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Tuesday, September 5, 2006
Vick fightens foes and friends
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
Finally, after five seasons of mostly silence or denial in public on the matter from those around the Falcons locker room, we have the truth from somebody who knows. The daredevil ways of Michael Vick scare his teammates to death. They have this feeling that their Flying Wallenda of a quarterback is going to expire moments before themselves with an ugly crash to earth.
They actually prefer the Boring Wallenda of a quarterback, just as long as he helps the Falcons win. “The fear is that [Vick] is so explosive, and that he makes so many plays, and that he’s so willing to throw his body around that one of these days he’s not going to get back up,” said Chris Draft, a linebacker for the Carolina Panthers, the Falcons’ foe on Sunday in Charlotte to open the regular season. This is the same Draft who played with the Falcons from 2000 through 2004, and who still lives in Atlanta, where he remains highly civic minded, primarily when it comes to working with the American Lung Association regarding fellow asthma sufferers.
Draft confessed this week that he always thought Vick was on the verge of becoming a victim of his style. He said he cringed on the Falcons sideline with everybody else during Vick’s flips, twists, zips, rolls, tumbles and dives.
Translated: I wasn’t the only one who hadn’t a problem with Vick’s clumsy but wise attempt last season to become more of a pocket guy. Added Draft, his voice rising for emphasis along the way, “I’ve seen him take some, well, shots. And we’re over there watching and saying, like, ‘No, no, no. Get down. Please, Mike, get down.’ Whereas you have the crowd standing up and cheering and yelling and not realizing that he’s about to get killed.”
Oh, the crowd realizes as much. That’s why you have the crowd. Just like the high probability of somebody crashing into something at nearly 180 mph isn’t exactly keeping folks from packing NASCAR grandstands in record numbers.
The thing is, contrary to popular belief, Falcons coach Jim Mora and his offensive coordinator, Greg Knapp, had it about right by trying to make Vick adopt to their version of the West Coast offense instead of letting Vick be Vick. Now, courtesy of Vick’s celebrated struggles in a more structured offense, and given the hollering regarding it all, from the slew of television experts to those in the cheap seats, you just hope the Falcons brain trust doesn’t budge too much this season.
So much for hopes. Said Draft, who regularly is approached by Falcons fans during frequent walks from his condominium in downtown Atlanta, “You always hear people say, ‘You can’t teach Mike to get down. That’s just how he plays.’ Then they come back with, ‘Just let Mike be Mike,’ and I’m like, ‘What?’ I mean, what are these people saying?”
Here’s what many of those people are saying after reading Draft’s comments: Is this just a psych job by the Stanford graduate to get inside the head of an old teammate? Not only do the Panthers reside in the NFC South with the Falcons, but Carolina has a world championship on its mind. As a result, this loaded team is pursuing home-field advantage with every game, and prior to the Panthers’ two-game sweep of the Falcons last season, the Panthers had lost 12 of their previous 14 games in the series, with much help in recent years from Vick.
“Just as I had those fears watching as one of Mike’s teammates, I also have fear as somebody from the other side of the perspective trying to stop him,” Draft said. “What you fear the most is that he can just make something out of nothing. It’s a fear that he might just jump over you out there and score a touchdown on fourth down and win the game for them.”
Even so, Draft said his fear of Vick as an opponent doesn’t cause him to shiver as much as others.
“The advantage I have is that, since I played with him, I know him and I’ve seen him as a man,” Draft said. “Sometimes I think he gets pumped up [by the media] to almost be more than a football player. People swear that he was actually flying through the air, and that makes it like he’s almost more than a man.”
He’s mortal all right. He had that broken leg for nearly a whole season to prove it.
Permalink | Comments (70) | Categories: Falcons / NFL, Terence Moore
Did Stafford force the issue?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
10: I never thought the Miami-Florida State rivalry would cease to be entertaining. But it’s getting there.
9: Great football games don’t have to be high scoring. But offenses should at least hint they’re good enough to lead you to conclude, “Wow. They can’t score. Must be the defense.” But that hasn’t been the case the last few years. The Hurricanes and Seminoles can’t score - because the Hurricanes and Seminoles can’t score.
8: The final scores of the last three Miami-FSU games: 13-10 (FSU), 10-7 (FSU), 16-10 (Miami in overtime, so really 10-10 in regulation). Compare that to the scores of the previous five meetings: 31-21, 27-24, 49-27, 28-27, 22-14.
7: Larry Coker gets more grief than he deserves. But something is seriously wrong when a Miami offense produces one first down, five punts and one interception in the second half.
6: So it turns out Marcus Giles doesn’t have a heart condition. He has acid reflux. On a related note, if anybody out there has a yard in need of weeding, I know of a former cardiologist looking for work.
5: Less than 24 hours until our Fantasy League draft and I just passed a new rule: Any quarterback who wrecks a motorcycle, needs to be peeled off the pavement and undergo an emergency appendectomy before opening kickoff probably is not destined for a great season. Take a seat, Ben.
4: Because I’m all about sunshine: The Braves’ win over the Mets Monday means their magic number to rally and win the East Division still stands at eight.
3: OK. So what are the chances that Matthew Stafford or Papa Stafford let Georgia coach Mark Richt know, “Um, coach, red-shirting wasn’t really in our plans.”
2: Get your hands off the blog button. I’m not suggesting anything was dictated to Richt. But it makes no sense to bring in the top recruited quarterback in the country and have him sit for an entire season if you don’t have an obvious starting quarterback on the roster. And, guess what Joe T fans, Georgia doesn’t have an obvious starting quarterback.
1: Drops or no drops, seven-for-17 for 90 yards against a Division 1-AA defense is not going to get it done as a starting quarterback. And Western Kentucky was the last I-AA team on Georgia’s schedule.
Did Stafford force the issue?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
10: I never thought the Miami-Florida State rivalry would cease to be entertaining. But it’s getting there.
9: Great football games don’t have to be high scoring. But offenses should at least hint they’re good enough to lead you to conclude, “Wow. They can’t score. Must be the defense.” But that hasn’t been the case the last few years. The Hurricanes and Seminoles can’t score - because the Hurricanes and Seminoles can’t score.
8: The final scores of the last three Miami-FSU games: 13-10 (FSU), 10-7 (FSU), 16-10 (Miami in overtime, so really 10-10 in regulation). Compare that to the scores of the previous five meetings: 31-21, 27-24, 49-27, 28-27, 22-14.
7: Larry Coker gets more grief than he deserves. But something is seriously wrong when a Miami offense produces one first down, five punts and one interception in the second half.
6: So it turns out Marcus Giles doesn’t have a heart condition. He has acid reflux. On a related note, if anybody out there has a yard in need of weeding, I know of a former cardiologist looking for work.
5: Less than 24 hours until our Fantasy League draft and I just passed a new rule: Any quarterback who wrecks a motorcycle, needs to be peeled off the pavement and undergo an emergency appendectomy before opening kickoff probably is not destined for a great season. Take a seat, Ben.
4: Because I’m all about sunshine: The Braves’ win over the Mets Monday means their magic number to rally and win the East Division still stands at eight.
3: OK. So what are the chances that Matthew Stafford or Papa Stafford let Georgia coach Mark Richt know, “Um, coach, red-shirting wasn’t really in our plans.”
2: Get your hands off the blog button. I’m not suggesting anything was dictated to Richt. But it makes no sense to bring in the top recruited quarterback in the country and have him sit for an entire season if you don’t have an obvious starting quarterback on the roster. And, guess what Joe T fans, Georgia doesn’t have an obvious starting quarterback.
1: Drops or no drops, seven-for-17 for 90 yards against a Division 1-AA defense is not going to get it done as a starting quarterback. And Western Kentucky was the last I-AA team on Georgia’s schedule.
Permalink | Comments (56) | Categories: Jeff Schultz, Quick Hit
