somebody else’s tread-worn dude, train your own in the farm system. Then don’t trade them away, as in the cases of Jose Capellan and Roman Colon, possible candidates, I’d say.
That’s about all I have to say about this game gone off the tracks. Let’s see, we have one team without an owner, another without a general manager, another shopping around for a new nest to foul, steroids on the back burner and Congress now butting in on college football. Did I say welcome to the 21st Century?
Permalink | Comments (187) | Categories: Braves / MLB, Furman Bisher
Weekend Predictions
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
I could start this by going on and on about how great I did last week, when I went 14-2 against the spread and I went 16-0 straight up and I generally proved that nobody in the history of the world can foretell financial markets better than I can, plus, unlike Alan Greenspan, I don’t look like Abe Vigoda.
But I am not the kind of guy to brag about myself and point that out, which is why I have now typed “I” 10 times, I think. Eleven.
Instead, let me start by referring back to somebody who could not foretell the future so well. The daily calendar of famous dumb quotations that sits on my desk recently referenced the words of General George Custer, who prior to going into battle at Little Bighorn said: “I guess we’ll get through with them in a day.”
I’m thinking the Falcons had similar thoughts go through their mind before this season. But now they’re 7-5 and their defense sort of looks like the Sioux just blew through.
Fortunately, this is good for them. That’s what Jim Mora keeps telling us. Losing builds character. Losing toughens us. Losing makes us strong like bull. Like bull? Like … bull.
Actually, losing stinks. There has been a little too much sunshine amid the problems in Deflowered Branch. It’s like the kid who keeps striking out in Little League, only to hear the third-base coach yell: “Good cut!”
So does this mean if the Falcons miss the payoffs, they’ll still get participation trophies and a pizza party at Chuck E. Cheese? Because, like, I can’t wait to see what happens when Brian Scott goes to tackle a 6-year-old in the ball pit. And misses.
On Monday night, the Falcons play the Saints. Or is Custer back in Montana?
The line says 10 1/2. I don’t know how good the Falcons are, I just know they’re not good enough to be favored over anybody by 10 1/2. And I’ve heard I’m always right.
Falcons win but won’t cover.
FOUR BAGS
• Bears at Steelers: Chicago has won eight straight and Pittsburgh may miss the playoffs. That’s it. I’ve really got to stop doing drugs. Steelers win but take Chicago and 6 1/2.
• Bucs at Panthers: With the division chase pretty much dead, the Falcons will root for Carolina to beat Tampa. It’ll be almost like having Julius Peppers on the team! When was the Falcons’ last sack, anyway? The Mesozoic? Panthers cover 5 1/2.
THREE BAGS • Colts at Jaguars: Indy will lose. Just not today. Relax, Jax. The Jags have nine wins with games left against the Niners, Texans and Titans (a combined 6-30). They’re in. Colts cover 8.
• Chiefs at Cowboys: Bill Parcells said Dick Vermeil “is a very straight-forward, honest, candid guy. I like that in my profession.” This coming from the pond scum of the profession for coaching one team in the Super Bowl while negotiating with another. Gotta go with my heart: Take Chiefs in an upset (and the 3).
• Patriot Remains at Bills: Eric Moulds took himself out of the game last week, either because he had a sore Achilles or because he hates Mike Mularkey, or because his Achilles hates Mike Mularkey, which would put it in line with other Achilles on the team. All of Moulds’ body parts were suspended and Mularkey lives to botch another game plan. Pats cover 3 1/2.
TWO BAGS
• Shams at Vikings: Minnesota has won five straight and is due for a market correction. But the Rams allowed 257 yards rushing last week, the most since the franchise was swiped from Los Angeles by owner Cruella de Ville for several million dollars, an oil field and a couple of souls. Vikes cover 7.
• Browns at Bengals: Cincinnati can clinch the division by dumping its in-state rival if the Steelers lose on the same day. What next? Paul Brown comes back from the dead, rolls the clock back to 1976 and declares, “You know, I’ve been thinking it over. I think I’ll give Bill Walsh the job over Bill Johnson after all”? Bengals cover 12 1/2.
• Redskins at Cardinals: Washington is only 6-6. But at 6-2 in NFC games, Joe Gibbs is set up for a wild-card run, which would be a nice feel-good story in places other than Arthur Blank’s office. Skins win but take Arizona and 4.
• 49ers at Seahawks: Seattle has won eight straight and Shaun Alexander (right) has more touchdowns (22) than the entire San Francisco offense (13). The Niners also rank 32nd in defense, two spots ahead of Kabul. But I’ll bite on 16. Birds win but take the points.
• Dolphins at Chargers: Nick Saban was so fed up with Miami’s slow starts that he ripped into his team before kickoff last week against Buffalo. It worked so well that the Dolphins fell behind 21-0 after 13 minutes. OK. New plan. Chargers win but take Fins and 13 1/2.
• Ravens at Broncos: If the Ravens lose their next three, they’ll have a chance to match their worst record (4-12) since bolting Cleveland when they close the season — in Cleveland! I am so there. Denver covers 14.
• Giants at Beagles: Fine performance the other night by Philly. The news that Brian Westbrook is out for the season should really lighten the mood with fans. Body armor free to the first 10,000 fans with a hit list. Giants cover 9.
QUEER EYE FOR A FOOTBALL GUY
• Texans at Titans: In a previous life, Jeff Fisher and Dom Capers were considered two of the best coaches in the game. Take the best of the two rosters and maybe you beat Temple. Tennessee wins but take Houston and 7.
• Lions at Packers: A Detroit fan was tackled by a security guard last week because his sign read, “Fire [Matt] Millen.” The fan, Duncan deBruin, told Bloomberg News: “I’m sure if I had a sign that said, ‘Ford Family Rules’ or ‘I Love Explorers,’ it wouldn’t have been taken down.” Feel the love. Packers win and cover 6.
• Raiders at Jets: Vinny Testaverde and Charles Woodson had Heisman votes. Sorry. You want insight on this? Oakland covers 3 on the road.
HOW I’M DOING
You owe me big-time.
Last week: 16-0 straight up, 14-2 against the line.
Fiscal season: 122-52 straight up, 98-71-5 against the line.
Permalink | Comments (18) | Categories: Falcons / NFL, Jeff Schultz
Next coach? Let Knight deal with Hawks’ mess
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
They signed a $70-million free agent and took one player regarded as the draft’s biggest talent and another believed to be the steal of the second round. And here the Hawks are, having done the impossible. They’ve gotten worse.
They were 3-15 this time a year ago; they’re 2-16 now, having already fashioned losing streaks of nine and seven games. They’re on pace to finish 9-73, which would match the worst record in NBA history. Since Feb. 7, they’re a mind-numbing 5-48. As reviled as the Hawks were in the final throes of the Pete Babcock era, they were merely bad then; they’ve since become historically awful.
Billy Knight replaced Babcock and took the painful but necessary step of blowing up the roster. That, however, was always going to be the easy part. Nobody expected Knight to build a champion in three drafts, but neither did anyone imagine the Hawks could be this wretched after this much reconstruction. The revelation in their loss to Toronto last Friday was that they could make 55 percent of their shots and still not beat a 1-15 opponent.
When you’re 2-16 after 13-69, it calls into question every single choice. This correspondent has been willing to give Knight the benefit of the doubt, but the doubts have become too many and too blatant. Was it smart for Knight to pick Boris Diaw (who averaged 4.6 points as a Hawk) over Josh Howard (10.7 points his first two seasons) in the 2003 draft? To choose Josh Childress (averaging 7.3 points) over Luol Deng (averaging 15.2)? To take Marvin Williams, who ranks eighth among scorers on the NBA’s worst team, and ignore Chris Paul and Deron Williams when you have no point guard?
It was likewise Knight’s choice to hire Mike Woodson as coach over Dwane Casey and Mike Brown. Advertised as a defensive coach, Woodson presides over the league’s fourth-worst defensive team. Even more distressing has been the disconnect with his players, some of whom have decried the absence of leadership. The dour Woodson seems to take after his two coaching mentors, and not in a constructive way: Bobby Knight is a notorious browbeater, and Larry Brown infamously sours on players overnight. The more nurturing Casey, now Minnesota’s coach, would have been better suited for a young roster.
Case study: Diaw. Having done nothing as a Hawks player, he’s averaging 10.8 points for Phoenix. That, folks, is player development. Knight speaks of the need to change the culture of this organization, but putting a pool table in the players’ lounge doesn’t constitute change. Only by starting to win do you reshape a forlorn franchise, and Woodson has lost too many games in too short a span — he’s 15-85 — to have cultivated any credibility. Even poor Tim Floyd, who inherited the Bulls after Michael Jordan retired and Scottie Pippen left, won 25 of his first 100 games.
Woodson needs to go. Among the six Hawks assistants, only Larry Drew and Herb Brown, brother of Larry, would be candidates to move up, but a more daring option exists: Let Knight coach the team he created. Over the summer, owner Michael Gearon Jr. speculated that Knight’s vision of a 6-foot-8 guy at every position might revolutionize the sport. (Obviously Woodson missed the memo. Joe Johnson, imported to play point guard, lasted two games as the starter there.) If there’s indeed a design to what Knight is doing, he should be better able to implement it than anyone else. No, he hasn’t ever coached, but how much worse than 15-85 could he be?
Every process requires patience, but 15-85 is abjectly unacceptable for a professional team. Something drastic needs to happen. The GM-as-coach tack worked for San Antonio, which became a champion only after Gregg Popovich moved downstairs. Besides, if having Knight coach doesn’t pan out, the Hawks’ many owners would only have to fire one guy the next time.
Permalink | Comments (33) | Categories: Mark Bradley
Renteria trade a hit, not error
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
Two years ago, panic floated through this city because the Braves let Gary Sheffield get away in free agency. I’m still not sure why. Maybe Sheffield’s regular-season numbers were so blinding that everybody forgot he went splat in consecutive Octobers.
Sheffield’s two seasons in New York have been similar to his two with the Braves. He has made a lot money, which means he can afford a lot of diamond rings, which is fortunate because he hasn’t won any with the Yankees, either.
This week, when the Los Angeles Dodgers dropped a $39 million contract into Rafael Furcal’s lap, there were similar concerns about the Braves losing another centerpiece. If Furcal did something blinding, I missed it. Maybe it was all of those playoff series the Braves won with him in the lineup.
Oh wait. That would be zero. Never mind. (They won a 2001 divisional series with Furcal on the disabled list.)
The Braves are not dismantling a championship team. Rather, they’re trying to fix a team that hasn’t won championships. That’s a good thing.
And so is this: Replacing Furcal with Edgar Renteria.
Look at the body of work, not one season. If you think of the Furcal who hit .322 after the All-Star break, remember the one who hit .254 in the first half. If you think of the 15 errors last year, don’t forget the 82 over the previous three. Which is the aberration?
If you look at the Renteria who suffered a career meltdown in his one season in Boston — 30 errors, 100 strikeouts — remember what he did to earn a four-year, $40 million contract. For most of his career, he has been all about precious metals. Gold Gloves and Silver Sluggers. Injuries — which he wouldn’t blame — and the obvious pressures of playing in the glare of Boston no doubt contributed to the 30 errors last season. But he had only 46 the previous three in the sane surroundings of St. Louis. Which is the aberration?
The Braves’ postseason problems can partly be traced to a lack of clutch. For most of his career, Renteria is all about clutch. His hit won a World Series for Florida in 1997. He is a career .303 hitter with men on base, .281 with runners in scoring position, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. Even in last year’s down season, he hit .292 with men on base. (Furcal: .259.) “We had a significant gap to fill, and we believe we’ve done that,” Braves general manager John Schuerholz said.
Actually, he has done more than that. This Braves already have a better lineup than last year, and Schuerholz still has more payroll flexibility than he has had for several seasons.
He convinced the Red Sox to pay $8 million of Renteria’s $29 million over the next three seasons, plus the $3 million buyout of the player’s would-be fourth-year option. That’s like getting half off a Mercedes because of a scratch.
While the Dodgers have committed $39 million to their starting shortstop, the Braves will pay only $18 million for a four-time All-Star who has proven far more over his career than Furcal.
Still miss your Fooky?
Schuerholz has done it again. It hasn’t paid off in October but once. But no general manager has done a better job the other 11 months.
The restructuring of Chipper Jones’ contract saves the team $5 million next season. Julio Franco ($1 million) wasn’t offered arbitration. Johnny Estrada ($2 million) was traded to make room for Brian McCann. Dan Kolb ($3.4 million) was sling-shotted back to Milwaukee, presumably because Brewers is Latin for masochists.
There are still bodies and cash to barter for a closer. Youth now covers this lineup: McCann, Jeff Francoeur, Adam LaRoche, Ryan Langerhans, Kyle Davies.
The amusing thing about the Braves supposedly giving up the organization’s “best prospect” for Renteria in Andy Marte is that the “best prospects” are already on the roster.
Marte might have a future, but he hardly was untouchable and he still looks to be a year removed from major league-ready. And for him they get Edgar Renteria? This trade was a slam dunk.
Renteria is not a replacement. He is an upgrade.
Permalink | Comments (390) | Categories: Braves / MLB, Jeff Schultz
I think, therefore I blog
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
I think this is another of those “I think” things.
I think Johnny Estrada’s career as a Brave was one of the strangest on record — in the span of three years, he went from being the reviled half of the seemingly lopsided Kevin Millwood trade to being an All-Star catcher to being dealt for two bullpen guys, neither of whom seems to be a closer.
I think Dan Kolb’s career as a Brave wasn’t nearly so strange but was simply awful.
I think we’re all in line for another of those haughty John Schuerholz everybody-is-counting-us-out speeches. He dearly loves giving them, you know.
I think the Falcons will still make the playoffs.
I think the Hawks will miss the playoffs. Call me crazy.
I think Paul Hewitt is an outstanding coach.
I think Dennis Felton might be even better.
I think Georgia Tech got outmaneuvered yet again on its bowl. When will the Jackets learn that the ACC isn’t going to protect them? (The ACC only protects whoever Mike Krzyzewski wants it to protect.)
I think Tech’s fans current disenchantment with Dave Braine has matched the all-time high — or low — of the flunk-out summer of 2003.
I think Krzyzewski is the best coach in the history of sports with his team behind in the last three seconds.
I think Jon Fabris is the best coach in the history of the Georgia Dome when it comes to drawing up punt-block schemes.
I think Mike Woodson is the wrong guy. I thought he was the right guy, but I was wrong. Got that?
I think, for somebody billed as the most talented player in the 2005 draft, Marvin Williams has a funny way of showing it.
I think the Mets will mess up.
I think the ol’ Bradley thought gauge is now on “E.”
Permalink | Comments (45) | Categories: Mark Bradley, Quick Hit
Youth will be served, but Dogs first
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
Athens — In so many ways, the Bulldogs are the Yellow Jackets, and the Yellow Jackets are the Bulldogs when it comes to dribbling these days. They both have overwhelming youth wrapped around raw talent. They both have low expectations outside of their own minds.
Mostly, they both have gifted enough coaches to mold it all into something better than you think down the stretch drives of their conference runs.
There is the meantime, though, when they both will have these extraordinary moments of wonder and woe. On Wednesday night, before the majority of the gathered 9,827 wearing red and screaming so loud that you’d have thought it was Sanford Stadium instead of Stegeman Coliseum, Georgia was all wonder along the way to a thorough 91-75 victory, and Georgia Tech was the epitome of woe.
This is the same Georgia Tech bunch that nearly shocked splendid Michigan State on the road, but this also is the same Tech bunch that got clobbered at home by something called Illinois-Chicago. Get the picture? In fact, since the Jackets followed their ACC opening victory against Virginia with this sloppy performance at Georgia that featured Tech missing every kind of shot known to mankind, I guess you could say that these simply were more growing pains for Paul Hewitt’s team.
The thing is, a visibly peeved Hewitt wasn’t buying it. “They’re young, too, so I can’t say youth had anything to do with it,” he said. “We just have to play better than we did, plain and simple.”
In contrast, Georgia was aggressive and impressive during its first real game of the season. Following an opening loss to Old Dominion, the Bulldogs rolled to five consecutive victories against the mediocre likes of Fordham, Eastern Kentucky, Western Kentucky, Florida A&M and Savannah State. Then came Tech, among the opponents that Bulldogs love to bite the most, and Georgia used a lot of Levi Stukes early and Billy Humphrey late to keep their woes away for a while.
“I think we’re coming together quicker than we expected we would,” said Georgia’s Channing Toney. “In the first couple of games, we sort of struggled as a unit, but I think game by game, we’re taking to what [coach Dennis Felton] is trying to get us to understand pretty well.”
This isn’t the old days, when Stegeman Coliseum was a dark, cold, lifeless place that was more appropriate for a wake than a basketball game. Then again, Georgia did play host to more than a few hoop funerals back then whenever Tech dribbled into town. Entering this one, theJackets were DOA after each of their 10 previous trips to Bulldog country, but here’s the thing: This was the new Dawg House, with bright lights, cozy seats near the court, a fancy video screen to cover what was an ugly gray wall — you know, a bunch of stuff to give Tech a different feel and maybe a different result. It wasn’t different.
Speaking of different, these clearly aren’t the Bulldogs who simply were dogs last year along the way to losing 20 out of their 28 games. Such ugliness happened since the Georgia program was so haunted by the Horrors of the Harricks that it lacked skills and depth. Now the Bulldogs have both, with a nice group of freshmen, exemplified by the prolific shooting of Humphrey and Mike Mercer. Still, it was one of Georgia’s old-timers who provided the most energy for his team early and often to place Tech in a significant hole. When Stukes wasn’t sinking shots from near and far, the junior guard was blocking shots, dishing assists and becoming a disruptive force on defense. It also didn’t help Tech’s cause that point guard Zam Fredrick got his third foul with five minutes left before halftime. As a result, there was nobody to feed Ra’Sean Dickey inside, especially since Tech’s perimeter shooting was chillier than the December breezes outside.
When Fredrick returned in the second half, Dickey still wasn’t getting fed. That’s because only the big, bad Dawgs were eating.
At least on this night.
Permalink | Comments (147) | Categories: Tech / ACC, Terence Moore, UGA / SEC
The Ducks? Give me a break
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
The more that all of these Notre Dame Bashers continue to fume over the Fighting Irish getting a Fiesta Bowl bid over (yawn) Oregon, the more that all of these Notre Dame Bashers prove that the bytes and brains of the Bowl Championship Series got it exactly right.
Let’s start with this: All of these Notre Dame Bashers will be among the millions and millions and millions of viewers who will make the Fiesta the most viewed bowl this side of that little one two days later in Pasadena.
Nobody outside of three or maybe four miles of Eugene, Oregon, cares about the Ducks.
In contrast, everybody cares about the Irish, whether it is to cheer them or to boo them, which brings us to the essence of what bowls are all about. It is to invite a couple of teams that will generate absolutely the most interest (uh, money) as possible. You can’t get much bigger than Notre Dame versus Ohio State.
Yes, Oregon finished a slot higher than Notre Dame in the final BCS standings. No, Oregon isn’t the better team, even with a 10-1 record to Notre Dame’s 9-2.
Both teams lost to Southern Cal, and Notre Dame’s other loss was in overtime to a Michigan State team that was streaking at the time. And Notre Dame didn’t pad its record against the likes of Houston and Montana, the Ducks’ opening opponents.
All of these Notre Dame Bashers disagree with such truths, of course, but it doesn’t matter. Come the Fiesta Bowl, they’ll whine, but they’ll also watch.
Permalink | Comments (59) | Categories: Quick Hit, Terence Moore
Braves off hit list of city grinch
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
If we Atlantans seem a tad surly headed toward the holidays, it’s because our pro teams are in synchronized swoon. The Falcons are about to miss the playoffs. The Thrashers need to fire whoever’s in charge of groins. The Hawks, who were the NBA’s worst team last season, are again the NBA’s worst team. And the flagship Braves are losing players at their usual dizzying December rate even as the ravenous Mets are adding everybody in creation.
Amid all this gloom, isn’t there one reason to be cheerful? The answer, happily enough, is yes. The answer, as ever, is the Braves. They always look bad in December, but they don’t start playing until April. And by then they’re just fine.
What about the Mets? Granted, the Mets have hungry eyes and a fat wallet. They’ve added Carlos Delgado and Paul Lo Duca and Billy Wagner, which essentially makes them a combination of the Marlins and the Phillies, two teams that geared up to finish ahead of the Braves by hiring all three of the above. Given that the Mets already had Pedro Martinez and Carlos Beltran — and also Tom Glavine, whom you might recall — the trusty New York tabloids have proclaimed them the favorite to win the NL East. To which we say: Goody for them.
See, somebody else is always being proclaimed the favorite to win the NL East. Nobody else ever does. As strong as the Mets look today, they’re no more imposing than the Marlins of 2005 (who had Delgado and Lo Duca and Miguel Cabrera and Josh Beckett) or the Phillies of 2004 (who had Wagner and Jim Thome and Bobby Abreu and Jimmy Rollins). How’d those races turn out?
Kyle Farnsworth is gone, which means the Braves again need a closer, but let’s keep his loss in perspective. Farnsworth was only the closer of last resort — Dan Kolb and Chris Reitsma had already flubbed the job — and when it came time for him to hold a five-run lead in Game 4 in Houston, he couldn’t. The Braves are going to have to go find somebody else, yes, but they’ve got some money to spend now. They can take a run at Trevor Hoffman, who’s as established as Farnsworth is flaky, and if all else fails, there’s still Joey Devine and/or Macay McBride.
The absence of Rafael Furcal opens two holes — shortstop and leadoff man. Furcal became a good shortstop, but for reasons unclear he hasn’t become the consummate No. 1 hitter he should be. There are ways to override his departure. (Play Wilson Betemit at shortstop. Import Juan Pierre to lead off. Import Edgar Renteria to do both.) The enduring beauty of the Braves is that they’re the best in the business, probably the best in the history of their business, at finding workarounds.
And that’s the greater point: We can have concerns about the Braves, but by now we should have faith that they’ll think of something. They always do. (Until October, anyway.) We have no such assurances about the Falcons, though this coaching staff believes itself to be quite clever, and the Thrashers haven’t solved a problem yet. And the poor Hawks, goodness knows, are experts only at making a bigger hash of things.
You can worry about teams that haven’t done much, or haven’t done it consistently. You can’t argue with 14 consecutive division titles. You can’t argue with the Braves’ ability to find replacements when a big name happens to leave. If they could replace Glavine and Kevin Millwood and Damian Moss in the rotation in the same offseason and Gary Sheffield and Javy Lopez in the lineup one winter later, they can override the losses of Farnsworth and Furcal. They’re the Braves, and this is what they do.
So cheer up . ‘Tis the season to be, if not fully jolly, then certainly a bit less crabby. Camp Roger is just around the corner. (And what happened to that Leo guy? Well, he left, too.)
Permalink | Comments (485) | Categories: Braves / MLB, Mark Bradley
Tuesday Countdown: ‘Frisco or bust
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
OK. So I’m a college football player at Georgia Tech. I think I’m going the Peach Bowl, a bus ride from my dorm. That falls through. Then I think I’m going to the Music City Bowl in Nashville. That falls through. Then I find out that my team has been “stuck” in San Francisco.
OK, tell me again why I’m supposed to be upset. I understand from Tech’s perspective why officials don’t like the perception of being sent to a lower-tier game like the Emerald Bowl, which, being completely honest, I didn’t even know existed. But as a kid on the team, I’m doing backflips over the fact I’m going to arguably the greatest city in the country for a week.
So I’m biased. I lived in the Bay Area. But can anybody out there tell me why you would rather go to Nashville or stay in Atlanta then go to San Francisco for a week? Remember, you’re not a recruiter or athletic director or school president. You’re a player. Blog away.
And about these, “It’s just not fair,” whines. Peeps — this is not a playoff system. Once you get past the BCS, it’s not really a system at all. Bowls are like mini chambers of commerce. Their job is to sell tickets, put butts in seats and promote their event. I’m sorry if you feel the Jackets are more deserving than Virginia to go some place. But deserving is not part of the equation.
Question: When the NHL announced that it has shattered all attendance records, did they take into account unprecedented numbers of freebie tickets, 2-for-1 nights, 3,000 tickets being “distributed” into a dumpster and the fact that “14,587” looks a lot like “6,212”? Because I missed that in the press release.
Saw where Sadaam Hussein’s attorneys staged a walkout. Just wondering: When you decide to be a defense attorney, do you surrender your conscience when you first go to law school, or do they allow you to keep it until graduation?
Somebody said to me that Rafael Furcal made a mistake taking the money from the Dodgers. Yeah. When somebody slides a three-year, $39 million contract across the table and you respond, “No. I just can’t take this,” then get back to me.
In an interview with the Associated Press, retiring model Tyra Banks said she just “wanted to be the girl next door.” You know, a lot of things have rushed through my mind thumbing through a Victoria’s Secret catalogue. Girl next door wasn’t one of them.
What were the odds a few months ago that the Falcons, Thrashers and Hawks might all miss the playoffs?
Just wondering what was going through Arthur Blank’s mind when he picked up the sports section Tuesday and saw his team’s logo going down in flames. I’m pretty sure if I were a sports owner, I’d hate the media too.
Permalink | Comments (11) | Categories: Jeff Schultz, Quick Hit
Furcal latest addition to laundry list
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
Jerry Seinfeld had it right: We don’t root for people anymore — we root for laundry. We root for the shirts that bear a team’s logo, not so much for the wearers of those shirts. Because the wearers, as we’re constantly reminded, can change their shirts any old time.
Rafael Furcal is a Dodger now, the Rafael Furcal who had been a fixture atop the Braves’ batting order the last six seasons. His loss is a big deal, but it would seem much bigger were it not the latest in a series. Since December 2002, the Braves have seen Tom Glavine and Greg Maddux and Gary Sheffield and Javy Lopez and J.D. Drew depart for bigger money elsewhere, and this distressing trend has reached the point where we might as well start counting the days until we hear these nauseating words:
“Starting in right field for the Yankees, Jeff Francoeur!�
Every offseason, we of advancing age are reminded how much Things Have Changed. We grew up following teams and learning to love certain players because they played for Our Team. Then along came Marvin Miller and the players’ union, and down went the reserve clause that bound a player to an organization in perpetuity, and up went salaries everywhere. And soon it became a great time to be a ballplayer and a lousy time to be a fan.
But what of the 6-year-old who has Furcal’s poster tacked above his bed and who wears No. 1 in T-ball because that was Furcal’s number and who showed up three hours before a game at Turner Field last July just so he could get his hero’s autograph? What’s he (or she) feeling today? That he (or she) should just root for the Braves’ balance sheet from here on?
There’s a 15-year-old who lives under my roof who hasn’t rooted for the Braves since they traded David Justice to Cleveland. Even before she’d started kindergarten, she picked him as her favorite. She had a dress (it started as an adult T-shirt, but her mom is nifty with a sewing machine) with Justice’s No. 23 on the back. She cried at the end of the movie “The Flintstonesâ€? because Halle Berry’s character — Berry was then Mrs. Justice — got arrested in the film. We had a David Justice Party — he didn’t attend — for her fourth birthday. She met him in spring training one year. She waved to him (and he waved back) during batting practice the night he hit the home run that made the Braves world champions.
And Rachel hates the Braves now. On the day she learned David Justice had been traded, these were her first words after she stopped crying: “All they care about is money.�
We of advancing age can look on Furcal’s departure and say, in our occasionally mature way, “The Braves did the right thing. They offered him $9 million a year, which seems a hefty price for a shortstop who has lately only had good half-seasons, and the Dodgers, who haven’t made a shrewd move since Sandy Koufax was a rookie, decided he was worth $13 million. The Braves have lost a shortstop and a leadoff hitter, but the structure of their payroll still makes fiscal sense.�
The Braves do care about money. So does every team (except the Yankees, who simply spend even more and get no better). Rafael Furcal cares about money. So does every player. We of advancing age have managed to grasp the concept that big-league baseball isn’t really a kid’s game and the men who play it aren’t really selfless heroes, but there now comes a time in every offseason when we have to try and explain this to someone of more tender years.
And what do we say then? “Cheer up, kid — we’ve still got our laundry�?
Permalink | Comments (53) | Categories: Braves / MLB, Mark Bradley
Can the Falcons pull out of this?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
Flowery Branch — They are mathematically alive. That’s what you get the year after an NFC title game and endless praise of the team’s youth and a vow to take the next step in the playoffs.
They are mathematically alive. Still. Officially.
This is what Jim Mora, the head coach of a once potential Super Bowl team, said Monday: “If you’re able to expand your scope and look at the overall health of the organization for more than just one week, one game or one season, then we’re moving in the right direction.”
Well, there are two problems with that statement. First, the Falcons are not moving in the right direction. They have lost three out of four at a time when teams are supposed to be reaffirming their legitimacy, not stomping that sucker flat. Nothing about the past month or most of this season projects “moving in the right direction.”
Second, if the head coach of an NFL team is trying to get people to focus on something other than this week, this game, or this season, what does that say about … well, this week, this game, this season?
Imagine this is a game of HORSE, except we’re spelling OVER. In the NFC playoff picture, the rest of the conference has hit O-V-E.
In season one of the Rich McKay-Mora regime, the Falcons came within one victory of reaching the Super Bowl but lost the conference title game in Philadelphia. When they dumped the Eagles in the season opener, there was reason to believe that next step was attainable.
But given the results and tendencies that have followed, given the glaring deficiencies on defense — and not all related to injuries — given the holes created by offseason personnel decisions (notably saying goodbye to Ed Jasper, Travis Hall and Chris Draft), perspective comes a little easier.
The Falcons are not underachieving this season. They overachieved last season. This year, they are merely ‘chieving. This is who they are. They’re a 7-5 team that is not exceptional in any single area of the game or any one position, unless you count the quarterback’s occasional feats (or feet) of magic.
They are a 7-5 team that is generally awful in the secondary, green and deficient at wide receiver and pedestrian at pass blocking or pass rushing. They are average to weak on special teams. They are usually capable enough at running the ball. But haven’t been lately, and when they can’t, they’re cooked. They can’t stop the run, even against teams that haven’t run against anybody else. The pass-rush problems are exacerbated by a bend-but-don’t break scheme that generally dictates soft coverage.
They have safeties who either can’t tackle or don’t scare opponents. Or can’t get close enough to tackle or scare.
They are a 7-5 team that has won exactly one game in the past four weeks. That came over Detroit, which quit shortly after, ” … and the home of the brave.” The Lions took it well. They fired their coach.
They are a 7-5 team that has games remaining against Chicago (9-3), Carolina (9-3) and Tampa Bay (8-4). That slate is made more daunting by the fact the Falcons have beaten only one team that currently has a winning record: Minnesota (though at the time the Vikings lost to the Falcons, they already were spinning down the gutter and en route to the Lust Boat cruise the following week).
Also on the schedule is 3-9 New Orleans on Monday night. That would be fine if the Saints ever looked 3-9 against the Falcons.
None of this should suggest the Falcons can’t make the playoffs and pose a threat in January. But the odds look just north of a scratch-off ticket.
Things that were problems in September are problems in December. That’s not good. Blame coaching or design. Blame youth. Blame ability. When things don’t get better, you’re entitled to point with more than one finger.
But when Mora says of his young players on defense: “They’re trying their best and they’re learning,” it’s not promising, it’s foreshadowing. When he says fixing the problems require “long hours” and “repetition” and “continuing to develop guys,” it sounds like Annie singing, “The sun will come out tomorrow.”
With four weeks left, the Falcons are pretty much out of tomorrows. At least for this season. Assuming we’re still talking about this season.
Permalink | Comments (158) | Categories: Falcons / NFL, Jeff Schultz
Ross a perfect fit for Army
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Furman Bisher
Bobby Ross was back in town. A lot of water had flowed over the dam since his Georgia Tech team delivered him a national championship in 1990 and launched him into the pros. His last Tech team had won the Aloha Bowl for him, then like a bolt from the blue, he had taken a flying leap to the San Diego Chargers, and before he was done there, he had coached them to the Super Bowl.
Bobby Ross has never coached in a situation that he didn’t leave in better condition than he found it. That starts with The Citadel, followed by Maryland, then Georgia Tech, the Chargers, followed by the Detroit Lions, where he made a sudden departure with a month of the season still to go. It wasn’t as puzzling as it might have seemed.
“I developed clots in my legs, and it needed looking after,” he said Monday, in town to speak to the Touchdown Club. His father had an amputation, then passed away, and his was a condition that needed treatment, he thought. “I was tired. Life in the NFL is a challenge.”
Next, we find him back where he had first made contact with the man who has had the most powerful influence on his career, John McKenna, who had been his coach at VMI. Ross moved back to Lexington and became a man of the community.
“I was delivering Meals on Wheels, doing courtesy driving for cancer patients, and my wife was a volunteer nurse in the hospital,” he said. “I wasn’t without things to do.”
If there has been one consistent force in Ross’ life, it has been the military. Sons and sons-in-law have made their careers in one service or the other, and Ross did a three-year tour that carried him to Germany during the Berlin crisis. Now it was as if destiny had taken charge again, and the job that had been waiting for him all these years beckoned. West Point was in the throes of a dreadful stretch, another coach had been fired, and the Black Knights knew where to turn.
Coaching at Army is a demanding situation, but when the call came, he answered. The deciding factor was the encouragement of his wife. “She told me it was my patriotic duty,” rather than pointing him toward an easy chair and suggesting that, being 67 years old, it was time to leave the stress to somebody else.
Well, it hasn’t been easy. It wasn’t easy at the start in Maryland, at Georgia Tech, nor in San Diego. Last Saturday, his Army team lost to Navy, 42-23, but the season had not been without promise.
“We won four games in a row. That hadn’t been done for several years. We beat the Air Force for the first time in 26 years on their field. We beat two conference champions [Akron and Arkansas State]. We played six teams that are in bowl games,” he said, and there is promise there.
Through all the collecting gloom, he sees a bright future at West Point. “Why did I go to West Point? I believe in West Point. The tradition in that school is overwhelming. We want to get back to that tradition.”
To get his point across, before the Navy game, he took his team to the military cemetery and showed them where Glenn Davis (“Mr. Outside” to Doc Blanchard’s “Mr. Inside” of the Cadets’ exciting ’40s) is buried, and nearby, the statue of Col. Earl Blaik, their historic coach.
“These are the people you are playing for,” he told them. “Well, we had a bad game on the wrong day for a bad game. But the future is bright. We’re building a $50 million indoor practice facility and making improvements. It’s tough to practice in the snow.”
Bobby is 68 now, getting his second wind. Too old to crank up the old engine again? He’s eight years younger than Bobby Bowden and 11 years younger than Joe Paterno, who are taking teams to bowl games this year. It takes a strong man with vision and a lot of heart to meet such a challenge, but if there was ever a man meant for a job, it was Bobby Ross for West Point.
Permalink | Comments (5) | Categories: Furman Bisher, Tech / ACC
Falcons can’t bully Panthers this time
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
Charlotte — Maybe it was a fluke. I mean, long after his Carolina Panthers quit splattering the Falcons across the floor of Bank of America Stadium on Sunday, Brentson Buckner shrugged. Then the chatty defensive tackle of 300-something pounds said this of the slaughter: “They had won so many against us that it gets to the point where you get backed into the corner, and you finally get tired of the so-called bully picking on you.”
Buckner thought some more about how his team physically embarrassed the Falcons along the way to rising higher atop the NFC South and added, “They’re over there fuming about this. It’s going to make the next game we play against them even more intense. So we can’t bask for long, because when we stroll down there, they have a chance to get their ‘get-back.’ “
Well, maybe. It’s just that, by the time the Falcons see the Panthers on New Year’s Day at the Georgia Dome, it may be too late for the Falcons to do anything more than just capture the first back-to-back winning seasons in the history of their 40-year-old franchise. They’ve lost three of four, and they’ve dropped to 7-5 in the division behind the 9-3 Panthers, with even a wild-card berth in the playoffs becoming less likely these days.
Here’s why: This wasn’t a fluke. After a season of victories over uninspiring teams, the Falcons had an opportunity to show their worth against a legitimate big boy in the NFL. Instead, the Falcons were the ones to blink on offense, defense and special teams. Faster than you can say Samkon Gado (remember the Falcons’ Green Bay disaster?), they allowed DeShaun Foster to awaken the Panthers’ previously dormant run game. The Falcons couldn’t punt, tackle or pass block. Mostly, they couldn’t keep the Panthers’ defense from looking bigger and badder than ever.
Thirty-eight seconds. That’s how long it took after the opening kickoff before Michael Rucker zipped out of nowhere for the Panthers to nearly smack the No. 7 off Michael Vick.
They’d meet again. Several times, in fact, with the biggest time coming on the Falcons’ silly fourth-and-1 try in the second quarter from the Carolina 46. Rucker knocked Vick from here to Flowery Branch. Many other Panthers did the same during an afternoon that had many Falcons looking absolutely overwhelmed for the first time this season.
“When you’re used to kicking a team’s butt on the road, it’s tough when you lose a game like this,â€? said tight end Alge Crumpler, whose Falcons had beaten the Panthers on the road and everywhere else, with nine victories in the previous 10 meetings. “It really hurts me right now to say that we didn’t line up and play the Falcons’ standard of football. They just kicked [our butts]. They did. They put a lot of pressure on us up front. We couldn’t get anything going. Coverage wise, they weren’t doing anything much different. They were just making things happen to get us out of our rhythm.”
Translated: The Panthers were slugging the Falcons in the nose and daring them to do something about it.
Guess what? The Falcons will see more of the same from now through their rematch with the Panthers. There is that trip to Chicago, along with one to Tampa Bay. They also play their next game on Monday night at home against a New Orleans team that always brings more energy against its Southern rivals. Plus, given that a promising season was ruined by a hurricane and cruel scheduling by the NFL, that Monday night game on national television will be the Saints’ Super Bowl.
Falcons safety Keion Carpenter responded to it all with raised eyebrows, especially regarding the Panthers.
“Bullied? I don’t know if they were bullying us out there,� said Carpenter, glancing around the locker room. “We’ve got the toughest division in football right now, and the teams are so good that we really can’t afford any mishaps. That’s what makes it fun, man, to play in games such as this that means something. To be in this situation is a beautiful thing, and we just have to capitalize on it.�
They haven’t yet. The question is two-fold: Will they, and can they?
Permalink | Comments (103) | Categories: Falcons / NFL, Terence Moore
Dogs enjoy magical night, title
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Furman Bisher
After Nov. 12, any Georgia Bulldog with a half-baked thought of being champion of the Southeastern Conference would have been drummed out of town. Lose to Florida — hated Florida — and to Auburn in a row? Two-time losers don’t win the championship in this league, “The most competitive league I’ve ever been in,â€? Les Miles said after one season at LSU, and devastating defeat etched in his face.
Not buying, though, was Mark Richt, and before this goes any further, score this as a coach’s championship. It was he who readied his team, who looked the Tiger in the eye and won the stare-down.
“I know what it’s like to have been there and won,� Richt had said of the SEC championship. “I know what it’s like to have been there and lost. I know what it’s like not to be there at all.�
He, his own offensive play-caller, came out with guns blazing, and while the Tigers were wondering where that came from, Georgia was leading 14-0. Safe to surmise that this LSU team came to town expecting to flip a switch, the “W� button would light up, they would collect their trophy and head back to Baton Rouge. The Tigers had beaten both teams Georgia had lost to. They were big, physical, loaded with confidence, had survived the ravages of a horrendous storm, and had lost only to Tennessee in a lapsing moment. Why should they not expect a walk-through?
After Georgia took the lead on D.J. Shockley’s two lightning strikes to Sean Bailey, LSU finally scored, but it took 14 plays to cover 80 yards, the last one when the towering quarterback, JaMarcus Russell, crashed into the end zone like a falling tree. Now, when the one great scorer comes to review this game, he will not be impressed by Shockley’s numbers. It is not Heisman stuff. It is the stuff of a winner. He passed for a mere 112 yards, ran for 10, but two of those passes were for touchdowns and seven of those yards were for a touchdown. Pretty impressive stuff against a team that had to interrupt its run to glory by stopping off in the Georgia Dome again, but in the words of tackle Kyle Andrews, “It was shocking, the way they completed those two big passes on us.� The one thing the Tigers did lead in was penalties, nine of them by the most-penalized team in the conference.
After it was over, and the writing jury was being faced, the senior Shockley said all the right things. “Our defense put us in the position to win,� he said.
He had waited four seasons in the wings until David Greene moved on, now he said, “This was reassuring, that I did the right thing… I graduate on December 17, and that means as much to me as this.â€?
“Guys like D.J. make this coaching business feel great,� Richt said. “After our two-game losing streak, you see how strong you really are. We never thought about having a meeting to re-group, or anything.�
One who did “re-group,� in a sense was Bailey, the junior receiver from Milton High in Alpharetta. Bailey had suffered through a season of drops, excoriated by a clot of Georgia critics. This time his hands were true to him, and he told his listeners, “My parents taught me to trust in the Lord.�
Richt could not escape one charge of misidentification. He’d thought that freshman Ramarcus Brown had blocked the punt that led to Georgia’s decisive third touchdown. Brown, fastest player on the team, had been sent in for that purpose.
Instead, it was the senior Bryan McLendon, known as a receiver, who got his hands on Chris Jackson’s kick.
“Are you sure?� Richt asked of Loran Smith in his postgame summary. “I thought it was Ramarcus.�
Otherwise, the coach had a perfect night and now basks in the loving admiration of Big Dawg followers. But there was trepidation in his final analysis. “There was concern after last season about all the players we were losing, David Pollock, David Greene, Thomas Davis and all those fellows,� he said. “I’m more concerned about how we fill the losses on this team that I was last year.�
But, such is the course of a wise coach. Look ahead, never look back. They can’t catch you now.
Permalink | Comments (46) | Categories: Furman Bisher, UGA / SEC
Beat-up Bowden emerges unbowed
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
Jacksonville — When a perennial national power loses three straight down the stretch, suddenly looks Duke-like on offense and finds itself a two-touchdown underdog for the first time in 20 years, the thought occurs: It can’t possibly get stranger than this.
Then five days before the ACC championship game, Bobby Bowden picks up the phone and places a call. To Blacksburg, Virginia. To ask Frank Beamer, who coaches Virginia Tech, which is preparing to play Bowden’s teams, “So, Frank, when you guys struggled in 2003, how’d you deal with it, because I’m in a real fix. Got any advice?”
People. We are not making this up.
If Beamer acted only mildly stunned when asked about the phone call, it’s probably because the two coaches are friends. But it would be just as easy to conclude that Bowden was at the least desperate, and at the worst, one taco short of a combo plate. Who calls the opposing coach for advice?
When asked what he told Bowden, Beamer said, “Not anymore than I had to.”
He probably said more than he thought. Most expected a lopsided inaugural ACC championship game — just not the way it evolved. Florida State, with its program seemingly on the decline and Bowden defending not only the play-calling of his son but the stature of his team, was awakened Saturday.
It was as sudden as a phone call in the middle of the night. The Seminoles stunned fifth-ranked Virginia Tech with a 24-point third-quarter, then held on for a 27-22 win.
They’re ACC champions again. They’re in the Orange Bowl. Go figure.
Some advice, Frank: Next time, let voice mail pick up.
“We had so much criticism, maybe we helped our situation a little bit,” Bowden said on the field afterward.
“Because of the circumstances, it makes it more meaningful.”
Florida State probably will play Penn State in the Orange Bowl.
Could there be a more perfect pairing? Joe Paterno might be the only coach who was facing more questions about his program than Bowden.
Hard to say which turnaround was more surprising — the Nittany Lions’ this season or the Seminoles’ on Saturday night.
The first half was a nightmare for ACC officials. A dreary 3-3 tie in prime time. The conference finalists weren’t Duke and Wake Forest, it just looked that way. The ‘Noles’ offensive struggles weren’t surprising — they had scored only two offensive touchdowns in their last three games, all losses.
Things had changed in Tallahassee. Double-digit win totals weren’t automatic, and neither were conference titles. In FSU’s first nine seasons in the ACC, the Seminoles went 70-2 against conference games. But there has been a steady decline. They entered Saturday with a three-game losing streak and a pedestrian record of 7-4, including 5-3 in conference.
Bowden lost as many games in the last five seasons (19) as he had in the previous 14. He didn’t even win the conference a year ago (that went to the rookies from Blacksburg).
Bowden has not taken the criticism well. He vented on the eve of the game, saying: “The thing that I resent is that you have a year that’s not real good and people all of a sudden start saying, ‘Oh the program is destroyed. The program is gone.’ We can come back as easy as any anybody else can come back… . As long as I stay there, I will fight to get back. When I can’t fight anymore, I’m gone.”
He fought Saturday. So did the Seminoles. Willie Reid’s 83-yard punt return early in the third made it 10-3. Three minutes later, Leon Washington ran 14 yards into the end zone to make it 17-3. The lead grew to 27-3 FSU’s defense was stuffing Marcus Vick, whose presence had given Bowden bad flashbacks to older Michael’s performance in the Sugar Bowl six years earlier. Marcus desperately rallied the Hokies in the fourth with three touchdowns (one passing, two running). But the comeback fell short, and FSU’s improbable win was complete.
“The thing that surprised me is the way we won,” Bowden said. “We haven’t been that heavy an underdog in years. I didn’t think we could stop their run like we did.”
The Hokies rushed for only 41 yards.
Somebody must have said something.
Next time, let it ring, Frank. Let it ring.
Permalink | Comments (25) | Categories: Jeff Schultz, Tech / ACC
LSU: Losses Suddenly Unacceptable
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
So much for that Ginger or Mary Ann discussion in college football involving Penn State and LSU. The Tigers spent Saturday night at the Georgia Dome looking more worthless than the SS Minnow. In fact, given Georgia’s dominance over somebody that was ranked No. 4 by the brains and bytes of the Bowl Championship Series, only three things are possible.
None of these three things are good for LSU, by the way.
Either Georgia is much better than even those in the Bulldog Nation could possibly have imagined, or LSU just had a bad hair day, or maybe the Tigers were sort of lucky along the way to a one-loss season before this SEC championship game.
It’s all of the above. Throughout the ugliest of 34-14 defeats that you’ll ever see, LSU lacked composure. The Tigers had penalties ranging from a late hit during the worst of times to a holding call that negated a 53-yard touchdown pass. They also had a blocked punt that became a touchdown drive for Georgia. Plus they had zero running game. If that weren’t enough, gifted quarterback JaMarcus Russell got banged around so much that he left the massacre for good late in the third quarter with a damaged shoulder.
Penn State was idle on Saturday as that No. 3 team in the BCS, but Southern Cal at No. 1 and Texas at No. 2 did exactly what elite teams do. That is, they exploded in their championship games.
LSU just imploded.
“You’ve got to be ready to play, and obviously we weren’t,” said Tigers offensive tackle Andrew Whitworth, with the understatement of the week. Added LSU coach Les Miles, in his first season as the successor to the highly productive Nick Saban: “We’re better than the way we played tonight. However, Georgia played like champions. This team didn’t get the championship that it wanted, but it’s still been a darn good season.”
The problem for Miles is that, “good” doesn’t work at LSU anymore. Once, greatness for the Tigers began out of nowhere with an undefeated team in 1958 and ended the next year soon after a Halloween night on the Bayou featuring Billy Cannon’s run. Now such greatness is defined by everything that already has transpired during the 21st century. There was two seasons ago, when the Tigers put their paw prints on that crystal trophy representing a national championship. So this game was important for the suddenly cocky psyche of those in the new Tiger Nation.
If you’re LSU, and you win, you go to the Sugar Bowl. If you’re LSU, and you lose, well, don’t ask. Only Sugar is acceptable these days for a program that attained national sweetness under Saban. After his arrival in 2000, the Tigers went from back-to-back losing seasons to an average of nearly 10 victories during each of the next five seasons. They also managed two SEC titles, with Saban collecting as much speed as possible. For instance: Darrius Swain moved his 330 pounds quickly enough on the game’s first series to smack Thomas Brown for a 4-yard loss.
End of LSU highlights. At least for a while. Georgia roared to a 14-0 lead on a couple of perfectly thrown bombs for touchdowns from D.J. Shockley to Sean Bailey. Both featured no pressure from LSU’s normally potent defensive line and nobody within the vicinity of Bailey. It also didn’t help LSU’s cause that Georgia’s second touchdown came after the silliest interception by Russell.
Even so, there is a reason why LSU has won more SEC games during the past five seasons than any team not named Georgia, and that is talent. Talent has a tendency to do nice things, especially when talent is combined with guts. So, with that dynamic duo leading the way, the Tigers responded with a drive of 80 yards to turn a likely blowout into a possible squeaker.
There also is a reason why Georgia has won more SEC games than anybody, period, during the past five seasons. The Bulldogs have that same dynamic duo, which contributed to Georgia looking like a Tiger tamer with a 21-7 advantage at intermission.
Prior to this season, 11 of the 13 teams leading the SEC championship game at halftime eventually won.
Make that 12 out of 14.
Permalink | Comments (28) | Categories: UGA / SEC
LSU: Losses Suddenly Unacceptable
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
So much for that Ginger or Mary Ann discussion in college football involving Penn State and LSU. The Tigers spent Saturday night at the Georgia Dome looking more worthless than the SS Minnow. In fact, given Georgia’s dominance over somebody that was ranked No. 4 by the brains and bytes of the Bowl Championship Series, only three things are possible.
None of these three things are good for LSU, by the way.
Either Georgia is much better than even those in the Bulldog Nation could possibly have imagined, or LSU just had a bad hair day, or maybe the Tigers were sort of lucky along the way to a one-loss season before this SEC championship game.
It’s all of the above. Throughout the ugliest of 34-14 defeats that you’ll ever see, LSU lacked composure. The Tigers had penalties ranging from a late hit during the worst of times to a holding call that negated a 53-yard touchdown pass. They also had a blocked punt that became a touchdown drive for Georgia. Plus they had zero running game. If that weren’t enough, gifted quarterback JaMarcus Russell got banged around so much that he left the massacre for good late in the third quarter with a damaged shoulder.
Penn State was idle on Saturday as that No. 3 team in the BCS, but Southern Cal at No. 1 and Texas at No. 2 did exactly what elite teams do. That is, they exploded in their championship games.
LSU just imploded.
“You’ve got to be ready to play, and obviously we weren’t,” said Tigers offensive tackle Andrew Whitworth, with the understatement of the week. Added LSU coach Les Miles, in his first season as the successor to the highly productive Nick Saban: “We’re better than the way we played tonight. However, Georgia played like champions. This team didn’t get the championship that it wanted, but it’s still been a darn good season.”
The problem for Miles is that, “good” doesn’t work at LSU anymore. Once, greatness for the Tigers began out of nowhere with an undefeated team in 1958 and ended the next year soon after a Halloween night on the Bayou featuring Billy Cannon’s run. Now such greatness is defined by everything that already has transpired during the 21st century. There was two seasons ago, when the Tigers put their paw prints on that crystal trophy representing a national championship. So this game was important for the suddenly cocky psyche of those in the new Tiger Nation.
If you’re LSU, and you win, you go to the Sugar Bowl. If you’re LSU, and you lose, well, don’t ask. Only Sugar is acceptable these days for a program that attained national sweetness under Saban. After his arrival in 2000, the Tigers went from back-to-back losing seasons to an average of nearly 10 victories during each of the next five seasons. They also managed two SEC titles, with Saban collecting as much speed as possible. For instance: Darrius Swain moved his 330 pounds quickly enough on the game’s first series to smack Thomas Brown for a 4-yard loss.
End of LSU highlights. At least for a while. Georgia roared to a 14-0 lead on a couple of perfectly thrown bombs for touchdowns from D.J. Shockley to Sean Bailey. Both featured no pressure from LSU’s normally potent defensive line and nobody within the vicinity of Bailey. It also didn’t help LSU’s cause that Georgia’s second touchdown came after the silliest interception by Russell.
Even so, there is a reason why LSU has won more SEC games during the past five seasons than any team not named Georgia, and that is talent. Talent has a tendency to do nice things, especially when talent is combined with guts. So, with that dynamic duo leading the way, the Tigers responded with a drive of 80 yards to turn a likely blowout into a possible squeaker.
There also is a reason why Georgia has won more SEC games than anybody, period, during the past five seasons. The Bulldogs have that same dynamic duo, which contributed to Georgia looking like a Tiger tamer with a 21-7 advantage at intermission.
Prior to this season, 11 of the 13 teams leading the SEC championship game at halftime eventually won.
Make that 12 out of 14.
Permalink | Comments (34) | Categories: Terence Moore, UGA / SEC
Richt, UGA program peak together
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
This SEC championship wasn’t the thrill-ride of 2002, the year the fateful 70X Takeoff on fourth-and-15 finished the famous drill. This wasn’t the long-sought breakthrough of a bright, young coach and his famished fan base. This was something more substantial. This was the triumph of a fully mature program, a triumph orchestrated by a coach who stands as the new king of his conference.
Georgia took down the nation’s No. 3 team by the shattering score of 34-14 Saturday night. LSU is tough and gifted, but the Bulldogs were better prepared and infinitely more precise. D.J. Shockley, who waited out a four-year apprenticeship for this moment, threw for two touchdowns and wriggled for another. Bryan McClendon blocked a punt off a nifty schematic wrinkle. The Georgia defense outdid an LSU defense ranked No. 4 in the land, frustrating the massive quarterback JaMarcus Russell before ultimately driving him from the game.
This, in sum, was the performance we’d awaited all season. Given that Georgia’s rise to the SEC East title lacked a watershed moment, there was some question whether the Bulldogs could stand up to a team as tested as LSU. That concern was obliterated not nine minutes in, by which time Sean Bailey had twice flitted through the Tigers coverage to run under Shockley rainbows. It was 21-7 at halftime, and there was no way even the Tigers, authors of two memorable comebacks this season, were about to overhaul a Georgia team functioning at peak capacity. Under Mark Richt, Georgia’s peak has risen to towering dimensions.
Under Richt, the fate of the Bulldogs no longer hinges on one player or one recruiting class. Georgia has grown so robust that it can lose six big-name players and an esteemed defensive coordinator in one gulp and still toast an SEC championship the very next year. The Bulldogs were supposed to finish third in the East this fall, but there’s a stability in Athens that isn’t present in Knoxville, Tenn., or Gainesville, Fla., anymore. That stability is 45 years old and speaks in the softest tones possible and has, by his rueful admission, “bad hair.” That stability is Mark Richt.
“We needed a person to provide consistency and a high level of competitive success,” said Vince Dooley, who hired Richt five Decembers ago. “We needed someone who could compete for championships.”
This was supposed to be the year Georgia couldn’t compete for a championship. Amid the confetti-strewn celebration on the floor of the Georgia Dome, defensive tackle Kedric Golston grabbed the hand of Max Jean-Gilles, the offensive tackle, and the two recalled the prognostications of August.
“Third in the East, baby!” they chanted. “Third in the East!” And now: first overall. First overall for the second time in four seasons, with no end to this excellence in sight so long as Richt remains on campus.
Said Dooley, who won six SEC titles himself: “This staff did a magnificent job of unifying the team and getting it to play to the maximum of its ability — and that’s coaching.”
A lot of folks doubted Shockley coming into this season, Richt not among them, Richt the steadfast supporter of the redshirt senior who would become the MVP of the 2005 SEC championship game. There is about Richt a serenity that makes his men believe in themselves even more than they might.
Said McClendon, the wide receiver and blocker of punts: “I wouldn’t trade that guy [Richt] for anybody in the world. You see what kind of program he’s building.”
Correction: has built. With this SEC championship, Georgia is again the class of the nation’s most illustrious league. There are many reasons for this, but in the end there’s only one reason. “There are a lot of great coaches in this conference,” Golston said. “But we’ve got the best coach and the best man.”
Permalink | Comments (70) | Categories: Mark Bradley, UGA / SEC
Weekend Predictions
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
I realize there’s a really important football game today, one that could not only determine the winner of the NFC South but also whether the Falcons chug an embalming fluid smoothie and miss the playoffs, thereby causing Arthur Blank to look wistfully down the street and think, “Now why didn’t I just buy a fishtank like Bernie?”
But first, there’s something I just have to know: Could the Falcons please distribute MARTA passes in the locker room this week? Because, like, dude, I’ve seen bumper cars with less incidents.
Rod Coleman has the deer thing, which leads to the, “Do you know who I am thing.” A few weeks ago, Roddy White’s car skids off the road on the way to an autograph session, which, of course, begs the question: “What’s the autograph of a Falcons’ receiver worth?”
Then late Monday night, Antwan Lake was involved in a two-car wreck, which is one car above the Falcons’ average. The other vehicle reportedly ran a red light. The driver was not identified, but before fleeing the scene was heard muttering something about payback to the Falcons for his cousin, Blitzen, going back on lithium.
Today, the Falcons play in Charlotte.
But there is good news. I think they took a plane.
Carolina has played catatonic kitty to the Falcons’ front bumper. Atlanta has won three straight, nine of 10 and 12 of 14. Michael Vick personally is 5-0 against the Panthers and has run for 356 yards.
All of which leads me to conclude: not what you think.
Carolina has a run defense. It has held seven of 11 opponents under 100 yards. It also has home field. It also has Steve Smith, who leads the NFL with 75 catches. Apply the standard Falcon formula, that probably means he’ll be up to 150 by halftime.
The line is 3. The road is straight.
The signpost up ahead says: Carolina covers.
4-STAR
Bengals at Steelers: Chad Johnson, Cincinnati receiver and more importantly media dream, wore a Steelers “Terrible Towel” as a bib at lunch the other day, saying he didn’t want to “get my shirt dirty.” I see another buffet table, and it’s in the Pittsburgh secondary. Take Bengals and 3 — and in a straight upset.
Cowboys at Giants: Jay Feely, the ex-Falcon, missed three potential game-winning field goals last week. The Cowboys’ Billy Cundiff blew one against Denver. Just in case this thing’s tied in the final minute, Bill Parcells and Tom Coughlin have worked out one of those, “Strangers on a Train,” deals. New York covers 3.
3 BAGS
Broncos at Chiefs: My name is Priest Holmes, and people used to think I was indispensable. The Chiefs are 3-1 since Holmes went down and his replacement, Larry Johnson, has four straight 100-yard games. Another actual factual: Denver is 4-11 in K.C. since 1990. Take Chiefs at home with the point.
Seahawks at Eagles: It should be a festive holiday atmosphere in the cheap seats at The Linc. It’ll make “The Deer Hunter” look like a musical. Meanwhile, Transylvania Senator Arlen Specter blabbed this week that he might have a committee look into possible anti-trust violations against Philly for suspending Terrell Owens. He backed off two days later, presumably after an aide whispered in his ear, “Sir, you’re an idiot.” Seattle covers 4.
2 BAGS
Bucs at Saints: NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue can smell a PR disaster on the horizon so he’s back in Baton Rouge to see if the stadium can handle more games there next season. If you’re looking for Tom Benson, he’ll be under the bleachers. Loosening bolts. Bucs cover 3 1/2.
Titans at Colts: This week, Tennessee. Next week, South America, then north to Europe. But I never punt 16 points in an NFL game. Take the Titans and the cushion.
Jaguars at Browns: With Byron Leftwich out, backup David Garrard says “I’m just here to keep the ship going.” I’m assuming somebody will tell him it’s December and he’s in Cleveland. Jax wins and covers 3.
Packers at Bears: Brett Favre is 12-1 all-time at Soldier Field. He used to be 12-1 in a lot of places. In a previous life. With previous teammates. And a previous arm. All signs of reality apply except in games against the Falcons’ secondary. Chicago covers 7.
Vikings at Lions: Here’s what just happened in Detroit: a car drove off the lot, but a mile down the road the transmission fell out and the engine blew up, so team president Matt Millen fired the guy who pressed the gas pedal. Another win for Minny (and 3 is covered).
Jets at Patriots: Why a 6-5 team is a playoff lock: 1) New England is in the same division with three headstones (Jets, Bills and Patriots); 2) Four of the Pats last five games come against those three (two vs. New York). Combined records: 12-32.
Bills at Dolphins: Buffalo has been outscored in five road games 148-53, give or take a major organ. Yo, Fish: Get to the 20 and the Bills’ defense will take it from there (20 TDs, 9 field goals in 31 red-zone trips). Miami covers 4.
Skins at Rams: The Redskins have blown fourth-quarter leads three straight weeks. Tony Stewart won the NASCAR Nextel Cup for Joe Gibbs Racing. Joe: Listen to the voice. Go home. But Skins cover 3.
Raiders at Chargers: San Diego has won four straight. The rest of the league had better hope it’s too late to catch up after a 3-4 start. Kerry Collins, 7-17 as an Oakland starter, felt it necessary to declare himself, “The Man,” this week. So that’s one vote. The 11 is covered.
LIFETIME TV FOR MUSHBRAINS
(“Fatal Reunion.” Stay-at-home mom suspects her husband is cheating on her. Rather than confront her hubby, she turns to an old crush to soothe her jealous soul. No!”)
Texans at Ravens: Brian Billick has used 10 quarterbacks in seven seasons. I know. The movie sounds better. Ravens wins but take Houston and 8.
Cardinals at 49ers: Dennis Green faces the lousy team that wouldn’t hire him. This should be fun. Cards cover 3.
HOW I’M DOING
(Three losses last week came in OT. I know. Horseshoes and handgrenades.)
Last week: 9-5 straight up, 7-6-1 against the spread.
Fiscal season: 106-52 straight up, 84-69-5 against the spread.
Sunrise: Yes.
Permalink | Comments (7) | Categories: Falcons / NFL, Jeff Schultz
For Hawks, it doesn’t get any lower than this
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
History was made here Friday night. History was made and, judging by the absence of bodies in Philips Arena, you doubtless missed it. (Attendance was announced as 12,261, but the actual gathering was about half that.) In the years to come, you’ll regret not having been there. How often do you get the chance to say, “I witnessed the worst game ever played”?
When the Hawks played Toronto, it marked — according to ESPN Research, a department of the media conglomerate presumably not overseen by Michael Irvin — a collision of teams bearing the lowest-ever winning percentage (.100) of opponents that had combined to play 30 games. And the NBA, it must be noted, has been around since 1946.
So this was for the archives. Like DiMaggio and his streak. Like Secretariat and his Belmont. Like Evel Knievel and his canyon.
The Hawks and the Raptors.
“A battle of the bottom-feeders,” said Pete Babcock, who was on hand for this steel-cage match between the teams he has, for want of a better description, helped mold. Once the Hawks’ general manager, Babcock is now the Raptors’ director of pro personnel. (His brother Rob is the Toronto GM.) It only seems right that the worst game in NBA annals would bear the stamp of poor Pete, the unluckiest man who has yet lived.
For no real reason, celebs often turn out for Hawks’ games. Some nights Michael Vick is on hand, or Usher, or Jermaine Dupri. Lately it has been Terrell Owens, who as we know has time on his hands. So who was the big name on this historic occasion?
Emmanuel Lewis. Played “Webster” on TV. Is now 34 years old. Apparently has time on his hands, too.
Before the game, the Hawks’ coach sought to downplay the magnitude of the event. “It’s not the end of the world,” Mike Woodson said. “I’m not concerned about our record. Records are records. You can’t control your record.”
A couple of things. The Hawks entered Friday’s epic 2-12 this season, 15-81 under Woodson. How could he not be concerned about the record? And there is a way to control your record, though apparently the Hawks haven’t grasped the concept: You could actually outscore your opponent, in which case you would achieve something reportedly known as victory.
For 3 1/2 quarters this notable night, victory seemed a distant light. The Hawks led 2-0, then 2-1. They next nosed ahead with 3:24 remaining, an achievement so dramatic that the PA announcer was moved to shout, “The Hawks have taken the lead!”
The Raptors led by 11 after one quarter, by nine after two. The halftime deficit prompted Dr. Louis Freedman to ponder ramifications. Should the Hawks lose this historic duel, would that make them the worst team of all time? “No,” said Freedman, the Hawks’ team dentist since 1971. “We’d still be ahead of [the Raptors]. They’d be 2-15, and we’d be 2-13.”
Ah, but Toronto, by virtue of its head-to-head victory, would have seized any tiebreaker advantage over the Hawks. “And they’d have bragging rights,” said Freedman, speaking these words with a straight face.
Such a momentous matchup deserved a suitable finish, and one was provided. The Raptor rookie Charlie Villanueva back-doored the veteran Al Harrington for the go-ahead layup with 2.5 seconds left. Then Joe Johnson, who scored a career-best 34 points, stepped on the sideline before he could hoist a shot. The visitors, who hadn’t won a road game this season, beat the Hawks.
Someday these Raptors will tell their grandchildren that they played in the worst game ever — and didn’t lose! And the Hawks? Well, this was Woodson’s bizarre verdict: “Everybody who played did a great job.”
No, these Hawks seized the moment. Somebody had to lose the worst game of all time, and our hometown heroes simply would not be denied.
Permalink | Comments (26) | Categories: Hawks / NBA, Mark Bradley
This sportswriter never bargained for…
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Furman Bisher
THINGS I NEVER GOT INTO SPORTS FOR (meaning I could have lived happily without them):
• Rock music blaring out over the football stadium before the kickoff. (Uh, whatever became of the old fight songs?)
• Female boxers.
• Fishing on television.
• The President’s Cup. (Nothing less admirable than a copycat.)
• Horseshoes, anyplace but on the hooves of horses.
• World Series played under moonshine instead of sunshine.
• Closers, closers and more closers.
• Baseball managers being interviewed in the dugout while the game goes on.
• Ice hockey played in places where oranges grow and people sweat in January.
• Suffering with the Hawks and the Thrashers bringing two more losers to town.
• Those sideline reporters who stick a microphone in the face of a coach with a question that has no answer.
• Million-dollars a year utility infielders.
• Sportswriters who dress as if they’ve come to pick up the garbage.
• Football coaches who lock the gates at practices, making us feel like the enemy.
• Basketball players in sagging britches that look more like laundry sacks.
• Poker tournaments.
• Phil Mickelson deciding he has made enough money to pass up the Tour Championship.
• Female placekickers.
• Juan Antonio Samaranch. George Steinbrenner. Al Davis.
• Balls called strikes and strikes called ball.
• Mud wrestling.
• Cricket, even if I knew how to keep score.
• World records that are “broken” by 100th of a second.
• A baseball commissioner who was a car salesman in his other life.
• Tearing down the goalposts by a bunch of guys who spent the afternoon in the stands on the seat of their pants.
• Those four hoarsemen of sports gab TV who come galloping across the TV screen trying to outshout the others.
• Overtime in college football. (Sometimes neither team deserves to lose, and other times a tie can feel like a victory.)
• “Noise! Noise!,” that repugnant stadium exhortation. Have you no honor?
• Those postseason football games tacked onto the schedule under the aliases of “bowls” or “classics.”
• Then there are those split conferences, followed by championship games, followed by bowl games, followed by heaven knows what next.
• College coaches making a million-plus a year, plus bonus, plus grocery allotment and a fleet of cars.
• Just a stray thought here: How long has it been since you saw a coach hanged in effigy?
• When television sets everybody’s clock, when to kick off, when to tip off, when to throw the first pitch, when to drop the puck and tells the horses when to break from the gate.
• And I could go on and on, but thank you for staying the course.
Permalink | Comments (12) | Categories: Furman Bisher, Other
No place like Dome for Dogs to hit peak
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
LSU is the better team and the better story, but great teams sometimes lose and great stories occasionally have lousy endings. Georgia is the footnote in the 2005 SEC championship game, and a Georgia team playing in the Georgia Dome should never be an afterthought.
Were this a best-of-seven, the Bulldogs wouldn’t prevail. LSU has achieved the bigger victories — Florida, Auburn, Alabama — and a strong consensus holds that Georgia won the East only because the East was the weakest it has been. LSU is an overtime loss from being unbeaten. (Though being unbeaten still wouldn’t have lifted the Tigers into the Rose Bowl. Ask Auburn how that feels.) But Georgia is seven points from being undefeated itself, and the Bulldogs enter this SEC championship healthier than they did in 2003, when LSU beat them badly.
Those Bulldogs peaked in an October victory over Tennessee. These Bulldogs haven’t yet posted a signature victory. (It was briefly believed that one had occurred eight weeks ago in Knoxville, but the Vols’ subsequent collapse devalued that bit of currency.) There’s reason to believe Georgia has played 11 games without yet reaching peak capacity. Tonight would be a propitious moment.
There’s much to be said for being a really good team that’s being given little chance. Having won 43 of its past 51 games, Georgia has grown accustomed to all that winning requires. The Bulldogs no longer feel that anything is beyond them, an attitude that harkens back to the headiest days of Vince Dooley. There was a time when Georgia would upset somebody almost on cue — Texas in the Cotton Bowl, Clemson in 1984, Florida in ‘85, Auburn in ‘86 — and famous upsets are the one thing Mark Richt really hasn’t mastered. (For good reason. He has built his program so well and so quickly that the Bulldogs are almost always favored.)
Any coach worth his whistle would welcome the opportunity Georgia has: To have a team this good playing in a not-really-neutral setting and to be expected to lose. “I would think we’re the underdog,” Richt said Friday. “Most everyone is picking LSU to win and to go to the Sugar Bowl. But when people don’t think you can do something, you like proving them wrong.”
Were this game being staged in Birmingham or Nashville or Orlando, LSU would be favored by (and would win by) more than a touchdown. But it isn’t. It’s being played in Georgia, and at least 60 percent of the patrons will be pulling for the locals. That didn’t bother LSU back in 2003, but the Tigers were clearly the stronger side that night. The differences between the teams are more slender this time. LSU has a good quarterback and three good running backs, and so does Georgia. LSU has a ferocious defense, and so does Georgia.
The Tigers also have the proven ability to function under duress. Three LSU games were rescheduled because of hurricanes, and the Tigers had to react to realities far more dire than somebody getting arrested for DUI. “It’s certainly been unusual,” said Les Miles, LSU’s coach. “We’ve had to deal with the changes in schedule and short weeks and the significant real-life drama that came to our campus.”
LSU has ridden a wave of emotion to reach this juncture, but it may be the program that prides itself on serenity — Georgia, with its preternaturally poised coach — that wins. The SEC championship is always the most charged event on the Dome’s calendar. Said Richt: “The atmosphere is unbelievable.” It would not be unbelievable if his team wins by a field goal at the end.
Permalink | Comments (33) | Categories: Jeff Schultz, UGA / SEC
Wild ride continues for Thrashers
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
There are nights when they manage to score enough goals to overcome the goalie who was supposed to be working in the AHL or the ECHL, or, worst-case scenario, Wendy’s.
There are nights, like Thursday, when it doesn’t really matter how their goalie is playing because the players in front of him seem to be fighting this losing battle with consciousness.
And then there are the nights the general manager of Thrashers doesn’t sleep too well, which, if Don Waddell is the realist I think he is, should be most nights. Because trying to keep a team’s playoff heart beating when the franchise’s Nos. 1, 2 and 3 goalies have taken up residence in the training room is not conducive to a restful evening.
“Even my daughter said to me, ‘Dad, do you even wake up in the middle of the night thinking of Damian Rhodes or Norm Maracle?’” Waddell said Thursday. “I’m like, ‘Why are you bringing this up to me?’”
On Thursday, the Thrashers lost to Toronto, 4-0. They fanned on eight power plays and compounded that lack of coordination with ineptitude: They took 11 minor penalties, which lead to three of the Maple Leafs’ four goals.
“We have to find a way to come out and give a better effort because there’s no excuse for being mediocre,” defenseman Andy Sutton said. “It wasn’t Garny’s fault — he gave us a chance to win.”
No, it wasn’t Michael Garnett’s fault Thursday. But here’s the thing about the Thrashers these days: They have evolved to the point that they’re not losing many games because of their absurd situation in the nets. But they’re just not able to steal any games on nights where the team’s play borders on pathetic.
After the game, Waddell emerged from a meeting with coach Bob Hartley, walked down a corridor and made a wave-like motion with his hand, as if mimicking the team’s rollercoaster play.
That shouldn’t be an issue by game 26. It shouldn’t be an issue when a team should be playing with a greater sense of desperation, giving the wounds in net.
Goalie injuries have been a problem in the NHL this season. For the Thrashers, it’s been more like an obsession. They used five goalies in their first 10 games. Only three teams in NHL history had ever used five goalies in a 10-game span, and never before at the start of the season.
Pasi Nurminen blew out his knee before training camp even started. Nurminen immediately retired. If nothing else, that lessened the chance of re-injury.
Then, would-be franchise goalie Kari Lehtonen suffered a groin/abdominal/core-muscle strain — it’s one of them floating things — in the first period of the first game at Florida. He hasn’t been seen since, but reportedly is working on strengthening his core-muscle group.
I figure with the proper off-season conditioning and workout program, Lehtonen can work his way up to two periods next season.
Lehtonen was replaced by Mike Dunham, who had been signed to replace Nurminen. Dunham played three games, then suffered a groin strain, came back three weeks later, played a few more games, then tore that sucker. So Waddell signed Steve Shields, who, like Dunham, was pretty much sitting on a coach. He played three games, which seems to have become sort of the invisible wall, then sprained his knee. He came back three weeks later, played a game, then hurt it again.
Notice any trend here?
“In 18 years of coaching, I’ve never seen anything like this,” Hartley said. “I remember talking to Don over the summer about how we finally had the perfect marriage in goal with Pasi and Kari. But obviously, we never got to church.”
The morgue — that’s another story.
Poor Garnett. His father and brother were in attendance for the first time to see him play an NHL game. But his team abandoned him.
Yes, this was only game 26. Lehtonen, Dunham and Shields all are on the radar for possibly returning by the end of the month. But does anybody want to give odds on the chances that any of them return and escape injury the rest of the year?
This might be as good as it gets. And unless somebody wakes up, there will be time to sleep in the post-season again.
Permalink | Comments (20) | Categories: Jeff Schultz, Thrashers / NHL
Crude behavior now the norm for fans
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
I’m not a fan of violence. I think what Ron Artest did was despicable. That said…
There were a few moments Wednesday when, had I been declared king of the world for the next five minutes, I’d have given Jeremis Smith and Ra’Sean Dickey a license to wade into the Izzone — the Michigan State student section — and jack a few jaws.
The Izzone idiots kept yelling things at the Georgia Tech players, Smith and Dickey in particular, that should be considered objectionable by all right-thinking human beings. (They weren’t racist remarks, mind you. They were simply stupid remarks, and they’ll not be repeated here.) It’s OK to cheer for your team, but when did it become OK to deride the opposition in the crudest terms possible at the loudest possible volume? When did that become acceptable public behavior?
And it’s not just at State. This was simply the latest example of what has come to pass for distressing reality. I’ve heard similar stuff at Georgia, at Florida, even at Tech. (Instructively, I’ve never heard such things at Duke. The Cameron Crazies can be a royal pain, but they tend to keep it clean. They’re clever, as opposed to crude.)
When did it become OK for a skinny frat kid — OK, I’m generalizing here — to tell an obviously gifted athlete, “You can’t play!” Only these skinny frat kids, assuming that’s what they are, didn’t just say, “You can’t play.” They said worse. And how silly is it to criticize the skills of somebody who, as was the case with Smith and Dickey, is ripping your team to pieces underneath?
Maybe I’m just old-fashioned. Maybe I’m just old. But I remember how we used to do it at Maysville High. We didn’t yell at the other players. (Well, not much.) We simply railed at the refs. (Because, as was obviously the case, we got cheated every game of every season.) But I digress.
Permalink | Comments (25) | Categories: Mark Bradley, Quick Hit
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