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Thursday, April 20, 2006
Falcons can’t ignore Bulldogs
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
There are so many things the human brain can’t comprehend. I mean, why is there still war? How many angels can dance on the head of a pin? What’s up with the yearly habit of the Falcons ignoring all of that football talent just 69 miles to the east of the Georgia Dome?
This is crazy. Lunacy. Absolutely ridiculous. Since 1966, when the Falcons took their first breath along the way to dying more than a few times, here are some of the Georgia Bulldogs who have barked their way to fame through Pro Bowls, Super Bowls and prominent NFL awards.
Jake Scott. Ray Donaldson. Kevin Butler. Champ Bailey. Terrell Davis. Bill Stanfill. Garrison Hearst. John Kasay. Mo Lewis. Bobby Walden. Clarence Kay. Richard Seymour. Rodney Hampton. Winford Hood. Guy McIntyre. Marcus Stroud. Len Hauss. Herschel Walker. Jermaine Wiggins. Patrick Pass. Kendrell Bell. Oh, and did I mention Hines Ward? All he did was become the most valuable player of this year’s Super Bowl after leading the Pittsburgh Steelers to a world championship.
None played for the Falcons, by the way, and it gets worse: The Falcons have drafted just five (that’s right, five) Georgia players ever, and they all were obscure — unless you’re among those with an Allan Leavitt throwback jersey.
Even worse, the last time the Falcons drafted a Georgia player was 1994, when they picked somebody named Mitch Davis in the fourth round. Even worse, since that Mitch Davis pick, 54 Bulldogs have been selected in the draft by teams not named the Falcons.
Terrell Davis evolved into an NFL MVP after he was a sixth-round pick by the Denver Broncos. McIntyre was a third-round pick by the San Francisco 49ers along the way to three Super Bowl rings. Ward wasn’t snatched by the Steelers until the third round, and he became the poster child for why the Falcons just don’t get it regarding Georgia players.
During the 1998 draft, the Falcons had a chance to pick Ward, who already was a Bulldog legend as a versatile wide receiver, running back and quarterback with a charismatic smile. He also was from nearby Forest Park. Instead, the Falcons took Miami’s Jammi German. While German hasn’t played for the Falcons in six years, he hasn’t played for anybody in five.
What makes this even more perplexing is that Falcons founder and owner Rankin Smith Sr. was such an ardent Georgia supporter that he had a building named in his honor on campus.
Vince Dooley chuckled over the phone from his office in Athens, before the Georgia icon said, “Sometimes these things just happen, and I’ve never been privy to (the Falcons’) draft. It’s the coaches, I guess, or whoever is in charge of that. But it’s interesting, and it’s worth a good study. There is no question that if you would have had a Herschel Walker playing for the Falcons, a lot of Georgia people would have certainly been there on Sunday who normally wouldn’t have come.”
Yep. Plus, Walker, along with those other Georgia players the Falcons ignored, would have kept this franchise from gasping so much. Added Dooley, “Of course, (the Falcons) also had Larry Munson (the eternal voice of the Bulldogs) as their announcer for a while.”
Enough of the past. The Falcons can alter their Georgia shortsightedness right now. It’s one thing to do what they did last week and bring D.J. Shockley to Flowery Branch for a workout. It’s another to put the Georgia quarterback star and prep standout at North Clayton on their roster.
Elsewhere, the Falcons need defensive backs. Lots of them, and few are more gifted than Greg Blue, Tim Jennings and DeMario Minter, all from Georgia, all heading for next week’s NFL draft. The same goes for Dennis Roland Jr. and Kedric Golston. They were efficient linemen for Georgia, and the Falcons need efficient linemen.
The Falcons also could use Max Jean-Gilles, but the Bulldogs’ offensive guard will be ancient history when Atlanta is on the clock for the first time with the 47th pick. In addition, since the Falcons already have Pro Bowl tight end Alge Crumpler, they don’t need Leonard Pope, Georgia’s other big stud in the draft. But the Falcons could use one of those other Bulldogs, or maybe several of them.
Oh, well. So much for dreaming the impossible dream. That is, unless the Falcons want to quit living this nightmare in red and black.
Permalink | Comments (103) | Categories: Falcons / NFL, Terence Moore
Ax Waddell? You must be kidding
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
It’s no fun if a guy guarantees something and doesn’t get fired when the guarantee goes ker-plunk. But fun aside, let’s ask ourselves this: If the Thrashers’ many owners decided to can Don Waddell tomorrow, would the team be better or worse?
Answer: Worse.
Just because it didn’t quite happen for the Thrashers this season doesn’t mean it won’t happen soon. Here’s a club with a 52-goal scorer in Ilya Kovalchuk, a superb young goalie in Kari Lehtonen and a brilliant all-ice peformer in Marian Hossa. Here’s a team that might lose Peter Bondra to free agency and Scott Mellanby to retirement but that otherwise figures to return all its principals. Here’s a team that needed five goalies to get through the regular season — and this doesn’t count Pasi Nurminen, who was slotted as Lehtonen’s backup but was lost to a knee injury over the summer — and still came within two points of the playoffs.
This is, in sum, not a team that needs to be broken up. This is a team that, with a bit of tweaking, should contend not just for a playoff spot but for a division title (and maybe more) next season. You can fault Waddell for not building this team faster, but you can’t say he hasn’t built something pretty good.
To change direction now would be the height of silliness. This isn’t the time to retrench. This is the time to keep going. Everybody around the Thrashers feels they should have made the playoffs, but things don’t always happen on schedule. You have to see the bigger picture here. You have to understand that firing Wadell — which isn’t going to happen, by the way — and turning to another man’s vision would be the equivalent of what the Thrashers’ sibling franchise has done.
And which would you rather be at this moment: A team that fell two points short in its best season ever or a team that doubled its win total and still finished ahead of only two other NBA teams? Would you rather be the Thrashers or the Hawks?
Thought so.
Permalink | Comments (27) | Categories: Mark Bradley, Quick Hit
