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Wednesday, November 15, 2006
Hartwell a lot of talk, few tackles
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
Flowery Branch — The Falcons have played 25 games since signing Ed Hartwell to a $26.5 million contract, and he has played in only seven of them. Now, that might seem like a bad investment. But imagine the team’s financial ruin if there wasn’t health insurance to cover the cost of the four surgeries it has taken to fix his Achilles and two knees.
“Sometimes,” Hartwell said Wednesday, “you’ve got to go through a storm to see the rainbow.”
Somebody needs to get this man back on the football field before he starts reciting poetry.
The Falcons are a mess. They’re a declining 5-4. Or as coach Jim Mora probably would prefer: They have five victories and four reasons to rejoice over adversity. Their defense has been so wrecked by injuries that the sight of John Abraham lightly jogging in sweats Wednesday, free of a walker, was cause for a pep rally.
Hartwell hasn’t been a player so much as he has been a WebMD graphic. He suffered a torn Achilles in the fifth game last year, required secret arthroscopic knee surgery in the offseason, then reported to training camp and developed more knee problems that required both getting cleaned out.
Free agents don’t come with money-back guarantees. But Hartwell didn’t seem to need one. In Baltimore, he was rarely injured and played through pain when he was, starting 46 of 48 games.
Nobody can sum up Hartwell’s frustration better than Hartwell: “It’s murder not playing. It’s murder not being able to move like I used to. When my knees were swelling, that was murder. Your mind is telling your legs what to do, but the swelling won’t allow that. I’ve been grinding for a year and a half. Wake up at 6. Don’t get done with treatment until 10. Practice. Doctors, doctors, doctors.”
Hartwell missed the past two games after returning for two, but he says his knees feel better than they have in awhile and there’s a chance he might play this week. Nice timing: The Falcons play the Ravens. Ironically, if you were trying to find Hartwell in practice Wednesday, he was wearing a green mesh No. 52 jersey on the scout team — in the role of Ray Lewis.
Hartwell said when he played for the Ravens, people tried to cast him as the lesser half of a teacher-student relationship with Lewis. Clearly, it’s a perception he resents. The more he talked, the more he suggested that Lewis’ status as the leader of a Super Bowl defense was partly the residual of great timing.
Quote: “A lot of people have talked about him teaching me. But we’re football players. You come into the league already knowing how to play football. Did I learn some things from him? I don’t know. You know what I mean? Honestly, I knew how to play football before I got there. I knew how to hit a fullback. He was just a good player who I played next to.
“I don’t take anything from him. He was just there before me. If I was there before him, it would’ve been the Ed Hartwell Show.”
So much for low-keying things.
When asked if he felt he played in Lewis’ shadow, Hartwell said: “I didn’t feel there was a shadow because when I was in Baltimore, I made my plays. I had 140, 190 tackles a year. I had stats. There was just a linebacker that was good that was there before I was there. If it was a shadow, I wouldn’t have been the free agent that I was.”
Rich McKay, the Falcons’ general manager, said he signed Hartwell because he liked his “toughness,” particularly against the run. But injuries have kept him as little more than a name on paper. There’s a prevailing feeling that his knee problems stem from the Achilles injury, which prevents any sort of lower body training or conditioning until it’s healed. Hartwell said when he came back, “I wasn’t as flexible or as strong. … Maybe it threw my hips out of joint.”
The only certainty: It hasn’t been the “Ed Hartwell Show” in Atlanta. There’s been too much doc talk and too few tackles. And something’s wrong when a middle linebacker is talking about rainbows.
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There’s a method to Knight’s “madness”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
There are a few things you should know about Bob Knight and his latest “controversy” involving the most overrated slap (if that’s what it was) in history.
First, when you agree to play for the guy, you know what you’re going to get, and it isn’t the Mister Rogers of college basketball coaches. Second, neither the Texas Tech player who was slapped (if that’s what it was) by Knight nor his parents had a problem with whatever Knight did.
Here’s the third and biggest thing: Knight rarely is out of control.
I’m serious. After covering Indiana University basketball during the late 1970s for the Cincinnati Enquirer, it became clear to me that, more often than not, Knight knows exactly what he’s doing in the midst of his so-called “controversies.”
Those “controversies” often are about Knight sending a message to his players, to the opposing team or to the officials.
Once, I was at Assembly Hall for a Big Ten game that featured a struggling Indiana team and the crowd chanting a vulgarity at the officials. Knight rushed to the scorer’s table (I don’t even think he called a timeout), grabbed the microphone and yelled to the crowd to, well, uh, stifle.
There was dead silence. Everybody was stunned by what Knight did and said. Then Indiana sprinted to victory.
Afterward, there were the usual “Knight is out of control” comments, but you know what? Knight had controlled the crowd and spurred his team onto a win.
The only thing more overrated than The Slap (if that’s what it was) for Knight was The Chair. Contrary to popular belief, he didn’t turn into a white-haired King Kong 21 years ago by throwing that chair at Assembly Hall. He slid it across the floor toward a harmless spot.
So much for Pscyho Bobby, at least in that situation.
Make that in most situations.
Permalink | Comments (38) | Categories: Quick Hit, Terence Moore
