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Wednesday, September 20, 2006
Reality kicks in for mistaken Falcons
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
Flowery Branch — Before clearing the stage Wednesday for the Morten Andersen/George Burns comedy hour (“I had blood taken this morning. Dust came out.”), a very subtle thing happened.
The Falcons admitted a mistake. Sort of.
Nobody ever puts “We goofed” in words. (It’s against the NFL bylaws.) They just take away somebody’s job after two games and give it to a 46-year-old who hasn’t kicked in 20 months and has been practicing at a park until the youth team shows up (because, well, the kids had the field reserved).
This is nothing against Andersen, who may very well have enough strength remaining in his left leg and certainly has the strength in his cranium to help get the Falcons to a Super Bowl. But could this team possibly have botched such an important decision any more?
The Falcons dumped a kicker, Todd Peterson, who made 23 of 25 field goals because they say he kicked the ball too low. So they gave the job to Michael Koenen, who kicked them high. And wide.
For some reason, Peterson was viewed as a plague in Flowery Branch, though nobody outside the building can figure out why. He had a field goal blocked in a late-season overtime loss to Tampa Bay, and suddenly it was as if that was the only reason the team missed the playoffs. Forget the injuries, the previous personnel blunders, the coaching lapses. And never mind about those other seven losses.
No, said the Falcons: We can make this work! We have this great kid! We have a kicking guru! We’re going to save money and get younger!
Forget that kicking isn’t about youth. You want speed and vitality at outside linebacker. A kicker can look like a schlep and do his job. Drug test them for anything but Cool Whip. Kicking is about mental toughness. It’s about coming through in a close game with a tough crowd (road or home). It’s what makes guys like Adam Vinatieri such a rarity. Koenen might have a Hall of Fame leg, but he has oatmeal for a psyche. One 30-yard miss last week and he crumbled. Then he missed three more.
The Falcons never verbalized that they goofed. They maintain that he won the job and deserved it. But he had never been a full-time kicker at the major-college or NFL level. And if the Falcons exuded so much confidence over him, why did they work out Andersen in June and tell him he was Plan B?
“We hatched this in June or July,” general manager Rich McKay said.
Confidence in Koenen? The Falcons had been supplying Andersen with new footballs since the summer to practice with.
Andersen had been hounding his old pal, Jim Mora. He phoned him Sunday night after Koenen’s Oh-fer. (Nothing personal, kid.) The Falcons brought him in Tuesday. Andersen made seven of eight kicks, missing only a 55-yarder off the upright. The Falcons signed him. Presumably, they gave him the kicking guru’s parking space.
“I’ve got my endurance, I’ve got my Geritol. Good to go,” Andersen said.
It was ha-has all around. Patrick Kerney pulled Andersen’s poster off of the wall in “Legends Hall” in the team facility and stuck it in Andersen’s cubicle. A sign mocked: “Morten Andersen, kicker, 1966-2000, 2006.”
A trainer posted a medical newsletter highlighting the dangers of spinal osteoporosis.
Andersen led the jokes. He’s comfortable with all of this. He was just thrilled in June when he discovered he wasn’t the oldest kicker the Falcons were trying out. Also there: Eddie Murray, who was two months from turning 50.
He is all about clutch. In 1995, Andersen made a winning kick in overtime against Carolina in his first game as a Falcon. He had another OT winner two weeks later in New Orleans. Of course, he made the biggest kick in franchise history, the OT winner in Minnesota in the NFC title game.
Now he’s back with the Falcons, and his first game is against a former team, the Saints, in the Superdome on Monday Night Football. Could there be a better script?
“I’ll let you know Tuesday morning,” he said.
Just a guess: He won’t look like a mistake.
Permalink | Comments (55) | Categories: Falcons / NFL, Jeff Schultz
Tough luck for Oklahoma
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
Thank goodness, Big 12 commissioner Kevin Weiberg has more sports sense than University of Oklahoma president David Boren. I mean, did the officiating crew and the instant replay officials botch a couple of obvious plays last Saturday to help Oklahoma’s football team lose to Oregon?
Definitely.
So should Weiberg do what Boren wants, and that is have the Big 12 powers that be seek to twist the arms of those at NCAA headquarters to have Saturday’s results eliminated from the record books?
Puhleeze.
If Boren gets his way, then more than a few other things should happen. For instance: The NFL should acknowledge that the “Immaculate Reception” was an illegal play and give the Oakland Raiders a belated victory over Franco Harris’ Pittsburgh Steelers.
Georgia Tech should be declared undisputed national champions for 1990 since Colorado was given five downs that season to survive Missouri down the stretch. Courtesy of umpire Don Denkinger’s botched play, the St. Louis Cardinals should replace the Kansas City Royals as winners of the 1985 Worlds Series.
Weiberg said that he won’t do what Boren wants, by the way. Weiberg knows that when bad calls occur to cost a particular team a game, that team should do what teams always have done in these situations.
Kick. Scream. Fume.
Then move on.
Permalink | Comments (24) | Categories: Quick Hit, Terence Moore
