AJC > Sports > Columnists > Archives > 2006 > September > 28
Thursday, September 28, 2006
Dogs, Falcons win; Jackets stumble
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
First, a disclaimer: An unfortunate allergic reaction to three Flintstone chewables and a bowl of Cocoa Puffs led to a misrepresentation by the Weekend Predictions spokesperson about the Falcons-Saints game last week.
It was never my intention to suggest the Falcons would win the game by several hundred points or that I would pull a Thelma and Louise off a nearby cliff if things went the other way because I have at least 13 things to live for.
Actually, make that zero.
My dog just finished the M&Ms.
This week’s feature attraction finds Georgia Tech at Virginia Tech, a game highlighted by the fact it doesn’t feature Terrell Owens, a VW stuffed with 37 clowns or a single dancing elephant.
Owens this week became the first player to be listed as: “questionable: possible depression, suicidal tendencies, pending further redaction in Dallas police statement.”
Hey, if Owens is depressed, it’s no wonder. The man employs both Drew Rosenhaus and Kim Etheredge. I’m assuming the Iraqi minister of information directs traffic in the driveway.
Etheredge is paid to present a positive image. But she looked like she had just left Johnny’s Hideaway at 4 a.m. and was in search of a Waffle House. She referenced Owens as “a man of his statue.”
That was surpassed only by claiming police completely made up everything she told them about Owens swallowing a bottle of pills (of course, what else would they have to do?).
That was surpassed only by when she said, “Terrell has 25 million reasons to be alive.”
It’s difficult to be both comically nonsensical and cast your boss in the worst possible light in three seconds. But she pulled it off.
My head hurts. Anybody have a painkiller?
Back to Tech-Tech. The Hokies will be minus two suspended starters, a receiver and a defensive end. Taking a cue, neither player has held a news conference.
This is the Jackets’ chance to prove they belong among the ACC elite, although we’re not sure what that means anymore.
But Va-Tech is a big step up from just plain Va. It won’t be 51-7 again, but it won’t be close, either. Pass on the nine. Hokies cover.
A few keggers
Trembling Chihuahuas at Old Ms.: Georgia made Colorado look dangerously close to competent. Don’t know who’s playing quarterback, but would it matter? A win? Yes. But I’ll feast on Col. Yahoo and 18.
Alabama at Florida: Chris Leak has 12 TD passes and a 173.77 rating, but he was booed last week at home. So if the shine already is off the Urban Meyer era, how will fans feel if they lose to Bammy, given the next three: LSU, Auburn, Georgia? Fear not. The 13 1/2 is covered.
Missy St. at LSU: This 99-game series dates to 1896, when LSU won 52-0. The five-year building plan in Starkville is a little behind schedule. Tigers cover 32 1/2.
T.O.-free NFL six-pack
Cardinals at Falcons: The emotional Dennis Green waited 48 hours before deciding to start Kurt Warner again. Um, so this was the lucid decision? Expect Matt Leinart to arrive fashionably late. He’s so Paris Hilton. Falcons cover 7.
Saints at Panthers: Warm and fuzzy is in the rear window. So is the chance that the Saints will again play 12 miles north of their ability level. In my mind, I’m going with Carolina to cover 7 1/2.
Patriots at Cellblock 12: Six Bengals have faced criminal charges this season. Chris Henry has been arrested four times, convicted twice, and last week puked out of the car of Odell Thurman, who blew a 0.18 on the drunk-oh-meter. Thurman hopes to find work as a blowtorch. Take the Pats and six — and in an upset.
Raiders of the Lost Hope: Cleveland is 0-3, but Oakland is a three-point home ‘dog. Anybody check if Al Davis is mixing supplements and painkillers? But: Raiders in an “upset.”
Jaguars at Redskins: Joe Gibbs not surprisingly has struggled with salary-cap and personnel issues in his return. But who figured the ‘Skins would lead the NFL in penalties? Joe: There’s still time to make it to Talladega. Jax covers three.
Seahawks at Bears: Seattle lines up Darrell Jackson (40 career TDs), Deion Branch (14), Nate Burleson (13) and Bobby Engram (29) at wide receiver. Sense any depth chart-envy in Flowery Branch? Even minus Shaun Alexander, take Seattle and the gift three.
Close but no hydrocodone
Last week: 9-3 straight up, 6-6 against the line.
Quarterly report: 32-10 straight up, 25-17 against the line.
Permalink | Comments (80) | Categories: Falcons / NFL, Jeff Schultz, Tech / ACC, UGA / SEC
Relief and regret over Braves
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
Tell the truth. You’re relieved you won’t have the Braves to kick around in October. You won’t have to stay up late watching these excruciating postseason games. You won’t fall into the annual trap of getting your hopes up and then having them dashed. This way you can get on with your so-called life without performing the yearly ritual of calling for Bobby Cox’s firing.
Tell the truth. The first five or six postseasons were fun in a wrenching sort of way, but the last half-dozen have been recurring bad dreams. The Braves would lose a game they should’ve won and you’d wash your hands of them forever. Then they’d win a game they should’ve lost and you’d convince yourself that this was again Their (and Your) Year. Then they’d lose Game 5 in Round 1 and you’d hate yourself for getting fooled again.
Tell the truth. You’re not that sorry to see the great run end because, as great as the run was during the six-month regular season, it turned into something unpleasant every October. Everything you were seeing, you’d seen already. Some closer (Reardon/Wohlers/Ligtenberg/Farnsworth) would yield a killing homer to some hitter (Sprague/Leyritz/Caminiti/Ausmus), and there’d go your whole autumn straight down the Dumpster.
Tell the truth. The Braves’ failures in October were sapping your quality of life, same as the Red Sox had come to do to dour New Englanders. Only the Red Sox actually broke through and won it all in 2004, and the Braves had stopped even coming close. (One series win since the 1999 NLCS.) You’d done the unthinkable. You’d begun to envy Red Sox fans.
Tell the truth. You’d come to dread October, and a part of you had begun to wonder if the Braves didn’t feel the same. Well, here’s your answer: They didn’t. Here’s what Cox said Thursday about the prospect of the first postseason since 1990 without a club to manage in it: “It wasn’t a very good feeling the day [Sunday in Colorado] we were officially gone. [October] is what you live for.”
Tell the truth. You as a fan had stopped seeing October the way Cox and his men did. When the great run began, you were out there on the front lines, buying up tickets and waving your foam tomahawk, but the mounting reality of so many Octobers without a break had a numbing effect. You hated it when national observers made fun of Atlantans for not filling Turner Field for the playoffs, but you couldn’t quite rouse yourself to get out there for every Game 1. You’d watch on TV, sure, but it wasn’t quite the same.
Tell the truth. You weren’t exactly rooting for the great run to end, but now that it has, you’re not shedding any tears. You’ve got the month to yourself now.
Tell the truth. You’re glad it’s over. You’re glad some other team has to worry about its playoff rotation and the danger lurking in Round 1. You won’t miss it a bit.
Now tell the whole truth. A part of you will miss it terribly. Here’s Tom Glavine, who was part of every postseason from 1991 through 2002 as a Brave, who as a Met missed each of the next three but who will start Game 2 for New York next week: “The pressure [of the playoffs] is not an easy thing to deal with, but when you look back on it, it’s something you’d rather be a part of than not.”
Tell the truth. You’re glad. But you’re also sad. You were ready for it to end, but you hate that it ended. You’re a fan, and it’s your inalienable right to hold diametrically opposing points of view.
Permalink | Comments (55) | Categories: Braves / MLB, Mark Bradley
Owens is doomed to repeat himself
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
The lead-in to Wednesday night’s “SportsCenter” posed the question: “Is Terrell Owens becoming a distraction?”
The answer to that, as we know, is a resounding “no.”
Terrell Owens isn’t BECOMING a distraction. He has BEEN a distraction for years. And he will always BE a distraction so long as “SportsCenter” is around to chronicle his every move. (The joke in media circles is that, having already spawned ESPN2 and ESPNU, the self-important Worldwide Leader In Sports will soon announce its newest spinoff — ESPN-TO.)
I don’t know if Terrell Owens tried to kill himself. (I kind of doubt it, but what would possess the police to embellish their report?) I do know that he ruined a Super Bowl team with his antics last season and seems well on his way to wrecking the Dallas Cowboys. And I do know that the next team to employ his egocentric services — this being pro sports, there’s always a next team — will suffer the same foolish fate.
Talent is a great thing, and Owens is a great talent. But being a good teammate is more important in the grand scheme, and Owens is about the worst teammate in the world. He tears down those around him, and when you do that often enough, you wind up destroying yourself.
If he tried to kill himself, then he needs help. Even if he didn’t, some sort of intervention is way past due. You’ll never hear this on “SportsCenter,” but Terrell Owens is the latest installment in that saddest of sagas — the man who had it all, but threw it all away.
Permalink | Comments (40) | Categories: Mark Bradley, Quick Hit
