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January 2006
Ward routes all lead back home
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
Detroit — For the longest time, Hines Ward spent Tuesday at Ford Field doing the impossible. Somehow, he kept smiling even more easily and brilliantly than he normally does. Then again, while sitting high on a podium before his portion of the 2,500 media gathered along the sideline, he was having all of these flashbacks to his youth in Clayton County.
About those flashbacks: There was Ward, operating in living color as a make-believe Jerry Rice catching a bunch of passes during a make-believe Super Bowl. This was before he starred as a quarterback at Forest Park High School. This was before he prospered as everything at the University of Georgia. This was before he produced four trips to the Pro Bowl as a wide receiver with the Pittsburgh Steelers. This was when he was a 12-year-old in search of emulating greatness.
Which brings us to the present, where Ward is a 29-year-old evolving into what he always wanted to become: Great. Let’s just say that the real Jerry Rice is retired, and Hines Ward is a Sunday away from operating as Hines Ward during a real Super Bowl. So, not a moment is passing these days when the glow from Ward’s always bright face isn’t threatening to blind the stars and the sun. He is smiling for himself, along with for others.
“Right now, I’m living my dream, just to get an opportunity this weekend to make history,” Ward said, glancing toward the horizon, presumably in search of the Georgia state line. “Coming from Forest Park, Ga., not only am I playing this game for my teammates, for Jerome [Bettis, the Steelers’ running back returning to his native city], for the coach [the Steelers’ Bill Cowher] and for the organization, but I’m representing Forest Park. I’m representing the schoolteachers. I’m representing all of my friends from high school.”
The voice sort of quavered, but Ward didn’t cry. Well, not this time. When a smile isn’t sliding along his face, a tear might be on the way. The world discovered that Ward can run pretty fast, but he also revealed he has trouble sprinting from his feelings when he cried forever before cameras last season when he thought the Steelers’ loss in the AFC championship game might be the last game ever for Bettis. “They’re so close that they should be brothers,” Steelers offensive guard Kendall Simmons said.
Then there was four years ago, when Ward was so worked up before a home playoff game against the Baltimore Ravens that he nearly lost his breakfast on the turf at Heinz Field.
Still, the first time that Ward discovered that he often has no control over his emotions was when he was so nervous for a game that he nearly “passed out.” No, not when he played for the Steelers, nor for the Bulldogs of Georgia or the Panthers of Forest Park. Try the Dolphins of Forest Park. Ward chuckled before saying, “That was back during my first game in the Pee Wee League.”
So much has happened to Ward since then, and most of it has been good. Even much of the bad has worked in favor of this son of an African-American father and Korean mother. His parents divorced soon after his mother arrived in the United States as part of a GI marriage. Since his mother didn’t speak English and lacked a job at the time, Ward was forced to live with his father and stepmother.
Not good, according to Ward. Just last week, he told Korean television that he eventually sneaked back as a second-grader to live with his mother, and that was good. He said he acquired her work ethic after he watched her take three jobs to support the two of them along his way to becoming the most prolific player in all-purpose yards at Georgia not named Herschel Walker.
Ward became a Bulldog favorite, and even now, when he leaves his home in Smyrna, he hears more than a few barks.
So why was Ward laughing? “No disrespect, but Atlanta is Michael Vick’s town,” Ward said. “Everybody cheers for him, but that’s where my roots came from. I still have a lot of ties with the Georgia Bulldog community. That’s home for me, but the city of Pittsburgh has been great for me, and I’m glad to try to do whatever I can on Sunday to bring the Super Bowl back to the city of Pittsburgh.” He still didn’t cry, but just wait.
Permalink | Comments (26) | Categories: Falcons / NFL, Terence Moore
As far as I’m concerned, XL is Detroit’s first
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Furman Bisher
OK, let’s get some geography straight here. The first Super Bowl “played in Detroit” actually wasn’t. It was played in Pontiac, and we’ll get around to more on that.
The Detroit Pistons actually live in Auburn Hills, and so does the NBA championship. Now, the Tigers and Red Wings have always belonged to Detroit, far as I know. But this business of blaming the 1982 Super Bowl on Detroit is not fair.
It was Pontiac! That’s 25 miles from Detroit. Darn few people who went to Super Bowl XVI ever got to Detroit, unless tunneling through on the way to Windsor, where they could do a lot of things they couldn’t do in Detroit. The Silverdome seemed to be a safe place to play a game, but the Pontiac weather was just right for an Iditarod. Nobody expected a blizzard.
It struck at the most inopportune time, when the crowd was trying to get there. I’d caught an early bus and was safely inside, but the first President Bush’s motorcade barely made it through.
Then, there was the matter of getting back to where you’d come from. The NFL took a calculated risk, a payback to General Motors, one of its biggest advertisers.
This time, it’s step No. 2 in the 21st century transfusion of old downtown, which was a pretty nice place. Baseball’s All-Star Game was first, and I’m just not sure it was that uplifting. Most of us were housed in Dearborn, as we were for Super Bowl XVI, and what we saw of downtown was out of bus windows, and it wasn’t pretty.
This is a Super Bowl I couldn’t miss. Bill Ford has built a nice game room downtown and put the family name on it, though I’m not sure Ford Motor Company can afford it.
There’s another item: My wife was born in Detroit, Woman’s Hospital, on this very same February date. That means I’m deeply indebted to this place. She won’t be there. Super Bowls aren’t one of her favorite events, especially at these prices.
She once made a deal: “If I don’t go, do I get the price of the ticket?” It was only $375 then; $700 deals I don’t make. She could have brought a friend in 1982. Tickets were only $40, and danged if the pleasure has increased by that much. I know of no sports event I’d pay $700 to see, though I might make allowances for the Black Sox World Series of 1919.
This will be my 39th of the 40 Super Bowls. (Actually, it wasn’t called “Super Bowl” until the second game, so I guess you could say I’ve been to all the Super Bowls.)
I was turned down for the first game, for our publisher didn’t think it was worth the cost of a trip to Los Angeles. Five writers have made them all, and much is made of their presence each year. But I can tell you this: Neither one of them picked the Jets to beat the Colts in No. 3. There were six of us, and our “feat” is enshrined in the Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. I’ll take that, but unfortunately, I didn’t bet it.
So I missed Media Day, when all the questions that will be asked the rest of the week are asked for the first time. In truth, I’ve never been to one, but I did watch portions of this one on ESPN. I learned little, if anything. Ye gods, they were even reproducing questions that had been asked when Jim Plunkett played. I feel sort of like Forrest Gump here, when he said, “That’s all I got to say about that.”
I will say this, that this is the perfect setting for the two teams that made it to No. XL. (First time I ever realized that “L” stood for 50.) Detroit is an industrial town, “Motor City” in fantasy, though more motors are being turned out in Japan. Pittsburgh is an industrial city, and I never saw another coach who looks as much like a shop foreman as jut-jawed Bill Cowher. And what other team has a player known as “The Bus” ?
Seattle, that’s where planes come from and where ships are built, so the two cities have much in common. Most of all, these are teams without kooks. Or, if they’re there, they haven’t shown themselves. But, of course, they still have until Sunday.
Permalink | Comments (9) | Categories: Falcons / NFL, Furman Bisher
The Tuesday Countdown
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
THE TUESDAY COUNTDOWN
10: Steelers 23, Seahawks 20. Trust me. I’m scary good.
9: You know how I feel about facts. Overrated. But OK, here goes: Pittsburgh gets my edge at quarterback, pass rush and run defense. Other than having the best running back in the game (Shaun Alexander), I’m hard-pressed to find any obvious advantage for Seattle.
8: The teams are relatively even in turnovers. What it comes down to is this: 1) With the game on the line, it’s easier for me to see Ben Roethlisberger making a play than Matt Hasselbeck; 2) The Steelers have come through road games at Cincinnati, Indianapolis and Denver. They are not the team to bet against.
7: And if I’m wrong, just remember. We don’t charge you for these blogs any more. You get what you pay for.
6: I am so over Anna Benson.
5: A Hawks note (Don’t leave. It’s just one.) Of their 12 wins, four have come against teams that had winning records entering Tuesday (San Antonio, Cleveland, Denver, Philadelphia), and three are against .500 teams (Indiana twice, New Orleans/Oklahoma). Their problem hasn’t been competing against teams (generally). Their problem is making sludge look like gold. They’re 0-6 against Toronto, Portland and Charlotte (which have a combined record of 42-92).
4: The NBA sent out a press release announcing the top selling jerseys in China, and Yao Ming finished third behind Tracy McGrady and Allen Iverson. But I’m sure Ming is the man in South Philly.
3: I lied. I just Googled Anna again. I think she likes me.
2: I leave for Turin next week and will be out of touch with Hawks and Force news. I’m looking for an official correspondent to send me updates. Or hemlock. Seriously, here’s a chance for you, the blogger, to send me column ideas. Please hurry because if there’s one thing I hate doing, it’s thinking during work.
1: It’s letter-of-intent day Wednesday. Coincidentally, it’s also garbage pickup day in my neighborhood.
Permalink | Comments (31) | Categories: Jeff Schultz, Quick Hit
All dressed up, it’s still Detroit
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
Detroit — As somebody who has cringed often through the decades at just the thought of having to spend more than a millisecond around here, this city never has looked better. It’s on the verge of moving from horrible to tolerable to somewhat enjoyable. It’s a mirage, though, because you know what they say about putting lipstick on a pig.
To paraphrase, Detroit is still Detroit, with clean streets, fancy casinos and Super Bowl banners only in the areas that will get the most scrutiny with that little game sitting at the end of the week.
Even so, the state’s governor and the city’s mayor tried valiantly on Monday to convince those in a stuffed ballroom downtown that this pig is actually a prince, and that it only needs a kiss from its slew of critics around the solar system to wear a crown for the rest of its life.
“We don’t have any hurricanes. No earthquakes. Truly, truly this place has got everything you would want for those who love the seasons, and we want to be able to show you that this is a magical state and a magical city,” said Jennifer Granholm, the governor, causing more than a few rolled eyes.
Added Kwame Kilpatrick, the mayor, recalling the sports disaster of the ages that was the 1982 Super Bowl in Detroit and nearby Pontiac, “I’ve heard the complaints about what happened back then, and I want you to know that Detroiters have a pent-up desire to do well. We want to redeem ourselves and to reintroduce ourselves as the next Detroit. The new Detroit.”
This is the old Detroit with lipstick. Only New Orleans has a higher unemployment rate among big cities, and that was before Ford announced its plans last week to slice 25,000 more jobs nationally. General Motors also is hemorrhaging. Plus, murders continue to happen as rapidly within the city limits as the wind rattling through all of those buildings that were scorched into a crumbling mess nearly 40 years ago during the riots.
That said, with Detroit having its third-warmest January in 120 years, there was this ongoing rarity on Monday: The sun actually peeking through the normally gloomy skies. Not only that, there hasn’t been much precipitation in days. As a result, local officials rushed to hire somebody from Canada to make a bunch of the fake stuff for a 200-foot snow slide that is slated to highlight what they’re calling “Motown Winter Blast.”
No blizzards. No ice storms. No freezing temperatures. Nothing more than a few snow flurries and occasional rain showers are in the weather forecast from now through that little game.
“Well, that’s great,” said Jim Steeg, trying to sound enthusiastic over the phone from San Diego, but failing miserably. “They got the luck.” Then Steeg eased into a laugh, before adding, “Kwame Kilpatrick bought somebody off on that one.”
Steeg laughed some more, probably because he just finished his first year as an executive for the San Diego Chargers instead of continuing as the guy who was in charge of running every Super Bowl for the NFL for 23 years through 2005.
If you do the math, Steeg’s first Super Bowl was, well, you’ve guessed it. I was here back then, grumbling and freezing with everybody else during a miserable week of ugly wind chill factors and botched transportation. The week was salvaged a bit after the San Francisco 49ers started their dynasty with a thriller over the Cincinnati Bengals. Before, during and after that game, Steeg heard the same mantra through clenched teeth: Why in the name of beaches and sunshine did the league deviate from its system of having the Super Bowl at warm-weather sites?
“Listen. That Super Bowl almost took on mythological proportions,” Steeg said. “It was unfair for people to think that you can control the weather, and that was a winter that was brutally bad. And, of course, you had that sleet storm on Friday, which didn’t help matters. That being said, it was cold. It was all of that other stuff going together, but we had a good plan, and everything else worked pretty good.”
Yeah, but it was in Detroit. Just like this Super Bowl. To which Roger Penske, the chairman of the Detroit Super Bowl XL Host Committee, offered this vision between words of the governor and the mayor: “What I want to see [Monday morning] are headlines that say ‘Great game and great city.’ “
How about OK city?
Permalink | Comments (69) | Categories: Falcons / NFL, Terence Moore
Part of Hawks’ problem: Woodson
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
Two losing coaches had dinner Sunday night and split an order of misery, well done.
Of course, once you get past the malnourished win-loss percentages and the dueling hang-in-theres, there’s really only so much that Larry Brown and Mike Woodson have in common. The New York Knicks can morph into a Toronto Raptor starter kit and Brown isn’t going anywhere. Brown doesn’t get fired. He promises his undying love for a team and then quits, or he coaches one in the NBA Finals while negotiating with another. It’s the benefit of not having a conscience.
Woodson doesn’t have Brown’s comfort zone. Notwithstanding’s Monday’s 120-101 win over the Knicks, the Hawks aren’t morphing into anything. That’s the problem. They’re still the Hawks.
Change the owners, the general manager, the players, the coach, the formula for artificially inflating attendance figures. Doesn’t matter. They’re still the face Murphy was thinking about when he said, “Hmmm. I’ve got this idea for a law.”
Even with the victory, the Hawks are on pace to finish 23-59. The scary reality: That would be an improvement over last year’s franchise-worst 13-69. But that’s sort of like comparing a clean rag with a used one. In the end, it’s still a rag.
Woodson is 25-100 after a season and a half. He was the fastest to 100 defeats in Hawks coaching history, breathing or otherwise. The team let that plateau pass without a commemorative cyanide capsule giveaway.
Now, this isn’t all Woodson’s fault. The Hawks are missing parts. They have been molded by the thumbs of Billy Knight. But when a team continually fizzles down the stretch of games, there’s a problem. When a team looks as lost after a timeout as before it, there’s a problem.
When a team is getting punked by Boris Diaw, there’s a problem.
The problem is Woodson.
Brown doesn’t think so. He believes any speculation that Woodson might be fired is undeserved.
“I’ve never had an assistant who was better,” said Brown, Woodson’s boss in Detroit and Philadelphia. “If they [Hawks owners] think they can do better, they ought to coach.”
I’m thinking: Could they do worse?
Let’s be clear: The Hawks should not have been considered a playoff team before this season. But they should have been considered somewhere between a playoff team and this. Youth aside, when players make the same mistakes nightly, it does not scream significant improvement.
Either what Woodson is preaching to his players is wrong (unlikely), or what he’s preaching isn’t sinking in (more likely). Blame the message or the messenger. Regardless, it falls on Woodson.
He’s the nicest, classiest guy in the world. But it’s not working. He’s not working. Losing close games shouldn’t be taken as a sign that things are getting better. Everybody loses close games. If the Hawks were 20 games under .500 after a full season (31-51), that would be progress. But 20 games under .500 after 42 — big problem.
Here’s another problem: Almost everybody can cross the Hawks’ roster with their record and conclude, “They’re underachieving.”
Not Woodson. When asked if this team had underachieved, he said: “I can’t say that. What I am saying is there have probably been at least 10 games we controlled and were somewhat our own worst enemy.”
Guess what? Every team can make those claims. Lucky shots, bad breaks, unfair calls, tired legs — all that stuff evens out. They’re losers’ excuses.
Woodson attributed late-game breakdowns to the team’s youth, then said: “I have to take responsibility for that. I can’t put it all on the players because we’re all in it together.”
They’re in it together. But they’re not on even footing. The Hawks have already fired all the players. They’re not going to do that again. When Boris Diaw turns into a threat, it’s not all because of his supporting cast.
Woodson says he still comes to work “excited about my job every day.”
Well. That’s one.
He dismissed speculation on his future, saying: “If a head coach has to look over his shoulder always worrying about his job, he can’t do his job.”
Tunnel vision gets you through a day. But it hasn’t helped his record. Brown can relate to the loss total, but he can fall back on his résumé. Woodson is trying to fall back on hope. Good luck with that.
Permalink | Comments (53) | Categories: Hawks / NBA, Jeff Schultz
Prankster takes over Camp Leo
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
An obvious question to Roger McDowell: Do you rock?
“If I do, I’m not aware of it,” he says. “But where I’ve been, there’s not a lot of TV coverage. So I don’t know if I do or not.”
Roger McDowell is the Braves’ new pitching coach, succeeding the famous dugout rocker Leo Mazzone. Gone now to Baltimore, Mazzone isn’t without his eccentricities, but anyone who remembers Roger McDowell from his pitching days knows he held the reputation as the flake’s flake. As a player, McDowell definitely rocked.
He used to give teammates the ol’ hot foot. He performed with a mariachi band at Dodger Stadium. Playing himself, he appeared on an episode of “Seinfeld” as the notorious “second spitter.” According to Wikipedia, “McDowell was known to wear kilts off the field.” He was known even more for wearing his uniform upside down — pants over his head, shoes on his hands — during a game.
Another obvious question: Isn’t donning a uniform upside down rather hard? “There was a little difficulty there — up around a ‘10’ in difficulty,” McDowell says. “But I stuck the landing.”
The most obvious question: Is Roger McDowell, pitching coach, as unfettered as Roger McDowell, pitcher?
“No,” he says. “I guess you can say I’ve kind of grown up. I enjoy what I do in different ways. I still have the same desires and the same passions — they’re just expressed differently.”
Besides, a manager might get cranky if his pitching coach sat alongside with his pants on his head. Says McDowell: “They kind of frown on that kind of stuff.”
Speaking from his home in Palm Springs, Calif., McDowell was packing for the trip to Atlanta and his first real week on the job. Camp Roger — he won’t call it that, referring to it as “an early throwing program” — will commence Wednesday at Turner Field. The new guy knows he’s following the gold standard of pitching coaches. Of Mazzone, he says, “His success is pretty much second to none.” But McDowell, who’s 45 and who has worked just 41/2 seasons as a coach, has stamped himself as a rising star.
McDowell spent 12 years as a big-league reliever, throwing a wicked sinker and being credited with the win in Game 7 of the 1986 World Series. His best years were with the Mets, where he and Jesse Orosco were a tag team, but by 1998 McDowell had had three shoulder operations in 14 months and simply couldn’t throw anymore.
He’d gone to camp with the White Sox that spring. After McDowell retired as a player, Sox GM Ron Schueler asked him to hang around as a pitching coach for the minor leaguers’ extended spring training. In midseason McDowell became the pitching coach of the Class AA Birmingham Barons and didn’t much like it.
He retreated to California with an eye toward playing golf on the celebrity circuit. One problem, though: “My golf game stunk.” He did community relations work for the Dodgers, one of his former teams, and by 2001 was ready to return to the game full-time. “The ballpark,” he says, “is the greatest office in the world.”
McDowell spent two seasons as the pitching coach of the South Georgia Waves, the Dodgers’ Class A affiliate, and the past two with the Class AAA Las Vegas 51s. Last October, he was in Florida working in the instructional league when the Braves called and asked him to come interview. Within a week, they’d offered their prized job to a guy without any big-league coaching experience. Says McDowell: “It’s kind of like an intern getting the job as vice president of U.S. Steel.”
Coach-talk: McDowell wants his men to throw strikes, duh, “but not just a strike — a quality strike. A pitcher who’s behind in the count can’t be as aggressive. You want guys to get ahead in the count, challenge with the fastball, get beat with your best pitch.”
Mazzone was noted for having pitchers throw twice between starts. What’s the McDowell regimen? “It depends on the individual. In different parts of the season, a guy might throw more than twice if he’s struggling. It’s based on a pitcher’s need. It’s not set in stone.”
It would be virtually impossible to improve on what Mazzone has done, but the Braves will settle for a simple continuation. Befitting his background, McDowell was the sort of outside-the-box hire that might just work. Don’t be shocked if Rockin’ Roger sticks another landing.
Permalink | Comments (31) | Categories: Braves / MLB, Mark Bradley
Early Bird Humphrey got all the sacks
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Furman Bisher
Claude Humphrey is a candidate for sports immortalization again this year, his second time and the first long-term, authentic Falcons player to reach such heights. That means he is among the final 14 players to be considered for the Pro Football Hall of Fame when the austere body of selectors gets together in Detroit on Super Bowl weekend. One coach is on the list as well, but I trust that John Madden is mainly for window dressing, or maybe honorary chef, or the only nominee who spends half his life on a bus.
Humphrey was drafted by the Falcons out of Tennessee State in 1968, when they were bottom-feeding. His specialty was devouring quarterbacks, and after all these seasons and all the avaricious defensive linemen who have passed this way, he still is the team’s all-time leader in sacks, by a mile. (Sacks did not become an official NFL stat until after he retired.) He couldn’t have arrived in Atlanta at a more tumultuous time, playing for a string of coaches marching to their doom.
Norb Hecker was about to be fired, to be succeeded by Norm Van Brocklin, then Marion Campbell, then Pat Peppler, then Leeman Bennett. Humphrey was at least able to play on the Falcons’ first two winning teams under Van Brocklin before Rankin Smith fired the Dutchman and ducked. After the switch, the Falcons won only 11 games over the following three seasons before Bennett was brought in and righted the ship.
There were complications, though. Under the coaches prior to Bennett, Humphrey had the green light to dismember opposing quarterbacks. Bennett installed a more regimented defense, moving the ends out and opening lanes for blitzing, which led to the glorified “Gritz Blitz,” allowing opponents only 129 points, still a team record. That restricted Humphrey’s access to quarterbacks, and though he still managed 10 sacks, after four games the following season he walked into Bennett’s office and said, “I’m going home.” In his Hall of Fame bio, it is referred to as “temporary retirement,” but in truth, he just plain quit.
He explained his discomfort this way: “For years we were mostly concerned with rushing the passer, leaving the run to tackles and linebackers. Now I’m staying at home, taking care of a particular responsibility. It was a complete unlearning process, forgetting everything I’d done over the past nine years.”
Campbell, meanwhile, had landed in Philadelphia, coaching the Eagles’ defense. Humphrey knew where he wanted to be, the Eagles traded two fourth-round draft choices to get him and there he resumed his assault on quarterbacks. In 1980, Humphrey sacked 15 and he and the Eagles were on their way to the Super Bowl, which they lost to Oakland. So, in the end, the Falcons share Humphrey with the Eagles in his quest for a place in Canton.
There are two in the Hall of Fame who did time with the Falcons, but in the mop-up stage of their careers. Tommy McDonald led Falcons receivers in 1967, his final season, with 33 catches, and Eric Dickerson gained 91 yards in 1993 on his way to sunset. But after all these seasons, the Falcons have only one they can claim as their own to reach this stage, and this is Humphrey’s last time around before he passes on to the Veterans Committee. There have been preliminary nominees before, Tommy Nobis, Mike Kenn and Jeff Van Note, and Dan Reeves as coach, but neither survived beyond that stage.
It’s an illustrious cast of linemen that Humphrey faces in the Detroit election, L.C. Greenwood, Russ Grimm, Bob Kuchenberg and Gary Zimmerman, all who have been there a number of times before; the late Reggie White, making his first appearance, and Rayfield Wright, the veteran Dallas Cowboy from Griffin, making his last as the choice of the Veterans Committee. Offhand, White, Greenwood and Wright would appear to be at the head of the class with impressive postseason credentials.
It might not be considered easy for a coach to speak favorably of a player who walked out on him, but Leeman Bennett still regards Humphrey as “as good a defensive end as I ever saw.” That puts the final verdict in the hands of the 36 delegates who go to the polls on Super Bowl eve.
Permalink | Comments (8) | Categories: Falcons / NFL, Furman Bisher
Fire marshal is key player at Westlake
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Curtis Bunn
At 6:05 p.m., Westlake principle Darron Franklin announced with urgency: “That’s it” — and the doors to his school essentially were shut for the night. Some two hours, 10 minutes before tipoff, the gym was packed.
The ballyhooed meeting between Class AAA’s No. 1 Lions and No. 2 Dunwoody, as promised, had attracted a capacity crowd, and then some.
It was a spectacle to behold, something more significant that what we’ve seen around here for some time. Louis Williams — and, to a lesser extent, Mike Mercer — sold out South Gwinnett last year, but it was more about seeing the duo put on a show.
Friday night at Westlake was about quality basketball.
In the stands, it was steamy and sticky, an oversized sauna. Maybe the game should have been switched to Philips Arena, with the Hawks’ meeting against the Phoenix Suns played at Westlake.
Nah, the intimate nature of the gym added to the cache of the event. It was an occasion of such note, one that, unfortunately, was disappointing for the many who could not get in.
And some of those patrons actually purchased tickets but arrived after the fire marshal put the cap on entries.
Teachers and school administrators are among the most dedicated folks you can find, and the Westlake staff — and accompanying police officers and marshals — handled the scene with as much aplomb as one could imagine, considering the circumstances.
There seemed to be an effort to be polite and professional in rebuffing advances, which cannot be dismissed as something small. It was rejection with a smile, which is better than the alternative.
The scene outside the gym was akin to what you’d witness outside a hot club in New York or Los Angeles, where you gain admission through a completely subjective selective process. Those on the outside who knew the right person got in. Those who did not, well, wrap up.
What they missed was a memorable game that justified all the intense publicity. Each team played with an abandon that matched the significance of the game. In the end, though, it was No. 1 who stayed there.
For so long, Dunwoody seemed unfazed by the hostile conditions. The Wildcats laughed with officials and each other, a display of poise and confidence. And they seemed in control going into the fourth quarter.
But that’s when it unraveled for the Wildcats. The basket got tight and Westlake, surely buoyed by its loud crowd, made one last, decisive charge. It became a Patrick Hardy party in the late stages, setting off one big Westlake party after the 64-55 triumph.
Three consecutive times Hardy scored on daring forays in the lane, the last giving Westlake a commanding 58-51 lead with 3:37 to go. That was enough for the Lions to remain unbeaten.
The patient among those on the outside at the start of the game had worked their way in and were able to see at least the second half. And so, they are able to say they were there the night the fire marshal was among the most important people in a very important game.
Permalink | Comments (1) | Categories: High School
Why should Kwan get a pass?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
What a wonderful precedent this is. Never mind the injuries that have led to general absenteeism. Never mind that the rest of this country’s figure skaters actually qualify for the Olympics against other competitors. In a filled arena. With actual judges.
Michelle Kwan: You’re cute. You’re sweet. Love that smile. You make sponsors sing. We feel so bad that you’ve never won a gold medal before.
So tell you what: You get a pass.
“I felt there was criteria for the competition and I met it,” Kwan said Friday night. “That’s all I can do. I didn’t make the decision. It wasn’t up to me. It was up to the committee. As far as the criticism — there’s nothing I can do about it.”
Really? So America’s sweetheart is going to the Olympics kicking and screaming?
Kwan was named a member of the U.S. Olympic figure skating team Friday. The decision came from a five-member “monitoring panel” of the Michelle Kwan Swoon Over America Tour. They watched her skate short and long programs in Kwan’s ice rink in California and determined “that Michelle could win the Olympics.”
Personally, I believe that given Michael Vick’s flare for the dramatic, the Falcons could win the Super Bowl this week. The problem, of course, is they didn’t make the playoffs and ABC didn’t have a vote.
It was Kwan who let it get this far. It was she, who after a year of injuries that forced her to pull out of the recent U.S. Championships, petitioned to be put on the team, anyway. It was she who used her smile and her position in the sport to effectively take a deserving Olympic team away from Emily Hughes (who finished third at the nationals).
This isn’t about figure skating. (If it was, like, I probably wouldn’t be writing it.) This is about competition.
Some have said this is nothing new. They have the chutzpah to cite Nancy Kerrigan being selected for the 1994 Olympic team despite missing qualifying. But that was about a kneecapping, orchestrated by Tonya Harding’s trailer park entourage. There is a little known Olympic rule that reads: “In case of a knee-capping, you get a pass.”
Kwan did not miss the nationals because Shane Stant was hiding behind the curtain. She had a groin injury. That followed a hip injury. That followed a silver medal in the 1998 Olympics and a bronze four years later. On both occasions, many had her penciled in for gold.
I have no problem with somebody getting a third chance to win a gold medal. Just earn it. We do this for Michelle Kwan but not the Buffalo Bills?
Imagine if it worked this way in other sports. Basketball fans were so moved when they saw Willis Reed drag his leg onto the court for Game 7 of the 1970 NBA finals between the Knicks and Lakers. If New York had actually lost that game, would there be a vote to take a month off, let Reed heal up and make it best-of-nine?
Ernie Banks. Ted Williams. Dan Marino. Charles Barkley. Patrick Ewing. We all should have just voted them into the championship.
Really, if this is all about Kwan and what she has done for the sport, why didn’t they just run career highlights on the scoreboard at the U.S. championships?
“Wow! Look at what she used to do,” we could scream. And then we’ll give polite applause, throw roses, blow kisses, tear up and send her to Italy.
Evander Holyfield would love to rely on his resume. Think of all the title shots he would still be getting.
The Braves’ new closer: old footage of Bruce Sutter.
This is not to say that Kwan will do a face plant in Turin. But she shouldn’t have the opportunity without so much as a judge’s score.
Athletes get injured all the time. They win. They lose. They amaze. They disappoint.
What they shouldn’t do is advance to Final Jeopardy because the world is wrapped around their finger.
Permalink | Comments (13) | Categories: Jeff Schultz, Other
Kobe’s 81 sets selfish example for kids
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
The worst thing to happen to basketball was the dunk. More specifically, you had Dr. J becoming Dr. Frankenstein by turning his perfection of the thundering slam into a monster. It helped kill the purity of the game. That is, if the discussion involves things that entice youngsters into playing the wrong way.
Here’s the latest of the worst things to happen to basketball, and it’s a horror in progress: The aftermath of Phil Jackson sitting smugly on the Los Angeles Lakers bench last Sunday and allowing Kobe Bryant to gun his way to a ridiculous 81 points. Through it all, the ruthless duo couldn’t care less about the other Lakers (two assists for Bryant), or about the game already rolling toward a rout against pitiful Toronto, or about the effect of this selfishness on youth.
This is scary. This is very scary, especially when you listen to Javaris Crittenton, the wonder guard from Southwest Atlanta Christian Academy who is dribbling toward Georgia Tech. “Anything that any great NBA player does is always going to come down and have an impact on the younger generation,” Crittenton said. “There are 5-year-old kids out there who probably don’t know their ABCs, but they know that Kobe scored 81 points.”
They also know through osmosis, if nothing else, that it is more about “me” than “us” in today’s NBA. Well, except for the flukes that are the Detroit Pistons and the San Antonio Spurs. Eight guys scored 50 or more points in a game last season and just five did so the season before that. We’ve already had eight such players this season, and we’re still a month from the All-Star Game. As a result, Bryant will go from the ridiculous to the absurd sooner than later by trying to surpass Wilt Chamberlain’s record of 100 points in a game.
There is Friday, for instance, when the Lakers will play their first game since Bryant became Mr. 81. They’ll be at home against the defensively flawed Golden State Warriors, which means Jackson and Bryant will have another chance to ignore the whole and manipulate the environment to their liking for an individual.
Whatever the case, Big Kobe already has spawned Little Kobes everywhere, but that won’t necessarily be true 2,000 miles away from Staples Center, where Crittenton will spend Friday at a Henry County gym against Eagle’s Landing Christian.
This is the same bunch that Crittenton torched for 54 points two weeks ago with his Little Kobe moment.
“When we play them at their home this time, they’ll bring a whole other team inside of them, and they’ll come hungrier, which is why you can’t be complacent and say, ‘Oh, I scored 54 against them before, so this is going to be a cakewalk,’ ” said Crittenton, whose maturity is noted on and off the court. “I’m not going into this game or any game saying, ‘I’m going to score 70 this time.’ If I don’t and get 30 or even 20, hey, as long as we get the ‘W.’ My goal is to just play and get my teammates involved and let the rhythm come to me.”
Sounds good. Then again, somewhere it is written that “a little child shall lead them,” and thus we have Crittenton delivering his indirect message to Big Kobe: A basketball team is about everybody, and if you happen to be the star, that doesn’t mean you have to try to scorch those around you by slinging your brightness in their faces.
Even Allen Iverson and LeBron James understand as much. They rank No. 2 and No. 3 behind Bryant as the only other NBA players averaging 30 points or more per game. Still, while Iverson is seventh in the league in assists, James is 15th.
Bryant? Uh, 35th.
Let’s end with that “little” child of 6-feet-4 and 185 pounds. He said the following when I asked him if he could score 81 points someday: “In the NBA, I don’t think so, not since I’d have to set people up as a point guard. I’m not going to say that I wouldn’t, but I can’t say.
“In high school, I have a couple of more games left, but that’s not my goal. If 81 points don’t get me a state championship, then I don’t want them.”
I like this “little” child.
Permalink | Comments (52) | Categories: Hawks / NBA, Terence Moore
Kobe’s 81? Awesome!
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
I was pleasantly surprised to note that Kobe Bryant scoring 81 points brought out the fan in me. When you’ve been doing this for as long as I’ve been doing it (28 years, the last 22 at the AJC), games and seasons tend to blur. Kobe getting 81 was one of those rare things that made me stop what I was doing and break out the NBA’s Game Tracker online — I’d heard he had 62 points and wanted to see how high he’d score — and follow in rapt wonderment.
Even now, the feat having had four days to sink in, I still get excited thinking about it. Eighty-one points! I was 6 years old when Wilt Chamberlain got his 100 in Hershey, Pa., against Imhof and Naulls and the rest of the Knicks, and there was, as you know, no Game Tracker back then. Kobe’s game was the kind that I figured the NBA would never see again, and I’m delighted to know that I was wrong.
At the Hawks’ game Wednesday night, I was still so stoked that I listened to Dominique Wilkins’ quibbles — the Raptors didn’t double-team Kobe until he got to 79; the no-hand-check rule in today’s NBA makes it easier for such nights to occur; such a windfall would never have happened in the prideful days of the 1980s, when Wilkins was plying his trade against Jordan and Bird and Magic — and managed to laugh them off. I have great respect for Dominique, and I know how hard he had to work to get 57 points in a game (which he managed twice, once against Jordan’s Bulls), but I still kept coming back to the same magic phrase.
Eighty-one points!
Mike Brown coaches Cleveland, which means he’d seen his man LeBron James go for 51 against Utah on Saturday, a total that figured to make LeBron the weekend scoring champ for sure. One night later, Bryant got 51 plus 30 more. “I didn’t think anybody could get 81 with everybody knowing he’s going to shoot,” Brown said. “Back in the day, you could make excuses and say, ‘Well, the [scouting] film wasn’t there, and the defenses wasn’t very sophisticated,’ but now everybody has tapes and DVDs and every coach puts an emphasis on defense.”
And still Kobe got his 81, and now Mike Brown figures someone else could equal or better that, someone like LeBron. “He’s definitely talented enough.” And the afterglow of a guy going for 81 on a Sunday night made LeBron’s otherwise huge game against the Hawks — he had 38 points — seem almost pedestrian. Before Sunday, I’d have thought 38 was a big deal. After the 81, my first thought about LeBron’s outlay was, “Kobe just scored more than twice that many.”
I’m 50 years old, and games and seasons are running into each other. For example, I have the toughest time telling one Braves’ division title from another. But I’ll remember Kobe and his 81 for as long as my memory continues to function.
Permalink | Comments (18) | Categories: Hawks / NBA, Mark Bradley, Quick Hit
Even LeBron can’t overshadow Vick’s presence
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
Michael Vick sat courtside at the Hawks-Cavaliers game last night, and at halftime he held court. Making his first public statements since the NFL postseason began without his Falcons and since his brother was kicked off his college team, Vick offered commentary on both himself and Marcus. The former, he allowed, “didn’t have the season I expected to have.” The latter, Vick said, “didn’t do anything wrong.”
Other than the broken leg that essentially washed out his 2003 season, Michael Vick’s time as a Falcon has been a string of shining successes. He took his team to the playoffs and to a famous road victory at Lambeau Field in 2002, his first year as a starter, and in 2004 he steered the Falcons to the NFC championship game. He stands as Atlanta’s brightest sports star of the new millennium, but what happened in the season just completed did little to burnish his image.
His team lost its last three games, missing the playoffs and failing to post even a winning record. Worse still, Vick seemed to become confused at how he should play. Was it better to keep running, which is what made him famous in the first place, or to try and become a more polished pocket passer and thereby appease a growing coterie of critics? He never found an answer. Still hasn’t.
“In a way, I think I [had a good year],” Vick said. “In a way, I didn’t. I didn’t take over games at times, and I wish I would have. It just wasn’t our year.” With an eye toward making 2006 a better year, the Falcons jettisoned quarterbacks coach Mike Johnson, under whose tutelage Vick twice made the Pro Bowl, and hired Bill Musgrave from the Washington Redskins. Was Vick consulted on either move? Uh, no.
“I haven’t spoken to anybody [within the Falcons’ front office],” he said. “I didn’t want to see [Johnson] go… . I wish they would have [consulted him], but it’s all good. That’s why they coach.”
In the weeks since the Falcons’ season ended with that crushing loss to Carolina on New Year’s Day, Vick has spent some time with his family in Newport News, Va. There, he said, he has “been reflecting on things.” What happened during the Gator Bowl in Jacksonville on Jan. 2 — Vick was in attendance as Virginia Tech beat Louisville — surely gave the Vicks more to ponder.
Marcus Vick, the Hokies’ quarterback, stepped on the back of a fallen Louisville defender’s leg during the game. Michael Vick, who said he saw it happen, refused to condemn his brother.
“Sometimes your emotions just take over,” he said. “I know Marcus, and he’s not the kind of kid who’s going to do something like that. It’s just something he’s going to have to live with, and now it’s time to move on.”
The Gator Bowl stomp was only the beginning of Marcus Vick’s woes. Within the week he was kicked off the team, and three days after that he surrendered to police in Suffolk, Va., on three misdemeanor charges levied after he allegedly brandished a gun in the parking lot of a McDonald’s. He’s free on $10,000 bond.
Is his older brother mad at the younger Vick? No, Michael Vick said, because “he didn’t do anything wrong. The world will know when the truth comes out.”
For the moment, Michael Vick said his brother is living with him in Duluth, “working out” in preparation for the April NFL draft. (The younger Vick wasn’t, however, alongside at Philips Arena.)
In the few moments Vick spoke with two reporters, a queue of youngsters, all wanting the famous quarterback’s autograph, formed at center court. Even on a night when LeBron James was in the house — he scored 38 points as the Cavs beat the hapless Hawks — Michael Vick was still the biggest name in this town.
Permalink | Comments (201) | Categories: Falcons / NFL, Mark Bradley
Retirement? Yeah, right
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
What Mario Lemieux’s retirement (well, his latest one) tells you is something that you already should know. That is, nobody retires in sports these days – not unless they absolutely have to.
In this case, Lemieux couldn’t overcome the triple combination of a heart problem, possible surgery and side effects from medication. If not for those issues, the 40-year-old Hall of Famer would attempt to play in the NHL from now until a group of scientists discovered ways in another century to pry the skates from his feet.
Athletes are addicted to adrenaline. That’s why it’s a joke to think that Brett Favre actually will retire from the Green Bay Packers before this season or any other season when he still can move his right arm forward and scramble a little.
Roger Clemens retiring?
Puhleeze.
This adrenaline thing also applies to coaches. I mean, 80-something Marv Levy was threatening to coach the Buffalo Bills again. And don’t think ancient Jack McKeon is fully retired after resigning from the Florida Marlins last season.
The word “retirement� in professional sports is just another way of saying “I’m resting until I can get back out there.�
Permalink | Comments (12) | Categories: Quick Hit, Terence Moore
Mentor’s lessons learned by ex-Decatur star
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Curtis Bunn
Sharman White went home Tuesday night, to his roots, to Decatur High. A 1990 graduate and former player for the Bulldogs, being back on “The Square” was a significant occasion.
That he returned as the coach of first-year Miller Grove was major, too, for a couple of reasons:
One, he was leading a promising team after being unceremoniously released as coach of Atlanta’s Carver — a year after leading the Panthers to the 2003-04 state championship game — for an unsubstantiated violation regarding a player not living in Carver’s district.
Two, he was facing his coaching mentor in Decatur’s Carter Wilson.
“Carter is a major part of my family,” White said. “When I play against him, it’s teacher vs. student, like Roy Williams against Dean Smith.
“I went to him a lot when I got into coaching. He wanted me to join his staff, but I really wanted to be a head coach right away. When I got the job at Carver, I leaned on him a lot.”
White leaned heavily on faith when the job he excelled in was ripped from him. So, when the Miller Grove position became his, he was both relieved and excited.
“This is one of the best situations I could ask for,” he said, “because I have a chance to mold a program as I want it. I didn’t have to come in and try to revitalize something already there.”
Chief among White’s ambitions was to institute a work ethic in his young players, many of whom had not played organized basketball. In Miller Grove’s first season last year, White mixed in some varsity opponents in the junior varsity schedule.
“We got wiped out some, but that experience I think has helped the guys this year,” he said.
White also implemented a workout regimen called “559,” as in 5:59 a.m., as in the time they would convene to start conditioning. Conditioning included running cross-country.
“The intention was to have a very well-conditioned team,” White said.
Mission accomplished. The Wolverines play at a sprinter’s pace with one caveat: “It’s disciplined up-tempo,” White said. “There’s a method to the madness.”
Sure seems to be. At 14-7, it is clear White has his program on the proper course. His team is composed of all juniors and ninth-graders. There is talent, size and speed at every position. And yet there is a discipline and commitment to defense that will make Miller Grove under White a force in the not-too-distant future, particularly with left-handed freshman Mfon Udofia, who has a mature game, and junior big man Dante Harvey, a lively talent.
Meanwhile, White’s mentor, Wilson, is grooming a similarly youthful team at Decatur. One of the most respected coaches and administrators in Georgia, Wilson has 10 underclassmen on a squad that tests his patience.
“It’s the same with Sharman. With experience, you can take some things for granted,” he said. “But when you’re young, you find yourself picking the kids up every so often.”
Student has won the past seven encounters against teacher, including Tuesday night’s 68-53 victory at Decatur Recreation Center. Teacher did not take it too hard, though.
“Losing’s rough, but it takes some of the sting off of it when it’s to a friend,” Wilson said.
Permalink | | Categories: High School
For what it’s worth…
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Furman Bisher
FOR WHAT IT’S WORTH: About the only action, as I see it, that will smooth the roiling waters at Georgia Tech is the installation of Bill Curry as athletics director with Todd Stansbury as associate. Stansbury, now at Oregon State, could make the move with the assurance that he will succeed Curry, now 63, down the road. This is one option for President Wayne Clough, once all the necessary job postings have run their course.
• Check through those little grey cells of memory and see if you can’t recall that there wasn’t a time in college football when crowd noise became so untolerable that the quarterback stepped away from the snapper, raise his hand and the referee called time without penalty. And if it happened three times in a row, the home team might be penalized. It wasn’t that long ago. Then came those nauseous “NOISE, NOISE” exhortations on the screen and the towel-waving on the sideline, known as “getting the crowd in it.” … And whatever became of sportsmanship?
• Billy Lothridge hasn’t been forgotten by his old hometown. A street in Gainesville has been named Billy Lothridge Parkway for the star at Gainesville in 1960, and later at Georgia Tech and with the Falcons.
• Cot Campbell has Georgia on his mind. First, he had a horse named Trippi that ran in the Kentucky Derby, now the master of Dogwood Stable has two more Bulldog names in training, Sinkwich and Poschner. And looks as it he may actually have his next Derby prospect on hand, Saint Augustus, son the leading sire of the year, Saint Ballado.
• Puzzles me that these veterans of the Japanese major leagues coming to the U.S. can be considered for “rookie of the year,” such as Ichiro, Teguchi and Matsui. Suppose Andruw or Marcus Giles went to Japan, would they be considered rookie of the year candidates there?
• Jerry Coleman has lived a resourceful career, beginning with the Yankees, then the only major leaguer to see combat service in both WWII and the Korean War, then called out of broadcast booth to manage the Padres. Now, back in the booth, he goes into the Hall of Fame as winner of the Ford Frick Award.
• In case you failed to mark it on your calendar, Aug. 30 was the 100th anniversary of Ty Cobb’s major league break-in.
• Super Bowl wool-gathering: l. Fans spend more than 50 million dollars on food during the four days the game is in town; 2. Super Bowl weekend is the slowest of the year for weddings; and 3. 300 credentials were issued to the press for the first game in Los Angeles, an average of 3,100 per game have been issued since.
• Lynn Swann might have taken a hint about his prospects at the polls from his experience with Football Hall of Fame balloting before deciding to run for governor of Pennsylvania. Took him 14 years finally to win to crash the voting line at Canton.
• Suggestion to the Braves: Forget about extending your streak of division championships this year. Go for the wild card. Those teams have had considerable better postseason success than the Braves with all their string of championships.
• The Flames left for Calgary some time ago, but not all of them left town. At last count, says Tim Ecclestone, one who didn’t, nine of them settled here permanently, beginning with their first coach, Boom Boom Geoffrion, then Dan Bouchard, Tom Lysiak, Randy Manery, Bobby Simpson, Willi Plett and Eric Vail. In one way or another, they have been quite active in youth hockey in the community.
• Does it strike you as odd that a school with Tulane’s academic standing should have shut down classes after Katrina but found a way to keep its football team on the field?
• In Chapel Hill, N.C., there’s a hangout named “He’s Not Here.”
• Tom Glavine may be a Met, but his heart is still in Atlanta. His now annual “Spring Training” for the Georgia Transplant Foundation takes place Thursday at Club 755 at Turner Field.
• Aren’t we getting a bit overdosed on Michelle Wie?
Selah.
Permalink | Comments (17) | Categories: Furman Bisher, Other
Whisenhunt engineers Steelers’ offense
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
Some things just don’t take a civil engineering degree from Georgia Tech to figure out. With Ken Whisenhunt, that just happens to be a bonus.
A team drafts a talented quarterback. The coaching staff spoon-feeds him an offense that plays to his strengths. If he has a strong arm, let him wing it. If he runs, let him run. Pretty basic stuff. Even for journalism majors.
The Falcons’ offense got worse as the season went on last year. That could be attributed at least in part to having the fastest player on the field suddenly acting robotic in the pocket with increasing regularity. Remove the threat of Michael Vick running and you remove - well, the threat.
Ben Roethlisberger is not Michael Vick, so the issues the Pittsburgh Steelers coaching staff has dealt with the past two seasons can’t be compared to those of the Falcons. But this much is certain: No offense has made greater strides over the last two years than the Steelers. No quarterback has developed better over the last two years than Roethlisberger. No offensive coordinator has done a better job than Whisenhunt, the former Georgia Tech and Falcons’ tight end who soon will have “head coach” stamped on his forehead.
Whisenhunt wasn’t alluding to the Falcons and Vick when asked about the keys to Roethlisberger’s development. But he might as well have been.
“You can’t categorize all players the same way,” Whisenhunt said by phone. “The key is to get a feel for what they’re comfortable with and what their strengths are. You have to be careful not to try to squeeze a square peg in a round hole. We’ve been able to improve the run here, and that’s helped us utilize some of Ben’s strengths. We’ll mix in play-action and let him move around. As he’s grown, we’ve dropped more things into the offense. If you have a young guy and you try to give him too much, it’s easy to rattle his confidence.”
Whisenhunt has been an offensive coordinator for only two years, and the Super Bowl in 11 days conceivably could be his last game at that position. Oakland, the last NFL team with a vacancy, reportedly is waiting to talk to a 43-year-old civil engineering major.
“Right now I’m just so excited to be in this game, that’s all I’m focusing on,” he said. “But, sure, everybody wants to get to the top of their profession, and being a head coach is the top of my profession.”
Whisenhunt is an Augusta native and still considers this home. Family and friends are here. He’d probably be a wonderful fit at Georgia Tech, but I think the coach there has a long-term contract.
Whisenhunt is not a new coach - he’s just not an obscure coach anymore. Until being promoted by the Steelers last season, he primarily had been a tight ends or special teams coach. Two years at Vanderbilt, two with Baltimore, one with Cleveland, one with the New York Jets, three with Pittsburgh.
But when the Steelers bumped him up to replace the departed Mike Mularkey, there was an immediate impact. Former Georgia receiver Hines Ward raved about Whisenhunt’s creativity and moving the receiver around in different formations. Pittsburgh jumped from 31st to second in rushing. Roethlisberger went 14-1 as a rookie starter, losing only to New England in the AFC title game.
The Steelers have scored 86 points in three road playoff wins over the AFC’s top three seeded teams. Last week in Denver, they had four touchdowns and one field goal in five red zone possessions. Roethlisberger is 34-for-49 with six touchdowns and one interception in three playoff games.
Whisenhunt has managed this in a Steelers’ offense that lacks a deep receiving threat (Plaxico Burress left in free agency) or a dominant running back.
As a player, Whisenhunt recalled being told by coaches, including the Falcons’ Dan Henning, that he studied the game well and had coaching traits. Now, he’s proving it.
On Monday, he woke up after little sleep and said he “had to pinch myself,” hoping he hadn’t dreamt that Pittsburgh was going to the Super Bowl.
“You work so hard to get here - it’s almost surreal,” he said.
It’s real. And when a quarterback develops this fast, everybody notices.
Permalink | Comments (29) | Categories: Falcons / NFL, Jeff Schultz
No respect for no-respect whiners
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
Et tu, Big Ben? Moments after his Pittsburgh Steelers stormed into the Super Bowl on Sunday in Denver with help from his arm, legs and guts, Ben Roethlisberger suggested that much of the world views the new Steel Curtain as just the old Paper Napkin. “Everybody expected us to lose the first game [of the playoffs],” he told reporters at Invesco Field, where he swore that those near and far always come to bury his team instead of to praise it.
You may laugh now. No NFL team has a more devout following than the Steelers. I even have two sets of neighbors who plant those ugly black and gold signs in their yards declaring “I’m a Steelers fan” before every game. Still, Roethlisberger added after his Steelers thoroughly embarrassed the Broncos, “Everybody [also] expected us to lose the second game [of the playoffs]. Everybody expected us to lose this game. No one believed in us but us. We had each other’s back the whole way, and that’s all it takes. Sometimes that’s all we want, to have each other’s back.”
In case you’re wondering, here’s the reason for those silly words from the Steelers quarterback who nevertheless had the good sense to matriculate at Miami (Ohio) University like a humble sports columnist that I know: Roethlisberger is exposing himself as one of them.
Those among “them” are into playing this tired but popular game in sports. The objective is to try to make you think that they actually think that they and their teammates are considered the scum of the earth by those outside of a squib kick of their dressing quarters. They play this game for motivation. The idea is that, if they invent a bunch of imaginary foes in their heads to join the real ones on the field, they’ll become more focused through all of that anger. They heighten the game when a championship is at stake.
The bottom line is, unless you’re the Miami Hurricanes in college football, favorites aren’t cool these days. It’s hot to be the underdog. This goes back to that old high school trick (us against them) that has risen to the college and pro levels in recent years. One moment, Tom Brady is claiming that his New England Patriots are among the persecuted despite snatching three of four Super Bowls. Another, the Texas Longhorns are citing the glowing stuff in print and on the airway about Southern Cal as the reason for their national title as much as the brilliance of Vince Young.
So let the whining begin for the Steelers, but they have some stiff competition. There is Steve Hutchinson, the Pro Bowl guard on a Seattle Seahawks team that cruised to the other Super Bowl spot at home on Sunday against the Carolina Panthers. Said Hutchinson, doing his best Roethlisberger imitation before the media at Qwest Field, “All year long, we’ve heard we didn’t have enough of that to do this, not enough of this to do that. Frankly, we get sick of hearing it. You think by going 13-3, we’d earn respect.” Added defensive tackle Chuck Darby, “We’ve got a chip on our shoulders.”
Yeah, well. Try as they might next week in Detroit, neither the Steelers nor the Seahawks will have much of a chance of winning this game within a game.
The Steelers are so overlooked that they’ve spent the AFC playoffs slaying the No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 seeds. They have a great legacy that includes four world championships. They have a prolific defense and a stiff rushing attack, and Bill Cower ranks among the all-time elite of coaches after six trips to the conference championship game. If that isn’t enough, the Steelers are the Super Bowl favorites despite entering as a No. 6 seed.
As for the “underdog” Seahawks, Mike Holmgren is one of only five coaches to take two different teams to the Super Bowl. He’s won one, too. The Seahawks also have somebody named Shaun Alexander, and all he did was rush for more yards than anybody this season to earn the league’s MVP honors. Nobody had more defensive sacks than the Seahawks. Nobody has won more home games than the Seahawks since the end of the 2002 season.
Mostly, nobody has less reason to whine right now than the Seahawks.
Except maybe the Steelers.
Permalink | Comments (18) | Categories: Falcons / NFL, Terence Moore
Like Cox, Cowher keeps his team contending
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
Think of the Pittsburgh Steelers as the Atlanta Braves and Bill Cowher as Bobby Cox. Some people will read that as a criticism, but such folks are simply wrong. The Steelers (like the Braves) and Cowher (like Cox) deserve nothing but the highest form of praise. In businesses where nothing is guaranteed, those entities have achieved the sort of consistency that transcends the fickle bounce of a ball.
Some see Cowher as a too-conservative coach who can’t win the big game, just as some regard Cox as a stodgy tactician whose regular-season success hasn’t yielded October superiority. But there’s a greater issue than the outcome of a single playoff game or postseason series, and it’s that these two men persist in positioning their teams to play for championships.
The measure of Cowher isn’t the absence of an ultimate victory. The measure of this man is that he keeps taking a frugal organization — the Steelers refuse to overpay any free agent, often to their short-term detriment — to the brink of a title, and now, 10 years after his first Super Bowl trip, Cowher is going again. Like Cox, Cowher has held his job longer than anyone else working in his industry. Like Cox, Cowher has won with all manner of personnel, having reached the AFC championship game with three different quarterbacks.
And the Steelers, like the Braves, realize how blessed they are. Because the NFL plays a shorter season and results therein are an even greater function of injury, Cowher hasn’t finished first every year the way Cox has, but he works for the Rooneys, who are patient in a way that nobody else in this microwave society is anymore.
The Steelers have had only two head coaches since 1969, the other being the great Chuck Noll. The Rooneys hire good men and let them work. They don’t overreact to a downturn. They stay the course. Like the Braves, the Steelers find talent in the strangest places. Their leading rusher, Willie Parker, is an undrafted free agent. Their best receiver, Hines Ward of Forest Park, was the final choice in the third round of the 1998 draft, going 18 picks after the Falcons chose the legendary Jammi German. Their quarterback is a second-year man from Miami (Ohio), and in Ben Roethlisberger the Steelers found the leader they haven’t had since Terry Bradshaw. (Who was, you’ll recall, a product of that football factory Louisiana Tech.)
As fashionable as it became to fault Cowher for losing four AFC championship games (three at home), the luxury of distance offers another take: San Diego after the 1994 season was indeed a bad loss, but in each of the three other games — to Denver in 1998, to New England in 2002 and last season — the Steelers had the lesser quarterback and probably the lesser team. Isn’t it just possible their coach got more from them in those regular seasons than they were actually worth? Isn’t it possible Cox does the same thing?
The test of a coach/manager and the measure of an organization is the capacity to sustain success, to change players but to maintain a standard. And that’s the beauty of consistency: If you keep putting yourself in position, sometimes even a slim chance can pan out. Pittsburgh entered these playoffs as the last AFC qualifier and somehow has toppled the conference’s top three seeds on the road.
Having come this far, the Steelers should beat Seattle two weeks hence, and then Cowher will have his Super Bowl, same as Cox took his World Series in 1995. (Somehow everybody forgets that one.) As iffy as it can be to compare one sport with another, the qualities shared by these admirable men are striking. Heck, they even have the same initials.
Permalink | Comments (36) | Categories: Falcons / NFL, Mark Bradley
Thrashers have come far, want to go farther
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
It used to count for something that they made it this far. In past seasons, a winning record, a playoff race, a home sellout, all in late January — those franchises oddities would be embraced like a winning lottery ticket.
Instead, all the Thrashers could talk about Saturday was that they have lost two in a row.
“We can’t afford to have another extended losing streak,� team captain Scott Mellanby said. “There’s just not enough time to make up ground again.�
The Thrashers lost to Tampa Bay 2-0 Saturday at Philips Arena. It’s the first time they have lost consecutive games in regulation in over six weeks, a remarkable string for a club that once struggled to go six shifts without walking into a punch line.
The team didn’t play awful, it just didn’t play as well as the Lightning, which didn’t get into Atlanta until 2:30 a.m. but now is looking closer to the team that won the last Stanley Cup.
The problem is that the Thrashers spent six weeks digging themselves out of a hole in the Eastern Conference, and, while that’s impressive, they have left themselves little margin for error in the playoff race. Going 13-2-3 after a 10-16-3 start doesn’t get rid of a stain, it just covers it up for a while. The question now becomes: Can the Thrashers avoid the same crash-and-burn that incinerated playoff hopes two years ago, when they managed only two wins in 21 games after a 19-14-3-1 start?
“I don’t think there’s any question the playoff race is going to stay tight like this until the end,� Lightning general manager Jay Feaster said. “[Coach] Bob [Hartley] has done an incredible job getting the team through the goaltending woes. This young guy [Kari Lehtonen] the Thrashers have is special. He gives them a chance to win every night. I don’t see any chance they’ll collapse whatsoever.�
Yes, they’ve made it this far. The Thrashers are bunched in a playoff race despite losing their No. 1 goalie (Lehtonen) for 35 games, their No. 2 goalie (Mike Dunham) for 34 games, one of their expected top goal scorers (Peter Bondra) for 22 and counting, and one of their top leaders (Bobby Holik) for nine and counting.
OK. So now what?
As Feaster said, the chances of a sudden and extreme descent seem remote. This team has too much talent, leadership and (as we speak) a healthy and talented goalie.
But the Thrashers can expect more games like Saturday’s. Almost every game remaining will come against somebody they’re battling for a playoff berth. That means tight, close-checking games. That means you can’t afford to go scoreless on four power play chances while your opponent goes 2-for-5, as Tampa Bay did Saturday. The Lightning held the Thrashers to their second-lowest shot total (20) of the season, blocking several shots with sticks and assorted body parts.
“They played well defensively,� Mellanby said. “We knew what they were going to do. We knew they would forecheck with two guys and have their defense step up and jam us. We were prepared. We had a game plan to combat that. We just didn’t execute it.�
They lost a strange game in L.A., 8-6. They lost a defensive battle at home. The last time they dropped two in a row, it was the tail end of a five-game skid. Then they woke up.
“You look at the standings, and we did what we had to do just to get back into the picture,� Mellanby said. “But at the same time, just getting back in there, with the games in hand that a few teams have on us, isn’t enough. We got ourselves to this point, and we have to keep it up.�
The bottom isn’t falling out. But when a team starts worrying about a two-game losing steak, it illustrates a couple of things. Fortunes have improved. And expectations have not yet been met.
Permalink | Comments (12) | Categories: Jeff Schultz, Thrashers / NHL
Noise, hoopla outweigh Hawks’ progress
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Furman Bisher
I went to a basketball game Friday night. The Hawks lost. That appears to be happening rather frequently. “Playing well and winning are the most important things,” Zaza Pachulia, the center imported from Tbilisi, Georgia, has said. Poor fellow, he can’t be having much fun.
This time it was Milwaukee. The encounter with the Bucks offered a couple of entertaining matchups. Here were the Nos. 1 and 2 draft choices on the floor at the same time: Andrew Bogut, from Australia by way of Utah, and Marvin Williams, from Bremerton, Wash., by way of Chapel Hill. Bogut nailed 13 rebounds, which is his specialty, and Williams exceeded his scoring average with nine points, good but not glittering.
Now, the other coincidence is the one that captures your attention. It matched the coach the Hawks fired, Terry Stotts, to hire its present coach, Mike Woodson. Stotts left town with a record of 52-85. Woodson, in his second season, has a record of 24-98 and a team that’s sinking like a rock in water.
Stotts had the Bucks one game above .500 upon arrival. He lost his place in Atlanta with the change in management, though he was probably over-educated for the job. He had been student-athlete of the year at Oklahoma, and he certainly had the proper degree to survive in the NBA, a B.S. in zoology. He was kind to his former team when he said to our Sekou Smith, “Obviously, they’re rebuilding here.”
Just what they’re rebuilding is in question. If it can be done with noise, flashing lights and other such hoopla, they’re on the road to brilliance. They have all the gigs you’ll see at any other game in the league, and it’s scary for some first-timers. If loud is good, louder is better. It’s bigger than “King Kong.” And when Pachulia scores, cover your ears. The Philips announcer comes at you with a blast, “ZA-ZA Pa-CHU-LIA!” Better be ready for it.
The Bucks came on the floor a strange-looking entourage, some in long black stockings, some half-stockings and some drooping, Pete Maravich style. When Toni Kukoc entered later, the cast was given a vintage balance. The Croatian was a Hawk a few years ago, but he has now reached the age of 38, oldest player on the court, and his role is mainly serving his friends, setting picks and as a conduit for the ball.
The flow of the game, such as it was, was continuously plagued by fouls, and when the Bucks went to the line, the congregation was agitated into pounding those things called “Thundersticks,” with coaxing from the PA announcer. Those things first came out during the World Series in Anaheim, far as I know, and our civilazation would be well served if they took the course of the hula hoop. Happily, as the Bucks’ margin increased, the fans’ interest in their “Thundersticks” lessened, to the relief of many.
After the Bucks took control of the game, the Hawks’ offense, what there was of it, became more akin to something out of a pickup game. It was sort of like a game of “horse,” every man to his own shot. Key to it all was that Salim Stoudamire, the rookie out of Arizona, was their leading scorer off the bench with five 3-pointers. Organized offense was never discernible, and postgame critics never gave them a kind thought.
“Probably the worst performance of the year,” said Steak Shapiro, maestro of the sports station WQXI. And I pick this night for my coming-out. Sorry to say, but the Hawks look like a team coming unraveled.
“This has been the worst two-game stretch of my life,” Stoudamire said, coming on the heels of a blowout by Detroit.
Well, I did get to see something I’d never seen before in professional basketball. I got to see an official named Violet Palmer in action, and she carried her load efficiently, handling her share of the plethora of fouls.
When Woodson inserted Esteban Batista into the game, the Uruguayan who rarely gets off the bench, it was the same as raising the white flag. The evening was done, and an announced audience of 9,812 left the premises hoping this could not truly represent the Spirit of Atlanta.
Permalink | Comments (14) | Categories: Furman Bisher, Hawks / NBA
There’s no reason to go into stands — ever
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
Once again, here is a message to all of the knuckleheads out there:
Shy of somebody holding your loved ones at gun point or an extraterrestrial threatening to zap a family member or a close friend to Mars, you have no justification as a professional athlete to sprint into the stands.
None. Zero. Zilch.
That’s No. 1.
As for No. 2., virtually nothing is unprecedented.
Contrary to popular belief, ranging from those still wringing their hands over Philadelphia fans spilling beer on the mother of Washington Redskins’ Clinton Portis to this silliness involving Antonio Davis, folks have encountered The Abusive Fan (verbally, physically or both) forever. It’s just that athletes and most of their acquaintances once understood that the way to respond to The Abusive Fan is not to become The Drama King.
“I think these guys are more sensitive now than they were before, because they don’t have the patience with the fans that we used to have, I guess,” said Tony Perez by phone on Friday from his home in Puerto Rico. He’s the Hall of Fame slugger who starred on Cincinnati’s fabled Big Red Machine.
I called Perez, because his Reds experienced more than a few hostile moments that were underreported during that pre-ESPN era. Since those Reds were so dominating in the 1970s, they produced a mixture of jealousy and anger among opposing fans.
It also didn’t help matters that those Reds had Pete Rose whose belly-sliding, fist-pumping style turned the team into a target for boos and debris.
“Not one time did Pete try to go into the stands after somebody. No, never,” Perez said, before adding with a chuckle, “Unlike what’s happening now with players, Pete wouldn’t have had to fight one guy. It always was a bunch of them, so he wasn’t crazy.”
That’s in contrast to the slew of those in the post-Big Red Machine era who are nuts when it comes to these needless confrontations with fans. Take Antonio Davis, for instance. Earlier this week at Chicago’s United Center, he saw his wife, Kendra, jawing with a Bulls fan in the crowd. He bolted from the New York Knicks bench, leaped the scorer’s table and rushed to the scene. It was a riot waiting to happen, but things stayed calm. This time. Davis was suspended by the NBA for five games without pay, but his penalty should have been twice that much — for stupidity, if nothing else.
After the knee-jerk support of Davis for supposedly trying to protect his wife from a drunk, witnesses said that the fan wasn’t intoxicated, and that the fan was just cheering so fervently for his team that Kendra didn’t like it. The fan said he will sue the Davises, who said they will not apologize. Good. Maybe that will reverse this epidemic that hopefully reached its zenith on Nov. 19, 2004. That’s when the Indianapolis Pacers’ Ron Artest triggered a brawl in Detroit by charging into the stands after he was plunked by a cup filled with liquid from a Pistons’ fan.
But back to those Reds and a potentially explosive situation that many have forgotten or never knew. In the fifth and decisive game of the 1973 National League Championship Series, the New York Mets were three outs away at Shea Stadium from a pennant. Mets fans poured down the aisles in anticipation of storming the field, and along the way, some terrorized the large contingent of Reds family members and team personnel sitting behind the visitors’ dugout.
“They were pulling on the hair of women, and somebody got his coat torn. It was very scary,” said Bob Howsam, the Reds general manager back then, recalling the horror on Friday over the phone from his home in Sun City, Ariz.
In other words, those Reds players were more justified to jump into the stands than Davis, Artest and the rest. Instead, they showed restraint as Howsam had the group flee from their seats to a spot inside of the Reds’ dugout. He asked a group of New York police officers for assistance to a safer place.
“I’ll never forget how the three or four of them responded,” Howsam said. “They told me, ‘We’re here to protect the bats.’ I’m still angry about that. In hindsight, I should have pulled our guys off the field and forfeited the game.”
Not a bad option. Better than having a Reds knucklehead or three trying to battle New York’s wildest.
Permalink | Comments (16) | Categories: Hawks / NBA, Terence Moore
No NCAA dance card for Jackets, and other hoops musings
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
With Selection Sunday just 51 days away, it’s time to get serious about this college basketball business. Pretty much everything you’ll need to know will be revealed in the next few paragraphs. And if I happen to get any of these true-false propositions wrong, I will of course take my lead from Paul Hewitt and blame it on the refs.
• 1. Duke will go undefeated.
False. The ACC is softer than usual, but it’s not so soft that the Devils are going to win ‘em all on the road. Their first loss should come either Feb. 7 at North Carolina or Feb. 11 at Maryland. But Duke won’t lose more than a couple of games, and it will win the national championship.
• 2. The 2006 Final Four will be a convocation of glamour boys.
True. The nation’s three best programs — Duke, Connecticut and Michigan State — will be represented in Indianapolis. The fourth qualifier will be the fastest-rising operation in the land — Ohio State.
• 3. Georgia Tech will make the field of 65.
False. The Jackets already have six losses, which is a lot, and their RPI is hovering near 100, which is low. They’ll need to win at least two ACC road games to have a realistic chance, and that will be a stretch given that their road record is 1-5.
• 4. The most stunning halftime score of the season was UConn 45, Syracuse 25. In the Carrier Dome.
False. The most stunning halftime score was Tennessee 48, Texas 28. In Austin.
• 5. The SEC is down yet again.
True. Is this conference ever going to send another team to another Final Four? (The last SEC entrant to qualify was Florida in 2000.) Somehow the Gators have risen to No. 2 in the rankings, but that’s a mirage. They’ll lose within the next week at either Tennessee or South Carolina, if not both places. Alabama was sliding even before it lost Chuck Davis, and Georgia is still a year away from making a big push. And as much regard as I have for Tubby Smith, I must concede that there’s no reason for Kentucky to have lost six times already.
• 6. Gonzaga is for real this time.
False. The Zags occupy a curious position — too well-known to be a sleeper ever again but not quite good enough to make a Final Four run. And the lack of competition in the Big West means Gonzaga will enter the NCAA highly seeded yet again but having not played a significant game in two months.
• 7. The Big Ten is the nation’s best conference.
False. The Big Ten is second-best. The elephantine Big East is loaded. Put it this way: Louisville looked like a really fine team until it started playing games in its new conference; now the Cardinals need to upset UConn on Saturday to keep from falling from the Top 25.
• 8. J.J. Redick is the nation’s best player.
True. Gonzaga’s Adam Morrison wouldn’t put up the same numbers against ACC defenses, and Redick’s teammate Shelden Williams is a tad overrated. (If the Landlord is such a great defender, how did Indiana’s Marco Killingsworth and N.C. State’s Cedric Simmons have career nights against him?) Every opponent knows what Redick is going to do, and he does it anyway. Yes, he gets a ton of publicity, but he — like Christian Laettner and Shane Battier, unlike Danny Ferry and Steve Wojciechowski — is a Dukie who deserves it.
• 9. There’s something amiss with Texas.
True. This is at worst the nation’s third-most-talented team (behind Duke and UConn), but something tells me the Longhorns will disappoint again. Perhaps you’ve noticed that Daniel Gibson, advertised as the consummate point guard, isn’t even the best distributor on his team. (Kenton Paulino has just as many assists and 16 fewer turnovers.)
• 10. It’s possible to be an unbeaten Big East team and still be underrated.
True. Pittsburgh is 14-0 and ranked No. 9, three spots behind thrice-beaten Gonzaga. And somehow Carl Krauser, the toughest player in the country the last three seasons, still never gets mentioned when the topic is the nation’s best point guard. Except in this space. I love the guy.
Permalink | Comments (24) | Categories: Mark Bradley, Tech / ACC, UGA / SEC
I think…
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
Yes, it’s another of those “I think” things, and not exactly by popular demand. But what the heck.
I think the Broncos and Panthers will win Sunday.
I think Florida will lose one of its next two games — on the road against Tennessee and South Carolina — if not both.
I think Georgia Tech looks exactly like the Tech team of 2002-3, the one with Chris Bosh and Ed Nelson and most all the guys who wound up playing for the 2004 NCAA title, the one that couldn’t win on the road and thereby missed the 2003 NCAA tournament despite a vast amount of talent.
I think the Hawks have again statistically positioned themselves to win the lottery, and if they get lucky this time I think they’ll take Rudy Gay of UConn, who is — yes! — another of those 6-foot-8 guys Billy Knight loves.
I think there’s only one reason for a player ever to go into the stands, and Antonio Davis found it. Or, more precisely, it found him.
I think the Braves have already found a closer. Trouble is, Roger McDowell has been retired for almost a decade.
I think Duke and Connecticut will play for the (men’s) NCAA title.
I think Duke will win.
I think anybody who hasn’t tried satellite radio probably should.
I (still) think Mark Richt needs an offensive coordinator.
I think I’d hire Jim Murphy (Davidson AD, formerly Homer Rice’s assistant at Georgia Tech) to succeed Dave Braine if I were Wayne Clough.
I think I’m as apt to become president of a college as Peyton Manning is to win Teammate of the Year.
Permalink | Comments (66) | Categories: Mark Bradley, Quick Hit
Still auditioning a closing act
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
The Braves’ annual “Winter FanFest” takes place in two weeks, just 12 days before pitchers and sacrificial closers are scheduled to report to spring training. The way I figure it, the timing couldn’t be better.
Fans can run the bases. Collect autographs. Maybe even enter the Dan Kolb Memorial Virtual Reality Bullpen: Walk to the mound, chew a wad of plastic explosives and blow a bubble.
But FanFest also presents general manager John Schuerholz with a wonderful opportunity to screen potential candidates for the Braves’ closer role this season.
“Sure — we’ll have a casting call,” he joked Wednesday. “We’re looking for a bargain.”
Last Friday, Tampa Bay dealt closer Danys Baez to Los Angeles for two pitching prospects. That the Devil Rays didn’t trade Baez to the Braves didn’t crush Schuerholz so much as it punctuated an unfamiliar string of whiffs by the front office.
The Braves’ annual fall descents notwithstanding, Schuerholz has been without peer in finding replacement parts to keep this team moving. Landing shortstop Edgar Renteria to replace Rafael Furcal was merely the latest example.
That’s what made developments in the first of week of December so stunning. It started when Kyle Farnsworth, the intended closer, signed a free agent contract with the New York Yankees. To understand the extent to which this blindsided the Braves, consider Schuerholz’s comments Wednesday: “There was an assumption we made going into the offseason that he would choose to stay here. We didn’t have a Plan B, C or D. We went into scramble mode.”
Schuerholz proceeded to negotiate “with virtually every free agent closer out there. We didn’t come up with anyone, obviously.”
The three primary targets — Trevor Hoffman (San Diego), Bob Wickman (Cleveland) and Todd Jones (Detroit) — all signed elsewhere.
At this point, Schuerholz checked his breath. But, no, that seemed fine.
In retrospect, it’s remarkable the Braves even reached the postseason, given the combustible elements in the bullpen. They went from John Smoltz to 24 blown saves. Only three teams had more than that: Colorado (26) and Tampa Bay (26) finished last and San Francisco (28) was under .500. The Braves’ .613 percentage for converted save opportunities was third-worst in the majors, also trailing only two last place teams: the 106-loss Kansas City Royals (.581) and Colorado (.587).
Schuerholz is still baffled by Kolb’s meltdowns. He had only 11 saves in 18 tries, a 3-8 record and a 5.93 ERA. “The guy saved 60 games the previous two years. Nothing bothered him. He had the countenance of an ax murderer.”
The closer situation now?
“We don’t have one at the moment,” Schuerholz said.
That’s it. No punchline.
But this is when Schuerholz suggests everybody take a deep cleansing breath. If he’s worried, he’s not showing it. Three-plus seasons of closer domination by Smoltz makes it easy to forget the blur of reclamation projects this club went through in the ’90s. Anybody still holding an Alejandro Peña, Juan Berenguer, Greg McMichael, Chris Hammond or Kerry Ligtenberg trading card?
Chris Reitsma had only 15 saves in 24 chances last season.
Joey Devine earned the distinction of becoming the first pitcher in major league history to allow two grand slams in his first two appearances.
Oscar Villarreal, acquired from Arizona, is trying to come back from arm problems. He’s rehabbing in the Mexican League.
Reitsma. Devine. Villarreal. They represent the Braves’ gold-silver-bronze in the closer derby.
Remember. Cleansing breath.
“You read all of the stories about roster construction philosophies around the league,” Schuerholz said. “Half the teams say the most important thing is the closer. The other half say starting pitcher. The other half say something else. Actually there can’t be another half. I’m sounding like Yogi Berra.”
(Something seems more askew here than the Braves’ bullpen. Schuerholz is cracking jokes. We now continue… . )
“Our philosophy is good closers are important, but we’ll find somebody,” he said. “We’ll find somebody who can throw strikes and has the stuff and the gumption to pitch in those circumstances. As my old friend Dan Quisenberry used to say, ‘When you’re a closer, you have to pitch like your hair’s on fire.’”
Except that right now, flames have a different connotation for the Braves. So if you’re planning on attending FanFest, feel free to bring a glove.
Permalink | Comments (39) | Categories: Braves / MLB, Jeff Schultz
McBride savors hometown, Braves future
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Furman Bisher
Sylvania — This evening will be a glowing occasion in this town, the capital of Screven County. Of such proportion that Sylvania required a bypass for U.S. 301. The Chamber of Commerce holds its annual dinner tonight and the main speaker will be Macay McBride, 23, rather youthful for such an occasion, but Macay and Sylvania fit hand in glove. His life is right here.
“Only place I ever want to live,” he said, at the wheel of his Silverado on the way to the hunting field. He was a high draft pick of the Braves, coming out of high school in 2000, 24th in the first round in 2001. Promising left-handers such as he are hard to find, clean-living homebodies, cheeks aglow with good health. Amazing, the number of major league players who come from the Sylvanias of America. Smalltown heroes, revered by neighbors and showered with pride.
One of the first things Macay did with the million he got to sign was buy about 500 acres of land out near Brier Creek, more a languid river than a creek in its flow down to the Savannah. He wasn’t necessarily following the advice of the late humorist Will Rogers — “Invest in land. They’re not making any more.” — he was establishing himself for his future with his then bride-to-be, Dru. Another thing he did was buy himself a second-hand pickup, since replaced, and a farm utility vehicle for his dad, Joey, who works at the Southern Co.’s Vogtle Plant.
This is big hunting and fishing land, and this week the Sylvania folk had their annual quail hunt on the farm of the Don Shepherds, Don Sr., Jr. and III. Macay supplied his golf cart, once painted Bulldog red and black, now camouflaged for hunting. Once in awhile he’d take a shot, but mainly his day was a walk through the fields of broom sedge and briars and a discussion of his future in baseball. When he arrived with the Braves in midseason, he came mainly as a starter. Here, Bobby Cox used him mainly in special situations.
“I don’t mind doing this,” he said, “but I don’t want to be a left-handed specialist all my life. You can make a good living in the bullpen, but I think I’m better than that. I’d rather be a starter, a full pitcher. I just want to be able to have a good life here when I’m through.”
The hunting fields and the fishing streams of Screven County will be forever in his blood. At home, he’s up and out by 7 o’clock in the morning. Life in the big leagues affords him the pleasure of sleeping in on the road. “I’ll tell you,” he said, “life in the minor leagues is the worst of all, those early morning flights.
“You get to bed about midnight after the game, then you get about three hours sleep and get to the airport and catch a 7 o’clock flight, fly out and play again that night. It’s a tough life.”
With the Braves, he has bonded with other young ones into a closely knit group. “We stay together, sort of like the same things and we want to win, Jeff Francoeur, Brian McCann, Ryan Langerhans and Pete Orr. You don’t see that on other teams. They kid me a lot about my country ways. When Jeff replied to our wedding invitation, he penciled in, ‘I guess you’ll give me directions on what dirt road to take.’?”
He laughed gently. “They’re just city slickers.”
He has spent time with the new pitching coach, Roger McDowell, only on the telephone. “He’s going to be different from Leo, but it’s not going to be a great change. I don’t blame Mazzone for going back to his home state to hook up with an old friend. I was just surprised that he wasn’t making more than he was after all those great seasons with the Braves.”
Camp Roger, as I’d suppose it has been re-christened, begins shortly, then off to spring training and reunion with the young clan. But he’ll never be far away from Sylvania. Home, someone once said, is where the heart is, and that’s where his heart is, and the birds and the fish will never be safe. “I’ve never lived anywhere else, don’t want to live anywhere else.”
Permalink | Comments (12) | Categories: Braves / MLB, Furman Bisher
No Fun League indeed
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
This is exactly what the late Pete Rozelle wanted: Parity.
Or is that mediocrity?
Here we are heading to the Final Four of this NFL season, and there isn’t anything close to a team that resembles those two sets of powerhouses for Green Bay and Dallas, the Raiders during their first coming to Oakland, the San Francisco 49ers of Montana or Young, the Steel Curtain or even Tom Brady’s Patriots.
What a bummer. Never have two wild cards reached the Super Bowl, but it could happen this time involving the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Carolina Panthers. Then again, the home teams could win on Sunday, with the Denver Broncos handling the Steelers in the AFC championship game and the Seattle Seahawks taking care of the Panthers in the NFC championship game.
Who really knows? Those who say they can predict Sunday’s winners either are convinced that Miss Cleo was legit or rank as such loyal fans of the Steelers, Panthers, Broncos or Seahawks that they can’t see reality through team-colored glasses. There are enough plusses and minuses for each of these four teams to envision any of them winning or losing by a little or doing the same by a lot.
Give me dominance. Give me players for a team who have large chunks of folks who love them and hate them. But back to reality, where Sunday’s winners will produce mostly shrugging around the globe.
I’m yawning already.
Permalink | Comments (47) | Categories: Quick Hit, Terence Moore
Wildcat Wackos making Tubby blue
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
Athens — While Tubby Smith still has his reputation along with his limbs in tact, he should go. RUN. Get out of the Commonwealth of Kentucky as quickly as he can. He should knock the bluegrass from the bottom of his shoes as he races all the way to sanity. That’s because coaching Wildcats basketball is insanity. I mean, they’re setting one of the most prolific leaders in college basketball on fire.
Seriously.
If you go to www.firetubbysmith.com, you’ll find a picture of a dapper Smith in flames as he squats in his customary position on the Kentucky sideline.
SPRINT, Tubby. Git. Do not pass go or collect $200 before it’s too late. Kentucky legend Joe B. Hall wants Smith to stick around for a while. Even so, Hall understands as much as anybody that anything less than winning big and emphatically with the Wildcats will make your old Kentucky home slightly uncomfortable. “I certainly had my share of hate mail and suggestions, but nobody tried to kill my dog or send me a moving van or anything like that,” said Hall, easing into a chuckle over the phone from Lexington, Ky., while recalling his 13 seasons coaching the Wildcats through 1985.
Added Hall, “I was very philosophical about it. I worked very hard when I was coach and put everything I had into it. If I wasn’t successful, I was prepared to go back to Cynthiana, Ky., and become a mailman.”
What Smith should become is an NBA coach or a college skipper for a more appreciative fan base. That he spent his first season at Kentucky winning a national championship in 1998 isn’t impressive to the Wildcat Wackos who attribute such a thing to Smith inheriting Rick Pitino’s players. Never mind that Smith entered this year winning nearly 80 percent of his games at Kentucky. Plus, two of his last three teams came within a couple of shots of reaching the Final Four.
At Kentucky, it’s about what are you doing this millisecond. So here were the Wildcats, entering Tuesday night’s game against Georgia at Stegeman Coliseum, looking shaky enough to make those Wildcat Wackos rush to add more flames to that Tubby Web site. Among other horrors, the Wildcats lost at home to Vanderbilt for the first time since Gerald Ford was in the Oval Office. They also were blasted by Indiana and Kansas, two premier programs that the Wildcat Wackos swear rank maybe six fastbreaks behind Kentucky.
Translated: In order for Smith to douse those flames, Kentucky had to beat Georgia, and then everybody else during the rest of his Wildcat career. Given the second coming of Randolph Morris, they just might. The 6-foot-10 sophomore from Atlanta’s Landmark Christian was stifling inside while leading the Wildcats in scoring for the third straight time since his reinstatement by the NCAA. They won 69-54 with a sizzling second half.
Which means it didn’t matter that the Wildcats didn’t have what former Georgia coach Hugh Durham used to call “that Big Blue Mist” of Kentucky fans forming a large and loud ring around the top of the coliseum. Those among the vast Wildcat Nation are too peeved with Smith these days to travel like they used to.
Once, Smith was at Georgia, where he led the Bulldogs to a combined 45-19 record and consecutive trips to the NCAA tournament. This was before he lost his mind after the 1996-97 season and decided to follow Pitino, the designated for Kentucky after he brought the Wildcats back to prominence from its dark years of probation.
As the late Al McGuire used to say, “The person who follows a dictator is always assassinated.” Hall had it worse than Smith, because Hall succeeded Adolph Rupp, the ultimate dictator. This is the same grumpy, disagreeable Rupp who is depicted in the new movie “Glory Road,” which is about the all-black Texas Western team knocking off Rupp’s all-white Kentucky team for the 1966 national championship. Hall was Rupp’s assistant back then.
What a difference 40 years and integration can make. Now just four of Kentucky’s players are white, and its coach is black. “I had been coaching nine years before I came to Kentucky, and I never had a team that didn’t have a black player, so I could foresee this in Kentucky’s future,” said Hall, who spends his retirement doing a radio show with former Louisville coach Denny Crum. “There are pressures for Tubby, but his success overall as a coach makes it predictable that he will survive.”
Yeah, but Smith shouldn’t take that chance when he can bolt.
Like now.
Permalink | Comments (36) | Categories: Terence Moore, UGA / SEC
Countdown questions Curry’s qualifications
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
10: Bill Curry is a really nice guy. And he coached football. OK. Now tell me again what qualifies him to be an athletics director?
9: Last I checked, the position of athletics director involves a lot of fundraising, management and administrative skills, politicking — things that have little to do with being an ex-football coach and TV analyst.
8: For example: Cam Bonifay — qualified. He has been in management and dealt with budgets. Don’t misunderstand me. I’m not saying, “Man, Georgia Tech would be idiots if they didn’t hire Cam Bonifay.” But please, if somebody out there really believes Bill Curry is perfect for this job, enlighten me.
7: The NFL is the single-most successful sports league in the world. It has a ridiculously lucrative television package and new or relatively new stadiums in many cities. So why is it the league continues to do things on the cheap with its officials? I mean, does Paul Tagliabue hire the part-timers that Wendy’s cuts at the end of the summer?
6: It’s one thing for an official to blow a call on the field. That’s human error. That’s what replay is for. But to OVERTURN a call after viewing a replay and reaching some illogical conclusion is unforgivable.
5: The NFL admitted referee Pete Morelli goofed when he nullified an interception by Pittsburgh’s Troy Polamalu. Big wow. Question: What if Indianapolis had scored on the ensuing possession, won the game and advanced to the AFC championship? Would the league have overturned the Steelers’ loss, based on the mistake? Um, no.
4: Speaking of which: Colts fans should blame Daniell Harper for the playoff loss, not Peyton Manning. If she hadn’t stabbed her husband, Nick, the day before, he might have been able to return that fumble 99 yards for a touchdown. Instead, he and his bandaged leg were caught by a quarterback (Ben Roethlisberger) at the Indy 42.
3: Oh wait. Daniell says the stabbing was an accident. That’s right. She only meant to wave it at her man. Because, you know how common it is to accidentally stab somebody. In the knee. And leave an inch-deep cut.
2: What’s that old saying? If the World Baseball Classic fell in the forest and nobody was around …
1: Jim Rice not in the Hall of Fame? Please explain.
Permalink | Comments (46) | Categories: Jeff Schultz, Quick Hit
Look in the mirror, Manning
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
The quarterback isn’t the only man out there. A great quarterback never made a bad team a champion and, contrary to popular belief, championships aren’t the only measure of greatness. Was Dan Marino a failure because he wasn’t blessed with Joe Montana’s supporting cast? Did John Elway achieve greatness only in those final two seasons?
That said, the quarterback is the most important man out there, and sometimes a great quarterback has to win a game for his team. Peyton Manning had two chances to steer his Colts to the winning touchdown Sunday and couldn’t even get them into overtime.
Before Sunday, it was possible to resist the notion that Manning couldn’t win a big game. Given the right circumstances and a good enough team, surely he’d win one soon enough. But he had the right circumstances — climate-controlled conditions throughout the playoffs, nemesis New England already eliminated — and a good enough team this time, and he couldn’t handle the No. 6 seed.
And he got every break imaginable. The game should have been over when Troy Polamalu intercepted Manning’s pass with 5 1/2 minutes left and the Steelers 11 points ahead, but a protracted review persuaded ref Pete Morelli that having possession for 30 or so seconds didn’t constitute an interception. (Just when did the NFL decide replay should override not just on-the-field calls but common sense?) Manning made the most of that mulligan, throwing two lovely passes to Reggie Wayne, and then the Colts got the ball back with 2:31 left, destiny fully in their hands.
And the man considered football’s smartest quarterback couldn’t bleed out a first down. Manning got sacked twice — later he would cite “protection problems” — and committed a rookie mistake. In doing his pointing-and-yelling-and-gesticulating thing at the line, Manning failed to get a play off before the two-minute warning, squandering a de facto timeout. And while we’re at it, mightn’t a purportedly clever quarterback have alerted his linemen to potential “protection problems” in the course of all that pointing and yelling and gesticulating?
The game should have been decided when Manning was dumped on fourth down, but somehow it wasn’t. Jerome Bettis fumbled and the Colts had the ball at their 42, still with 1:01 and three timeouts remaining, by now convinced that Dame Fortune, to say nothing of Pete Morelli, was fully in their corner. This time Manning managed one first down and didn’t seem to know whether to pursue a touchdown against a reeling opponent or to tee it up for Mike Vanderjagt, whom Manning once decried as an “idiot.” Instead, he did neither thing well, taking only one shot at the end zone while nudging no closer than the Pittsburgh 28.
Just as we now know that Vanderjagt is no Adam Vinatieri, we have further evidence that Manning, for all his awards and numbers, is no Tom Brady. The Patriots know Brady will keep his wits when time is short and the game is tight. The Colts don’t know whether Manning will lead them to victory or shake his head in disgust at their rank incompetence. When last did you hear Brady — or any top-shelf quarterback — blame his linemen after a loss? When last did you hear Perfect Peyton say, “Pin this on me, folks — I’m the one with the ball in my hands on every down”?
Peyton Manning leaves the unpalatable impression that feckless teammates keep letting him down. (Witness the near-smirk on his face after Vanderjagt’s shank.) He might, however, recall what happened the last time he exited a scene. Without the great Manning to shriek and scowl and remind them of their failings, the Tennessee Volunteers went out and won themselves a national championship.
Permalink | Comments (140) | Categories: Falcons / NFL, Mark Bradley
Hawks lack a leader to follow
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
So this is what it’s like when Reality meets Potential.
Josh Smith skies for a dunk. Josh Smith stands at the intersection of oblivious and unconscious following a timeout and fails to set a pick or … do … anything. And a teammate is left hung out to dry.
Joe Johnson hits a big jumper to key a comeback. Joe Johnson forces a late shot from behind the backboard against two defenders — low-percentage, even for Moses — then saves the worst for overtime: He travels, has a shot blocked and misses a layup.
Salim Stoudamire hits a three. Salim Stoudamire drives and passes back to the atmosphere, which misses.
Hawks lose. The won-lost, Reality-Potential breakdown now stands at 9-26. But just think how much more aesthetically appealing the Hawks will be if they can upset Houston today in Philips Arena and break into double digits in victories.
Houston has lost 10 of 12, but the Hawks have a way of boosting a franchise’s hope index. Washington had lost five of six until dumping the Hawks by 31 points last Wednesday. The Wizards came back three nights later and won in Philips in overtime. The Hawks had 47 turnovers in the two games.
Suddenly, it’s good to be a Wizard.
How come it’s never good to be a Hawk?
Well, you could write a book. But depending on the horror quotient, Bram Stoker might claim copyright infringement.
So let’s stick with the most basic of reasons why the Hawks seemingly have saved their best meltdowns for when it really matters. Either nobody is capable of taking charge, or nobody wants to take charge, or somebody tries to take charge only to discover that his four teammates have the collective attention span of a flea.
When the game is on the line, the Hawks don’t run an offense or a defense. They break huddle, then run in different directions. That’s either coaching or lack of listening. But when you’re 9-26, there’s enough blame to go around.
The Wizards game the other night at Philips was a classic example. The Hawks followed every highlight with self-immolation. They rally, look to turn a corner, then implode. They can’t figure out why it keeps happening to them. But the answer is the same in every sport. An opponent steps up, and the team that lacks a player with some sense of just-gimme-the-freaking-ball fizzles.
Johnson and Al Harrington are as close as the Hawks get to go-to guys. In the last game, the two went a combined 13-for-39. Johnson also had seven turnovers and went 1-for-5 in overtime.
It might not seem fair to single him out. That comes free of charge with $70 million contracts.
Here’s the problem (OK, another problem). Harrington is a nice player, but he’s going into free agency. The Hawks can trade him or let him go, but there’s a better chance that I’m starting for this team next year than he is.
The Hawks are 9-26 with Harrington. They’re not going to be much worse without him. He’s not the guy to build around. It’s not his team. If it’s ever going to Johnson’s team, it’s not yet. It was easier to be a go-to guy in Phoenix because Steve Nash was feeding him the ball. But Nash wasn’t included in the sign-and-trade. Not many players can do it alone — and Johnson is not one of those elite few.
“I won’t say it’s difficult because I don’t think it’s anything I can’t handle,� Johnson said. “But at the same time, I’ve had my ups and downs. I’ve had my mistakes. I’m adjusting.�
He says he wants the ball with the game on the line. “I just feel a lot better when the ball’s in my hands,� he said. But nobody’s hands have been great.
The Hawks are averaging nearly 17 turnovers a game. I don’t know how many on average are being committed in crunch time, but when a team is 9-26, it can’t afford to scorch the few opportunities it has.
“We’re still trying to figure some things out,� Woodson said.
Like maybe who their leader is.
Here’s one possibility: He’s not here.
Permalink | Comments (27) | Categories: Hawks / NBA, Jeff Schultz
Kovalchuk invisible in his city
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
Ever hear of Ilya Kovalchuk? If so, then describe the guy, or admit that you wouldn’t know him from a potted plant or a picture of Nikita Khrushchev.
This is a shame. When it comes to professional athletes who work and live in Atlanta, we’re talking about a Thrashers star who shines as brightly at his craft as the Jones boys (Andruw and Chipper), the best of Joe Johnson and Al Harrington with the Hawks or No. 7 for the Falcons.
Not only that, Kovalchuk is becoming such a 22-year-old wonder around the NHL that opponents are doing what opponents always do in sports when they can’t beat somebody physically. They try to do so mentally, which is why they are whining everywhere that Kovalchuk likes to use an illegal hockey stick. To which Kovalchuk told me from his locker at Philips Arena with a dose of wonderful arrogance: “My stick is good, so I don’t know what they’re talking about. I play my game, and I never pay attention to those little things.”
Spoken like an old veteran disguised as a youngster with strikingly fresh eyes, and all of this is another reason why Kovalchuk deserves a group hug from the masses around town. Instead, outside of the loyal and loud following that heats up the chilly seats at Thrashers home games, few folks on either side of Peachtree Road has a clue about who Kovalchuk is. That’s especially true when he is walking, standing or sitting instead of skating.
Take, for instance, that Hawks game two years ago when Kovalchuk sat next to that No. 7 for the Falcons. They never talked, but others talked with regularity to No. 7 as Kovalchuk watched in silence as a parade of Michael Vick worshippers came and went through the night. Then again, there were extenuating circumstances.
“At that time, I didn’t speak English too well, so I don’t think Michael Vick is going to understand me,” said Kovalchuk, easing into a smile. Although his English is pretty good nowadays (“Don’t lie to me,” Kovalchuk said playfully), he still could saunter from his home in Buckhead to The Cheesecake Factory and go unmolested while chewing on a Danish. Why? Because it has happened often during his three seasons in Atlanta, and I stress in Atlanta.
There are 32,431,644 folks and counting living in Canada. If you subtract the toddlers or those younger, along with the few north of the border who believe “a hat trick” is something done by aspiring Houdinis, nearly 32,345,383 of those folks know something about Kovalchuk. The same goes for the puck savvy population of the old Soviet Union, particularly around Russia and Kovalchuk’s native Tver.
“They very much focus on him over there, because he’s a key guy in the Russian newspapers and on all of the television shows,” said Slava Kozlov, also a Russian, who is Kovalchuk’s neighbor in the Thrashers locker room and his best friend on the team. “He goes into a grocery store in Russia, and he’s recognized, and then he’s surrounded after that.”
And why not? Kovalchuk is evolving into the NHL’s fifth Beatle. He’ll grace the cover of Hockey News next week. He was a live guest on ESPN News last week. Whenever the Thrashers travel to New York, St. Louis, Edmonton — anywhere in the northern hemisphere away from a 404, 770 or 678 area code — team officials are pounded with requests for that highly active fellow on offense and defense at left wing who already was named NHL offensive player of the week twice this season and owns more points than anybody.
In contrast, Atlanta still yawns at the sight of Kovalchuk the civilian, and Kovalchuk the player finally has the Thrashers streaking instead of teasing. After responding to their preseason hype by flopping with a 3-8 October, they’ve roared toward February with more wins than losses overall during the latest date of their five-year history. Nobody has spurred that surge more than Kovalchuk, just shy of becoming a two-time participant in the Olympics and the All-Star Game.
Still, Kovalchuk is just another face in the growing crowd around Atlanta, and he knows why. “Georgia, well, it’s not like it’s a hockey state or anything,” he said, pausing, with eyebrows raised. “Football is the No. 1 sport here. The Braves, they always play real well by winning their division. But if our team continues to play well, then people in Atlanta will recognize everybody.”
Uh, no. Let’s just hope that they start by recognizing the one Thrasher who deserves it the most.
Permalink | Comments (46) | Categories: Terence Moore, Thrashers / NHL
Budget, boosters create mine field for Jackets AD
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Furman Bisher
There was a time when the athletics directorship on a college campus was a place to put the old coach out to pasture, a haven for semi-retirement. Travel with the teams, do a lot of glad-handing, entertain and sign the tabs. It was the alternative to the embarrassment of firing a faithful old hand, whether he could balance his own checking account or not. It was a time when the budget of athletics departments could have been kept on tablet paper with a carpenter’s pencil, just to exaggerate a point.
Time marches on. Gone is such an uncomplicated era. College sports have vaulted to the corporate level. Running an athletics department calls for more than a popular figurehead, an old hero beloved by all. It’s more than making schedules — your conference and television does that, anyway — glad-handing, back-slapping, singing out the alma mater with vigor and looking corporate. It’s a job that can bring a man to his knees. (Look at Dave Braine.) No more lateraling it off to the old coach, who never handled the dollars and cents of it all, but had an accomplished administrator at his side doing that.
A college athletics department is a corporation — small, no Fortune 500 stuff here — but one requiring a business mind. Homer Rice turned it into an art form at Georgia Tech. It alone never brought Dave Braine down, but you had to know the pressure and the hazards and the backlash surely had him in a bind. He has spent the better part of his tenure under fire, target of influential alumni, but not alone. There are just as many out there who would like to see the president, Wayne Clough, go along him.
I don’t know that in all my time I have ever seen the Georgia Tech athletics family in such a disheveled state. A football coach with an extended contract yet unsigned, a basketball coach whose loyalty is attached to the departing AD, and the so-called success of the football program dwelling on “a bowl game every season.”
When bowl games were real bowl games, that would have been a badge of honor. Bowl games of this era are merely required appearances tagged onto the end of the season, and a number of Georgia Tech’s bowl trips have been disastrous adventures, both at the box office and in the till. A minor bump in the road when the record against Georgia, considerably more vital to “success,” is highlighted.
Down to cases here: The athletics department budget is larger than that of a number of third-world countries, approximately $40 million a year. The debt load is around $110 million, centering mostly on the stadium expansion that any number of critics considered out of line. You are talking big bucks here, not a task to be tackled by a corporate amateur but a serious budget manager.
You will find no candidate supported or undercut here. I’m not in the business of hiring and firing. I do understand that Bill Curry has the inside track, and that one night recently, he answered a leading question with, “It hasn’t been finalized yet.”
If so, fine, understanding that he rides a wave of popularity, though inexperienced in such a field. That can be offset if accompanied by the hiring of a career manager of finances, such as Todd Stansbury, another Tech alumnus, one richly experienced in the field.
There is a battle to be fought out there, and the outcome is vital to the course of the athletics department at Georgia Tech. Much damage control must be put into place, and no matter how this turns out, there is still going to be an element of sullen rebellion to deal with.
Permalink | Comments (18) | Categories: Furman Bisher, Tech / ACC
Younger Vick hasn’t learned from example in the family
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
Marcus Vick hasn’t lacked a role model. He grew up three years behind one. But Marcus Vick has failed in all the places his older brother has succeeded, which stands as further evidence that DNA isn’t necessarily destiny. There’s always free will involved.
Marcus Vick got the second chance Michael Vick never needed. Marcus got an extended preview of the wealth and fame that Michael had to assimilate on the fly. Marcus was told and told what he needed to do to become successful, but he hasn’t been able to handle it.
Michael Vick has handled it. No matter what you think of the season he just had or his feel for the West Coast offense, there’s no denying that Vick has made himself indispensable to his employer and has endeared himself to a vast fan base. Not every No. 1 draft pick is a keeper, and not every failure occurs simply because a guy can’t play. Some gifted athletes are busts because they’re low-quality people. Michael Vick is high-quality.
On the day — Dec. 23, 2004 — he signed his new contract involving the record $130 million, Vick was asked what the Falcons’ massive commitment said to him: “That I’ve done my job. I’ve tried to walk a straight line.” And he has, the “Ron Mexico” tempest to the contrary, walked the walk. He’s a credit to his team and to his community and, above all, to himself.
Marcus Vick is something less. Marcus has taken a rare opportunity — another shot at playing big-time college football — and thrown it in the trash. Knowing the world was watching for his next misstep, he stomped on a fallen Louisville player in the Gator Bowl and got himself kicked out of Virginia Tech and, then, just to put the cherry atop this rancid sundae, was arrested for brandishing a gun in the parking lot of a McDonald’s. He will make himself available for the NFL draft, but there’s no guarantee he’ll be picked at all. He comes with so much baggage.
And it isn’t as if Marcus Vick didn’t know better. He watched his brother rise from the same difficult circumstances in Newport News, Va., to become a star at the same high school and then the same college. When he was suspended from Virginia Tech in 2004 — multiple arrests were the provocation — he spent part of the fall living at Michael’s house in Duluth. There, he informed Sports Illustrated, he was given sage counsel: “[Michael] told me I don’t have to be out in public all the time. It’s OK to stay home and chill out.”
Two brothers: One tries hard to do the right thing, while the other seems to glory in doing just the opposite. It’s a tale as old as time itself, and it becomes no less saddening with this latest bit of updating. Marcus Vick didn’t have to blaze a trail; Michael had done that already. Marcus had only to trace his sibling’s steps and surely similar acclaim and riches would have followed. But he hasn’t. Apparently he just can’t. Given a choice, he seems to choose poorly every single time.
Michael Vick has been his brother’s host and has tried to be his mentor, but he isn’t his brother’s keeper. Marcus Vick is his own man — he’s 21 — and has made his own destructive decisions. Michael hasn’t yet commented on Marcus’ latest round of misdeeds, but what is there to say? That he’s sad for his brother and mad at his brother and sorry to see the family name sullied in this way?
Beyond the spectacle of watching a talented athlete sabotage his young life, there’s a greater truth herein: No two people are alike, and doing right (as opposed to wrong) isn’t merely a matter of following a text. It’s a series of daily decisions, and many of those choices are hard ones. As we choose, so we become. It’s called free will, but sometimes it bears a heavy cost.
Permalink | Comments (16) | Categories: Falcons / NFL, Mark Bradley
Hewitt’s future clouded by Braine’s exit
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
Regardless of what you think of Chan Gailey in general or his contract in particular, regardless of how you perceive the seemingly re-circulating disenchantment within the Georgia Tech fan base, there are at least two favorable things that can be said of athletics director Dave Braine: He hired Paul Hewitt and he has kept Paul Hewitt.
Now that Braine has announced what Hewitt has known for “a month, maybe two” — that the Tech athletics director is retiring because of health issues — it’s logical to wonder if the basketball coach will soon follow him out the door.
Understand something: The relationship between a coach and athletics director in today’s college atmosphere might be even more vital than a coach and his superiors in the professional ranks. Academic issues are forever evolving. A university’s priorities are forever changing. Presidents are taking an increasingly active role in athletics. The athletics director can’t just be a cushion and a fundraiser, particularly at a place like Tech. He needs to be fluent in politics — in two languages, academics and athletics.
And understand this: Paul Hewitt has two escape clauses in his current contract, which runs for another 5 1/2 seasons. One is fairly typical — he can leave for an NBA job without being subject to a buyout. One is fairly atypical — he can leave within two years of Braine’s exit. So start the clock.
Now, a coach can have an ironclad, no-escape contract signed in vampire blood and it wouldn’t make a difference. Contracts are broken every day, particularly by college coaches. They demand loyalty from recruits and boosters, then weasel out of rollover contracts and jump across the street for a raise. Go figure. Really, all escape clauses do is make it cheaper for a guy to leave.
But Hewitt’s clause is symbolic of something more than saving a few bucks. “I don’t care how good a coach you are,” he said. “If you don’t have the right administration behind you who understands what you’re dealing with — I mean, Dave gave me a contract extension [in 2003] and people were saying, ‘What, are you nuts?’ Then the next year we went to the Final Four.”
Let’s boil this down to its simplest form: Hewitt will tell you that he loves Tech, loves Atlanta, loves, loves, loves. But the man has options. He has proven himself at the college level. He could do the same on another campus or, more likely, try the NBA. Coaching the New York Knicks, Hewitt said, is, “My childhood dream.”
(Disclaimer: Hewitt was quick to add the timing is not right and he’s not campaigning for the job. Just as well. Larry Brown won’t be going anywhere for at least seven minutes.)
Just guessing here. The question is not whether Hewitt leaves Tech, but when. The timing depends largely on his next boss. A coach doesn’t just put a potential get-me-out-of-Dodge clause in his contract unless it’s a significant concern.
He said of the coach-athletics director relationship: “It’s getting more and more important every day because of the rules and regulations that are being handed down. And, quite frankly, while they’re well-intended, many of the rules are coming from people who don’t really have an understanding of what goes on from day to day in an athletic department. Faculty thinks one way, coaches tend to think another way.” The guy in the middle gets a headache.
At Georgia Tech, there are always issues, usually revolving around academics. Most recently, Yellow Jackets senior Theodis Tarver was declared ineligible by the school, even though he remained above the NCAA bar. Tarver’s mother died recently. But Tech faculty isn’t big on extenuating circumstances.
If you’re Hewitt, how much do you put up with?
He has worked on six campuses: C.W. Post, Southern California, Fordham, Villanova, Siena, Tech.
With that perspective, he says this: “I’m telling you, it takes two years to figure this place out. I don’t think you can afford to bring somebody in who needs two years to figure it out.”
Hewitt says he has confidence that the Tech president, Wayne Clough, will hire the right person. But Hewitt’s loyalty to Braine is understandable. And that clause was put there for a reason.
Permalink | Comments (60) | Categories: Jeff Schultz, Tech / ACC
Watching Brady grow
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
This is how stupid I am: I sat in the Superdome and watched Tom Brady win his first Super Bowl — and his first Super Bowl MVP — and thought he was no big deal. I thought he was a fill-in quarterback who’d done a nice job. I did not for one second entertain the thought that he might be the greatest quarterback of his era, if not all eras.
This is how stupid I am: During that Super Bowl week, I halfway expected Bill Belichick to go back to Drew Bledsoe as his Super Bowl starter. If you recall, Brady had stepped in for Bledsoe after the latter was hurt early in the 2001 season, but a healthy Bledsoe had spelled Brady, who’d been KO’ed, against Pittsburgh in the AFC championship game. (Belichick stuck with Brady for that Super Bowl against the hugely favored Rams, which I guess is why he’s Bill Belichick, winner of multiple Super Bowls.)
This is how stupid I am: I watched Brady engineer that last drive against St. Louis, the one John Madden said on TV shouldn’t even have been attempted given how short the time was, and didn’t really think the quarterback did anything special except find open receivers on dinky little patterns. I thought the MVP of that Super Bowl should have been Adam Vinatieri, who made the winning kick, or Ty Law, whose interception and touchdown return showed the world — and maybe the Patriots themselves — that they really had a chance that day.
That’s how stupid I was. This is how stupid I am now: Even though the Patriots must play at Denver this week and surely at Indianapolis if they win, I half-expect them to reach the Super Bowl again. This Brady guy has grown on me.
Permalink | Comments (28) | Categories: Mark Bradley, Quick Hit
Baseball can do without World event
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
Whew!
That was close.
For the sake of those of us who are John Smoltz fans, I’m glad he announced this week that the World Baseball Classic will come and go this spring without the use of his right arm. It’s the same right arm that is attached to the elbow that had four surgeries. It’s also the same right arm that is attached to the shoulder that was so sore during the Braves’ first-round loss last season in Houston that Smoltz said he couldn’t have pitched anyway during the next round.
Those aches and pains aside for Smoltz, it’s like this when it comes to the World Baseball Classic: Why?
It wouldn’t be politically correct to say so publicly, but if I’m running a team in the major leagues, I’m hoping that all of my players pull a Smoltz when it comes to this inaugural round-robin thing. It’s a tournament that has players competing on teams representing their home countries, which sounds good. The problem is, the tournament takes place during spring training when players should be getting ready for what really counts — the regular season along the way to the postseason.
Thanks, John.
Permalink | Comments (12) | Categories: Quick Hit, Terence Moore
Tech should give Curry the job he wants
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
Whenever I talk to Bill Curry, I find myself nodding and thinking, “Wow,� along the way. Just on Wednesday, he delivered riveting words about what he would do if he were, oh, say, the athletics director at Georgia Tech, his alma mater and an institution whose thought still causes his 63-year-old heart to flutter.
For instance: Listen to Curry’s view on the supposedly restrictive ways of Tech academics as it relates to the Yellow Jackets in athletics. “When you aspire to greatness, which I do, it comes down to something that goes for the classroom, and the practice field, and the game, and the court, and the track, and the pool, and for all of our athletes. It means that we have to do everything just a little bit better than the other people. That doesn’t mean that we are better than others. That doesn’t mean that we’re snooty. It just means that we have to work a little harder.�
Then Curry added, “That’s the attitude I learned when I went to Tech, and it is what has sustained me in life — whether it’s been blocking Dick Butkus or taking a calculus final. The emphasis is the same. You lay it on the line every time. You shoot for the top all the time. If you do that, sooner or later you’re going to succeed.â€?
I mean, how could those who bleed old gold and white get this lucky? They have an opportunity to have the leadership of Tech’s athletics department over the past quarter of a century go from the highly underrated Homer Rice to the visionary that was Dave Braine to a renaissance man who is the logical choice for what became a vacancy on Wednesday at the Edge Center.
I’m guessing that Curry already has hand-delivered his resume to the doorstep of Tech president Dr. G. Wayne Clough. The search for Braine’s successor is over.
Or it should be.
“I will call. I will send a resume, and then I will abide by the process that Dr. Clough certainly will instigate,� said Curry, over his cell phone from Dallas, where he is attending a coaches’ convention. He just finished his ninth year as an ESPN college football analyst. Prior to that, he had successful head coaching stints in football at Alabama and Kentucky, especially when you consider the impossible situations he inherited at both places. He also spent enough prolific years as an NFL offensive lineman to collect three Super Bowl rings.
All of that said, what sits deepest inside of Curry’s soul is his life at the Flats. After leaving his native College Park, he was a Tech student before becoming a player, an assistant coach and the head guy for a football program that rose so quickly from the dead under his leadership that he was named the ACC Coach of the Year.
More importantly, nobody associated with intercollegiate athletics holds a more honorable reputation than Curry, who once was a student at Emory University’s Candler School of Theology. He is a highly sought-after motivational speaker. Not only that, for the past 43 years, he’s been married to the same woman, Carolyn, who he first proposed to in the sixth grade. And, chances are, he breaks for squirrels and flosses after every meal.
But here’s what you really want to know about a possible Curry regime at Tech: What does he think about a football program that has been nothing more than OK during this century? Curry answered quickly, with his usual decisiveness. “I believe this: I believe that we can compete at the highest level. I do not think we will ever settle for mediocrity in anything,� he said. “If we have a program, we want it to be the best that it can be. We don’t make any excuses. We want to win every time we take the field. Does that mean we’re always going to be champions? Of course not.�
Before I go further, the Curry Doctrine isn’t meant as a stiff-arm to the legacy of Braine. Curry knows that, after Braine inherited a department that Rice converted from the worst among those in big-time college athletics into a jewel, Braine made it sparkle more. Braine’s strength was in doing enough through financing and hiring to help the Jackets’ other sports beyond football and basketball prosper in the ACC.
Curry also knows that the furor over Braine’s analysis last season in the midst of Tech’s fourth consecutive finish with seven victories was unjust. Yes, Braine said that Tech likely isn’t going to win nine or 10 games a year, but Curry added, “He could have said that you’re not going to do that anywhere. It was taken out of context as if to say, ‘We’re just happy to rock along and be mediocre.’ Wrong. I believe we have to strive to be at the very top in everything that we do, and the football program is the most visible part of what Georgia Tech is.â€?
No, the most visible part is Tech’s athletics director. Thus the need for Dr. Clough to hire Mr. Curry, and right now.
Permalink | Comments (7) | Categories: Tech / ACC, Terence Moore
Busch tries a right turn
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
Such inquiries weren’t on the schedule. From the press release: “Kurt Busch will address questions regarding the Goodyear test, Penske Racing and the 2006 NASCAR Nextel Cup season only.” But asking Kurt Busch just about tires is like interviewing Jennifer Aniston and not mentioning Brad Pitt.
So there he was, standing in the garage area at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Tuesday, responding to the questions he wasn’t supposed to hear. Maybe part of him wanted to turn and stomp off, but a bigger part of Kurt Busch has to know he’s being watched in a whole new way, and how he handles himself in the coming season will go a long way toward solidifying the paying public’s impression of him. And to NASCAR and its many sponsors, the paying public matters.
“There are things in your life that you’d like to press the ‘reset’ button on,” Busch said, and what happened to him in November qualifies. He was stopped by police for running a stop sign near Phoenix International Raceway and charged with reckless driving. (Officers, who contended Busch was abusive toward them, smelled alcohol on his breath, but tests proved he wasn’t drunk.)
Roush Racing, then his employer, might have let him off with a reprimand, but it suspended him for the season’s last two races with this blatant kiss-off from team president Geoff Smith: “It’s the last straw. We’re officially retiring as Kurt Busch’s apologists.”
Busch, see, had gotten crossways with lots of folks — fellow driver Jimmy Spencer bloodied his nose after a 2003 race — and was bound for a new team anyway. The catchall description of NASCAR drivers — good ol’ boys — doesn’t really apply to Busch, who comes across as something of an Eddie Haskell. He’s smart and he’s gifted and he has a bit of a smirk about him. Roush Racing essentially said, “Smirk on this,” and deprived the 2004 Nextel Cup champ of a chance to finish the 2005 season the way a champion should.
But now it’s 2006 and Kurt Busch works for Roger Penske and is working on repairing a damaged persona. “In a career, things get ironed out and evened out,” he said. “This is a unique opportunity to jump in.” He’s driving the Dodge vacated by Rusty Wallace, a car sponsored by Miller Lite. Without irony, Busch likens his orientation to “having a first beer together.” He has nothing but nice things to say about Penske — he says nothing at all about Jack Roush — and he called the chance to work with his new boss “the best medicine you could get.”
Busch has won 14 NASCAR races and is bright enough to fit the profile of what the sport wants to become — if he just could stop ticking people off. Then again, Tony Stewart, once the bad boy of the gearbox set, mended multiple fences en route to the 2005 Nextel Cup title, pointedly saying at the moment of his victory that he’d won this championship “the right way.” Of Stewart’s smoother dynamics, Busch said: “It definitely gives you motivation to be more well-run. You have to be a good guy and take care of your public image.”
And how’s that going? Said Roy McCauley, his new crew chief: “Kurt is definitely giving 110 percent. I believe he feels like he’s in a great situation now.”
Kurt Busch turned 28 a week ago and is scheduled to be married in July. He has a new ride and the chance to make a fresh start. He and Penske will attend the Super Bowl together in Detroit next month, and the only advice Busch said he has received from the car owner is the basic stuff: “Stand on the right pedal, turn left and go fast.”
Did he make any New Year’s resolutions? “Usually those are more personal things,” Busch said, but he shared his anyway. “Spend more time with my fiancée and challenge myself to be a better person.”
The look on his face wasn’t a smirk. It was, by way of contrast, an actual smile.
Permalink | Comments (7) | Categories: Auto Racing, Mark Bradley
No reliever will get this elector’s vote
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Furman Bisher
To get to the jugular, I’ve never yet voted for a closer for the Baseball Hall of Fame, and I’m rather positive that I never shall. It’s like voting for a guy who only putts as Golfer of the Year, or a guy who only shoots free throws for the Basketball Hall of Fame. He’s only part-pitcher.
Having said that, let me join in the throng slapping Bruce Sutter on the back and say it’s nice for him and his family, but it’s only sending another loser to Cooperstown. There, he joins the only other closer, also the only other losing pitcher in the hallowed hall, though Rollie Fingers did do a few seasons as a starter first. His record is 114-118, Sutter’s 68-71.
It should be said in Fingers’ behalf that he did not go in as somewhat of a last resort. His class included Tom Seaver and Hal Newhouser and Bill Mazeroski, as well as the umpire who belonged on a Saturday Evening Post cover, Bill McGowan, but all the latter three courtesy of the Veterans Committee, which since has been overhauled.
Sutter’s earned-run average was very good, 2.83. His strikeouts-to-walks ratio was good. But he pitched barely over 1,000 innings. Take Bert Blyleven, the right-hander who is running out of time. He pitched 4,970 innings, struck out 3,701 batters — only four other pitchers struck out more, and they’re in (you guessed it) — and won 287 games. Now that’s a career for you. He wasn’t the most obliging cuss when you wanted a word or two, but that has bothered me with only one player, and it wasn’t Jim Rice, for whom I cast a vote this time.
Apparently, Sutter scored heavily in one category, that as a pitcher who created a pitch, the “splitter.” I’ve always heard Roger Craig, manager and coach, get the credit for the “splitter,” but I’ll bet you this, you can go back to one group of players who’ll tell that was the exact same pitch that Elroy Face was throwing with the Pirates around the turn of the 1960s. Only then, they called it a “forkball.”
Along that line of pitch creation, that brings up a case presented by Bob Feller, who had a few pitches of his own. Feller campaigned for a pitcher named George Blaeholder, even said he belonged in the Hall of Fame. Why? Because Blaeholder invented the “slider,” sometimes known as the “nickel curve.” Now, George Blaeholder, in his lifetime, won 104 games and lost 125, hardly Hall of Fame stuff. But you could forgive, even if he’d been throwing bombs. He pitched for the pitiable St. Louis Browns, who were good for more laughs than class. No telling how many careers he saved, for more pitchers have made a living throwing the “slider” than the “splitter.”
But, that just gives you a slant on how much these major league balloteers know about baseball history. Me, I go back an age when pitchers often went both ways. Start a game one day, go in and save one the next. I’m a Firpo Marberry guy.
Now there was a moose. Marberry came from Texas and was built like a sheriff. His real name was Fred, but nobody called him that. One year he started 64 games and saved 22 (before saves became a religion.) Five times he started 50 games or more, and when he was 34 years old, he started 54 with the Senators. You know how many Hall of Fame votes he got? A measly 1.6 per cent.
So don’t feel too wretched Dale. Dale Muprhy got all of 10.6 percent, and I think it’s safe to say we in Atlanta call off our Dale Murphy for Cooperstown campaign.
I know they’re celebrating in the Sutter household this week, and you can’t blame them. This has been going on for years, and the mourners have been wailing at his shrine. But he’s not the only guy who got in without what you and I would consider Hall of Fame credentials. A man I admire exceedingly is Cecil Travis, who does have them but hasn’t made it, but who once said, “There are a lot of guys out there who were better than I was who aren’t in there. It doesn’t bother me.”
Permalink | Comments (121) | Categories: Braves / MLB, Furman Bisher
Tuesday Countdown: Lil’ Vick, Sutter, Ilya
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
10: So does this mean Marcus Vick will go to the Hokie pokey, unless he turns himself around? ‘Cuz, that’s what it’s all about.
9: I can’t believe I just wrote that. Just one more illustration why the Pulitzer committee doesn’t hand out awards for blogs.
8: Seriously, I’m not even certain Marcus Vick was going to get drafted BEFORE the gun incident. Yes, he has talent. But it’s not like the guy has proven so much when he actually has played that it compensates for the bag of junk that comes with him. And a bag of stuff for a quarterback is like a bag of stuff times 10. Plus, he is generously listed at only 6-0. Exactly what is it that makes him such a great NFL prospect?
7: I mean, if a guy can’t stay out of trouble in college when so much time is occupied by games, practices, workouts and classes (theoretically, anyway), what’s going to happen when he has cash in his pocket as a pro and he’s got nothing but time?
6: And enough with dumping on Michael Vick for not giving his brother more guidance. Marcus is his own man. Or his own punk.
5: Only one former player (Bruce Sutter) drew enough votes to make it into the Hall of Fame Tuesday. I don’t get it. I voted for 8 to 10 guys. There’s this prevailing attitude among many HOF voters that goes something like this: “Well, Player X deserves to get in one day, but not this year.” I’m sorry. Either a player deserves to be enshrined or he doesn’t. Making Andre Dawson, Jim Rice, Orel Hershisher and others wait another two, three or seven years is nonsensical.
4: The most amusing thing about the Ilya Kovalchuk-Sidney Crosby tiff was Kovalchuk suddenly casting himself as the wise, sage and disciplined veteran. Nothing against Ilya, who is maturing nicely. But he wrote the book on dumb things to say and do as a cocky 18-year-old rookie.
3: From Hall of Fame to Hall of Shame: Marcus Vick, Maurice Clarett, Lawrence Phillips … what a team we could build for the big game against the Guards.
2: The Georgia Force keeps sending me e-mails with practice updates. Who’s the Georgia Force?
1: Jim Mora: $25,000 for talking on a cellphone. Sean Taylor: $17,000 for spitting on a player. Welcome to the NFL.
Permalink | Comments (55) | Categories: Jeff Schultz, Quick Hit
Please don’t squeeze the defense
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
Rich McKay promised himself he would get away from football this past weekend. So it follows that he watched every game.
“Actually I missed half of the Tampa game, and saw, ‘Walk The Line,’” the Falcons general manager said. “Great movie.”
Tough guy, Johnny Cash. Should’ve been a defensive coordinator. In “A Boy Named Sue” Cash sang, “Well, I grew up quick and I grew up mean. My fist got hard and my wits got keen. … Some gal would giggle and I’d get red. And some guy’d laugh and I’d bust his head. I tell ya, life ain’t easy for a boy named Sue.”
Maybe that’s what the Falcons’ defense needed this season: Jerseys with “Sue” on the back. Because after watching the first round of the NFL playoffs, it was the teams with nasty, physical and don’t-even-think-of-calling-me-Sue defenses that won, exhibiting traits that were in stark contrast to your soft and cushy, Charmin-like Falcons.
Carolina went to New York, stuffed the run, forced five turnovers and won. Washington went to Tampa, stuffed the run, scored twice off turnovers and won. New England hosted Jacksonville, held Fred Taylor (24) to fewer rushing yards than Byron Leftwich (26), registered six sacks and won. Pittsburgh just did it the easy way in Cincinnati, knocking Carson Palmer out of the game on the second play. The TV screen was covered with pain.
The Falcons rarely stopped anybody on the run or, seemingly, even made anybody say “Ouch.”
“We weren’t as physical as we wanted to be, particularly in the middle of the field,” McKay said. “You need to be as tough. We can’t let people have the impression that they can come into our place and run on us like that.”
“Sue.” I like it.
But, no, the Falcons will go the more conventional route: They’ll change players. They’ll dissect the scheme. They’ll analyze the coaches.
McKay will accept some heat. Injuries not withstanding, the cupboard on the defensive side of the ball proved to be relatively bare. In his words, “We didn’t give the coaches a lot of ammunition.” This comes after Tim Ruskell, McKay’s former right-hand man in personnel, tweaked Seattle to the best record in the NFC (13-3).
“It’s always a partnership: You can’t just say, ‘The coaches didn’t run the right scheme,’” McKay said. “Typically, it’s a combination of things. But it starts with me and making sure we get the right players. This year I felt we had the right guys. But we have to go back and evaluate that now.”
But before the roster churn, the coaching staff will be examined. It’s all about timing. Recent firings have led to the sudden availability of former head coaches with a certain expertise on either side of the ball: Dom Capers and Jim Haslett (a Mora pal) both excel on defense. Norv Turner, Steve Mariucci and Mike Martz have successful track records working with quarterbacks and developing offenses. It’s not known if any would be interested in a position, but the Falcons would be foolish not to look into the possibility.
McKay wants two things made clear: 1) He won’t dictate staff changes to Mora; 2) “I think this is a very good staff.”
But he reaffirmed everything is on the table. And when asked about the sudden availability of other coaches, he acknowledged: “All that stuff does get discussed.”
The Falcons were dead in January because they couldn’t stop anybody in late November or December. As a season wears on, weaker teams wear down. Physical teams belt receivers when they run over the middle. They punish running backs. Did you see that Saturday and Sunday?
“Everybody talks about the pretty pass plays that make SportsCenter,” McKay said. “But what about the 7- or 8-yard run that turned into 25-yard runs? That’s what hurt us.”
McKay went through this before with Tampa Bay. The Buccaneers went 10-6 in 1997, were touted as a Super Bowl contender the following season, then flopped to 8-8.
“It was the end of the world,” he said.
They rebounded. The Falcons think they can do the same. But if they need some tips, Carolina plays at Chicago Sunday. Take notes. Or change your name.
Permalink | Comments (54) | Categories: Falcons / NFL, Jeff Schultz
Tech displays a clear case of composure
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
Let’s get this out of the way: As the howling increased and the seconds decreased Sunday inside the lovely madhouse that was Alexander Memorial Coliseum, the youngsters of Georgia Tech used clutch plays on offense and defense to shock the veterans of Boston College for the Yellow Jackets’ biggest basketball upset since they silenced the Cameron Crazies two seasons ago at Duke.
Now forget all of that, because what made this Tech’s most successful victory in years is what happened after the game.
Nothing. Not for the Tech players who calmly sauntered off the court with barely the hint of a smile despite the stands emptying onto the court around them in a delirious scramble.
Nothing. Not since Tech’s next game against something called Centenary is followed by a bunch of real teams on the road at North Carolina State and Wake Forest before the Jackets meet the formidable likes of Clemson, Maryland at home and Boston College on the road.
Nothing. Not with these Tech players maturing enough to realize that their fifth win in their past six games only means something to historians and to those in the ACC who don’t realize that staying with yesterday can get you beat today.
“I told the guys last week after we beat Vanderbilt to just calm down. You can’t have that swagger,� said Tech’s Jeremis Smith, among three sophomores in a starting lineup that includes a freshman and a lone senior. Actually, Smith only gave part of the reason why the Jackets responded with more shrugs than hugs after defeating their 11th-ranked visitors picked to finish second behind only Duke in the conference. Here’s the rest of the reason, provided by fellow sophomore Anthony Morrow: To those in Tech’s relatively mellow locker room, this wasn’t an upset.
Said Morrow, “Coach [Paul] Hewitt during the course of practice before games, he breaks things down so much for us to let us know that, no matter who you play, if you play them the right way, it shouldn’t be a surprise that you beat them. You play with a high level of energy. You go hard. You box out, rebound, defend, and you win.�
Sounds like what just happened to push Tech to a 60-58 victory, an 8-4 record overall and 2-0 in the conference. In other words, despite the Jackets losing their top six players from a group that reached the Final Two in 2004 and advanced to the second round of the NCAA tournament last season, they expect to do nothing less than what they did to Boston College.
That is, the Jackets played stifling defense down the stretch of the first half to turn an eight-point deficit into an eight-point advantage early in the second half. As Boston College coach Al Skinner said of a Tech bunch that outrebounded his supposedly tougher Eagles 33-23, “They did a good job of bringing it to us physically. … They worked their tails off. They hustled.â€?
If that wasn’t enough, Tech freshman Lewis Clinch came off the bench after missing five games with a leg injury to nail a huge 3-pointer from the corner inside the final five minutes. Then there was Zam Fredrick, in his first year as the Jackets’ point guard, sinking his 3-pointer with 33 seconds left.
But back to Morrow, whose 15 points were nearly secondary to this: With Tech leading 58-55 after Fredrick’s bomb, Boston College tried to counter with one of its own from sharpshooter Tyrese Rice. The thing is, every time he sought to launch his 3-pointer from the corner, he kept facing every inch of Morrow’s 6-foot-5 stretching a few centimeters away. “Yeah, yeah,� said Morrow, easing into a chuckle. “I tried to make sure that he couldn’t even see. I wanted to keep my hands high so that he would have a hard time shooting over me.�
Then Morrow stopped chuckling, because he had a bigger point to make. “I know, myself, I can do better, because I did let Rice get a deep 3 at one point. Like Coach said, we’re still not clicking on all cylinders right now. So we can play better defense down the stretch.�
Translated: The streaking Jackets aren’t full of themselves.
Good.
Permalink | Comments (20) | Categories: Tech / ACC, Terence Moore
Quiet Hossa enjoying anonymity
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
A Slovakian hockey star in Atlanta by way of Ottawa doesn’t quite carry the same level of recognition around here as, say, a left tackle from Auburn.
But that level of anonymity has served Marian Hossa well. He ranks eighth in the NHL in scoring but could scream his name in the Five Points MARTA station and people would just look at him like, well, like anybody else screaming their name in the Five Points MARTA station.
“In some ways I like that because I have more privacy in my life,” the Thrashers’ right winger said Friday. “I can walk anywhere and nobody knows me. Basically, I can go shopping and don’t even think about it.”
Think about this: On a night when the Thrashers dumped Pittsburgh, 6-4, Hossa quietly –- truth is, he really doesn’t scream -– contributed another goal and two assists. It gives him 10 points in the last four games, 16 in the last nine and 52 on the season.
While the Thrashers -– 9-2-3 in the last 14 games -– have evolved into a playoff contender, Hossa has at least reaffirmed his identity inside the arena. When he scored two goals in the Dany Heatley Returns Game, Atlanta fans actually chanted his name. Name chanting generally has not been a common occurrence in Thrashers history, unless followed by a biting adjective.
The chant was audible again in the second period Friday night when Hossa drove to the net with the puck on a power play and slipped the puck past Pittsburgh goalie Marc-Andre Fleury to give the Thrashers a 4-0 lead.
“It’s nice to hear that,” Hossa said of the chant. “The fans are getting excited. This feels more like home now.”
Few superstars have ever changed employers in more awkward circumstances. Hossa is one of the top 10 players in the game, but his price tag grew out of Ottawa’s reach, circumstances that intersected with Heatley’s stunning trade request. Strange as it may sound, the atmosphere that led to Heatley being booed in Monday’s 8-3 Thrashers’ win over the Senators probably fed to Hossa’s popularity.
Hossa was taken aback when he heard his name Monday, but coach Bob Hartley said, “It meant a lot to him. Obviously, we’re making a push for the playoffs, but so is the city. The fans are starting to believe in us, and they sent a clear message to Hoss. It was his formal welcome to Atlanta.”
Hossa is that rare combination of speed, size, discipline and intelligence. “With the new rules, nobody can catch him,” said Ilya Kovalchuk, who had a hat trick Friday.
Suffice it to say, he also carries himself a little quieter than Kovalchuk, who after his second goal Friday taunted/pointed at Pittsburgh rookie Sidney Crosby in the penalty box. Hossa won’t even point out himself, much less an opponent.
“A coach’s dream,” Hartley said.
He leads the team’s forwards in ice time. Of his 22 goals, 10 have come on the power play and four short-handed (which already doubles the previous franchise record).
Hard to imagine, but there was a transition period after the trade. Hossa said it was, “hard for me because it was a new team, a new system, and the team was struggling.”
Player and team are doing fine now. Hossa has even managed to work in some sightseeing.
“My girlfriend and I see went to see Coca Cola museum and the new aquarium,” he said. “But Atlanta is not like a European city. It’s not like an old city where you go see an old castle or old buildings.”
When told one reason for that is the city was burned down by Sherman in the Civil War, Hossa said: “Really? I didn’t know that? You learn something new every day. Very nice.”
A few more months and he’ll know the faces on Stone Mountain. And maybe somebody will recognize his face.
Permalink | Comments (12) | Categories: Jeff Schultz, Thrashers / NHL
BCS enjoys ‘grand crescendo’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Furman Bisher
There it was, staring you in the face, two Southern California players smiling at you beatifically from the cover of Sports Illustrated. “The best in college football,” read the pronouncement accompanying the good-buddy portrait of Reggie Bush, Heisman Trophy incumbent, and the Trojan he followed, Matt Leinart.
Do you believe in omens? If you do, here was one dead on the nose. Someone on our staff once did some research into the deadliness of the SI cover jinx awhile back, and it would astound you how often it bedevils favorites. This issue came out with crucial timing, the week before the Rose Bowl game, setting up Southern Cal for the perfect kill. By this time, every minute detail of how Vince Young took the Texas team by the Longhorns and showed them to the end zone has been etched in history. (I’m still wondering what those Trojans were thinking, standing around gawking while he ran in the winning touchdown.)
“Perhaps the greatest college football team in history,” you’ve read, I’m sure. The one-two Heisman Trophy finishers against the Texan who finished third. Texas against a team that scorched Oklahoma in the BCS Championship game a year ago. The odds were too great to ignore — until SI hit the street with the cover that often turns a leadpipe cinch into lead.
It never struck a more direct hit than on the Rose Bowl, presaging the crash of the Trojans and the rise of the Bovines of Texas.
Well, so much for that. What effect does a magazine cover have on a football game? You begin to wonder if it isn’t more than locker room trash. Yet, there was something beyond the mystic here. Vince Young was far above the average quarterback, playing like a man possessed, or at least one furious at coming in third in the Heisman polling stations.
Such a game leads to exaggerated emotions. I don’t know how many games I may have seen that I thought was “the greatest.” Usually, I’ve been there. This one I took by television, suffering from the winter sniffles, poised on the edge of my chair, and I can say this, that if there ever has been a greater one, I never saw it, and I’ve been watching college football games since 1934. (I might say here, that the first one I saw was a scoreless tie.)
It was a grand crescendo for the Bowl Championship Series and its protagonists and a solid blow to the chops of those of a playoff mentality. It was the last act of a series that began Dec. 20 with the New Orleans Bowl (played in Lafayette), and through delicate television scheduling by ESPN, worked its way into the major networks and kept us all up until ungodly hours. Some of the games were plagued by missed field goals and extra points, sloppy officiating and gross misconduct that demands that bowl officials turn their vision off the dollar and onto the kind of sordid impression players are leaving on the public.
(Viz.: Marcus Vick of Virginia Tech troding on a prone Louisville player; and the brawl between the LSU and Miami players after the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl. And there were more, but I didn’t take names.)
It was a delightful way to take the bowls, though I had no choice, coughing, snorting and barking like a seal through it all. My favorite winner was Navy’s upset over Colorado State, being passionately attached to our armed forces. My suggestion to Georgia Tech: Before accepting another invitation west of the Mississippi, especially one named for a bag of nuts, stay home. Cheers to Alabama, which showed what devout defense can do to a Texas Tech team that averaged 42 points a game. What confounded you about Georgia was, how could this team founded on defense open a game spotting West Virginia four touchdowns?
I’ll conclude with this: All of the critics of this congestion of bowl games may as well turn on the tube, sit back and enjoy the feast. After this rousing series and the $194-million payoff from top to bottom, they’re here to stay.
Permalink | Comments (10) | Categories: Furman Bisher, Tech / ACC, UGA / SEC
Jimmy The Greek was right
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
Exactly 18 years ago to the month, the late Jimmy “The Greek” Snyder had the audacity to utter in public what many thought in private. And, no, I’m not talking about his theory that blacks evolved into great athletes because they were “bred to be that way” from slavery. I’m talking about the more striking thing that the former CBS sports commentator said back then that mostly was buried.
To quote what Snyder told a Washington, D.C., television station on why he thought teams weren’t hiring blacks as coaches: “There’s not going to be anything left for the white people. I mean, all the players are black. The only thing that the whites control is the coaching jobs.”
Uh-oh. The top two finishers for NFL Coach of the Year weren’t the shade of Bill Belichick. While Lovie Smith and Tony Dungy ranked No. 1 and No. 2 in the balloting released Saturday, Marvin Lewis was among only four other coaches to receive votes. That means half of the black head coaches in the league are among the elite. That also means that Jimmy The Greek revealed one of society’s dirty little secrets: It isn’t that a slew of those among the majority believe that a slew of those among the minority can’t do a particular job. It’s more that a slew of those among the majority is afraid that a slew of those among the minority can do a particular job.
“I won’t speak for everybody, but I’m not sure that [Snyder] overspoke this particular situation,” said Ron Wolf, 66, the legendary executive who built the Green Bay powerhouse of Brett Favre and was Al Davis’ top aide during the glory decades of the Oakland Raiders. “I know that people always are afraid about their own territory. It doesn’t matter where you are or what line of business you’re in. I’m reading a heckuva book right now about Baltimore police called ‘Homicide,’ and it talks about territory there. People are always afraid of losing their territory.”
See the NFL, where there were eight openings and counting for head coaching jobs after the regular season ended last weekend. Despite the overwhelming success of Dungy, Smith and Lewis, along with Romeo Crennel spending his first year in Cleveland taking the dreadful Browns to two more victories than they had the season before, few, if any, of those job openings will go to blacks.
We’re back to Jimmy The Greek, fear and the epitome of it all: Art Shell.
Nothing is more mystifying in the history of sports than why this classy guy from South Carolina never got a second chance as an NFL head coach. Shell is the Hall of Fame offensive tackle who spent six years running the same Raiders that he helped make famous during the 1970s. As the NFL’s first black head coach in modern times, his teams went 56-41 along the way to three playoff appearances that included a trip to the AFC championship game. He had only one losing season, but he was fired without explanation by Davis after finishing a respectable 9-7 in 1994.
Since then, those of lesser stature than Shell have come and gone and come again as NFL head coaches. Dom Capers. Dave Wannstedt. Dennis Erickson. Bruce Coslet. Rich Kotite. Joe Bugel. Norv Turner. In contrast, all Shell could do after his ouster from the Raiders was work as an assistant coach for the Kansas City Chiefs and the Falcons before taking an executive job in the league offices. Davis even admits that the worst decision of his football life was firing Shell.
Even so, George Halas has more of a chance to become an NFL head coach again than Shell, and Halas has been dead for 23 years. “Earlier on, I know that Art had a lot of interviews, even before that rule was in effect,” said Wolf, referring to the Rooney Rule, which began to require in 2002 that NFL teams interview at least one minority candidate. “As we all know, none of it came to fruition for Art.”
Wolf paused over the phone from his winter home in Jupiter, Fla., before adding with a sigh, “Wow, I don’t know why Art can’t get hired, but I do know that the whole framework changed in 1996 when [expansion teams] Jacksonville and Carolina went to the playoff game for the right to go to the Super Bowl. From that point on, five-year plans were done.
“Now it’s about two-year plans, and if you don’t win, you’re done, and somebody else is coming in. It’s who can help you get there the quickest, and I don’t think ethnicity has anything to do with it.”
The ghost of Jimmy The Greek would say otherwise. So would this: If we don’t see an epidemic of NFL teams hiring black head coaches this winter — despite all of those openings, despite Dungy, Smith, Lewis and Crennel, despite everything.
Permalink | Comments (76) | Categories: Falcons / NFL, Terence Moore
Rose Bowl will stand test of time
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
Los Angeles — You’ll see one like this in the regular season occasionally — remember Georgia Tech scoring three touchdowns in the last five minutes at Clemson on Sept. 11, 2004? — but you hadn’t seen it in a national championship game. You hadn’t seen a team trailing by 12 points with 4:04 remaining rise up and unhorse the reigning champs, who hadn’t lost in more than two calendar years. That alone puts the 2006 Rose Bowl in the discussion when the topic is “greatest college football game ever played.”
But it wasn’t just the epic Texas comeback that elevated this one. The whole game had, as become the custom with Southern Cal — a team of stars based in a city where stars adorn the sidewalks of Hollywood Boulevard — a cinematic feel. One great play gave rise to another. Reggie Bush would turn a somersault and Vince Young would trample somebody and Dwayne Jarrett would twist into a pretzel. Watching, you got the feeling that you’d never seen a game with so many transcendent players. There may never have been such a game.
Great games go back and forth, which is what makes them great. Think of Nebraska-Oklahoma on Thanksgiving 1971, when the giants traded scores until finally the Cornhuskers won. Think of Notre Dame beating Alabama on New Year’s Eve 1973, of these Trojans beating the Fighting Irish back in October. This one had the ol’ ebb and flow, sure, but it had something even more tantalizing — the false resolution.
When Jarrett scored his twisting touchdown with 6:42 to play, Southern Cal had won. The Trojans had been tested in a way they’d only been tested that day at Notre Dame, and they’d been stout enough and resourceful enough to win a third national title and a 35th game in succession. That was the clear feeling in the press box, and surely the feeling everywhere except along the Texas sideline.
“It was surreal,” Mack Brown said, “sitting there in the fourth quarter down 12 points and you still think you’re going to win.”
His team surely beaten, here came Young yet again. He’d been the best player on the field all game, and now he was about to render himself immortal. As spectacular as Michael Vick was in the 2000 Sugar Bowl against Florida State, Vick’s team lost by 17 points. Young made his team win when winning seemed unthinkable.
Young was so irresistible that he forced Pete Carroll to go for it on fourth-and-2 at the 45 when prudence dictated a punt. (LenDale White was halted a yard short.) The moment the measurement was made and the Longhorns leaped in exultation, the reign of Troy began to tremble. Vince Young had the ball and the chance to win the game. Darned if he didn’t win it.
Old-timers will talk about Red Grange against Michigan in 1924 (five touchdowns scored, plus another thrown), and those of us who knew O.J. Simpson before he became a pariah will recall his game against UCLA in 1967, and anyone with a TV has seen the clips of Doug Flutie against Miami the day after Thanksgiving in 1984. But Young’s seamless brilliance — 200 yards rushing, 267 yards passing — on such an exalted stage could well be the greatest performance ever.
Yes, it’s tricky placing a game or a player in historical context so soon after the fact, raw emotion being a deterrent to logical thinking. But it’s unlikely the passage of time will diminish this Rose Bowl in any way. Time should only enhance a game that contained the requisite thrills and spills and controversy — Young’s knee was down before he pitched the ball to Selvin Young for the first Texas touchdown — and provided the all-time plot twist at the end.
This correspondent didn’t witness the famous Notre Dame ties (against Army in Yankee Stadium in 1946, against Michigan State in 1966) that are considered among the greatest college games. Going on what I’ve seen, I’ve always regarded Nebraska-Oklahoma of 1971 as the best game ever played, better than Miami over Nebraska in the 1984 Orange Bowl, better than Ohio State over Miami in the 2003 Fiesta Bowl, better than Texas over Arkansas in 1969, better than the Flutie game. It is with only the slightest trepidation that I make this announcement:
I now have a new order.
The 2006 Rose Bowl stands at the top.
Permalink | Comments (175) | Categories: Mark Bradley
The greatest college football game I’ve seen
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
At a New Year’s Eve party, a perceptive neighbor — and I should say here that all residents of Vinings Estates are perceptive and discerning — asked me if I could actually enjoy a game as I’m writing about it. The answer, I said, is yes.
Even though I might be tearing my hair out over a late reversal that makes me have to rewrite like crazy on the worst possible deadline… even then, there’s a part of me that can distance myself from the physical process of writing and marvel at what I’m seeing.
Case in point: The Rose Bowl. Even as I was writing — and rewriting — like crazy, I kept saying to myself, “This is a great game.” I kept watching Vince Young and Reggie Bush and Matt Leinart and LenDale White do terrific things, and I felt privileged to have been there. I know that sounds corny, but it’s one of the reasons I got into this business: I wanted to be there when great things happened.
And this was the greatest college football game I’ve ever seen. (For the longest time, the Alabama-Auburn game of 1985 was.) I’ve now seen a football championship decided with 19 seconds to go. I’ve seen a Super Bowl won at the final gun and a World Series decided on the last swing of a Game 7. I’ve seen an NCAA title snatched on an air ball that became a famous dunk. I’ve seen some things, but I like to think I’m not so old and jaded that I can’t get just as excited about Vince Young as I did about Lorenzo Charles 22 years ago.
I’m writing this on the shuttle bus back from the Rose Bowl. It’s 11:37 p.m. PST, and I’m tired and a little sick - I’ve got a cold and my voice is shot — but I’m still a happy correspondent. I saw something tonight that I’ll remember forever. Nights like this are why I keep doing this job.
Permalink | Comments (29) | Categories: Mark Bradley, Quick Hit
‘Horns finally expose USC defense
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
Pasadena, Calif. — For the want of a yard, a third national championship was lost. But Southern Cal’s failure went deeper than that. It went to the very core of football. The Trojans cheated fate all season, relying on their sterling offense to override a bad defense, and with 2:13 to play and a title on the line, Pete Carroll told the world he didn’t believe his defense could stop Vince Young one last time.
So Carroll had his Trojans go for it on fourth-and-2 at their 45. And LenDale White gained only half the required yardage. And Texas got the ball. And Carroll, who made the wrong choice, was proved right in his rationale. His guys couldn’t stop Vince Young.
The Trojans were regarded by many voices in the chattering class — most notably the strident ones on ESPN — as the greatest team of all time. They weren’t. They weren’t nearly as good as they were last season. They masked fundamental flaws with individual brilliance, and within sight of another title they were finally exposed.
“We had to keep scoring,” Carroll said. “We had to outscore them… . If we make a fourth down, we win.”
But they didn’t, and they lost. They lost to a hungrier team, a more balanced team. They lost after holding a 12-point lead with 4:04 remaining in the national championship game. They lost to a quarterback who managed to outdo Matt Leinart and Reggie Bush — both of them Heisman winners — by his magnificent self.
Vince Young rushed for 200 yards and threw for 267 more. He scored three touchdowns. He was the best player on a field overrun with great players. The phrase “refuse to lose” has become a cliché, but how else to describe what Young did in these last seven minutes? He brought Texas close with a breathtaking touchdown scramble, and he won it with another scramble, this on fourth-and-5 at the 8, this one so deft that he scored the climactic touchdown untouched by Trojan hands.
Texas didn’t play a perfect game. It fumbled the first time it touched the ball. It missed an extra point and a 31-yard field goal. It watched Leinart and Bush and White and Dwayne Jarrett author moments of sheer magic, but the Longhorns played through every dark moment. They kept playing even when playing seemed futile — what team chases down Southern Cal at the end? — and at the end they hoisted a championship trophy that was believed to be beyond their grasp.
For a Rose Bowl matching the Nos. 1 and 2 teams, this one had a lopsided buildup. Part of it was the memory of last season’s Orange Bowl, which had been hyped to heavens but wound up a 55-19 Trojan walkover, and part of it was the assumption that Southern Cal was simply impregnable. The Longhorns said nothing to rile the champs, but privately they had to be seething at the lack of a chance they were given.
Instead they made their own chances. They recovered a fumble after Bush’s silly lateral and stole a Leinart pass on the goal line — Michael Griffin made a terrific break on the ball — and scored seven times on their last 10 possessions. They were indomitable in a way that Southern Cal was supposed to be but, on what was to have been the night of its ultimate coronation, never quite was.
In the end it came down to a mismatch, but not the one that was supposed to wind up with Southern Cal two or three touchdowns ahead.
This mismatch was Vince Young against a defense so shabby that even Carroll, its architect, had no faith in it. Carroll let everything ride with his star-spangled offense, and on this night the stars fell 1 yard short. And a football truism was upheld yet again: You might win a lot of games with a bad defense, but you can’t win a championship.
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Leinart makes USC tick
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
Pasadena, Calif. — Southern Cal entered the Rose Bowl having lost one game in three seasons, that on Sept. 27, 2003, against California in overtime. The next week the Trojans were in trouble again. USC was trailing Arizona State at the half, and Matt Leinart, then in his first season as starting quarterback, was hurting.
Here Pete Carroll, Southern Cal’s coach, takes up the tale: “The way it was set up in that locker room, Matt was sitting on a training table out in the hallway… . We’re trying to get jacked up for the second half and trying to get going, not knowing what his status was, and every guy on the team had to walk by Matt in the little tunnel there, and he was looking bad. His head was hanging. He had ice on his knee and ice on his ankle. He looked horrible.
“I’m always the last guy out of the locker room, so I got a chance to walk by him. I called him every name in the book. I challenged him, ‘You no-good so-and-so, you let these guys down” — everything I could think of. As I walked away, I kind of chuckled, ‘I took a shot at him there.’ I figured it was my last shot because we needed him to play so I tried to challenge him.
“I felt kind of bad that I would challenge a little kid like that at a time like that. As we got back on the field and we were warming up [third-stringer] Brandon Hanson and I was standing with [quarterbacks coach] Steve Sarkisian and we had already played [backup Matt] Castle in the first half and he had struggled through it. I looked over Sark’s shoulder, and coming out of the tunnel after everybody was out on the field warming up, here comes Matt. He’s hobbling and looking like he had been torn up, and I said, ‘Look at that, Sark. What are we going to do?’
“He looked at me and he looked at Matt, and he said, ‘Shoot, let’s go with him.’
“It was throwing care to the wind. He didn’t look like he could even play. He came out and lit it up and he put up about 250 [passing yards] and we ran the ball like crazy and he brought us back. It was one of those defining moments — that he was for real and he was a great competitor and he was going to overcome the odds. It was a historic moment and the players realized it and the coaches knew it, and we haven’t lost since.”
Matt Leinart didn’t win the 2005 Heisman Trophy — teammate Reggie Bush did — but there’s no question that the quarterback, who did win the 2004 Heisman, is the key figure in the greatest run contemporary college football has seen. It was Leinart who changed the fourth-down play at the line and found Dwayne Jarrett down the left sideline at Notre Dame, the biggest single play of the 34 consecutive victories. It was Leinart (with an illegal but unflagged push from Bush) who scored the winning touchdown that day.
Southern Cal has vast quantities of talent, but it took Leinart to pull all the tangents together. Reggie Bush is the greatest collegiate back since Herschel Walker and LenDale White is the greatest second-best back since Doc Blanchard, but nothing in neo-football works without a big-time quarterback to make the requisite throws. Matt Leinart is the best collegiate quarterback since … who? Charlie Ward? Jim Plunkett? Roger Staubach?
Being a handsome and famous young man based in L.A., Leinart has been seen making the celebrity circuit — acquaintances include Jessica Simpson and her estranged husband Nick Lachey — but there’s substance galore behind the sleek exterior. Had a battered Leinart not answered Carroll’s impassioned call that day in 2003, Southern Cal would still have become a superb team. But it wouldn’t have become what it did.
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Shockley’s greatest victory at UGA
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
The best thing about D.J. Shockley’s stay at the University of Georgia had nothing to do with what he did with his legs and his arm as a quarterback.
It had everything to do with what he did with his mind and his drive as a student.
Just ask his parents.
“He’s proven during his one year as a starter at Georgia that he can throw the football, and he’s proven that he’s an intelligent quarterback, but I’ll tell you our proudest moment,� said Don Shockley, the father, smiling as he nodded toward Tanya Shockley, the mother, from his seat on Monday night at the Georgia Dome during the Sugar Bowl.
Tanya Shockley interrupted her husband to say, “December 17th.�
That’s the day D.J. graduated from UGA with a degree in speech communications. Not only that, D.J. sees graduate school in his future. So all of that football stuff is secondary to the guy who just led the SEC in passing efficiency.
For instance: In order for D.J. to impress NFL scouts after sitting behind David Greene for all of those years before getting a chance to start, he has to do well at the NFL combine and during his Senior Bowl workouts.
Don Shockley shrugged, before adding with another smile, “He’s put himself in a position right now, whereas regardless of what happens in the pros, he can go out in this world and take care of himself. He’s already got several job interviews.�
Jan Kemp would be proud. Not because of what UGA did for Shockley, but because of what Shockley did for himself.
Permalink | Comments (41) | Categories: Quick Hit, Terence Moore
Coach February’s long-awaited January night at hand
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
Los Angeles — Were this Rose Bowl a personality contest between head coaches, Southern Cal would win by four touchdowns. Pete Carroll is a great guy who sounds nothing like the typical football coach. Only Carroll would describe his first Big Game — he was 12, playing Pop Warner ball in Marin County — in these terms: “I was a single-wing tailback, backing up the mercurial Kenny Johnson.â€?
Mack Brown, by way of conspicuous contrast, talks and thinks like a buttoned-down football coach. (Indeed, he wore a crisp white shirt with his burnt orange tie for Tuesday’s media session. Carroll wore a sweatshirt and a leather topcoat.) Asked for a memory of his first Big Game, Brown cited the 1990 Wake Forest game — he was coaching North Carolina — for the rather personal reason that he believed he’d be fired if he lost. “And it was the fourth game of the year,â€? Brown said. “I didn’t think they did that in college at that time.â€?
Trailing 24-10 at halftime, the Tar Heels won 31-24 “on a wheel route to Bucky Brooks,� Brown said. “Not that I remember.�
Mack Brown is a detail man. (Carroll is a free-association kind of guy.) Brown remembers where he was when Carroll’s Trojans kicked off against Oklahoma in the 2005 Orange Bowl. “On a home [recruiting] visit,� he said, and here you smacked your forehead and said, “Of course! Where else would Coach February be?�
That’s the unfortunate (and unfair) nickname that has attached itself to Brown: He beats everybody on signing day but somehow never wins the Big Game. Forget that he and his Texas Longhorns are 55-8 over the past five seasons, which would indicate that he’s pretty good at winning games of some sort. Brown is simply another of those coaches/managers who get labeled a failure because they haven’t known the ultimate success. By that standard, Mark Richt is a similar failure.
There’s a difference, though. Where Richt is beloved by his fan base for lifting Georgia to the top of the SEC again, Brown has been less warmly received by some Texans. “Our media’s different,â€? he said. “Our state’s different.â€? He conceded Tuesday that the climb to the national championship game has taken longer than he’d have liked — this is Brown’s eighth season in Austin — but here the ’Horns are, in the Big Game at last. And Brown, who’s usually the essence of smooth, seems to have sprouted an edge.
“It’s a very difficult thing when people want to win so badly and people don’t think you have a very good chance,� Brown said, describing a pairing of No. 1 against No. 2 that has come to be seen as Chapter 2 of Southern Cal’s 55-19 Orange Bowl whipping of Oklahoma. But the Longhorns, no pun intended, aren’t chopped liver. They’ve won 19 consecutive games themselves and, for all the hosannas lavished on the Trojans’ gold-plated offense, have actually scored 11 more points. And Texas has the stronger defense. And the better special teams.
In sum, Brown is in the position every coach relishes — he has a splendid team that’s being given almost no shot. “I really appreciate you all,â€? he said, addressing the media and laying on the sarcasm. “You’ve been great. I won’t even need a pregame talk.â€?
And then, reverting to his polite self, Brown ladled out the compliments. “It’s not very often Southern Cal or Texas is the underdog, and I think we are the underdog. And rightfully so. I have no problem with people saying Southern Cal is a great team.�
But Texas can play some, too, and Brown, contrary to popular belief, can coach a little. If USC is to have its coronation tonight, it will earn it vs. the best team it has played during this three-year run.
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Reaction to Heatley understandable
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
No Tuesday Countdown this week.
Just a Tuesday opinion.
Some of Dany Heatley’s former teammates on the Thrashers were upset because he was booed in his return to Atlanta Monday. Well, guys: Get a helmet.
This is not meant to be an attack on Heatley. Hardly. The kid was involved in a horrible car accident that took the life of a friend and teammate, Dan Snyder. It was an accident, plain and simple, and it’s easy to understand why he believed a change of scenery would help him move on with his life and career.
But how could anybody not understand the other side?
Atlanta hockey fans — and non-hockey-fans — stood behind Heatley during his recovery and through his comeback and the legal process. When Heatley asked to be traded - and not until after the lockout — it’s natural that many supporters felt jilted.
I’ve known Heatley since the Thrashers drafted him. I watched him play and spoke to him several times when he was in college before he signed with Atlanta. I covered him his first three seasons with the Thrashers. Trust me when I tell you that he’s a good kid.
My problems with Heatley have less to do with him asking to be traded than how he handled matters during and after the legal process:
*He flew into town for court appearances and quickly left, rather than spend time in a community that stood behind him.
*He signed to play in Europe during the lockout rather than begin doing his court-ordered community service.
*When he finally started his community service, he did NONE OF IT in Atlanta. The predominant number of hours have been done in his hometown of Calgary. Wouldn’t it seem that this was the best place Heatley could send a message to kids about the dangers of driving too fast?
Heatley will deal with difficult issues for the rest of his life. But it’s better to face those issues than run away from them.
Cheer Heatley.
Boo Heatley.
Either emotion is understandable.
Permalink | Comments (40) | Categories: Jeff Schultz, Quick Hit
Dogs too relaxed at Dome
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
Maybe this whole Atlanta thing was starting to get old.
I mean, you drive into town, dump Georgia Tech and drive home. You drive into town, wax LSU and drive home.
You drive back into town, visit the aquarium, go back to the hotel, loaf around town, drive back to the game — hey, a team’s entitled to get carsick, isn’t it?
Well. No.
Three years ago, coach Mark Richt elevated the Georgia program to its greatest heights in two decades, winning the SEC title and then the Nokia Sugar Bowl. It’s difficult to determine what was more surprising this season: That the Bulldogs, despite significant player losses, were conference champions again this season — or what happened on their return trip to the Sugar Bowl.
Seemingly set up for a crushing — with a transplanted bowl game in their backyard and an opponent considered the undermanned remains of the Big East — Georgia found an Atlanta ditch to drive into. The Dogs fell behind 28-0, pulled back onto the road to make a game of it, but fishtailed to the finish and lost 38-35.
Thank you, and drive home safely.
“We made them sweat a little bit, anyway,� Richt said.
Thank goodness for small victories.
West Virginia, outnumbered in the stands and thought to be outmanned on the field, rushed for 382 yards. Or was that furlongs? Steve Slaton accounted for 204 of that and scored three times, twice from 52 yards out. Again, twice from 52 yards out.
“If I wasn’t coaching against them,� Richt said, “I would’ve enjoyed watching them.�
In truth, Georgia watched for a little too long. It was 28-0 after 16 minutes. The Mountaineers had four touchdowns on four possessions. The Bulldogs had a balanced attack: two punts, two fumbles.
Somehow, the Dogs rallied. They closed to 31-21 by the half, but seemed dead with 8:32 left when Slaton broke open another 52-yarder to restore the 10-point lead. But D.J. Shockley, playing in the game he waited five years for, answered with a 43-yard touchdown pass with 5:13 left.
But that was it for comebacks on this night. A successful fake punt enabled the Mountaineers to kill the clock.
The some-15,000 West Virginia fans in the 75,000-seat dome went nutso. “I think the players took to heart some of the criticism of the league,� West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez said.
So much for Georgia’s home-turf advantage. With this game moved from New Orleans because of the damage caused by Hurricane Katrina, organizers tried to give the game a Crescent City feel. They had a Sugar Bowl parade. They painted Sugar Bowl on the field. They even played “Saints� at halftime. Sell it, baby.
In reality, the Georgia Dome was just a few hedge bushes this side of Athens. The crowd had at least an 80-20 split in favor of the Bulldogs. Richt even had the players do a “Dawg Walk� from one of the parking lots.
As it turned out, that hometown feel didn’t help a lot at the outset. Georgia punts. West Virginia goes 53 yards in three plays for a touchdown. Georgia punts. West Virginia goes 64 yards in six plays for a touchdown. Georgia fumbles. West Virginia goes 26 yards in five plays for another touchdown. Georgia fumbles. West Virginia drive 50 yards to make it 28-0, the largest deficit ever for a Richt team. School president Michael Adams maintained control. He fired the entire athletics department. (Kidding.)
The question wasn’t so much whether normalcy would interrupt this game, but — at 28-0 — whether normalcy even would make a difference. But the Dogs gave it a shot, and Shockley made it possible. (Then again, down by four touchdowns, the Brannan Southerland off-tackle run figured to be ripped out of the playbook.) After starting the game 0-for-4, he closed the half completing 11 of 14. Kregg Lumpkin (34 yards) and Thomas Brown (52) each had long touchdown runs. Georgia had three straight touchdown drives of 80, 90 and 80 yards. If nothing else, West Virginia fans had to put down their beers for a minute.
But in the end, the ditch was too deep.
Permalink | Comments (288) | Categories: Jeff Schultz, UGA / SEC
One season not enough
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
He had one, two, three chances to transfer, but he didn’t.
And he should have.
Maryland wanted him. So did N.C. State and North Carolina. Such news was revealed for the first time Monday night at the Georgia Dome from the upper deck. There, according to Don Shockley, the high school football coach at North Clayton and the father of Georgia quarterback D.J. Shockley, his son had all of those chances during the past three seasons to leave his stifling role as a backup to David Greene and start along the way to instant fame for any of those teams.
And he should have. Instead, D.J. waited for his opportunity with the Bulldogs, and then he waited some more. That he just finished punctuating his one and only shot at getting it right with a slew of splendid moments is irrelevant. For instance: Leading the SEC in passing efficiency. Taking Georgia to a conference title. Doing enough in the Nokia Sugar Bowl on Monday night against a surprisingly potent West Virginia team to make pro scouts wonder if he should be closer to a third-round pick than something much worse in the NFL draft.
Once, when Shockley was on the verge of getting splattered against the artificial turf for a loss and a headache, he dipped around defenders and leaped to complete a pass of 32 yards. Later, with Georgia trying to complete its sprint from a large deficit to the edge of an improbable victory, he weaved down field for 21 yards on one play before throwing a 34-yard touchdown pass on the next. He kept drives moving with his legs as well as his arm. He was the same guy who finished as a semifinalist behind only the great Vince Young for the Maxwell Award, given to the best college player.
He should have left Georgia, all right, but he stayed. He foolishly stayed, and Tanya Shockley shrugged from her seat in the upper deck when asked whether she agreed with my humble opinion. “I never voiced to him what I thought he should do one way or the other, because I wanted it to be D.J.’s decision,” said Tanya, smiling, wearing a replica of her son’s No. 3 jersey. “He was the one who would have to live wherever he was going. He had to like his coaches. He had to like his teammates. If he didn’t, all of those things could have been detrimental to his play on the field.”
So Shockley stayed, because he liked his coaches and his teammates. Mostly, he liked the Bulldogs. His father did, too. Said Don, sitting next to Tanya, “I always thought Georgia was the right place for him, and I thought it would be in his best interest, because I knew he could to well at this level. It’s just that he came at the wrong time.” The father’s reference was to his son spending most of his Georgia career watching Greene become the winningest quarterback in NCAA history.
Which brings me back to my point: He should have left. Since Shockley didn’t, he was around for this one inside what was Sanford Stadium West. Well, minus a large and loud contingent of West Virginia loyalists. Remember: The Sugar Bowl is usually a New Orleans thing, but Hurricane Katrina blew it north for a year. As a result, here was an opportunity for many in the Bulldog Nation to hug Shockley during his last collegiate game.
The thing is, Shockley had to do something to deserve it. West Virginia kept embarrassing anything else in red during the opening 16 minutes by zipping to a 28-0 lead. For his part, Shockley threw four times during that stretch for zero completions. He also lost a fumble. Not that he was getting much help.
On the game’s first play, Shockley delivered a perfect spiral of 45 yards to Kenneth Harris.
It was dropped.
Another one of Shockley’s passes was batted down. Plus, the fumble resulted from shaky pass protection allowing defenders to crash into his arm as it nearly was going forward for an incomplete pass. In other words, Shockley wasn’t that far away from doing what he eventually did. He became Shockley The Magnificent again. Just like that, he led Georgia on enough touchdown drives to pull to within 31-28 near the end of third quarter.
Then again, Shockley could have produced the same feats at Maryland, N.C. State or North Carolina.
Like last year, or the year before that, or the year before that.
Permalink | Comments (203) | Categories: Terence Moore, UGA / SEC
Longhorns looking like Trojan horse
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
Carson, Calif. — They say they don’t get distracted. They say they focus on the essential, not the peripheral. But when the periphery includes the glitz of Hollywood and the allure of a place in college football history, is it possible to concentrate on Texas and Texas only?
Southern California — publicists for the snooty school ask that it not be called the more plebeian “Southern Cal” — will play for a third consecutive AP national championship Wednesday in a stadium just up the freeway.
On Monday, before a media convocation in a rain-slapped and windblown tent at the Home Depot Center south of Los Angeles, the Trojans said the right things but said them without any lilt in their voices. If anything, they seemed a bit weary.
Matt Leinart, the quarterback, mentioned “the hoopla and the hype,” and those ephemeral commodities have become as much a part of the Trojan scene as the backfield of Bush and White. USA Today ran a cover story last week on the famous hangers-on jostling for sideline passes along the USC bench. Who knew that Henry Winkler, the erstwhile Fonz, cared so much about college football?
Then, courtesy of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, came word that a Greek restaurant in San Pedro may have become a recruiting venue for the Trojans, seeing as how the owner, John Papadakis, reportedly entertains prospects with a pro-USC spiel. Southern Cal — sorry, flacks — is looking into the matter.
And then there’s the matter of history. Learned folks are falling all over themselves to declare USC the greatest dynasty of all time, and historians realize that dynasties are never so susceptible as when they’re declared impregnable. The Sports Illustrated jinx was born in 1957 when the magazine ran a cover bearing the words, “Why Oklahoma Is Unbeatable.” The Sooners, who had won 47 consecutive games, were felled by Notre Dame the next week.
Southern Cal has won 34 in a row, the sixth-longest streak in Division I-A annals. A 35th victory has been seen as a fait accompli, the thinking being that Texas is a nice team but not nearly a match for the men of Troy. But the men of Troy aren’t quite as strong as they were a year ago, and this defense wouldn’t seem to be championship-caliber. The Trojans could lose this game, and what would the Fonz say if they do?
“We’re able to have fun with [the L.A. scene and the celebrities and suchlike],” said Leinart, who appeared to be having no fun at all. Just the day before, he’d told another media gathering how frazzled he’d felt at midseason. And the pressure Wednesday night won’t be on Texas. It will be on the matinee idols playing for a place in history.
“It’s flattering to know we can be considered [as perhaps the best team ever],” defensive end Lawrence Jackson said. “But we can’t get caught up in it.”
But how can they not? It’s in every newspaper, on every station and every Web site. The hometown Trojans are the only story in this Rose Bowl, the Trojans and their splendor, the Trojans and their invincibility. (Remember, L.A. has no pro football team to deflect attention, and all NFL discussion here concerns the probable destination of the splendid Reggie Bush.) This is supposed to be their choreographed coronation, but already the plan has sprung a literal leak.
“It’s an advantage to us, the game being here,” safety Darnell Bing said. “We’re used to this weather.”
As he spoke, the rain was cascading and the winds were whistling and the structural security of the interview tent seemed at considerable risk. Rethinking, Bing smiled and said, “Well, not this weather.”
Permalink | Comments (16) | Categories: Mark Bradley, Tech / ACC, UGA / SEC
Which is the aberration — this season or last?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
After most of his players exited the field, throwing sweat bands — and unused vital organs — to fans as souvenirs, Jim Mora reached into his pocket, pulled out a red replay challenge flag and tossed it into the stands.
Nice try. But all of the reviews in the replay universe aren’t going to overturn what we just witnessed.
When a team starts 6-2 and opens with a win over the one opponent that figured to stand in its way for a Super Bowl berth, you come to expect things.
When a team closes 2-6 and loses five straight games to playoff contenders, you start to realize things.
Maybe this season isn’t an aberration.
Maybe last season was the aberration.
The Falcons have problems. They don’t just have problems that were evidenced Sunday, when they broke a sweat running through the tunnel before the Carolina game, then pretty much put the jalopy in park and got steamrolled by the Panthers, 44-11. They have problems which have been apparent for some time and lately just became too mutant-like to ignore.
Mora, the alternately peppy or volcanic Falcons coach, said after Sunday’s game that he was “upbeat.� He repeated the word three times, believed to be a record for a team that trailed 44-3 at the two-minute warning.
“We’ve created a culture that will prove to be a winning culture for many, many years,� Mora said. “If you’re looking at the big picture, it’s exciting.�
Let’s go this far: The Falcons have an owner, a general manager and a coach who appear dedicated and capable. But what just unfolded doesn’t foreshadow excitement. What just unfolded was the mother of all reality checks.
Follow up an NFC title run by barely missing the playoffs, then it’s easy to rationalize things: You tweak, you add a safety, you devise a blocking scheme that doesn’t get the quarterback smacked by a Winnebago every other series. But follow up last season with this kind of plummet, then it becomes clear the problems aren’t few.
Until a Matt Schaub-to-Roddy White touchdown pass with 1:18 left, this game was on track to be the Falcons’ worse home loss since 1967. DeShaun Foster had a 70-yard touchdown run on 3rd-and-1. Steve Smith, one of the game’s best receivers, was left uncovered on another score. Carolina scored on its first six possessions. When it finally punted, the Falcons fumbled.
Is this really when Mora should be reminding everybody, even half-joking, of the modest accomplishment of going .500 after a winning season?
“I’m a glass half-full guy,� he said.
Is that a glass — or a thimble?
Drink this up: The Michael Vick-led offense failed to produce a touchdown in three of the team’s last four losses. Mora and offensive coordinator Greg Knapp have managed to take the most exciting athlete in pro sports and turn him into an unexciting, unproductive commodity.
Fact: Vick was more productive under Dan Reeves. In his last healthy season under Reeves (2002), he threw 16 touchdown passes with only eight interceptions, and ran for another eight scores. In each of the last two seasons, Vick has thrown fewer scores (14 and 15), more interceptions (12 and 13) and run for less touchdowns (3 and 6).
“It’s not just me — it’s not just Michael Vick,â€? the quarterback said. “I’ve got other players around me, other people. I’ve got coaches who are trying to put people in a better position to succeed. If it was just me, put me out there one against 11 and see what happens.â€?
He’s right about that. The Falcons have an offseason to figure out what kind of offense they actually want to run, because whatever they’re doing now isn’t working. They have an offseason to bury some of these bodies on the defense, because nobody this side of the CFL should be subjected to this secondary again.
Mora referenced the franchise’s “40-year problem� of failing to post consecutive winning seasons. But the problems don’t begin or end there. The last time we witnessed this kind of performance, owner Arthur Blank took out an ad apologizing to fans.
There’s your replay. After further review, who imagined this season would be set up for more apologies.
Permalink | Comments (181) | Categories: Falcons / NFL, Jeff Schultz
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