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Thursday, August 31, 2006
A game not as good as advertised
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
It’s among the most delicate issues an NFL franchise faces: What responsibility does it have to put on a good show in a game that doesn’t count? The Falcons offered this de facto answer Thursday night:
Some, but not much.
The Falcons chose not to deploy their starters in the much-unloved final exhibition, depriving the paying customers at the Georgia Dome the opportunity to see Michael Vick and John Abraham and Warrick Dunn. And the easy reaction from a disinterested observer — i.e., me — would be to don the populist cloak and cry fraud.
Sorry to say, I’ve never been much of a populist.
The Falcons didn’t advertise their intention to sit most everybody of consequence. When asked his plans for the starters, Jim Mora had said Tuesday: “Right now I’m playing them all, at least through the half.”
Mora’s actual intent, according to general manager Rich McKay, was to play his starters for one series. Then Mora changed his mind during pre-game warmups: Instead of one series, the starters would work zero. (Jacksonville, Thursday’s opponent, had already declared its intent to sit most of its starters.) Did this constitute breach of organizational credibility?
Said McKay: “I don’t think so. I read the quote, and I didn’t walk away thinking they were going to play a half. I even asked Jim about it the next day, and he said, ‘I want them in the mindset where they could play a half.’ You remember the Washington game [the last exhibition of 2004] where he’d told the starters they were going to play one series, and the game was a total disaster. Jimmy didn’t want them coming out of the tunnel tonight thinking like that.”
But shouldn’t the Falcons, just from a public-relations standpoint, have informed their customers that no starter would play? Said McKay: “If Jimmy had made that decision earlier in the week, we would have.” A tiny and utterly unscientific survey showed a mixed reaction. Asked if he would have come to the game had he known he wouldn’t be seeing Vick and crew, Mike McInnis — who lives in Duluth and who got tickets through a season-ticket-holding friend — said: “Probably not. We want to see some quality football. We’ll be leaving early.”
But Drew Aiken, a season-ticket holder from Atlanta, said: “Me, I’m fine with it. I’m a fan of D.J. Shockley’s.”
“Fans want to see a good game,” McKay said. “But it’s a balancing act, and not just to get your team ready for Week 1 [of the regular season] but for Weeks 1-17. Like with [rookie cornerback] Jimmy Williams — he’s probably going to wind up playing three quarters tonight because he needs to play.”
This was, it should be noted, the exhibition that matters least and is dreaded most. In 1978 the Cincinnati Bengals harbored Super Bowl dreams but lost quarterback Ken Anderson to a broken hand in the last preseason game and wound up 4-12. Not that anyone connected to the Falcons needs reminding of the perils inherent in exhibitions. Not after what happened to Vick in 2003.
Not playing the starters, owner Arthur Blank said, “was the right thing to do. And doing the right thing for the public is getting the team ready. … [Mora] made the right decision.”
In a perfect world, Mora would have made his choice two days earlier and given his constituency fair warning. (Mora does, as we know, have a love for semantics.) But the Falcons sold no single tickets for this particular game — all seats were gone in season-ticket packages, which include exhibitions. And truth to tell, the Dome gathering didn’t seem to mind not seeing Vick, mostly because Shockley played three quarters. “A nice show,” Mora called it.
The greater error by far would have been for the coach to play Vick and see the franchise focal point mangled by some desperate Jacksonville rookie. Such a coach, it was suggested to McKay, would deserve to be fired on the spot.
“We’d have to have a long discussion after the MRI came back,” the GM said. “The MRI of the coach’s brain.”
Permalink | Comments (99) | Categories: Falcons / NFL, Mark Bradley
Jackets can’t grasp how big this will be
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
No question, Georgia Tech has the talent and the coaching to knock the shine off the Golden Dome by the end of Saturday night. Whether the Yellow Jackets do so will depend on a couple of things, starting with the lesser of those things: Can they finally get it right involving Calvin Johnson, their magic wide receiver?
From the opening kickoff through the final gun, Tech’s offensive brain trust must keep sprinkling Johnson’s considerable pixie dust for a change. He’ll match his quickness against a Notre Dame secondary with starters who are all returning and who are all seniors, but who are all slow.
As for that bigger thing: Will the Jackets avoid becoming an emotional rambling wreck for the evening? Only the ghosts of Heisman, Alexander and Dodd know for sure. Such a response also applies to that Calvin Johnson thing, especially since new play-caller Patrick Nix is an unknown entity, but let’s return to that emotional thing. Said Tech running back Tashard Choice, “It’s big when you play Notre Dame, a very prestigious college, and we understand that. We understand the hype around the game, but you also have to tell yourself to calm down. Get your emotions under control and understand that it’s a football game. You’ll tire yourself in warm-ups just thinking about the hype.”
Added Tech defensive tackle Joe Anoai, reflecting on the mood of his teammates during practices with The Notre Dame Game approaching, “We term it as a ‘controlled frenzy.’ You want to have a lot of energy and enthusiasm, but you have to be controlled in the mental sense, because if you get too excited, you can do some stupid things out there. We’re definitely excited, but not overly excited. We’ve been in situations like this before.”
Uh, no, the Jackets haven’t, and it’s not even close. Although Tech shocked Auburn during two of the past three years, there was little hype for those games compared to the Game of the Century feel that those in the Jacket Nation have attached to The Notre Dame Game. In addition, Auburn wasn’t ranked higher than 15th either of those times compared to the Fighting Irish coming to town at No. 2. Tech did ambush No. 3-ranked Miami last season, but the Jackets traveled to the Orange Bowl without pressure after collapsing the week before against mediocre Virginia.
Then there is Tech’s yearly grudge match against Georgia. It’s a rivalry, but it’s a highly overrated one, especially since the Jackets have won just thrice in the series since the first George Bush was president. More significantly, nobody cares about Jackets versus Bulldogs east, west, north or south of Georgia’s state line.
Everybody cares about Notre Dame versus anybody, and rarely has a Tech football team encountered all of the following at once: A packed house at Bobby Dodd Stadium. An opponent ranked this high in the country. Not only a nationally televised audience preparing to watch the Jackets play somebody at home, but in prime time on a network. Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Notre Dame. Only the Yankees and Duke basketball rival the Irish when it comes to spurring a slew of negative and positive thoughts among others.
So, after days, weeks and months of hearing about, preparing for and dreaming about The Notre Dame Game, the Jackets will rush through their tunnel to the sound of nearly unprecedented screaming in search of their biggest home victory over somebody this lofty since Tech shocked No. 1-ranked Alabama.
That was 44 years ago, when Tech coach Chan Gailey was in elementary school around Americus. Since then, he has participated in enough big games, ranging from those involving Gators, Broncos, Dolphins and Steelers, to learn what players should do. “We’ve got enough guys that have played in big games that understand what’s going on,” Gailey said. “I’m going to make sure I address it with some of the younger guys. All of the lead-up is nothing. The game is what’s important, so you want to make sure you control the emotions at game time.”
Unfortunately for Tech, the team that understands Gailey’s big-game approach more than anybody is Notre Dame. While Tech plays in this type of ga-ga environment about once every couple of decades, Notre Dame does so about once every week. It’s just that Tech has Calvin Johnson, and Notre Dame doesn’t. Still, if the Jackets do use Johnson like they should, it won’t matter — if they go from ga-ga to gagging after the national anthem.
Permalink | Comments (57) | Categories: Tech / ACC, Terence Moore
Don’t believe it’s ‘hype’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
A word or two about an issue that seems to arise (in some sectors) whenever I make a prediction (which I do, as you know, rather often). I do not — repeat, do not — predict anything simply to elicit a response from the readership. Never. Ever.
Any prediction I make is something that, sometimes for better but often for worse, I really and truly believe. I really and truly believe Georgia Tech will, as noted in this space Wednesday, beat Notre Dame.
I might well be wrong, but if I am it won’t be because I have any agenda — common complaints: that I’m trying to “set up” the team I pick to win or “fire up” the team I pick not to win — other than the longstanding belief that predictions are the fun part of sports.
When I was growing up and reading every paper I could get my hands on, the thing I always wanted to know was: Which team did the writer like to win the big game? I liked reading the ones who’d make a pick and tell you why. I liked somewhat less reading those who hemmed and hawed for 700 words and wound up saying, “Time will tell.”
Time always does tell, but much of the charm of sports lies not in the event itself but in the anticipation. We all wonder who’s going to win. We all have an opinion in that regard. I tell you what I think. If I’m wrong (and I often am), I’ll say so in the convenient year-end Accountability Scoreboard. If I’m right, I’ll give myself a little psychic pat on the back and move on to the next big game. Which would be Georgia at South Carolina.
I like the Gamecocks in that one.
Permalink | Comments (56) | Categories: Mark Bradley, Quick Hit
