AJC > Sports > Columnists > Archives > 2007 > February
February 2007
McGuire memories, Final Four returning
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
They’re both gone. First, the Omni Coliseum was slam dunked into oblivion during the summer of 1997 by 2,884 explosive devices. Then, four years later, Al McGuire passed away quicker than a fast break, from a blood disorder.
They’re both alive, though. With the Final Four dribbling to town this month, you realize the two are linked by 30-year-old moments that will never die. In fact, the combination of the Omni and other things involving McGuire will have eternal life when you consider there is a moving one-man play coming to the Alliance Theatre on March 31 and April 1.
The play is called “McGuire,” and it is written by sportscaster Dick Enberg, the former McGuire hater who swung the other way in a hurry after McGuire abruptly retired from coaching at 48 to team with Enberg for decades as college basketball’s John Madden.Now the Final Four returns to Atlanta for the second time since McGuire’s Omni moments, and Hank Raymonds was emotional this week over the phone from Milwaukee. He likely was teary-eyed, too, the way McGuire was on that rainy March night in 1977. There was McGuire, at the end of the Marquette bench, the final seconds of his last game as a coach ticking away toward his miracle team snatching a national title from North Carolina. “He just let it out. He just let it all out,” said Raymonds, McGuire’s trusted aide, recalling how he watched the noted tough guy cry into a towel.
Soon afterward, McGuire missed much of the postgame celebration on the court to cry in private in the locker room. This was the same McGuire who nearly missed the game after he spent the day riding a rented motorcycle around rural Georgia. He had the thing break down between Social Circle, where he shocked former Falcons coach Norm Van Brocklin with a visit to his pecan farm, and the perimeter.
Later, when McGuire arrived at the Omni’s pass gate, he didn’t have his game credentials. He was turned away by security until Raymonds rushed to the scene to verify that McGuire actually was McGuire. This also was the same McGuire who rarely wore a watch, regularly forgot names, couldn’t remember his own telephone number and didn’t carry keys to his house.
On and on, the stories go about McGuire, who ranks either 1a, 1b or 1c as the most memorable sports figure I’ve ever met, and as his son, Allie McGuire, said this week over the phone from Boston, “Some of these stories are actually true,” he laughed, before adding, “I bet you that as the years go on, these stories about my dad are greatly embellished.”
Not likely. Not since a bare-footed McGuire once asked me to join him by sitting on the floor of his Milwaukee office during his first year out of coaching. He discussed everything from toy soldiers to the essence of clowns. Basketball talk surfaced only when necessary. The interview ended with McGuire handing me a book called “The Little Prince.” He signed it to me, and then scribbled the words “seashells and balloons” on the inside cover.
So I believe anything said about McGuire that is wonderfully quirky.
Long before McGuire’s Omni moments, he already was different, but he also was successful. He won 80 percent of the time at Marquette after he arrived on its Milwaukee campus in 1964. He captured an NIT title, when it nearly was as prestigious as an NCAA one, and 92 percent of his players graduated. Soon after McGuire’s Omni moments, he took his unique style to NBC to make television safe for the Dick Vitales of the future. But let’s return to the 30-year-old scene during McGuire’s Omni moments, when his son nodded from a few rows behind the Marquette bench as his father cried and then left.
“Was I surprised? Well, he was as hard-nosed as hell, but his heart was as big as they get,” said Allie McGuire, 55, a retired investment banker who once played for his father. “When you think about his heart, that’s what made him so successful. That’s what made the millions of dollars that he generated for the Milwaukee children hospital through his annual charity runs and benefits. He always gave back. He had a simple way about him, and along the way, he just happened to be a coach.”
A coach. A philosopher. A broadcaster. An entertainer. A humanitarian. A collector.
A memory forever.
Permalink | Comments (6) | Post your comment | Categories: Final Four, Tech / ACC, Terence Moore, UGA / SEC
Gators still the team to beat
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
The team to beat heading into March Madness hasn’t changed.
So ignore the other stuff.
Those three losses during its last four games. Shaky or no defense. Turnovers, turnovers, turnovers.
Even so, you still have to take Florida to win the national championship in men’s basketball over everybody else. Here are the five reasons why: Joakim Noah, Taurean Green, Corey Brewer, Al Horford and Lee Humphrey. They were the starters when the Gators won it all last season, and they remain the starters today.
Now about the Gators’ last three losses. They all were on the road. They lost at Vanderbilt, which is no disgrace. They shouldn’t have lost to struggling LSU, but those things happen during a season. They just lost to Tennessee, but you had normally no-nonsense women’s coach Pat Summitt whipping the crowd into a frenzy as an impromptu cheerleader. There also was that rousing pre-game speech to the Volunteers from Peyton Manning.
Florida didn’t have a chance.
Well, not in that Tennessee game.
As for the rest of the way, the great Al McGuire used to say that he liked for his teams to struggle before the NCAA tournament so that they could start listening to the coach again.
That will happen to Florida, which previously had a 17-game winning streak before their slide. And remember: The Gators struggled near the end last season, and then they won 11 straight to become national champions.
Permalink | Comments (32) | Post your comment | Categories: Final Four, Quick Hit, Terence Moore
Falcons face losing more than an end
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
The NFL’s Nip/Tuck season begins Friday with the opening of free agency. Potential Super Bowl teams will try to add a player and subtract a chin. The Falcons shouldn’t be so deluded. Their issues extend far beyond the need for implants and liposuction.
When Patrick Kerney voided the final two years of his contract to become a free agent, the Falcons potentially lost far more than just a defensive end. They lost one of the few ticking heartbeats in the locker room.
What happened to the Falcons last season — another second-half collapse, punctuated by getting slapped by Philadelphia’s backups to close the season — wasn’t the mere residual of flawed schemes and a distracted head coach. They had a locker room with issues — issues that remain today, issues beyond a dead dog and a trick water bottle.
Players didn’t seem to care about each other. Or about their head coach. Or about anything of substance that generally goes with direct deposit. That became clear to most of us who watched the team. It’s logical to assume it also became clear to Kerney.
Kerney is too classy an individual to publicly ridicule anybody. But it’s worth noting that he said his decision on where to sign will be based on more than just guaranteed dollars.
“I look at the whole picture,” he said Tuesday. “Your performance on the field on Sunday is just a byproduct of a year-round commitment. How do you treat your body? How do you handle yourself in the offseason? What’s your devotion to your teammates, even away from the locker room? When you talk about team chemistry, that’s how it’s developed. You pull for that guy next to you.”
This is the poster boy for what Falcons coach Bobby Petrino — or any head coach — should want. But Kerney reaffirmed he likely will be elsewhere. While Petrino publicly maintains that the team could re-sign Kerney, the numbers don’t add up. More importantly, neither does the logic.
Kerney wants to win a Super Bowl. If he looked around and believed that could happen soon in Flowery Branch, don’t you think this would be playing out differently?
Tell me if this sounds like a player who really wants to stay here: “I’m looking forward to free agency. It’s a whole new experience. I’m excited to explore my options. I want to see the way other clubs operate.”
The Falcons are only $10 million under the salary cap. That space probably won’t satisfy Kerney’s market value. On Monday, Buffalo re-signed end Chris Kelsay for $23 million over four years ($14.5 million guaranteed). Last year in free agency, Philadelphia signed end Darren Howard for $30 million over six years ($10.5 million guaranteed).
From the business side, it’s understandable why the Falcons would balk at jumping into a bidding war (with potentially Tampa Bay, Seattle, Denver and others). Kerney is 30. He missed the final seven games last season with a torn pectoral muscle. The Falcons have too many other needs to risk a huge financial commitment. That’s the way they will spin it.
But please note that Kerney began bench-pressing almost two weeks ago. That’s two months ahead of his rehab schedule. His arm hasn’t fallen off. He can still play. And think, and feel, and try.
Anybody who knows Kerney, the pride he has and the passion he plays with, knows how the Falcons’ pathetic finish must have grated on him.
But when Kerney was asked about the season-ending 24-17 loss to the Eagles — who rested their starters after learning their playoff-seeding was secure — this was as close as he came to passing judgment: “That was disappointing. That was the hardest game to watch. It was clear as day who was on the other side of the ball [for Philadelphia]. I didn’t study the game film. Watching that game and the Baltimore game [an earlier 24-10 loss] on TV, it’s hard to get a true evaluation. But all the evidence you needed was the final score. It was tough to swallow.”
Two months later, and Kerney just showed more emotion about a loss than any present-day Falcon did after that game.
That should tell you something.
Permalink | Comments (77) | Categories: Falcons / NFL, Jeff Schultz
Johnson NFL’s next great star?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
THE TUESDAY COUNTDOWN….
10: I feel asleep. Did Ellen DeGeneres ever make a funny?
9: And when did Al Gore swallow Jabba The Hut?
8: Gary Sheffield says he won’t cooperate with baseball’s steroid investigation because it’s a “witch hunt,” commenting: “If this was legitimate and they did it the right way, it would be different.” Um, legitimate?
7: Hey, Gary, I’m sure baseball is open to suggestions on how to run a drug investigation. My guess: Sheffield - like Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Jason Giambi, Rafael Palmeiro, et. al - would like completely immunity. Then maybe they’ll talk. And actually, that wouldn’t be a bad idea.
6: Melissa Etheridge, backstage while clutching Oscar: “This is the only naked man that will ever be in my bedroom.” Now THAT’S funny.
5: Dale Murphy, one of the nicest guys in the world, generally steers clear of controversial topics. That wasn’t the case on an XM radio interview, when Murphy said he believed Bonds, McGwire and Sosa used steroids (those were the players he was asked about) and, when asked about Hank Aaron’s home run record probably falling, added: “Well, I’m not that excited about it. Let me put it this way, when Cal Ripken broke Lou Gehrig’s record, I pulled my kids into the living room, and said, ‘You gotta see this.’ This is not going to happen with Barry. It doesn’t mean anything to me, ya know, Barry is a great talent, and would have been a great talent without getting involved in this kind of stuff, in steroids, and all the stuff like that. People have said, ‘Dale, he hasn’t failed a drug test.’ That doesn’t matter to me anymore. It’s what I see, what I’ve read, what I’ve heard, and what I can see with my eyes. That’s my opinion, and a lot other people have that opinion as well. You get back to the record: He’s a Hall of Fame player and would have hit a lot of home runs without it, and now that he’s breaking the record, I don’t think he went about it the right way.”
4: By the way, Gary: The witches didn’t have a union.
3: So Calvin Johnson weighed 239 pounds at the scouting combine (12 heavier than expected) but ran a 4.35-second 40-yard dash in a pair of borrowed shoes. It’s dangerous to predict greatness for an NFL draft pick. But if this kid isn’t the next great star, I’ll be stunned.
2: If the Thrashers don’t make the playoffs, my guess is Don Waddell gets fired. But after the acquisitions Keith Tkachuk and Alexei Zhitnik, this team should be a lock. And if it misses the playoffs, look at the coach (Bob Hartley) before the GM.
1: And then there’s the Hawks, who might have made a significant move to move into the playoff picture, if only Billy Knight were alive today.
Permalink | Comments (44) | Categories: Quick Hit
Is it one-and-done for Crittenton?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
Not surprisingly, inquiring minds already wish to know if Georgia Tech’s Javaris Crittenton will join the likes of Greg Oden and Kevin Durant as one-and-done dribblers in college basketball.
Not surprisingly, Crittenton says that he only is concentrating on the Yellow Jackets’ next “X” or “O.” That is, when he isn’t studying for stuff involving his major in International Affairs.
Not surprisingly, more than a few folks don’t believe him.
I believe him.
“You’ve got to take care of what’s in front of you today, and what’s presenting itself right now,” Crittenton told me recently, with his team in a frantic search to reach the NCAA tournament. His last outing notwithstanding (seven misses in 10 shot attempts, one assist and four turnovers at Virginia on Saturday), Crittenton has been Tech’s catalyst as its latest freshman point guard of significance.
He ranks either one or two in the ACC among all freshmen in scoring, steals and assists. He also continues to mature by the moment as a leader for the young Jackets.
“So if I take care of my business now and take things step by step,” he added, “everything else will fall into place.”
Crittenton’s reference was to life in general. Not necessarily to a trip to the NBA draft this spring.
Still, this needs to be said.
Don’t go.
“I told him that the NBA isn’t going anywhere, and once you go, you can’t come back,” said Dennis Scott, who definitely knows. He bolted the Jackets a year early after the 1989-90 season to enter the draft following that Lethal Weapon 3 spurt to the Final Four.
He stayed in the NBA for a decade to become one of the league’s all-time prolific shooters from long distance. He also became one of the league’s all-time prolific observers.
There was Scott’s stint with the Minnesota Timberwolves, for instance, after he spent the bulk of his career with the Orlando Magic. He noticed Kevin Garnett’s anguish whenever Scott and others discussed their days on campuses.
“You could tell he felt bad about not being able to add anything to the conversations,” said Scott, now a Hawks radio announcer, referring to Garnett’s emptiness after leaping from high school to the NBA. “Finally, I asked him about it, and he said, ‘Yeah, it crosses my mind sometimes that I missed out by not having that college experience.’ “
In contrast, Crittenton already has that college experience, with more to come on the court through the ACC tournament and beyond, but that’s not the point. Just listen to Mark Price, among those who dribbled during the Neanderthal days of college basketball, when great players mostly stayed until graduation day.
So you know what Price wants Crittenton to do when it comes to his alma mater. Or do you?
“Well, I mean, it’s hard to say what he should do, because there is so much money involved these days,” said Price, who spent 12 years in the NBA. “If a guy has an opportunity to get drafted high, it’s hard to tell somebody not to go.”
Then Price quickly added the truth about the former star at Southwest Atlanta Christian Academy, who already is resembling his predecessors with the Jackets at point guard named Jarrett Jack, Stephon Marbury, Travis Best, Kenny Anderson and, yes, Price.
“I think Javaris is still in that learning curve, so to speak, at that position and at what it takes to really be a great point guard,” Price said. “He came in with more of a shooting-guard mentality, probably at a high school that required him to do a lot of shooting for them to win, but another year or two [at Tech] would really help him tremendously as far as his development in that position.”
Yes, it would, which brings us to a couple of things. First, Anderson is among Crittenton’s idols. “Stephon was great, but I love Kenny, and I watch Kenny Anderson tape all the time,” Crittenton said.
Second, Anderson stayed with the Jackets through his sophomore season. Like model, like disciple?
Which brings us to a final thing. Said a high-ranking NBA scout about the possibility of Crittenton entering the draft now instead of later, “A ton of kids are in his boat. They can roll the dice, and they might go in the first round, or they can roll the dice, and they might go in the second round. But if [Crittenton] sticks around for at least another year, there’s no question he’s a first-rounder, and maybe a high first-rounder.”
Then case closed.
Permalink | Comments (20) | Categories: Terence Moore
Finally, a move to stop the bleeding
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
They have been playing like they’re waiting for something to happen. Maybe somebody makes a trade. Maybe the opposing goalie faints. Maybe the NHL releases a statement: “This exceeds the amount of misery we will tolerate for one franchise. We hereby declare the Atlanta Thrashers a playoff team.”
“You can’t play that way,” Bobby Holik said Saturday when asked if the team needed a trade. “You can’t go to work thinking, ‘Oh, if only somebody else was here.’ “
No, you can’t. But somebody else needed to be here. And finally, somebody is.
Too often low profile at the trade deadline, Thrashers general manager finally made a significant move Saturday. With his team transitioning from first-place wonders to a panicking lot struggling to tread water in the playoff pool, Waddell shipped a piece of the future (prospect defenseman Braydon Coburn) for a piece of today (Philadelphia defenseman Alexei Zhitnik).
Holik neatly summarized the situation after Saturday’s 4-1 loss to Carolina when he said: “Is it good a thing? Yes. He can make a difference. But only if everybody else is doing their job will this trade improve us.”
Something had to be done. At some point, you had to assume that the team that started 23-10-6 might not be coming back. The Thrashers once led the Southeast Division by 10 points. They now trail in the division and lead non-playoff teams by only two.
A trade guarantees nothing. But what it does do is send a message: to the players in the locker room who live to compete, to the people in the stands who have been paying for empty promises, to anybody who has witnessed Waddell do little or nothing in the past, even when an SOS has slapped him on the head.
Coburn is about tomorrow. Zhitnik is about now. That’s the way it’s supposed to work. This franchise hasn’t had nearly enough “nows.”
Zhitnik can carry the puck. He will provide immediate help on the power play. Of his 91 career goals, 45 have come on the power play. All we know about Coburn is he can’t play in the NHL now, and he hasn’t looked as advertised.
Why wait? There has been too much waiting. Waddell in the past has been overly concerned about “mortgaging the future.” Apparently, the message finally got through: Dude, if you don’t improve this team, there’s a good chance you have no future. The Thrashers had as much chance of winning with tomorrow’s prospects as the Hawks have of winning with today’s salary cap space.
“We’ve all talked about the future for so long,” Waddell said, “but our future is present.”
In doing so, he took on a player who will make $3.5 million annually for two more seasons. For that, Atlanta Spirit owners should be commended for taking on salary.
There has been this concern about overpaying in a trade. But how long do you watch every team around you “overpay” and do nothing? Maybe Nashville overpaid for Peter Forsberg. But sometimes you have to overpay for the upside. It’s the upside that enables you to separate yourself from the field.
Nobody said trying to win came without risk. Indeed, risk should be the mandate.
Against Carolina, the Thrashers committed too many turnovers in the defensive end and forced too few in the offensive zone. Still, they trailed only 2-1 and had a power play with 8:43 left. Then they whiffed, and a blocked shot led to a rush going the other way and a goal.
“With the power play, you’re out there to give momentum to your team, not to close a casket,” coach Bob Hartley said.
Zhitnik can make a difference. At 34, he’s not the player he was early in his career with Buffalo. But he immediately becomes this team’s biggest threat on the back line.
The Thrashers once were 13 games over .500. They are 8-13-4 since. Even with the unraveling, they could have made the playoffs without a trade. But merely qualifying for the postseason shouldn’t stamp this season as a success. There is a chance to do more.
A trade assures nothing. But doing nothing projects less.
Permalink | Comments (16) | Categories: Jeff Schultz, Thrashers / NHL
Legend of Maravich worth telling twice
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Furman Bisher
It has been nearly 20 years since Pete Maravich, after a little recreational half-court game with some new friends, said to one of them, “I feel great,” then suddenly dropped to the floor. Dead.
Twenty years. Then suddenly coming forth this wintry season two books about Peter Press Maravich (his real name). One titled “Pistol: The Life of Pete Maravich,” the other “Maravich.” Neither reaching for a headline in the tabloids, each calmly telling a story to a generation that missed it. Two guys, Marshall Terrill and Wayne Federman, have enlisted the consultations of Jackie, Pete’s widow, now remarried. The other, Mark Kriegel, wings it alone. In the case of the Maravichs, there is more than enough to go around. Pete’s father, Press, was a smoldering Serbian whose life eventually rotated around Pete. Pete’s mother, a troubled woman, committed suicide. His brother was at one time a Marine, and another time a bartender.
You will read in one place or another, over and over, that there never has been another basketball player like Pete Maravich. Behind- the-back, through-the-legs passer, make a basketball do things that a pool shark does with a cue. He lived life from one extreme to the other. He set records as a player at LSU that will never be threatened, much less tied.
“He could do anything humanly possible with the basketball,” Bill Fitch, the former NBA coach, said. He grew up mainly in the South, when his dad coached at N.C. State, Clemson and LSU. He was his father’s project, and his meal ticket. It is said that as Press lay dying of cancer, about eight months before Pete’s death, Pete leaned into Press’ ear and said, “I’ll see you soon.”
By this time Pete had found his faith and turned down no opportunity to spread The Word.
Now, let me take you back to the year 1968, when he was riding the crest at LSU. Games I’d seen him play, shots I’d seen him make, such as the “impossible” 50-footer that beat Georgia in overtime, set him aside from anyone who’d ever touched a basketball. So in the course of pursuing a story for Sport magazine, I found him moody, wary of strange people who only wanted to look at him, and closely attached to his brother Ronnie, not an uplifting influence, in the words of Bud Johnson, the sports information at LSU.
“The way he’s going,” Johnson said of Pete, “I doubt that he’ll live to be 30 years old.”
After LSU, Atlanta was next. The NBA and ABA were at war, and Pete had signed a fat contract with Tom Cousins, who was trying to give downtown Atlanta a sports transfusion. That was largely through the influence of Bob Kent, Cousins’ point man and an old friend of Press Maravich.
But Atlanta was no bed of roses. Pete didn’t get along with Cotton Fitzsimmons, the coach, and it was obvious some black Hawks players resented him for his fat contract and his “Globetrotter style.” After saying, “When I die, I want to die in Atlanta,” he was traded to New Orleans and later to the Celtics, and the beat went on. This game, at which he felt like a circus performer, did not bring him peace of mind. “I sold my soul to basketball,” he said at one time.
Earlier, he had told a sportswriter in Pennsylvania, “I don’t want to play 10 years in the NBA, then drop dead of a heart attack at 40.”
It was an amazing premonition. Here was a man who had everything but a missing artery. “There’s something wrong with me. I can’t figure it out, ” he’d said not long before he collapsed.
It turned out that he had been born with only one major artery where there should have been two. Doctors were amazed that he hadn’t fallen out when he was young. But now he was 40, had flown to Pasadena to appear with the evangelist, Dr. James Dodson. First, there was a little recreational game to be played on a court in the Church of the Nazarene. Pete hadn’t touched a ball in a few months. Even so, he dominated the game, “outclassing everybody,” one the players said. It was during a break that Dr. Dodson asked, “How are you feeling now?”
And Pete answered, “I feel great.”
He had met the fate he feared, playing 10 years in the NBA and falling dead at 40. Take your pick. One book tells it about as well as the other. Best part is that Pete found out what was real in life.
Permalink | Comments (21) | Categories: Furman Bisher, Hawks / NBA
A renaissance man who happens to play hoops
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
Let’s get the minor stuff out of the way involving Dikembe Mutombo Mpolondo Mukamba Jean Jacque Wamutombo. He still is very tall at 7 feet 2, and despite spending his 15th NBA season on 40-year-old legs, he still is very good as the hidden star of the Houston Rockets.
Now on to the major stuff.
For instance: Exactly a month and a day ago, Mutombo was in such a rush to leave a practice in Houston for a 1,220-mile plane trip that he couldn’t change his clothes until he reached his destination.
Actually, before Mutombo arrived at the House chamber of the U.S. Capitol for the State of the Union Address, he took a detour to the White House. “From where I was changing, you could see the President’s desk in the Oval Office,” said Mutombo, adding his famously deep chuckle Friday at Philips Arena, where his nine points, 12 rebounds and three blocks couldn’t keep his previously streaking team from a 105-99 loss to the Hawks.
The House Chamber? The U.S. Capitol? The State of the Union Address?
The White House?
Who is this guy, and why can’t we have more folks like him in sports to replace all of these knuckleheads? “What Dikembe stands for, especially coming from [the Democratic Republic of the Congo, formerly Zaire], it could have been easy for him to leave that situation and come to America and be as successful as he’s been and forget where he came from,” said Steve Smith, a Hawks television analyst, who teamed with Mutombo on those efficient Hawks teams from the mid-1990s to the start of the new millennium. Sometimes, Smith and Mutombo discussed picks and rolls away from the locker room. Mostly, they spoke about everything else.
That’s because Mutombo is a renaissance man who just happens to play hoops. He would be a medical physician today, but after he arrived at Georgetown on an academic scholarship as a pre-med major, John Thompson talked him into dribbling for the Hoyas and beyond.
Even so, Mutombo already has a plaque in the Hall of Fame of Philanthropy. Among the slew of Mutombo’s beneficence, there is the pending opening of his 300-bed hospital and research center in his native Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo. “It’s a journey just for him to get back home,” Smith said. “You’ve got customs, and you have to get a bunch of shots. I’ve seen him go back and forth to his native home three or four times a summer, and that’s not an hour flight.”
The same goes for a flight from Houston to Washington D.C. It takes three hours, but Mutombo couldn’t care less after he accepted a last-minute invitation from the Big Guy. This was after Mutombo took the first of three calls from the White House on his cellphone. The first call was short, vague and scary. “They asked me how the hospital was coming along, and I said, ‘It’s coming along very well. Hopefully, the opening will be July 15,’ ” Mutombo said. “Then they asked me if I’m an American citizen, and I said, ‘Yes.’ Then it was like, ‘Oh, well. We’ll talk to you later.’ I’m like, ‘What’s going on? What did I do? I don’t have any problem with the IRS.’ “
All the White House wanted was for Mutombo to attend the State of the Union Address as the President’s guest and to stay mum about it. The next thing you know, Mutombo was getting escorted from the airport to the White House by a bunch of secret-service agents. “The blue lights were flashing, the sirens were going, and I was thinking, ‘I’m on a different level,’ ” Mutombo recalled. Then, after that quick change at 1600 Pennsylvania, he was off to Capitol Hill. He was placed next to Laura Bush, the President’s wife.
Moments later, George W. Bush spoke in his address about Mutombo’s prolific work in Africa, and the Big Guy got a rousing ovation. Not the Big Guy at the podium, but the one who is helping to push the Rockets among the NBA elite when he isn’t helping to save the world.
Permalink | | Categories: Hawks / NBA, Terence Moore
Fight league seeks its place in sports scene
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
As much as we would like to think the human race has come a long way over the last several million years, we really haven’t changed that much. We threw rocks at T-Rex and laughed when he blamed the dinosaur next to him. We rubbed two sticks together and burned down trees. We stared when the first Edsel hit an oak tree and thought, “Cool.” Evolution pretty much stopped right there.
Today, we can watch four major sports and notable peripherals at the pro, college and lingering amateur levels. But what sells? Mayhem.
Tonight, something called the International Fight League is being staged at the Gwinnett Arena. The IFL is one of several mixed martial arts competition leagues, ranging from the pay-per-view Nirvana of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) to the lesser known “World Extreme Cagefighting.”
Rubber mallets and sling blades are optional.
There’s an old Far Side cartoon above my desk. It depicts a dinosaur addressing a conference of his brotherhood, saying, “The picture’s pretty bleak, gentlemen. The world’s climates are changing, the mammals are taking over and we all have a brain about the size of a walnut.”
If only the morons hadn’t stumbled into the tar pits looking for a drink, they’d be running the planet by now.
Then again, at least we know how to market and merchandise. The IFL, which is the only MMA competition in a team format, began only last year. This will make nine shows, and it’s already a publicly traded company. “IFLI” opened at $2 a share over the counter. It closed Thursday at ($11.66).
The league also has television rights deals with Fox Sports Net and MyNetwork (formerly UPN). Gary Bettman must have IFL-envy.
When league co-founder Kurt Otto says, “We’re here to stay,” there’s no reason to doubt him. Several sports once considered a curiosity (morbid or otherwise) have long since become mainstream. We cite: The X-games.
When asked why MMA has exploded, he recites the standard industry answer: “If you’re driving down the street and there’s four corners, and on one they’re playing hockey, on another they’re playing football, on another they’re playing [soccer], and on another there’s two dudes duking it out, what are you gonna watch? It goes back to the Romans. You want to go to the ring to see who prevails.”
The IFL really is international. Three of its 12 teams are based in Tokyo, Toronto and Russia (although local fill-ins often round out the card). But there are no real “home” games. This is more of a traveling road show, the idea being to spread the word as quickly as possible.
So tonight in Duluth, we have the Chicago Redbears vs. New York Pitbulls, and the Toronto Dragons vs. Portland Wolfpack. We market. We merchandise.
Otto: “All of the teams are named after vicious animals of prey.”
Just in case you thought “Dragons” were indigenous to Toronto.
Each team has competitors in five weight classes. Bouts are three four-minute rounds. In an attempt to broaden the fan base, gore has been minimized. Head-splitting, concussive-rendering elbows and the like are not allowed. Matches are held in a ring, not a cage.
It’s a new sports landscape. Boxing is off the radar. It shot itself in the foot for decades, until it finally ran out of feet. But the IFL retains some of boxing’s artistic side and off-beat characters.
Among tonight’s competitors is Peter Kaljevic. He is 5-foot-9, 155 and 43 years old, but don’t tell anybody about the age. He was born in 1963, but when he defected from the former Yugoslavia in 1984, he was given a passport with a birth year of 1968.
“They made a mistake on my papers but I said, ‘Don’t fix it, maybe it will make my career longer,’” he said, laughing.
Kaljevic enjoyed karate and kick boxing as a youth. But mostly he played a lot of chess. “Eight hours a day,” he said. “My father made me. It was very hard.”
He actually defected during a chess tournament in Philadelphia. He never warned his family because he wasn’t sure he would go through with it. For a month, he slept on park benches and showered at a gym. He eventually moved to New York.
His first job: as a bouncer at a club. “If I didn’t try to stop the fights, I wouldn’t get paid,” he said. “It was a mess.”
Other odd jobs followed, then boxing and kick boxing. Brief commentary: “Boxing promoters treat you like a prostitute.”
Mo Fozi, a 28-year-old former boxer from London, agrees. Fozi soured on boxing when he lost a Golden Gloves bout in New York. “It was a controversial decision,” he said. (Go figure.)
“Boxing is not what it used to be — it’s a lost cause,” he said. “The thing with MMA and the IFL is all of their best guys are fighting each other. That doesn’t happen in boxing.”
Otto claims several IFL fighters earn salaries and bonuses totaling “$45,000 to six figures.” Fozi: “I’ve heard that. But truthfully I’m not at that point. I make a couple of thousand a night.” So he delivers and installs kitchen cabinets in Queens.
Jim Abrille is another non-salaried fighter tonight. Promoters wanted a local product so they found Abrille, who manages a “Knuckle Up” fitness and martial arts studio in Midtown.
This will be Abrille’s first IFL bout, although he is a veteran of MMA events. The 31-year-old even competed in something called, “King of the Cage,” calling that “a little more barbaric,” than the IFL.
“The King of the Cage was like a UFC event,” Abrille said. “They allowed any kind of submission, joint manipulation, elbows, shoulders, knees, chokeholds. Probably the worst thing you could do was attack the spine.
“The strangest thing to me was how they made it such a spectacle. With the lights and the cameras, I couldn’t see anything until I got to the cage. Then you hear that cage lock.”
Fear not. Abrille won in 37 seconds. He tore a tendon in his finger but twisted his opponent’s leg until he submitted.
“It seems like they have made the IFL much more like a sport,” he said.
Hopefully that won’t hurt the gate.
Permalink | Comments (2) | Categories: Jeff Schultz
Mark Bradley’s Friday Fallout
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
Every Friday until the end of the regular season, Mark looks at who’s up, who’s down and what you should be watching as the countdown continues to the Final Four in Atlanta.
THE TOP SEEDS
If the season ended today, here’s what the top four seeds in each region should look like:
SAN ANTONIO
1: Florida
2: Kansas
3: Memphis
4: Virginia Tech
SAN JOSE
1: UCLA
2: Wisconsin
3: Georgetown
4: Nevada
EAST RUTHERFORD
1: North Carolina
2: Pittsburgh
3: Washington St.
4: Butler
ST. LOUIS
1: Ohio State
2: Texas A&M
3: S. Illinois
4: UNLV
RISING: Louisville
Louisville was 12-6 on Jan. 19 without a single victory
of significance. The Cardinals have since won eight of 10 to rise to third place in the Big East. Winning at Pittsburgh and at Marquette last week, the latter on a 3-pointer at the horn, punched the ‘Ville’s NCAA ticket.
FALLING: Oregon
The month began with Oregon challenging UCLA atop the Pac-10. Heading into Thursday night’s game against Washington State, the Ducks had won only once in February, and three consecutive losses, the most recent a 19-point thrashing at Stanford, had put even an NCAA bid in peril.
WHAT WE’RE WATCHING
• WISCONSIN AT OHIO STATE, 4 p.m. Sunday, CBS
It’s still No. 1 against No. 1, even though the Badgers, who top the AP poll, lost Tuesday at Michigan State, and even though the Buckeyes, who head the coaches’ poll, had to rally to beat a terrible Penn State team the next night. Wisconsin won the first meeting 72-69 on Jan. 9.
MID-MAJOR OF THE WEEK: Winthrop
Winthrop won at Missouri State over BracketBuster weekend and then rallied from an 11-point halftime deficit to beat High Point and clinch the Big South regular-season title. The Eagles are 24-4, their losses coming at North Carolina, Maryland, Wisconsin and Texas A&M.
NAMES TO KNOW: Nevada’s Ramon Sessions and Marcelus Kemp
Center Nick Fazekas is the big man on the Nevada campus, but junior guards Kemp and Sessions are essential. Kemp is the WAC’s third-leading scorer; Sessions is third in assists. They led the Wolf Pack to two January road wins after Fazekas sprained his ankle.
FUN WITH NUMBERS
VMI averages a best-in-the-nation 103 points. The rampaging Keydets, alas, are only 12-17. Their opponents, see, average 99.6 points. VMI is only 10-7 in games where it has scored 100-plus points, including 122-117 and 118-108 losses to Liberty, which is 13-16.
Permalink | Comments (6) | Categories: Final Four, Mark Bradley
Wrecks spoil NASCAR fun
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
An awful lot of people got really excited about the climax of the Daytona 500 — the rampant wrecking, Clint Bowyer’s car going upside down and catching on fire, Kevin Harvick edging Mark Martin at the finish line. And I’ll admit it was a spectacle. But I’m sort of weird. I’m a guy who doesn’t like it when they wreck.
I like it when they drive.
The fascinating part of this Daytona was, at least to me, watching from on high as Tony Stewart went from 40th place (after a near-wreck on pit road and a subsequent speeding penalty) to first. I watched him every lap — I’ll admit that riding with Stewart at Atlanta Motor Speedway last fall and living to write another day made me something of a fan — and I can’t say that I’ve ever seen more skill displayed at any sporting event.
He was passing cars two, even three, at a time. He was reeling in the leaders like Quint hooking Jaws. (OK, maybe not the best example, since Jaws wound up dining on Quint.) The man regarded as the best pure driver on the circuit was motoring like the best pure driver in the history of the automobile, and when he took the lead I felt like justice had been served.
And then he wrecked. He and Kurt Busch got tangled in Turn 4, and Stewart hit the wall not far from where Dale Earhardt hit on that fateful day exactly six years earlier. A bunch of stuff would happen after that — the wrecks and the flaming finish and whatnot — but for me the oomph went out of the race when Stewart crashed. Like I said: I’m weird.
Permalink | Comments (8) | Categories: Mark Bradley, Quick Hit
Jackets show some toughness
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
No more excuses. At this point, with February evolving into March, it shouldn’t be about whether Georgia Tech’s athletically gifted basketball team will make the NCAA tournament. It should be about how much the Yellow Jackets will boogey once they reach the Big Dance.
The Jackets should get there, because there are no more excuses. Well, not that they’ve spent their rollercoaster of a season whining about the mighty peaks, significant dips and crazy swerves along the way. It’s just that, if you’re associated with this streaking bunch, and if you wish to make sure the initials for your postseason tournament are “NCAA” instead of “NIT,” you find a way no matter what down the stretch of the regular season to do what you have to do.
You spend Wednesday night, for instance, using the aggressive Thaddeus Young to splatter Wake Forest across the floor of Alexander Memorial Coliseum for much of the game. Then, when the Demon Deacons leap from the dead midway through the second half to turn a 17-point blowout into a four-point squeaker, you respond with everybody to bury your visitors and seal a 75-61 victory.
Nobody carried a bigger shovel for the Jackets during their spurt to 18-9 overall and 6-7 in the conference than Javaris Crittenton, the splendid point guard, just months removed from Southwest Atlanta Christian Academy. When Wake Forest sliced things to 56-52 inside with nearly eight minutes left to play, Crittenton joined his teammates in showing that they definitely get it.
They got tougher.
“Day by day, game by game, we’re getting better, even though we lost to Duke,” said Crittenton, referring to Tech’s only loss in its past six games. Against Wake Forest, he helped the Jackets return to prominence by doing just about everything (22 points, nine assists, six rebounds).
Added Crittenton, “Even when we lose right now, we’re a different team. A while back, even myself, I would hold my head for a while. Not too long, but I wasn’t used to losing, and I wasn’t used to not playing great a lot of times. Now you have to have a short memory, and you have to grind. I know that I’m young, but I’m learning. We’re all learning a lot.”
In other words, the Jackets have no more excuses, but the ones that they had in the past were legitimate.
Anthony Morrow was Tech’s leading scorer last season, but he missed three weeks of practice recovering from a stress fracture in his lower back. He’s healthy now. You had a roster full of baby Jackets. Entering Wednesday night’s game, for instance, only visiting Wake Forest and North Carolina had more games started by freshmen than Tech’s total of 66. It’s just that, after 27 games overall, including 13 in the ACC, those baby Jackets should be dribbling as adolescent Jackets or beyond. Said Crittenton, chuckling, “Given what we’ve already gone through [during the ACC schedule], you might as well look at us as being sophomores.”
Speaking of the ACC, it’s nearly as rough as always, but if you’re truly a contender, which the Jackets’ talent says that they should be, you find a way.
You find a way, even with your final three games between now and the conference tournament against Virginia, North Carolina and Boston College, all among the ACC’s elite. You find a way, because only the Virginia game is on the road.
You find a way since you really haven’t a choice. After all, the Jackets destroyed Wake Forest on Ash Wednesday, a time for many among the religious to sacrifice something for 40 days.
Which brings us to a sign that was held in the middle of the Tech student section: “I gave up losing for lent.”
Forty days. That would take the Jackets right through the end of March and the Final Four at the Georgia Dome.
Hmmmm.
Permalink | Comments (18) | Categories: Tech / ACC, Terence Moore
Blank doesn’t see character problems
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
Arthur Blank doesn’t feel his Falcons are careening down the same slippery slope as the Cincinnati Bengals, who had nine players arrested in nine months. “I wouldn’t compare us to the Bengals,” Blank said Wednesday. “I think all their players have been convicted. [Actually, not all have.] Michael [Vick] was never convicted of anything. Jonathan [Babineaux] hasn’t been convicted of anything.”
That said, two messy headlines — Vick investigated after the water-bottle incident in the Miami airport, and now Babineaux charged with felony cruelty to animals — in five weeks haven’t cast the rosiest of auras on Blank’s pride and joy. It was just last week that he spoke glowingly to the Atlanta Press Club of the charity work — more than any other team in the NFL, he claimed — his players do. Is there a disconnect between that gauzy image and a grimmer reality?
“Whenever there’s any kind of trouble, whether it’s perceived or real, it’s an issue for me,” Blank said. “These young men are role models.”
One thing Blank won’t do is cut Babineaux before the case has reached its disposition. “Most assuredly, no. There’s this thing called the legal process that’s even above the NFL and sports. Are we concerned? Yes, we are, and we’ll deal with the issue.”
But not, he emphasized, by making the defensive lineman a sacrifice to public opinion. “That would be the worst possible thing we could do,” Blank said. “It would be a slap in the face to the judicial system. Making the concession of throwing somebody on the fire would be the worst thing for our organization and the worst thing for Atlanta.”
Of Babineaux’s case, Blank said: “I don’t know what the facts are. He’s one player of a large number on our roster … I’ve known him for the last couple of years; he was a second-round draft pick. He’s very quiet. He has never been any trouble, and from what I understand he has a good relationship with the young woman [girlfriend Blair Anderson, whose pit bull Kilo wound up dead Sunday night].”
Nothing about these last five weeks, Blank said, should be seen as indictment of the Falcons’ screening process. “All of the players we draft or sign as free agents are graded on character on-field and off-the-field. That’s a unilateral feeling on the part of Bobby Petrino and Rich McKay and myself. And as [players] process through their NFL careers, we try to help them deal with issues … so they can go from being put on a pedestal to having a platform… . That’s true whether it’s No. 7 or No. 57 or No. 97.”
Regarding Vick and the Miami investigation: “Michael was cleared. I don’t think having a trick water bottle means we drafted poorly. Michael does not have a history of bad behavior.”
Earlier this month NFL commissioner Roger Goodell used his state-of-the-league address to lament the number of untoward incidents involving players. “We are raised to a higher standard in the NFL,” Goodell told reporters. “We must make sure the players are more accountable and our clubs are more accountable… . One incident is too many in my book. I think we need to re-evaluate all of our programs.”
Blank believes his franchise more than meets Goodell’s behavioral mandate. “I absolutely think we’re ahead of the curve. It’s an important part of the mission of our organization, and that starts with me… . I tell our players all the time that they’re going to be remembered as what kind of citizens they were when they were playing… . We’re dealing with young men who don’t always have positive experiences in their lives.”
And yes, since you asked, Arthur Blank is a lover of canines. “I’ve had dogs all my life,” he said, laughing. “I have a golden retriever named Shayna — it means ‘beautiful’ in Hebrew.”
Please return Thursday morning to add your comments.
Permalink | Comments (169) | Categories: Falcons / NFL, Mark Bradley
Storming the court’s prickly
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
Those among the sellout crowd Tuesday night at Breslin Center in East Lansing, Mich., lost their minds after Michigan State’s basketball team upset No. 1-ranked Wisconsin and stormed the court.
Good thing Michigan State plays in the Big Ten. If the Spartans were in the SEC, they would get spanked any day now by the league with a hefty fine for not keeping their spectators under control.
Just ask Vanderbilt, which was zapped for $25,000 this week for violating the SEC’s “no-storming the court or the field” policy for a second time since its debut in December 2004.
Vanderbilt fans had stormed the court after their Commodores defeated then No.1-ranked Florida.
Who’s right? Is it the Big Ten for letting fans be fans, or is it the SEC for deciding to crack down on these traditional celebrations to protect the safety of both the participants and the spectators?
I’ll side with . . .
I don’t know.
Can’t we just all get along?
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Will Vanderbilt take donations at gate?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Furman Bisher
FOR WHAT IT’S WORTH: Vanderbilt? Fined $25,000 because students stormed the floor after the Commodores beat Florida, No. 1 in NCAA basketball at the time? Grounds for exuberance, wouldn’t you say, and by the most intelligent student body in the SEC? What about those celebrants who storm the field and rip down goalposts after their team has won a big one? Are they fined $25,000? … And whatever became of Randy Johnson, the Falcons’ first quarterback?
• Offhand, wouldn’t you have to say that Troy Smith’s shabby performance in the BCS Championship Bowl diminishes the status of the Heisman Trophy? Thirty-five yards on offense for the player voted best in the nation? There is no Best Player in the Nation, there are several of them, and Smith isn’t the first Heisman winner to fall on his face. But the ballyhoo will go on.
• Dan Magill, who has been watching tennis players since racquet frames were wooden, says the hardest serve he has ever seen may now be found at Georgia, delivered by John Isner, a Bulldogs senior. Makes it seems as if he’s serving from a podium. He’s 6 feet, 9 inches tall. (And, he’s a journalism major.)
• Mark Wilson is a man of his word. The PGA Tour player promised a percentage of his earnings to the Midwestern Athletes Against Childhood Cancer Fund, and he delivered $30,000. Not that he had a lot to spare. The Wisconsite earned $444,318, but he’ll have to go back to qualifying school.
• Television golf isn’t off to a roaring start this year, even when it switches from the Golf Channel to one of the networks. During the third round of the AT&T at Pebble Beach, in which those showpersons were still playing, the rookie John Mallinger was hanging in second place — at one time holding the lead — but CBS never showed him hitting a shot. Lots of George Lopez, Ray Romano, some guy named Kevin James, and a goofball named Danny Gans, but never a shot of the guy in Phil Mickelson’s shadow. Worst day of golf TV ever to pass before my eyes.
• Russell Baze has won more races than any jockey in the USA, passed Laffit Pincay Jr. awhile back, and Shoemaker and Longden and all the rest. But his fame is limited, for Baze hardly ever rides east of the Rockies. He’s a West Coast guy who rarely ever rode in Triple Crown races. He had his territory, and he stuck to it.
• Bobby Ross’ unexpected retirement from West Point football is one of the saddest stories of the year. He hadn’t been interested when the offer first came up, he said, “My wife changed my mind. She said she thought it was duty to my country.” The Rosses have been busy in the military for years, beginning with Bobby’s playing career at Virginia Military. Four years at Army was enough to convince him of the futility of it.
• Longest hole-in-one in golf has been stretched out, and confirmed. A college student in Hawaii, Brett Nelson, knocked it in from 448 yards on a course named Ko’olow on the Big Island. Must have been downhill, or on a paved fairway. A baseball pitcher named Lou Kretlow once nailed one from 427 yards, on a course suffering from a drought.
• For Pete’s sake, are you getting as tired of this annual Roger Clemens Name-Your Team Derby as I am?
• It happened that the day our astronauts first landed on the moon, Pat Jarvis pitched the only shutout of his career, and one of his Braves teammates was moved to say, “I always said the day Pat Jarvis pitched a major league shutout, man would walk on the moon.” … Selah.
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Johnson has his second thoughts
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
Lake Buena Vista, Fla. — Kelly Johnson doesn’t feel like a second baseman. “Not yet,” he said. “I don’t think I can stake that claim until I get a few games in.”
To recap: Drafted as a shortstop in 2000, Johnson was moved to the outfield in the minor leagues; he arrived in the majors in 2005 as a left fielder; he missed nearly all of last season after surgery on his right elbow, and now he’s considered the front-runner to become the Braves’ everyday second baseman. That’s a heap of upheaval in a ridiculously short time, and occasionally Johnson feels dizzy from the motion.
Over the winter, he worked with coach Glenn Hubbard, once a second baseman of distinction himself, and Johnson would often feel he was turning double plays with all the grace of Herman Munster. So Hubbard would roll tape of Marcus Giles, whose departure created the positional void, working with shortstop Edgar Renteria. Said Johnson: “Every time I’d do something, it wouldn’t look good. I’d feel shaky. And then I’d watch the tape and see I didn’t have to be perfect.”
Most professional athletes have an arrogance about themselves and their physical capabilities. (“Beat Dwyane Wade in H-O-R-S-E? Sure, I can do that.”) Johnson is more circumspect, more given to doubt. The Braves feel strongly that he can make the switch. “If I brought a scout in here right now, he’d say, ‘He looks like a second baseman,’ ” Hubbard said, “and gradually the man himself is coming to share that conviction.
“I’ve always thought second base would be a good position for me,” said Johnson, who last manned the spot as a high school freshman. “Sometimes I’d wonder in the back of my head if I should have made the change [to second] in the first place.”
He’s there now, and moments of disorientation are sure to come. “The thing between the shortstop and the second baseman, who’s going to cover the bag on a steal, I know there’s going to be times the shortstop will say, ‘Hey, hey! Pay attention!’ ”
And he realizes taking grounders from Hubbard isn’t the same as fielding balls launched by big-league hitters. “I’m ready for games to start, so it’s not just punters and kickers down here.”
The first full-squad workout is Wednesday.
Manager Bobby Cox has seen enough of Johnson to think he can handle second base — “When you’ve played shortstop, you can move to or from any position” — but not enough to hand him the job. “He’s got to earn it. [Martin] Prado is in there, too, and nobody ever talks about Peter Orr.”
From an organizational standpoint, the Braves would prefer Johnson because he represents the best offensive option. “He was our top hitting prospect,” Cox said. “He takes a walk, he’s got power, and he can run. He’s too good a hitter not to be playing.”
And if Johnson can handle second base, he’d also fill the hole atop the batting order. Cox again: “If he would be the guy to win the job, he would lead off.”
In sum, there’s much at stake for Johnson and his team this spring. His rehabbed arm is coming along nicely, although there are some throws he hasn’t yet tried. He’s trying not to feel like a novice, even though he’s fully aware that’s what he is.
“Some guys, it doesn’t matter where you put them,” said Johnson, who turns 25 on Thursday. “Like [the Angels’] Chone Figgins. They’re freak athletes. But for the average person, [changing positions] is harder than people think.”
That said, he believes his winter’s work has prepared him. “I probably feel more comfortable than I did [playing left field] my first year in the big leagues. Maybe it was because guys were bigger and stronger and hitting the ball a lot harder, but I lost confidence that year.”
He needs not lose any now. The Braves need Johnson to fill the vacancy opened when Giles was allowed to leave. They need him to make them look smart.
They need him to believe in himself the way they believe in him.
Permalink | Comments (20) | Categories: Braves / MLB, Mark Bradley
A bunch of trouble for Brady
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
THE TUESDAY COUNTDOWN…
10: I’ve had a million conversations with Evander Holyfield - in gyms, hotel rooms, at his kitchen table. The conversations often turn to kids, and sometimes his past problems with infidelity. Because of his very public religious beliefs, some perceive him as a fraud. Fact is, he’s anything but a fraud. He’s merely flawed — like the rest of us. Which gets back to what Holyfield would always say about having so many kids out of wedlock: “I’ve made mistakes. I never told anybody I was perfect. I’m just a man.”
9: Tom Brady: Welcome to the Just A Flawed Man Club.
8: When Brady’s former girlfriend, Bridget Moynahan, announced she was with child, Mr. Perfect was at a fashion show in France on the arm of Victoria’s Secret boom boom girl Gisele Bundchen. Brady’s fans are putting this one on her because that’s what fans do. But if he doesn’t take a significant public hit for this, something’s wrong. And, yes, I’ll play the race card: To what extent does being white and Mr. Apple pie allow him to skate publicly?
7: Jonathan Babineaux got mad at his dog. Turns out Babineaux smelled a dark particulate behind a trap door in the dog’s water bowl.
6: On a related note, a TV station reports the dog is dead, thereby opening a roster spot on the offensive line.
5: If the Falcons let Patrick Kerney get away, a locker room that already woefully lacks leadership will get even worse.
4: I understand the general safety concerns, but the SEC’s decision to fine Vanderbilt $25,000 for not better preventing fans from storming the court in celebration following a win over Florida seems excessive. First of all, it’s a celebration - college sports at its best. Secondly - it’s Vanderbilt!
3: Prediction: The Thrashers will make the playoffs even if Don Waddell doesn’t make a trade. They just won’t do anything when they get there.
2: The Hawks will have a salute to “Bald Guyz” at their game Wednesday night (and no, wiseguy, I wasn’t invited). A press release refers to it as a “record-setting event,” which begs the question: If a Wednesday night Hawks game can draw that many bald guys, why can’t the team have a salute to point guards? Or centers? Or general managers?
1: I know Britney Spears has lost it, but did she have to shave her head just to go to a Hawks game?
Permalink | Comments (40) | Categories: Jeff Schultz, Quick Hit
Bonds can’t escape asterisk
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
Some things can’t be stopped: The circus will officially open today when Barry Bonds has his first workout of the spring in the most scrutinized of his 22 seasons.
Some things are inevitable: Barring an exploding appendage, Bonds will hit at least 22 home runs this season and claim sports’ most cherished record, reducing Henry Aaron, the personification of honesty and dignity, to second-best.
So let’s move on.
Bud Selig, the commissioner of baseball, played verbal footsie two weeks ago when he said he wasn’t sure if he would be present when Bonds hits his 756th home run. But this would be a difficult situation for any commissioner, let alone one that makes Charlie Brown look like a Type-A personality.
Some things are obvious: Selig’s not going to take an official position on Bonds. Why? Because while he knows what we all know, he doesn’t have proof. Bonds might be the greatest baseball player in history, but his statistics — like his arms, his chest, his legs and his cranium — were artificially enhanced for at least four to five seasons.
So what to do?
Nothing. Move on. Because the rhetoric is a wasted exercise. Because we’ll always know the truth. Because regardless of how many home runs Barry Bonds hits, history will judge him as most outside of San Francisco judge him now.
Bonds has been the poster boy for the drug era. That’s probably unfair. He isn’t/wasn’t the lone juicer. He’s probably not even the biggest, just the most notorious. We’re never really going to know about him or almost anybody. George Mitchell can’t even get anybody to say what Jose Canseco already has and what two San Francisco Chronicle reporters already revealed.
But years from now, we’ll read records and see highlights and watch Hall of Fame inductions from some players in the steroid era and we’ll view it all with a mental asterisk.
People, we do it all the time.
Notre Dame, South Carolina and Minnesota all went on probation after Lou Holtz coached there, but the NCAA never found his fingerprints. So he’s innocent? OK. Bill Clinton says he didn’t have sexual relations with Monica Lewinsky. Right. O.J. Simpson: The glove didn’t fit.
We see. We think. We know.
Mark McGwire turns mute at Congressional drug hearings. It’s not what an innocent and retired athlete does. Rafael Palmeiro says he’s drug free, then he tests positive and goes underground. Oops. Jason Giambi apologizes but he never specifies what for. We get it. Brady Anderson hits 16 home runs in 1995, then 50 in 1996. Don’t tell me - protein shakes.
It has been a strange setup for what should be a glorious moment on baseball’s timeline. Word leaked that Bonds tested positive for amphetamines and he immediately responded by throwing a teammate, Mark Sweeney, under the bus. On the Bonds scale, this barely rates. Greg Anderson, his trainer and alleged pal, is in prison because he won’t say anything that might get Bonds in trouble. While Anderson gets bread and water, Bonds gets an $18.5 million contract.
Bonds’ contract contains a clause (possibly unenforceable) voiding the deal if he is indicted for lying to a grand jury in the BALCO case. And Giants owner Peter Magowan was so sheepish about re-signing him that he sent a letter to season ticket holders stating: “Please know I have not taken lightly this particularly controversial and difficult decision.”
In the old days, you just prepared for a celebration by hanging bunting.
Bonds could face perjury charges. There’s also a possibility he will be charged with income tax evasion, violating banking laws and money laundering. You thought using “the cream” was bad. By comparison, that looks like jaywalking.
But any chance of Bonds getting nailed at all is slim. Any chance of proof showing up before he hits home run No. 756 is sleeping with Sasquatch.
The record will fall. Accept it or reject it, but it’s going to happen. When it does, they will cheer in San Francisco and boo or turn away everywhere else.
But Bonds needs to understand this: One momentous swing won’t change how history views the moment. Because we know. We’ll always know.
Permalink | Comments (38) | Categories: Jeff Schultz
Martin’s moment denied
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
Daytona Beach, Fla. — He was supposed to have retired two years ago, but here was the grizzled American racer, about to win the Great American Race for the first time in a life that has spanned 48 years. With one turn to go, Mark Martin led the Daytona 500.
A wreckless race for 153 laps had gone all squirrelly near the end, cars careening and caution flags flying, and the upshot was that Daytona was about to be taken by a part-time driver on his 23rd try. Martin will work a half-schedule for his new employer, Ginn Racing, and how would the cutthroat world of NASCAR — Cheaters ‘R’ Us — react if a semi-retiree won its grandest race?
One turn to go, history at hand. Martin managed to fend off Kyle Busch for the first lap and three-quarters of the green-white-checkered finish, and Busch looked to have the fastest car still running. But then, just as AARP card-holders were about to lift their weary arms in exultation, here came another car screaming around the top of the banked track.
Here came Kevin Harvick, who’d started the last lap in sixth place. Harvick nosed ahead of Martin. Martin nosed back. Behind them, cars began banging and spinning yet again. (Clint Bowyer crossed the finish line on his roof.) Would the caution light wink before Martin and Harvick flashed across the line? Would Martin be declared the winner on a technicality?
“I have no idea what happened behind me,” Martin would say. “From what my spotter said, I was ahead when they started wrecking.”
Then: “Nobody wants to see a grown man cry, and I’m not going to cry about it. [NASCAR] made their decision, and we’re going to live with it.”
NASCAR’s decision: Harvick was the winner. Just how, NASCAR wasn’t quite sure. At first it was believed Harvick had won because he took the checkered flag two-hundredths of a second ahead of Martin. Then, an hour and 50 minutes after the race ended, came this announcement: “When the 07 car [Bowyer] went sideways … the 29 [Harvick] was ahead of the 01 [Martin] and was declared the winner.”
Then, 10 minutes later, came further “clarification”: “The race ended under green.”
So which was it: Green or yellow? Checkered flag or caution light? After such a confused week, you expected clarity? From NASCAR?
As best as anyone could discern, Harvick won by some means, which meant Martin lost, which meant the best possible story of the worst possible week got shredded at the end. Said Harvick: “I knew when I got out of the car, I wasn’t going to be the good guy.”
Said Martin: “I didn’t ask for a win in the Daytona 500. I asked for a chance. I let it get away, and I’m fine with that.”
He’d walked away from Roush Racing after last season — a full year after he was supposed to have walked away from racing, but he delayed his announced retirement — and found new and unexpected semi-employment. He has a new car (a Chevy, as opposed to a Ford) and a new number (01, as opposed to the familiar 6) and a new sponsor (the U.S. Army, as opposed to Viagra). He has never liked restrictor-plate racing, and yet with his new arrangement he came as close to winning Daytona as he ever had. Or ever will.
“I don’t care if Mark Martin wins a championship; he’s a champion,” said Jeff Burton, the third-place finisher. “I don’t care if he ever wins the Daytona 500; he’s a champion. … He’s a world-class individual.”
Someone asked Martin, a runner-up in what would have been the crowning race of a distinguished career, how he’d have felt if Harvick had eased up on the gas and let him win. “No one ever races less,” Martin said. “If that had been the case, it would’ve broken me in half.”
He tried to win and wound up losing. He’s fine with that. But you’ll pardon the NASCAR audience if it feels a bit deflated. After a week of cheating, the improbable sight of Mark Martin in victory lane would have been finer than fine. It would have been a godsend.
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From humble beginnings to this
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Furman Bisher
So NASCAR marches on. What you watched on television from Daytona Beach on Sunday afternoon was about as far removed from the first official NASCAR race as a space ship is from the covered wagon. It was June 19, 1949. Bill France and his partner Alvin Hawkins had come to Charlotte to put on their first race. You will read in the NASCAR press guide that it was run at the local fairgrounds track. It wasn’t.
They bulldozed a track out of the red clay off Wilkinson Boulevard and called it Charlotte Speedway. They already had the name, National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, a geographical designation questioned by a local sports editor, who said, “How can you call it national when you’re not even out of Mecklenberg County?”
“You’ll see,” France said, “you’ll see.”
If there was ever another race run on that track, I can’t recall it, but the first NASCAR race was. Memory thwarts me when I try to remember how many people saw that race. I can’t recall, but I question the record book again when it enthusiastically described the crowd as “tremendous.” Those wooden bleachers would hardly have accommodated a crowd of “tremendous” capacity, all of whom went home wearing a coat of red dust and resin from the raw bleachers on their bottoms.
There were no motor coaches, no cameras, even from the local newspapers, no sexpots (bathing beauties in those days) strutting their stuff, no rock bands, in fact, no bands, but lots of red dust. Everybody spoke English, or a mountain version of it, no Spanish or Japanese as Sunday at Daytona. To enter the race, a fellow simply drove up in his car and plunked down a fee and he raced. At least that’s what Lee Petty, sire of the Level Cross, N.C., clan said.
I’ve also read that Richard Petty, who would have been 11 years old, was there with his papa. Lee said, “I took the family car and a couple of buddies of mine, and we drove over and entered the race.” His car never finished, but came to rest on a hillock above a turn, and Lee opened the door and sat there in a despondent pose. (No crawling through the window then.)
When I later asked him what he was thinking, he said, “I was wondering what I was going to tell my wife where I’d been with that car.”
The race was a sort of trend-setter for NASCAR, right down to this week at Daytona. Glenn Dunaway, a local fellow, finished first, but he was disqualified when something strange was found under the hood. (Sound familiar?) The official winner, then, was the guy who finished second, Jim Roper from Kansas. He never won another NASCAR race.
Pits crews were not certified mechanics, or tire-changers, if indeed, they changed tires, or if they had pits. Organization was not one of the freshly minted NASCAR’s features. In another way it was ahead of its time. There was a woman driver in the field, and Sara Christian finished 14th. Television would have made a big noise about her, but television was barely out of the crib.
Sunday you sat and watched the Daytona 500, utterly amazed at how far stock car racing has come. This, not the Indianapolis 500, in the Super Bowl of auto racing. The big race at the old Speedway now is a stock car race, The Brickyard 400. From that dusty half-mile dirt bowl on Wilkinson Boulevard in Charlotte to King of the Hill. From a few thousand spectators who didn’t mind a nose full of dust to fans as far as you could see at Daytona, thousands and thousands who won’t be out of the parking lot until dawn; racing teams operating out of motorized machine shops that will hit the road at full speed. You see, next Sunday they race in California. Whoever on Wilkinson Boulevard in 1949 ever woulda thunk it?
As this one ended, I’ll confess. I was pulling for Mark Martin. The old man. He would have been a perfect fit for that field in the first NASCAR race in 1949.
Permalink | Comments (8) | Categories: Furman Bisher
Precious little fun, fame for catchers
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
Lake Buena Vista, Fla. — Pitchers and catchers report early: It’s the way of the baseball world. Pitchers need to work their precious arms into shape, and pitching, according to various estimates, is either 75 or 90 percent of the game. So what does that make catching, and why should the poor guys who wear all that unwieldy gear have to be here so soon? Couldn’t the pitchers just throw against a wall?
“Did Brian tell you to ask that question?” said Kyle Davies, one of the Braves’ precious pitchers. “We need to be here,” said Brian McCann, the No. 1 catcher. “It comes with the position. When you’re a catcher, you know what you’re getting yourself into.”
“It’s the nature of the beast,” said Clint Sammons, a rookie catcher who isn’t on the Braves’ 40-man roster but is here already because the team’s many precious pitchers need all the targets they can find. “They might put up some nets [for the pitchers to throw into] or something.”
In spring training, a pitcher throws one session to a catcher every other day or so. A catcher catches four pitchers every blessed day. That’s why the Braves have seven catchers — plus bullpen coach Eddie Perez and bullpen catcher Alan Butts, who also don the unwieldy gear — in camp. Said Bobby Cox: “Catchers take a beating. They’re squatting and getting beat up. It’s bad if they don’t get any recovery time. You especially don’t want your No. 1 guy to get a bone bruise [on his catching hand] because that can last all season. Remember, these guys haven’t caught anybody in a while.”
The catchers remember every time they do a deep knee-bend, which catchers do all the time down here. According to McCann, it takes more than a week just to work through the soreness that comes from the unnatural act of squatting. “This is as much for us,” he said, “as it is for [the precious pitchers].”
Yet what happens after the first official pitcher-catcher workout? Pictures of precious pitchers get splashed on the front of sports sections from coast to coast, and never is there a photo of a poor catcher squatting and straining and wearing his unwieldy gear.
Davies has some sympathy for his battery mates. At Stockbridge High, he pitched and caught. “I’d throw in the bullpen,” he said, “and then I’d go catch everybody else.” Then he got wise and became a full-time pitcher, and now he’s precious himself.
For all that, the catchers insist the time they spend in early camp — they had to report Thursday, while other position players are given five more days’ vacation if they choose to avail themselves — isn’t wasted. They get to take batting practice. They get to do their squatting. They get to remember how thankless their jobs truly are.
“We need to know what kind of stuff the pitchers are throwing,” said Perez, the former catcher who actually rose above his humble position to become the most valuable player of the 1999 NLCS. “I used to catch [Greg] Maddux, and he’d come in with something different every year. The same with [Tom] Glavine.”
Maddux and Glavine won their Cy Youngs and did their TV commercials and are bound for Cooperstown, and what did their receivers receive? “It’s always like that for catchers,” said Perez, deadpan. “We don’t get too much coin. See, pitchers are stupid. They wouldn’t be where they are without us. They make a lot of money, and they never give us any.”
Pitchers and catchers report at the same time, and there the similarity ends. The pitchers get pampered even as they’re working. The poor catchers squat and sweat and grunt. It’s a dirty job, and apparently somebody has to do it. Apparently the precious pitchers would get all huffy if, you know, someone asked them to throw against a wall.
Permalink | Comments (15) | Categories: Braves / MLB, Mark Bradley
Tiger’s presence a make or break
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Furman Bisher
Is it or is it not a warning signal? It isn’t a tournament that has taken the PGA Tour by storm, though it is unique in its own way. Foundation for scoring is the Stableford System, tweaked now and then since The International was first played 21 years ago. “Modified Stableford” it had become, but that’s beside the point.
Well, maybe it isn’t. There is something about it that Tiger Woods doesn’t care for, and therein lies a story. He played at Castle Pines only two times. His best finish was fourth. He didn’t make the cut the other time and never went back. He could have made a difference. As Jack Vickers, the founder and curator of The International, said the other day, “There are the ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots.’ If Tiger Woods doesn’t show up, you’re a ‘have not.’ We didn’t fit into his picture.”
Vickers was speaking up at last rites for The International. He was officially throwing in the towel. He became the first casualty of the “new” tour, the race for the FedEx Cup, the Tour’s unabashed emulation of NASCAR’s holy grail. Vickers had seen The International date switched to the Fourth of July. “Tough timing,” he said. Then he was not able to come up with a title sponsor, one willing to part with $8 million to put its brand on the tournament. It’s not that Vickers is soliciting funds; it’s the principle of the thing.
He’s richly bankrolled. Some refer to him as an “oil baron.” He endowed Jack Nicklaus to build the Castle Pines course, then had to dig deeper when costly renovation became necessary. Players who came to play were treated like royalty. Some didn’t care for the scoring system. One hole could take you out or win the tournament for you — the 17th, for instance, which attracted spectators like a train wreck.
It isn’t often you find a sponsor who exits once the season has begun. PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem did have the moxie to join Vickers for the bailout. They were cordial on the face of it, but deep down Vickers is bitter. The switch in scheduling, the absence of Woods — who’ll travel the planet to play but not to Colorado to support one of the Tour’s generous and creative sponsors — all brought The International down. (Strange, Woods has played in four events overseas, including the Ryder Cup, and hasn’t had a winner, but here in the United States his “streak” is ballyhooed.)
Meanwhile, the tour is taking a tremulous venture into television. So far this year, viewing has been switched around among three networks and three sets of broadcasters. Presumably, the Golf Channel is the home team, but then you find Nick Faldo and Kelly Tilghman, of TGC, mixed in with Johnny Miller, Jim Nantz and various other personnel from NBC and CBS. It all creates sort of muddled viewing. Most surprising of all is that the PGA Tour should marry up with the Golf Channel for 15 years. That’s a long commitment to a channel that’s like a chick just breaking the eggshell.
Up to now, I’d have to say the jury is still out on the Faldo-Tilghman team. They have nothing of the relaxed interchange that Faldo had with Paul Azinger. Tilghman still comes off a bit stiffly, and you are struck with the thought, “Can you imagine 15 years of this?” Maybe I’m just an old turk who has a tough time adjusting to the new.
What you see, I’d surmise, is the PGA Tour trying to create its own world, as has the NFL, and if NASCAR doesn’t already have one in the works, there’s great promise there.
Anyway, this began with the shock of The International breaking ranks. You don’t expect to see a mass bailout, but it does cause one to wonder: What of those seven tournaments on the schedule after the Tour Championship? What future is there in bucking college and NFL football, the World Series and the dash to NASCAR’s Cup?
This is a heavy load for one viewer who is trying to adjust to a newly revised scheme of televised golf, one who has come to the disturbing realization that the presence of one player can be the key to whether a tournament survives or not. Can’t blame Tiger Woods, but that’s the way it is, and it’s alarming.
Permalink | Comments (5) | Categories: Furman Bisher
Briscoe cleared the path for Vick
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
You study the blur on NFL Films, and you see that it is a quarterback weaving between defenders faster than the wind. Although he is short for his position, he still shocks your senses with his legs and his arm behind a creaky offensive line.
I’m talking about …
Well, not him.
“The other guy is just the left-handed Marlin Briscoe,” said the real Marlin Briscoe, 61, chuckling inside the bookstore at Morehouse College. As one of life’s forgotten Jackie Robinsons, Briscoe joined Doug Williams and James Harris on campus this weekend to sign their new book called “Third and a mile: The trials and triumphs of the black quarterback.”
Briscoe took a break to tell of a conversation he had with that left-handed Marlin Briscoe.
You know, Michael Vick.
Let’s return to last July in Los Angeles, where Briscoe and Vick were part of Nike’s brilliantly conceived commercial that featured NFL coaching and playing stars of the past and present. Between filming sessions, Briscoe gave Vick something to watch in a nearby trailer. It was a DVD called “The Field Generals,” and it highlighted the career of Briscoe, along with those of black quarterbacks Warren Moon, Randall Cunningham, Vince Evans, Williams and Harris.
The way Briscoe remembered it, Vick returned from the trailer with wide eyes and a bright smile. “He said, ‘Man, I didn’t know you guys were that good,’ ” Briscoe said. “See, they had never seen [most of ‘The Field Generals’] play, because, in some cases, you’re talking about the late 1960s and the early 1970s. These guys were only kids back then.”
In Vick’s case, he wasn’t around back then. He was born 12 years after Briscoe became the first black starting quarterback in the modern NFL (actually, the AFL at the time). Even so, you have those striking comparisons between Briscoe and Vick. Now here’s one of the striking contrasts: While Vick flashed his middle-fingered hand signal last season at the hometown crowd after his idea of hearing excessive booing, Briscoe just played and prospered while encountering much worse.
The same was true of those other Jackie Robinsons. There were the death threats to Harris, the first black quarterback to lead an NFL team to the playoffs when he did so with the Los Angeles Rams in 1974. There were the racial slurs that Moon’s wife, Felicia, endured while sitting in the stands (home and away) with their kids during the 1980s and watching Moon’s Hall of Fame career with the Houston Oilers.
Mostly, there were tons of black quarterbacks such as Sandy Stephens, Wilburn Hollis and Jimmy Raye who weren’t allowed to battle hate mail or racial slurs. That’s because they weren’t allowed to bring their brilliance as quarterbacks from college to the NFL.
“All of a sudden, when I played for Denver, I never got any mail, and that’s because they were trying to hide the death threats from me,” said Briscoe, who still was abused in other ways. Consider that he was a rookie in 1968, the year of political assassinations, a stirring black protest at the Summer Olympics, violence during Chicago’s Democratic Convention and Vietnam. You also had Briscoe shaking the world — or at least pro football — with a then rookie record 14 touchdown passes for a season. Such a feat by a black quarterback scared many around the league more than it impressed them.
Not coincidentally, Briscoe spent the next eight years in Buffalo, Miami and New England as a wide receiver.
“Aside from Fran Tarkenton, I was able to create a buzz in the league with my running, but being black, I wasn’t accepted,” Briscoe said. “They looked at me as being just a runner, but I don’t know how you can ‘run’ 14 touchdown passes. Mobile quarterbacks, back in those days, were considered a no-no, because people liked the prototypical, dropback passers.”
Sounds like the controversy involving Vick and his backup, Matt Schaub, the traditional quarterback. Sounds like Briscoe was the right-handed Vick.
Permalink | | Categories: Falcons / NFL, Terence Moore
Thrashers crumbling right now
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
On the chance you checked out during the Kamil Piros era and haven’t been following the Thrashers, this should serve as a brief recap of their season:
They went 8-2-3 in October, 8-5-1 in November, 7-4-2 in December and 6-5-2 in January. We call this a downward trend. In retrospect, the mild slippage might now be likened to what happened when Scooby Doo tried to ice skate across a partially frozen lake, only to hear a slight crack, look down and utter, “Rut-roh.”
Because now, in February, it’s no minor crack. The Thrashers are 1-5-1 and about to plunge into the abyss, where they no doubt will bump into floating corpses of past expansion draft picks.
“We threw the cushion away,” Thrashers coach Bob Hartley said of his team’s division lead. “Now we’re sitting on plywood.”
Sitting.
Drifting.
Decomposing.
Hello?
“We’re still in first place,” general manager Don Waddell said Friday.
I’m still not sure if he was trying to set up a punchline.
The Thrashers have played 60 games. You can split the season in almost equal halves and see the problem: 18-7-4 in the first 29, 12-14-5 in the last 31.
They are four games under .500 (7-11-3) since being a franchise-best 13 over (23-10-6). Should this trend continue, turn back the clock: Steve Guolla will be back on the power play by March.
Some are waiting for Waddell to make a significant pre-deadline trade. Welcome to Groundhog Day. Peter Forsberg was traded to Nashville, the closest team to Atlanta geographically but light years away in perception. The Predators have the second-best record in the NHL and suddenly are a Stanley Cup favorite.
Waddell can’t be criticized too much for not getting Forsberg. He said Friday what he had whispered previously: Forsberg would waive his no-trade clause with Philadelphia for only four potential trade partners — all in the Western Conference.
But this team is crumbling right now, and the four corners of woe start in the front office:
Waddell: The team’s weakness at center has not been significantly addressed all season (Eric Belanger: a nice penalty killer). A puck-moving defenseman is needed for the declining power play. The Thrashers are $2.6 million under the salary cap, so at this stage of the year that shouldn’t be an issue. Taking on salary in future seasons is another matter, given ownership is in limbo. But Waddell acknowledged only what he has said in the past, that any deal “that might financially impact the franchise” must get clearance. Regardless, it’s on him to do something, and he’s not ducking that: “The pressure sits right here. I’m aware of that. I’ve been here from day one.” But, no, he’s not close to a deal.
Kari Lehtonen: In hockey, it always starts and ends with goaltending. Lehtonen’s play has fallen off. He’s allowed 25 goals in his last seven starts, leading Waddell to state the obvious: “He hasn’t been good.” Lehtonen is talented but there are lingering questions about his mental and physical toughness. He has never been through the pressure of a playoff race. This is when goalies are defined.
Hartley: If you watch enough games, you see the same special-teams breakdowns you’ve seen for weeks. Hartley is a teacher. But whatever he’s teaching isn’t working now. The man won a Stanley Cup in Colorado, but old stories don’t get you contract extensions. He’s not absolving himself of blame, but that didn’t stop him from issuing a mild threat: “I’m not going to just allow some of these things to go on. Some guys will sit out.” (Comment: That sounds better when there are worthy replacements.)
Resolve and toughness: The team has become soft. Your would think there was widespread contamination in front of the net the way forwards have avoided going into the slot. They’re losing battles in the corners and along the boards. This is supposed to be when guys like Bobby Holik and Scott Mellanby take over in the locker room. But it’s not happening.
Slava Kozlov, whose play also has dropped off, admitted: “It seems like in the last five games or so we’ve been watching opponents, just hoping we would win. It doesn’t work that way.”
Yes, we know. This is the seventh season. We’re well acquainted with what doesn’t work.
Permalink | Comments (25) | Categories: Jeff Schultz, Thrashers / NHL
Mark Bradley’s Friday Fallout
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
Every Friday until the end of the regular season, we’ll look at who’s up, who’s down and what you should be watching as the countdown continues to the Final Four in Atlanta.
RISING
Georgetown has won eight in a row to draw within a half-game of Pittsburgh for the Big East lead. The Hoyas followed an 18-point thrashing of Marquette with an 18-point dismissal of West Virginia. Center Roy Hibbert (below) and forward Jeff Green are the Big East’s best tandem. Patrick Ewing Jr., who played at Marietta High, averages 3.4 points and wears his famous dad’s old number — 33.
FALLING
Ranked No. 9 in the land five weeks ago, Oklahoma State has lost five of nine. Two of the victories came in multiple overtimes, and only one of the losses has been closer than 10 points. Included in the slide: A 30-point wipeout at Kansas and a 29-point embarrassment at Texas on Monday. Sean Sutton’s team stands sixth in the Big 12 and is fast playing its way down the NCAA seeding grid.
THE TOP SEEDS
If the season ended today, here’s what the top four seeds in each region should look like:
SAN ANTONIO
1: Florida
2: Kansas
3: Memphis
4: Southern Illinois
SAN JOSE
1: UCLA
2: Ohio State
3: Marquette
4: Nevada
EAST RUTHERFORD
1: North Carolina
2: Pittsburgh
3: Washington St.
4: Butler
ST. LOUIS
1: Wisconsin
2: Texas A&M
3: Georgetown
4: Virginia Tech
WHAT WE’RE WATCHING
SOUTHERN ILLINOIS AT BUTLER, 4 p.m. Saturday, ESPN2
It’s the marquee game of the made-for-TV Bracket Buster weekend: Southern Illinois is No. 16 in the Associated Press poll but No. 1 in CollegeInsider.com’s mid-major rankings; Butler is No. 13 according to AP but No. 2 according to the mid-major survey. The Salukis seem the hotter team, having won Tuesday at Missouri State. The Bulldogs lost by 12 to Wright State on Saturday.
MID-MAJOR OF THE WEEK
Akron is 19-5, its losses coming by an aggregate 18 points.
The Zips lead the Mid-American Conference’s East Division and rank among the nation’s top 10 in scoring margin. Akron is coached by Keith Dambrot, who tutored the young LeBron James at Akron’s St. Vincent-St. Mary High. Note to prospective suitors: Dambrot is an Akron grad whose mom taught in the psychology department.
NAME TO KNOW
Andy Kennedy, Ole Miss — Thrust into the Cincinnati job when Bob Huggins was fired in August 2005, Andy Kennedy came within a Gerry McNamara miracle of taking the Bearcats to the 2006 NCAA tournament. When Cincy wouldn’t commit to keeping the interim man, Kennedy left for Ole Miss and has lifted the Rebels into first place in the SEC West. Cincinnati is 1-10 in the Big East under new coach Mick Cronin.
FUN WITH NUMBERS
3 — Games that Huntington (W. Va.) High guard O.J. Mayo will miss during his suspension for bumping a referee in January. Three is also the number of schools — in three different states — Mayo has attended over the past five years. Ranked by some as the nation’s No. 1 recruit, Mayo has signed with Southern Cal.
Permalink | Comments (2) | Categories: Final Four, Mark Bradley
NASCAR fails to hand out real penalties
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
Daytona Beach, Fla. — Michael Waltrip almost didn’t drive in Thursday’s Gatorade Duel. He didn’t, he said, “want to damage the integrity of the sport any further by going out and having people say, ‘What’s he doing out there?’?”
Since he mentioned it … what was he doing out there?
Waltrip’s crew chief and the vice president of Michael Waltrip Racing were suspended after NASCAR inspectors found a fuel additive in Waltrip’s car. Yet there Waltrip was, driving a backup Camry and still managing to qualify for Sunday’s Daytona 500. This is the rough equivalent of penalizing a baseball team’s manager and GM after the team’s slugger tests positive for steroids — but letting the slugger take his hacks in the World Series.
A year ago, Jimmie Johnson won the Daytona 500 without crew chief Chad Knaus, who’d been suspended. This week, NASCAR disciplined chiefs of four cars, three owned by Ray Evernham. And now, worst of all, comes Waltrip. Penalties are levied, but drivers roll merrily along.
NASCAR acts as if it’s trying to get tough with cheaters. It should try harder. It should hold the driver at fault, no matter what. If any member of his team does anything funny, the driver sits on Sunday — no Nextel Cup points, no purse money, nothing. That’d clean things up overnight.
The drivers, though, seem immune to real punishment. (Waltrip was docked 100 points, but even he admitted, “I can get those points back.”) After what happened with Johnson last year and the rampant misdoings of this week, NASCAR has itself a big fat image problem. Waltrip again: “This is the Daytona 500, and we’re not supposed to be talking about some fuel thing we put into the car. We’re supposed to be talking about the glory and pageantry that comes from trying to win this race.”
Instead Thursday morning was given to Waltrip’s remorseful appearance in the infield media center, and the afternoon was spent watching his effort to partake yet again in the race he won in 2001 and 2003. He spoke of his sorrow for Toyota, which is making its NASCAR debut in something less than the grand fashion it envisioned: “We disappointed them. This is supposed to be a time to celebrate. … You can’t be skeptical of Toyota; you have to look straight at me. … I hope we can separate Michael Waltrip Racing from Toyota.”
Can we ever separate Michael Waltrip’s car from the man himself? Richard McGinn, a fan from Kent Island, Md., stood outside the glass-windowed Nextel Inspection Station in the infield Thursday and watched assessors do their pre-race work. “It’s bad for Toyota,” he said, speaking of the Waltrip tangle. “It’s a black eye.”
And what of Waltrip? Said McGinn: “I don’t think they should let him in this race [today]. He’s the team owner. He had to know something was going on.”
Therein hangs NASCAR’s dilemma. It’s trying to rid itself of the old anything-goes image — ? “Rubbin’s racin’,” et cetera — but it’s so beholden to the golden boys that it dares not strike them too heavily. They’re the ones who move the merchandise, who pull the sponsorship millions, who drive, so to speak, the bus. They’re the ones the hundreds of thousands of fans pay to see.
Come Sunday, everyone will get to see the owner/driver of a car found to be illegal competing in the Great American Race. Asked about Waltrip, former teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. said: “From what I read, they found something in his fuel. That’s a pretty serious offense. … When a driver is the owner, he should have quite a bit of knowledge as to what’s going on, wouldn’t you think?”
You would. But as dusk fell over the massive track, even Waltrip wasn’t sure what to think. “I’m probably the most depressed guy you’ve ever seen make the Daytona 500,” he said. And then: “There aren’t that many Michael Waltrip fans, but I feel sorry for them.”
Permalink | Comments (35) | Categories: Mark Bradley
Braves need a real savior
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
It’s not the Braves’ new owner I’m wondering about. It’s the Braves’ next owner after Liberty Media. I figure this conglomerate holds the team a year or two tops and then sells it again. And then what?
Does Arthur Blank, rebuffed in his first attempt to break into baseball, try again? Does David McDavid buy the club from Liberty Media just to spite his nemesis Time Warner? Does Ted Turner ride to the rescue on a raging buffalo?
I figure the Braves are no worse, and also no better, today than they were the last few seasons. Time Warner didn’t concern itself about baseball, and Liberty Media won’t, either. Liberty Media cares about its tax break. Liberty Media is a caretaker that won’t care much one way or another what happens at Turner Field.
Bottom line: After waiting forever to see this sale consummated, we’ll all get to twiddle our thumbs while another transaction is brokered a year or two from now. And yes, you’re absolutely right: It gets harder and harder to care about professional sports with every passing day.
Permalink | Comments (33) | Categories: Mark Bradley, Quick Hit
Braves’ new owner should not mess with success
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
Professional sports teams should be owned by people instead of things.
Where have you gone, Ted Turner? The choppers and the chanters turn their lonely eyes to you.
Anyway, Ted and Jane left the Braves to a thing called Time Warner nearly a decade ago after they sprinted away from the admiring glances of baseball folks toward more worldly causes. Now Time Warner is preparing to sell the Braves to another thing called Liberty Media after both sides agreed this week on terms.
This is mixed news (see what we just said about “things” in this situation). As for the good news, which overrides the rest, current team president Terry McGuirk will be retained. The same goes for John Schuerholz, the general manager during the Braves’ run to 14 division titles, five pennants and a world championship since 1991. Bobby Cox also will stay, and he only is the best manager in history.
As for everything else regarding the Braves’ move from thing to thing, pending approval by 75 percent of the baseball owners, you may yawn now. You may do so, not like the exhausted Ted and Jane used to do during all of those Braves playoff games. You may do so to match the upcoming yawns of those involved with Liberty Media. Those upcoming yawns also represent good news. If you believe McGuirk, always trustworthy through the years, those involved with Liberty Media will yawn out of indifference regarding the operation of the Braves.
It makes sense. Those involved with Liberty Media admitted from the start of their courtship of the Braves nearly a year ago that their thing only wished to buy the most prominent team in the National League since the Big Red Machine as a high-powered tax writeoff.
That’s not necessarily bad news. It means those involved with Liberty Media will stay out of the way of McGuirk, Schuerholz and Cox. Just like everybody with that other thing. The Time Warner people were so preoccupied with stocks and bonds that they couldn’t care less about balls and strikes. Consider, too, that it doesn’t have to be this way when it comes to things owning professional teams.
For instance: Soon after that thing called News Corporation bought the Los Angeles Dodgers during the late 1990s, that thing worked a trade to send Mike Piazza to the Florida Marlins. The problem? Piazza was highly popular in southern California, and that thing didn’t bother to tell Fred Claire, the Dodgers’ highly respected general manager, what was going on.
Not only that, since a thing can’t feel, touch, see or smell, News Corporation lacked the senses to know that the Dodgers are the Yankees of the NL when it comes to tradition. That’s why News Corporation tinkered with the Dodgers’ classic uniforms, and the results were as disastrous as News Corporation paying ridiculous money for perennially injured pitchers Kevin Brown and Darren Dreifort.
At least News Corporation spent money, which is why you have to combine the yawning over the Braves’ move from thing to thing with shrugging. We’re talking shrugging as in, nobody really knows if those involved with Liberty Media will give McGuirk, Schuerholz and Cox enough pennies to keep the incomparable Andruw Jones around, along with John Smoltz, who already has his toes in Cooperstown.
This is what we do know: In recent years, despite flashing no signs of going bankrupt anytime soon, the Braves have kept their budget around $80 million. They also have refused to join others this winter during what has been one of baseball’s golden ages of spending. Even commissioner Bud Selig likes to boast that the game had record revenues of more than $5.2 billion.
Will Liberty Media allow McGuirk, Schuerholz and Cox to spend as freely as its folks who run, oh, say, the home-shopping network QVC?
Can’t tell. That’s the worst part of the news.
Permalink | Comments (33) | Categories: Braves / MLB, Terence Moore
Trading Spaces: Meyer vs. Zook
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
What if …
Urban Meyer were Ron Zook, and Ron Zook were Urban Meyer?
I’m talking about timing. History has shown that it nearly is impossible to replace a legend such as, oh, say, former Florida football coach Steve Spurrier.
So Zook never had a chance with the Gators. He was fired after just shy of three seasons. Then along came Meyer to win a national championship with 22 of Florida’s 24 starters recruited by Zook.
What if Meyer had followed Spurrier? Maybe Meyer takes all of those post-Spurrier lumps.
Then, if Zook had replaced Meyer after that, maybe Zook …
I know. Meyer just finished with the nation’s best recruiting class, but the foundation for such a thing at Florida was set by Zook - first as an assistant under Spurrier and then as head coach.
More impressive, traditionally awful Illinois just had the best recruiting class in the Big Ten.
The Illini coach is Zook.
Permalink | Comments (60) | Categories: Quick Hit, Terence Moore
Shula scores with wealth of tales
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Furman Bisher
“I coached him into the Hall of Fame,” Don Shula said, and he chuckled. Not that Joe Namath was a subject to chuckle about in Super Bowl III. Shula coached the then-Baltimore Colts, heavily favored against the New York Jets in the match between the champions of the old, established NFL and the upstart AFL, a residue of rags-and-tatters teams groping for recognition.
Safe to say that game was Namath’s ticket to Canton, for over the years he quarterbacked only three winning seasons. The wound has healed by this time, but Shula, like many thousands, can still see Jimmy Orr, a remarkable receiver, standing in the end zone waving frantically to Earl Morrall, Colts quarterback. Shula could explain.
“The bands were lining up to get ready for the halftime show, and they were dressed in white. So were the Colts, and Earl couldn’t find Jimmy in white against that white background. So you couldn’t blame him altogether.”
Now we know. Amazing, that for all the 347 games Shula won as a coach, this one defeat more often surfaces in the minds of Americans. Even above the perfect season he produced in 1972 after he had transferred to the Miami Dolphins. Even that Super Bowl game, played against Washington in Los Angeles, produced another pulse-beater.
“Our record was 17-0, and we were leading the Redskins, 14-0. There was about two minutes left to play, and I decided it would be fitting if we kicked a field goal and won the Super Bowl 17-0,” Shula said. So he sent in his Cypriot placekicker, Garo Yepremian, for the kick, but something went awry, and Yepremian was left standing there with the football in his hands, not on his foot.
“He tried to throw a pass, the weakest-looking thing you ever saw, the Redskins intercepted and ran it back for a touchdown,” Shula said. “So instead of 17-0, it was now 14-7 and we were faced with trying to save the game. You couldn’t blame Garo, I guess. Football was just a game of kicking to a guy who had grown up in Cyprus. I remember we were playing Detroit when he kicked his first field goal, and he came running off the field yelling, ‘I kick a touchdown, I kick a touchdown!’
“I said, ‘No, Garo, you kicked a field goal, not a touchdown.’ “
So you see how nerve-wracking it can be even for the man who won more games in the NFL than any coach. In these 11 years he has been out of the game, what has he missed the most? “I miss game day,” he said, “Nothing you can do to replace those three hours on the sideline. But I don’t miss practices, and I don’t miss cutting the roster.”
Coaching has run in the family, and not always to the pleasure of the sire. Both David and Mike have been head coaches, but it was when Mike was stripped of his job at Alabama that he felt the deepest displeasure. “I’m still upset about the way they handled Mike. He’d had a big season the year before, won the Cotton Bowl, had his contract renewed, then goes 6-and-6 and they fire him, after all those seasons while they were on probation. I guess they’re expecting Nick Saban to do there what he did at LSU. If they want to change where a change is due, they might start with the head of the department.”
Retirement for Shula has been a plunge into the business world — a golf club and resort, a chain of steakhouses, producing his own brand of steak sauce and support of a number of charitable organizations. Plus, what brings him to Atlanta this week. He is the coach in “BP Coach Approach,” spokesman for a pharmaceutical company that produces medicine to control hypertension, or high blood pressure, as you and I know it. And who better to understand hypertension than a football coach, who faced it every time he stood on the sideline.
He appears quite fit in those commercials he does with Dan Marino. “High blood pressure is something I have been aware of for 15 years,” he said. “What I’m trying to do is make other people aware of how to treat it and live with it.”
So you wonder what happens to these headliners of yore when the cheering stops and the lights go down, here’s the winningest pro football coach of all time whose mission is to help you keep your blood pressure in check.
Permalink | Comments (9) | Categories: Falcons / NFL, Furman Bisher
Wait, watch - and prepare to pounce.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
THE TUESDAY COUNTDOWN
(Or, I blog, therefore I am)
10: One MonstroBlob run by stockholders has purchased the Braves from another MonstroBlob run by stockholders. What does that mean to the Braves or you? Possibly nothing.
9: Anybody who paints this as either the worst or greatest thing in the world is throwing darts. Could Liberty Media be worse than Time Warner? Sure. But given budget constraints that have forced Schuerholz to slash payroll, how much worse can it get? Can Liberty be better than Time Warner? Sure, but not likely. This deal was about stock and taxes and all of those things that don’t have anything to do with, “Who’s hitting leadoff?”
8: So, in summation, this is what we do: Wait, watch - and prepare to pounce.
7: I’m no Marty Schottenheimer fan. But I would be OK with the Chargers going 2-14 next season.
6: San Diego general manager A.J. Smith said he begin the search for Schottenheimer’s replacement today when he scouts the Marionette Warehouse in Chula Vista.
5: Grammys in summation: Way too little Police; way too much Dixie Chicks.
4: My name is Jeff Schultz and I’m coming out of the closet today to say that I really don’t care that you were a homosexual when you played in the NBA and only decided to reveal yourself largely because ESPN gave you air time, magazine space — and, yes, a book deal.
3: Oh yeah, and this: I’ve never heard of John Amaechi.
2: I understand being a closeted gay pro athlete must be a great struggle. But my two cents: Negative feelings in the locker room will only begin to change when a current athlete in team sports at a relatively high level — almost star status - steps out of the shadows. Until then, the John Amaechis of the world will be viewed as sideshows that don’t affect the big picture.
1: OK, Tech fans, you only get one choice: The Jackets make the tournament or Duke misses it. What’s your preference?
Permalink | Comments (38) | Categories: Quick Hit
Things coming together for Jackets
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
Georgia Tech is primed to break upward. That wretched road losing streak, spanning almost two calendar years, needs to go away, and it should soon enough. The Jackets are getting a sense of themselves. These past three victories — all in Atlanta, the latest over Connecticut in the Georgia Dome — bore the look of a corner having been turned.
Here was Jim Calhoun, UConn’s Hall of Fame coach, on the Jackets’ defense Sunday: “Quite frankly, we couldn’t make a basket … They locked us up and didn’t let us run stuff … For a team that gives us 48 percent [in field-goal percentage defense against ACC opponents], they didn’t play like that.”
March Madness in Atlanta:
Check out the AJC’s Final Four pageThe Huskies didn’t make their ninth basket until the game’s 28th minute, by which time they were 17 points in arrears. This was a game both teams needed for NCAA resume-building — “Whoever won was going to benefit,” Calhoun said — and Tech seized it.
Calhoun on his team’s youth and why it’s no excuse for losing: “No. 1 [for Tech] — and I know his name — he made plays, and he’s a freshman. The young guy from Tennessee, he made plays.”
UConn recruited both Javaris Crittenton, No. 1 in your program, and Thaddeus Young, who’s from Memphis. They signed with Tech, and there was your difference Sunday. Those two are so gifted that, on their good days, they lift everyone around them. The Huskies, who a year ago had so much talent they didn’t know what to do, now conspicuously lack a Crittenton or a Young.
Tech has both, and bit by bit the Jackets are grasping how to blend youth with seasoning, stars with role players, offense with defense. “It depends on the night you catch us,” coach Paul Hewitt said. “Some nights we look like a great team, and sometimes you think, ‘Are they even being coached?’ “
Clearly, these guys are. After losing at woeful Wake Forest, Hewitt found two bench guys - D’Andre Bell and Alade Aminu — willing to hustle and make plays. Bell scored six of Tech’s first nine points Sunday, and Aminu had three first-half assists. Hewitt also promoted Anthony Morrow to the starting five, and suddenly Mr. Catch-and-Shoot shows signs of becoming an offensive player of some versatility.
Morrow scored 10 points in 2 1/2 minutes to break open the game before halftime. The first six were standard-issue — he hit a trey from the corner off a curl and made three free throws after being fouled by Jerome Dyson — but the final two baskets were revelatory. Morrow drove the baseline and shot off the dribble and then, on the next possession, scored off a post-up move.
“I felt like I had to be aggressive in every way possible,” Morrow said, and his assertiveness stood in stark contrast to the stagnant way the Jackets lost to Virginia Tech and Wake two weeks ago. Even without Lewis Clinch, there are a slew of good players on this roster. Even with freshmen as their leading scorers, the Jackets still have everything they need to play in the NCAA tournament.
Everything except a road victory, and that’s about to come. The Jackets play at Florida State on Tuesday and then at Duke five days later. (And the Dookies have already lost three times at home.) Tech seems poised to take either or both.
Said Crittenton: “We’re putting the pieces of the puzzle together. We know we haven’t gotten a road win in a good minute.”
Hearing, Hewitt laughed. “That’s slang — ‘good minute.’ He [the questioner, who in this instance was me] isn’t that young. He might not understand.”
Actually, the point was rather clear. After four consecutive losses, each more egregious than the last, Tech has gone to work. And now it needs 40 good minutes in Tallahassee or Durham and it will be positioned to make something big happen come March.
Permalink | Comments (35) | Categories: Final Four, Mark Bradley, Tech / ACC
Spring in the air, peace in the bullpen
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Furman Bisher
For the first time since 1991, the Braves are going into spring training like a ship going into dry dock. And there appears to be more truth than fiction in that analogy, considering the bustling scene at the underside of Turner Field. Bats and chests and training room apparatus stacked in mountainous piles waiting to be loaded for their trip to Lake Buena Vista, Disney World, Kissimmee or whatever address that place will be going by this spring. But that’s merely housekeeping, central damage control will be dealing with people.
“I could see we had trouble in the bullpen when the ‘05 season ended,” Bobby Cox was saying. “We tried everything but couldn’t get it fixed.”
It was a season that came to a convoluted end, a college rookie pitching against the overbearing Roger Clemens in the fourth game of the division series, on into the fifth hour and 18th inning. It would have been over after nine, and here we come to the missing ingredient that has bedeviled the Braves lately. One after one, Cox had danced from one closer to another, beginning with the ill-fated Dan Kolb. By the 9th inning of the fourth game in Houston, he had grown comfortable with Kyle Farnsworth, until Farnsworth threw a four-run pitch to Lance Bergman with two out. Nine innings later Joey Devine threw a pitch that Chris Burke hit into the stands and it was over. The Braves haven’t recovered since.
Now, I don’t care how you look at baseball, what your vintage, and how much you may long for a good ol’ nine-inning pitcher, it’s as old-fashioned as an Edsel. Sure, I love to see a guy pitch a complete game. “CG” is my favorite statistic. But face it, it’s as out of style as spats. If you don’t believe it, ask John Schuerholz.
Sad to see LaRoche go
To show you what I mean, Schuerholz traded Adam LaRoche, who was just moving into stardom, home run and RBI man, to Pittsburgh for Mike Gonzalez, who pitched 54 innings last season. Fifty-four games, 54 innings, 24 saves, which means he saved the homestead. Gonzalez heals an open wound in Atlanta. LaRoche becomes the big Pirate in Pittsburgh, and the Pirates already have Jason Bay and Freddy Sanchez, the league-leading hitter. It was crushing to see LaRoche take his sweet swing to Three Rivers, but that’s how it shakes out.
Scott Thorman is a tough competitor, not the fielder that LaRoche is, but he brings a different attitude to the game. LaRoche is milder mannered, unemotional. Cox and Schuerholz feel that Thorman is right on the threshold of filling in at about the pace LaRoche set two seasons ago.
“He has the same kind of power as LaRoche,” Schuerholz said. “He hit 20 home runs last year between Richmond and here, and he only played a few games here.”
“So you might have an all-Canadian side of the infield then,” it was suggested. Thorman is from Cambridge, Ontario, Pete Orr from Newmarket, Ontario.
“Pete Orr is going to get every chance to be our second baseman,” he said, but he’ll be a longshot behind Martin Prado and Willy Aybar, more the utility type, I’d suppose.
Get the story of the guy who might have had the job, had he and the Braves exercised patience. He was in the ballpark the other day, taking his swings with old teammates. Mark DeRosa and the Braves split two years ago and the one-time Penn quarterback found health, wealth and happiness in Texas, with emphasis on wealth. He was sort of on call for the Rangers.
“I never knew where I was going to play, but Buck Showalter always found a place for me,” DeRosa said. “I knew I was going to be playing.”
What DeRosa did was hit over .300 most of the season, with a few home runs sprinkled in, and after it was over, he found himself a high-level commodity. He brought $13 million on the open market, and next season he’ll be playing second base for the Cubs. “I’ll probably play other positions, too,” he said, “but right now I’m on second.”
That’s how this vexing game plays out now. Heroes don’t stay in the same place long. Not a lot of Chipper Joneses and John Smoltzes around. More Roger Clemenses and J.D. Drewses, who sometimes make you feel ashamed the way these mercenaries toy with the game. But that wasn’t what I started out to say. I just wanted to say that I’m making peace with life in the bullpen, and closers, and set-up men, and all that bozo-ism. I don’t promise that it’s permanent.
Permalink | Comments (8) | Categories: Braves / MLB, Furman Bisher
65 bids out of 336 is out of date
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
There are still four weeks of games between Georgia Tech and “Selection Sunday.” It’s not a bubble team, if for no other reason than the fact the bubble hasn’t formed yet.
But it wasn’t lost on coach Paul Hewitt Friday that Villanova over Georgetown, which punctuates everybody’s “Greatest Sports Upsets,” lists, could not take place in this season’s tournament.
Why?
“Villanova doesn’t get in the tournament today,” Hewitt said.
Step back, please. We need room for the soapbox.
March Madness in Atlanta:
Check out the AJC’s Final Four pageHewitt believes it’s time to expand the NCAA tournament field. It’s understandable if some might believe the timing of this might be tied to the Jackets’ immediate roller-coaster past and uncertain future, but that’s really not the case.
“I said it last year — and we weren’t anywhere in sight,” he said. “We weren’t even on the board.”
This isn’t another campaign to double the tournament field to 128, which too many coaches grasping for job security believed was a wonderful concept after George Mason reached the Final Four. Hewitt’s plea is far more realistic and based on simple math. It came up Friday when I asked him if the Jackets’ problems this season related to defense and consistency aren’t merely endemic of college basketball’s general malady: early NBA defections have made for too much youth.
“I think it’s more indicative of the parity in the game,” he said. “Ever since the 1992 [Olympic] Dream Team, basketball has become one of the most popular sports in the world. We have two players from Senegal. Connecticut has a center from Tanzania. There are players everywhere now. Yes, we’re suffering from ills of youth. But it’s why I think the tournament needs to be expanded. People will say it’s just another coach crying for another spot. But in 1985 when the tournament was expanded to 64, there were like 285 teams in Division I. Now we have [336] teams, and only 65 go.
“It’s too simplistic to say, ‘You’re too young. You’re not ready yet.’ Yeah, there is some of that. But I remember when teams could lose three or four guys off a team and it wouldn’t matter. Duke has five McDonald’s All-Americans. Fifteen years ago, a team with five McDonald’s All-Americans could figure out a way to win.”
In 2001, the NCAA added a 65th tournament team and introduced the “play-in” game. Hewitt believes there should be “at least” three play-in teams added, increasing the field to 68. Adding seven teams would create four play-in games.
“Right now we’re short-changing the players,” he said. “Who are we running the tournament for — the deserving teams or the spectators? Just don’t tell me the best [34] at-large teams are getting in, because they’re not. My concern is that the selection is becoming more of a subjective thing instead of an objective thing.”
Hewitt said reference college football, where “50 percent of the players have a chance to go to a bowl game, and maybe get a nice jacket, a watch or a ring.” (The math: 119 Division I football schools, 32 bowl games, 64 teams.)
The NCAA has discussed expanding the field. The only certainty: It’s not happening this March. That leaves the Jackets (15-8) in limbo. They’ve won two straight since a four-game losing streak and Sunday play Connecticut, a general national power suffering similar issues. This game is more about the big picture than whatever evolves in the ACC.
Hewitt feels better about things after wins over Clemson and North Carolina State. But can he be certain there won’t be another backslide?
“No,” he said. “But I can say I feel a lot better about where we are as a program than in the last two years. A whole lot.”
He has attempted to refocus (euphemism) his players in several ways: He has made them wash practice jerseys. He removed their names from the jerseys and lockers, and forced them to carry the water bottles and basketballs to the gym. Also, he yelled. A lot.
“My honesty gets the best of me sometimes, and I might dampen their spirits at times,” he said. “But I’m going to tell you how it is. I’m not going to sugarcoat it.”
The idea now is to make a run that pretty much takes it out of the selection committee’s hands. Because when 65 out of 336 make it, sometimes things don’t add up.
Permalink | Comments (12) | Categories: Final Four, Jeff Schultz, Tech / ACC
Hope Dome doesn’t play rename game
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
Good news for those of us who believe the lights in Wrigley Field are straight from Satan. The same goes for no jump balls after the opening tipoff in college basketball, and all of those NFL rules that don’t allow defenders to breathe in the vicinity of quarterbacks.
The Georgia Dome will always be called the Georgia Dome.
Uh, won’t it?
“I don’t know. I mean, in New York they’re talking about places up there being branded for $20 million a year. That’s a lot of money, and that certainly makes you think about what the possibilities might be,” said Khalil Johnson, the chief operating officer of the Georgia World Congress Center Authority, which runs the Georgia Dome. His reference was to what the corporate heads at CitiGroup will give the New York Mets for naming rights when their new ballpark opens in 2009.
Just call it the natural extension of greediness among pro teams and collegiate athletics departments.
For instance: While the Philadelphia Phillies were scheduled to get $95 million over the next 25 years after agreeing to call their place “Citizens Bank Park,” the Washington Redskins were scheduled to get $7.6 million per season for the next 27 years for agreeing to name their stadium after the FedEx folks. For $20 million over 25 years, University of Maryland officials will call the floor of Byrd Stadium “Chevy Chase Bank Field.” The Nets will move from New Jersey to Brooklyn. When they arrive, they’ll have the words “Barclays PLC” throughout their new arena in exchange for $300 million to $400 million over 20 years.
On and on we could go, right to The Flats on North Avenue.
That’s where Georgia Tech officials say they wish to close a $3 million gap between forecasted revenues and expenses. They say they wish to do so by selling the naming rights to their basketball arena. It already was Alexander Memorial Coliseum at McDonald’s Center under an old deal. Now the Jackets’ home, which was named in 1956 after former coach and athletics director William Alexander, can be called something else by the highest bidder.
Guess the Tech pep band is in its last days of playing “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” at home games.
But back to one of our last hopes for simple elegance when it comes to names in sports — “the Georgia Dome,” its moniker since its inception in 1992. “Long term, things can change, but I think that, as a public facility, which the Georgia Dome is, there definitely is some value that the citizens associate with the name ‘Georgia Dome,’ and the citizens feel kind of good when they know where the game is being played,” said Johnson, a Georgia Dome official from the start. “In contrast, it’s hard for people to tell where the Mozilla game is being played.”
Plus, the Mozilla game can become something else overnight. It happens. A lot.
Candlestick Park has gone from 3Com Park to San Francisco Stadium at Candlestick Point to Monster Park. If that isn’t enough, it’s slated to become Candlestick Park again in 2008. Joe Robbie Stadium changed to Pro Player Stadium before becoming Dolphin Stadium. Once, the Tennessee Titans played at Adelphia Coliseum. Then Adelphia Communications went bankrupt, and then it became The Coliseum. It’s now called Louisiana-Pacific Coliseum when it isn’t called LP Coliseum or Whatever It’s Called These Days.
Worse, the new Boston arena that replaced the legendary Garden has changed names 34 times in its 14 years.
“What does it say to the local fans when you change the name of your building as quickly as you change the cap on your head?” Johnson said. “We’re governed by a board, so our board would have to agree to a change in the name. And the elected leadership to the state of Georgia would certainly have to agree.”
So the process isn’t easy? Said Johnson quickly, “No, it is not.”
Good.
Permalink | Comments (20) | Categories: Falcons / NFL, Tech / ACC, Terence Moore
Mark Bradley’s Friday Fallout
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
Every Friday until the end of the regular season, we’ll look at who’s up, who’s down and what you should be watching as the countdown continues to the Final Four in Atlanta.
Rising
A week ago, Texas A&M was a good team that had won only one big game (over Oklahoma State on Jan. 20.) Then the Aggies won two big ones in three days, first surging from 10 points down to prevail at Kansas, then routing Texas at College Station.
A&M now seems the best team in the Big 12 and, alongside Ohio State, the strongest probable No. 2 seed on the NCAA tournament grid.
Falling
It isn’t just that Duke has lost three in a row (two of those at home). The Blue Devils must now play five of their last seven regular-season games on the road, and by the time that difficult run is done, this regal program could drop from the Associated Press Top 25 for the first time since the preseason poll of 1996-97.
That’s a string of 199 consecutive appearances.
What we’re watching
Florida at Kentucky (Saturday, 9 p.m., ESPN).
It’s hard to envision the Gators losing anywhere the way they’re playing. Still unclear is what sort of team will greet them in Rupp Arena. The Wildcats led South Carolina 50-28 at halftime on Wednesday only to yield 61 second-half points. This prompted Tubby Smith to tell reporters: “We’ve got the best concentration of any team in America.”
He was kidding.
Mid-major of the week
Davidson has won 17 of its last 18 and leads the South Division of the Southern Conference by 2 1/2 games over the College of Charleston. Freshman guard Stephen Curry averages 20.1 points and is the second-leading scorer among freshmen behind Kevin Durant of Texas.
Curry’s dad was himself a shooter of note. He’s Dell Curry, who played at Virginia Tech and spent 16 seasons in the NBA.
Names to know
D.J. Augustin and Mike Conley Jr. aren’t the stars of their respective teams, but they figure to be a year from now. They’re freshman guards playing alongside more heralded freshmen — Augustin with Durant at Texas, Conley with Greg Oden at Ohio State.
Both rank among the nation’s top five in assists. Both are apt to remain in college for at least another season, unlike Durant and Oden.
SEEDS
If the season ended today, here’s what the top four seeds in each region should look like:
• East Rutherford Regional
1: North Carolina
2: Pittsburgh
3: Butler
4: Kentucky
• San Antonio Regional
1: Florida
2.: Ohio State
3: Memphis
4: Boston College
• St. Louis Regional
1: Wisconsin
2: Texas A&M
3: Oregon
4: Southern Illinois
• San Jose Regional
1: UCLA
2: Marquette
3: Kansas
4: Nevada
Fun with numbers
The only string of consecutive AP poll appearances longer than Duke’s belongs to UCLA. The Bruins were ranked for 221 weeks dating from 1966 — the beginning of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s sophomore season (freshmen were then ineligible) — to 1980.
Over that span the Bruins had four coaches (John Wooden, Gene Bartow, Gary Cunningham and Larry Brown) and won eight NCAA titles (all by Wooden).
Permalink | Comments (4) | Categories: Final Four, Mark Bradley
Hampton has to make it back
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
Every chance that Mike Hampton has gotten during the past 18 months, he has made a point to chat with the miracle that he wants to be.
More specifically, it’s the miracle that Hampton has to be.
Anything less for the accomplished left-handed pitcher recovering from elbow surgery, and the Braves will go from having a splendid chance to win their division for a 15th time in 16 seasons to just another team in the National League East with more question marks than exclamation points in its starting rotation.
So Hampton regularly chats with that miracle named John Smoltz, owner of a slew of victories, a slew of saves and a slew of dramatic comebacks from injuries. “The biggest advice that I’ve given Mike — and it isn’t what anybody wants to hear — and it’s time,” Smoltz said on Thursday at Turner Field during the Braves’ minicamp for pitchers. “People are really messing up by thinking that he’s just going to step in and give us what has been needed, but it’s not going to be that easy.”
No, it won’t be. There is Hampton’s football mentality. He had a chance to prosper at defensive back at Florida State, Florida and Rutgers before choosing baseball.
“He’s tough, and that’s one reason why we need to keep an eye on him, I think,” said Braves manager Bobby Cox, who nevertheless praised Hampton for “so far following the program 100 percent” during his rehabilitation.
That said, spring training begins next week in Orlando, and Cox wants to push Hampton along slowly. He wants his pitcher fit enough to throw maybe five or six innings at the start of the regular season. “But then you get itchy to get going,” Cox said of Hampton, “and that’s when you really have to slow down a little bit. I’m not trying to be overly optimistic, because the fact is that he did go under the knife, and I’ve got my fingers crossed.”
The same was true of Cox regarding Smoltz. Even so, Smoltz went from missing all of the 2000 season for Tommy John surgery on his throwing elbow to becoming one of the most dominant closers ever to returning as a prolific starter headed for the Hall of Fame. Hampton glanced toward Smoltz’s locker before saying, “As much as he’s been through with his elbow, he’s probably the one guy who proves that, if he can do it, anybody can do it.”
Well, Hampton has to do it. He has to return from his Tommy John surgery that came after five trips to the disabled list in 2005. He has to be healthy enough to complete a potentially solid rotation of Smoltz, Tim Hudson, Chuck James and likely Kyle Davies.
Hampton has to do it, because those others have issues, too. Smoltz finished last season tied for the most victories (16) in the NL, but he is three months shy of 40. Hudson has spent his two years with the Braves as the antithesis of the ace who won 15 or more games for four consecutive seasons in Oakland. James was a prolific freshman, but that doesn’t mean he’ll become a prolific sophomore. Although Davies is another talented youngster, he missed most of last year with a groin injury.
A creaky Hampton would just exacerbate the situation. “Having him back would be huge, ” said Hudson, his sentiments echoed by Cox, who added, “He really could get us over the hump. He’s that important.” Said Smoltz, “Man, I hope he does make it, but history shows that he will have his struggles, and we’ll be counting a lot on him. Which is not a good formula. Whoever can take the pressure off him and let him do what he needs to do would be great.”
This would be better: A healthy and an effective Hampton taking the pressure off everybody else.
Permalink | Comments (67) | Categories: Braves / MLB, Terence Moore
Hawks’ pieces don’t fit
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
When you get as bad as the Hawks, it isn’t enough just to pick up some good players. You have to add the absolute right players at the absolute right moment. Billy Knight has gotten a couple of keepers — Joe Johnson via a sign-and-trade, Josh Smith with the 17th pick in 2004 — but too often there have been better options available. And that’s why the Hawks remain where they are.
Josh Howard would have helped more than Boris Diaw did. Josh Childress is coming along, but Luol Deng and Andre Iguodala have come further faster. About Marvin Williams as opposed to Chris Paul and Deron Williams, too much has been said already. And there was simply no reason to burn the No. 5 pick on Shelden Williams last summer, not when Brandon Roy and Randy Foye and Rudy Gay and Marcus Williams were out there.
Billy Knight has presided over four Hawks’ drafts. In each of the four, he took the wrong guy with his first pick. Go back to the M. Williams decision yet again. (Sorry, I know this gets tiresome.) Put Paul or D. Williams in the same backcourt as Joe Johnson and you have a real point guard working in tandem with one of the best off-guards in the business. As we know, Knight has this vision of interchangeable players manning multiple positions, but positions exist (and endure) in basketball for a reason.
Having a real point guard — meaning someone other than the glorified backup Speedy Claxton, for whom Knight spent $25 million — would have put last year’s team and this one in the playoff chase. (In the lamentable NBA East, it’s hard not to manage that much.) Having a real point guard would have given this franchise a viable future. Instead it’s back to the lottery, hoping the ping-pong balls align for once, hoping that if the Hawks do snare one of the top three picks in the upcoming draft Knight will break his pattern and take the right guy for once.
Permalink | Comments (32) | Categories: Mark Bradley, Quick Hit
These Gators are better than ever
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
Forget that it represents that snooty school six hours to the south. Forget that its mascot is a repellent reptile. Focus instead on this Florida team, for it’s an aggregation for the ages. It plays basketball the way the game should be, but almost never is, played.
North Carolina might or might not have more talent. Nobody has this mesh, this comprehension, this capacity to tend to business at both ends. The Florida team that won the 2006 NCAA title was, by way of self-comparison, merely the beta version. These Gators, really the same Gators a year older, are the flawless finished product.
Remember the Illinois team that played for the 2005 national championship, how selfless and clever that bunch was? Florida is Illinois done bigger and better. Florida is Illinois with more pro prospects, more depth, more of a belief — and those Illini believed deeply — in its manifest destiny.
Florida came here Wednesday for its first real road test of the conference season, and the Gators aced it the way champions ace their midterms. Georgia gave them a hard run early, but by halftime the Bulldogs were six points down and lucky to be that close. Then they were lucky and close no more. They were worn down by a superior opponent playing at a level the Bulldogs, for all their improvements, cannot even approximate.
The Gators passed the ball willingly and adroitly a year ago, but the question coming into the new season was whether a team with five (and perhaps six) players cut from NBA cloth would be so selfless this time around. It is. Of Florida’s first 22 baskets, 13 were dunks or layups — functions of cutting and screening and feeding. Has any college team of the last 40 years put five such passers on the floor? Has any high-profile team ever cared so little about who leads it in scoring?
“The thing that makes them so special,” said Dennis Felton, the Georgia coach, “is their combination of size and athleticism and skill level.” He gave an example. In the first half the Bulldogs closed down expertly on Al Horford along the baseline, and what did Florida get out of this apparently thwarted possession? Three points.
“Their 6-10 guy makes a corner-to-corner pass to Corey Brewer for another 3,” Felton said. “You can do everything right and they either outsize you or they out-athlete you.”
The other issue, at least in theory, concerned defense. Would Florida, which never guarded anybody until Larry Shyatt signed on as an assistant, continue to defend at such a high level? The answer is no. This team defends at a higher level. The aforementioned Brewer, who’s 6-9, is the best collegiate defender since Shane Battier. Horford and Joakim Noah block so many shots that the Gators resort to double-teams only occasionally, which means they’re less susceptible to open perimeter jumpers.
This is how good Florida is: The demanding Felton, whose team had just lost by 10 points before a rare home sellout, was moved to smile afterward when he spoke of the Gators. A perfectionist can well appreciate something bordering on perfection.
Asked if he’d ever coached against a better squad, Felton said: “Absolutely not, and I’m counting my days as an assistant [at Providence in the Big East and Clemson in the exalted ACC].” He mentioned some splendid UConn teams and the North Carolina bunch with Rasheed Wallace and Jerry Stackhouse and Wake Forest with Tim Duncan, and not one of them, in Felton’s trained eye, measures up to these Gators. “They’re a special team,” he said, saying it all.
Forget that it’s Florida you’re watching, the Florida that threatens to rule the sporting world for the next century. Just pretend there are no names on the jerseys and let the excellence wash over you. If you hate this team, you’re hating great basketball. If you hate this team, you’re cheating yourself.
Permalink | Comments (29) | Categories: Final Four, Mark Bradley, UGA / SEC
Helps Jackets to be viewed as cool
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
The rarity of plaudits in February notwithstanding, we need to start with the obvious. These are kids. Maybe they get stronger. Or fatter. Maybe they mature. Or party. Maybe they open a book. Or use it as a doorstop.
This is recruiting. About the only thing with a shorter shelf life than a hot recruit is a pregame coin flip, which excites everybody for about 30 seconds, until your kick returner fumbles at the 12.
But this much can be said about what Georgia Tech did Wednesday: It excited people. That’s progress. Even if signing day is mostly about perception, perception counts for something when you’re trying to build a program and appease a fan base still irritated about the last three games and a blindside, back-door season-ticket upcharge.
Scout.com, one group of dart-throwing semi-pros, rated the Yellow Jackets’ haul of recruits as better than Georgia’s, better than almost all in the ACC, better than all except 13 programs nationally.
The seldom-effusive Chan Gailey responded as you would expect: “You don’t buy into it when you have a low-rated one, and you don’t buy into it when you have a high-rated one.”
No, you don’t. But when the same scouting service rated your previous five classes 51st, 34th, 35th, 48th and 49th — 14th says something. We don’t know what the players will amount to tomorrow. But we know the players today suddenly view this program as dangerously close to cool.
“It just seemed to me like they were changing their ways a little bit,” said Greene County quarterback Josh Nesbitt. “They were using a more mobile quarterback. They had good wide receivers. I just got a good feeling about them. Once you start going to the different schools, you see what they’re all about.”
Nesbitt has speed and a strong arm. Most major programs pursued him. In the end, it came down to an atypical final two choices.
“It was going to be Tech or Florida,” he said. So, he picked Gailey over Urban Meyer, Tech over a school that would go on to win the national title. “Yep,” Nesbitt said, with a laugh. Could he have imagined a few years ago doing that? “No way,” he said. “I would have never thought that would happen.”
Nesbitt committed to Tech in September. He didn’t waver. Other recruits also committed early, and it was difficult to find somebody who ever balked, even when Gailey was interview-hopping in the NFL.
Soon, it became clear Tech’s recruiting success wasn’t really about Gailey — which the coach could take two ways — so much as it was the program. The Jackets had elevated themselves in the eyes of high school seniors. They had become a threat in the ACC, while Miami and Florida State were on the decline. They had just produced Calvin Johnson, who was a staple on Saturday highlight shows and will be among the top few picks in the NFL draft. (Nesbitt: “As a quarterback, you see Calvin Johnson and you think, ‘I want a chance to throw to a guy like that.’ “) Also, they went to bowl games, even if seldom the most glamorous ones.
“Kids are picking Georgia Tech on the total reputation of the school and the program,” said offensive line coach Joe D’Alessandris, who came to Tech with Gailey in 2002. “Those kids see success.”
Tech has become a player for in-state recruits, signing 12. Also signed: Kell running back Jonathan Dwyer, whose other two final choices were Florida and Georgia.
One theory is there’s a deeper pool of academically qualified athletes now. But it goes beyond that. Because, while we all would like to think athletes select a school for academics, that’s just not the case. Kids want to win. Otherwise, Duke, Northwestern and Stanford would be the darlings of the BCS.
“Obviously we didn’t finish up the way we would have liked,” D’Alessandris said. “But I think just getting into the championship picture this year left an impression on the kids. They saw we were trying to get there and maybe they believed, ‘Now I can help them win it.’ “
Even in February, perception counts for something.
Permalink | Comments (73) | Categories: Jeff Schultz, Tech / ACC
Filling needs means more to Bulldogs
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
Athens — The power failed on the top two floors of the Butts-Mehre Building at 1:30 p.m., and immediately the wisecracks began. To cite the most obvious: Georgia reaps, by its lofty standards, a less-bountiful recruiting haul, and just like that a blackness falls over the Red & Black.
If you’re into rankings — and many folks are — Georgia did not (sorry to prolong the already-tired metaphor) shoot out the lights on signing day 2007. After three consecutive classes that were adjudged by Scout.com to have been among the nation’s top six, this one has been assessed as merely the 16th-best, behind five other SEC schools and even Georgia Tech. But here we need ask, not for the first time, do rankings matter?
“Where we’re ranked, I don’t get into that as much as whether we addressed our needs,” Mark Richt said. “And I think we did.”
Is there a gulf of talent separating a class ranked No. 4, as Georgia’s was last year, and No. 16? Richt again: “It’s probably not a very big difference. It’s what happens when [players] get [to college], whether they reach their potential. … I couldn’t tell you who [among Georgia signees] has three stars and four stars.”
Looking at the list of new Bulldogs, Richt offered this: “There are future starters here, future all-Southeastern Conference players, future All-Americans, maybe even future [national] award-winners.”
Which brings us, once again, to the greater point: As much as recruiting matters, coaching matters more. If it didn’t, Ron Zook would have lifted the national championship trophy in Glendale, Ariz., a month ago, but the demon recruiter couldn’t get his gilt-edged signees to play for him.
If coaching didn’t matter, 30 percent of the BCS slots wouldn’t have been filled this January by Louisville, Wake Forest and Boise State.
“I never wanted to have the No. 1 class,” said Vince Dooley, who won a national championship and a half-dozen SEC titles. “I wanted to be in the top 10 or 12 — that’s a pretty good class — and then go coach ‘em.”
And then Dooley trotted out a favorite line, how in 1980 “we signed the most-recruited player in the country [Herschel Walker, duh] and the least-recruited.” And how the latter, Terry Hoage, turned out OK, too.
Contrary to popular belief, nobody actually wins in February. All signing day does is give a team a chance to win over the next few autumns. Some teams avail themselves of this opportunity. Others don’t. If recruiting rankings were the determinant, Georgia would never lose to Vanderbilt and Kentucky. On the field, Georgia just did.
No matter how it may look on paper — or how, on those strange Saturdays, the Bulldogs fared against Vandy and Kentucky — Georgia has enough talent to compete for the SEC East title every single year. At issue is whether Richt and his assistants maximize resources and players play to their capabilities. In 2005 they all did. Last year they didn’t until the very end. Just because somebody decides this recruiting class was only the fourth-best in a six-team division doesn’t mean the Bulldogs can’t win that division in 2007 or 2010.
And believe it or not, some followers of recruiting — a group often derided as detached from reality — can actually grasp the bigger picture. Joe Aldridge and Bill Kramer had made their annual three-hour pilgrimage from Vidalia to Butts-Mehre for signing day, and neither seemed even slightly disappointed.
Said Aldridge: “We filled our needs [meaning linemen]. … The game is won in the trenches.”
Said Kramer: “People put too much emphasis on stars [meaning ratings], but we had a five-star athlete who became a bust. I won’t mention any names.”
Perspective among recruitniks? There might be light in the darkness after all.
Permalink | Comments (88) | Categories: Mark Bradley, UGA / SEC
Recruiting counts, but not as much as coaching
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
Athens — The power failed on the top two floors of the Butts-Mehre Building at 1:30 p.m., and immediately the wisecracks began. To cite the most obvious: Georgia reaps, by its lofty standards, a less-bountiful recruiting haul, and just like that a blackness falls over the Red & Black.
If you’re into rankings — and many folks are — Georgia did not (sorry to prolong the already-tired metaphor) shoot out the lights on signing day 2007. After three consecutive classes that were adjudged by Scout.com to have been among the nation’s top six, this one has been assessed as merely the 17th-best, behind five other SEC schools and even Georgia Tech. But here we need ask, not for the first time, do rankings matter?
“Where we’re ranked, I don’t get into that as much as whether we addressed our needs,” Mark Richt said. “And I think we did.”
Is there a gulf of talent separating a class ranked No. 4, as Georgia’s was last year, and No. 17? Richt again: “It’s probably not a very big difference. It’s what happens when [players] get [to college], whether they reach their potential. … I couldn’t tell you who [among Georgia signees] has three stars and four stars.”
Looking at the list of new Bulldogs, Richt offered this: “There are future starters here, future all-Southeastern Conference players, future All-Americans, maybe even future [national] award-winners.”
Which brings us, once again, to the greater point: As much as recruiting matters, coaching matters more. If it didn’t, Ron Zook would have lifted the national championship trophy in Glendale, Ariz., a month ago, but the demon recruiter couldn’t get his gilt-edged signees to play for him.
If coaching didn’t matter, 30 percent of the BCS slots wouldn’t have been filled this January by Louisville, Wake Forest and Boise State.
“I never wanted to have the No. 1 class,” said Vince Dooley, who won a national championship and a half-dozen SEC titles. “I wanted to be in the top 10 or 12 — that’s a pretty good class — and then go coach ‘em.”
And then Dooley trotted out a favorite line, how in 1980 “we signed the most-recruited player in the country [Herschel Walker, duh] and the least-recruited.” And how the latter, Terry Hoage, turned out OK, too.
Contrary to popular belief, nobody actually wins in February. All signing day does is give a team a chance to win over the next few autumns. Some teams avail themselves of this opportunity. Others don’t. If recruiting rankings were the determinant, Georgia would never lose to Vanderbilt and Kentucky. On the field, Georgia just did.
No matter how it may look on paper — or how, on those strange Saturdays, the Bulldogs fared against Vandy and Kentucky — Georgia has enough talent to compete for the SEC East title every single year. At issue is whether Richt and his assistants maximize resources and players play to their capabilities. In 2005 they all did. Last year they didn’t until the very end. Just because somebody decides this recruiting class was only the fourth-best in a six-team division doesn’t mean the Bulldogs can’t win that division in 2007 or 2010.
And believe it or not, some followers of recruiting — a group often derided as detached from reality — can actually grasp the bigger picture. Joe Aldridge and Bill Kramer had made their annual three-hour pilgrimage from Vidalia to Butts-Mehre for signing day, and neither seemed even slightly disappointed.
Said Aldridge: “We filled our needs [meaning linemen]. … The game is won in the trenches.”
Said Kramer: “People put too much emphasis on stars [meaning ratings], but we had a five-star athlete who became a bust. I won’t mention any names.”
Perspective among recruitniks? There might be light in the darkness after all.
Permalink | Comments (1) | Categories: Mark Bradley, UGA / SEC
Petrino’s loyalty a shifting formation
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
Even now, after nearly a month of swearing his allegiance to the Falcons as their new head coach, there are so many questions for Bobby Petrino about his past, present and future.
For instance: Which is it?
Does Petrino consider himself to be a pro coach or a college coach for the long run, and given his self-inflicted controversy over it all, what does this mean for his longevity (or lack thereof) in Atlanta?
Here’s why I ask: During Petrino’s four seasons of leading the University of Louisville to football prominence, he often spoke of cherishing the collegiate lifestyle to that of the pros. He regularly told Cardinals athletics director Tom Jurich that working in the college ranks was more suitable for raising his family. He even signed that 10-year contract last summer to coach Louisville just shy of forever.
“For me and my family, Louisville is my home,” Petrino said back then at his news conference. “I also wanted to make sure that everyone understood — and I know I’ve said it — that this is where my family wants to be and where I want to be.”
Now Petrino says boldly that he always knew in recent years that he would leave the college game.
Huh?
“Everything I’ve done from the time I left the [Jacksonville] Jaguars was within mind that, ‘when I come back to the NFL,’?” said Petrino, causing some head scratching during his impromptu interview with reporters in Miami during Super Bowl week. He was with the Jaguars from 1999 through 2001 as quarterbacks coach for two seasons before becoming Auburn offensive coordinator.
In contrast, Petrino’s other 18 years in coaching were on campuses, ranging from his native Helena, Mont., to Ogden, Utah to Reno, Nev. His college résumé included his ugly flirtation in the shadows with trying to secure the Auburn head coach job that his former boss Tommy Tuberville already had. Plus, despite receiving a hefty raise from Louisville, he interviewed at LSU after Nick Saban left for the Miami Dolphins.
It sounds like Petrino always viewed himself as a college coach.
Still, Petrino told those gathered last week in a conference room of the Miami Beach Convention Center that it was just a matter of “when” he would go back to the NFL as opposed to “if.”
Is that right? “Yeah, in my mind, it was never a question of ‘if,’?” said Petrino, 45, mentioning how he even “flipped” his offensive linemen for his college teams to resemble the pros — with a strong side and a weak side, “simply because you can hide a couple of players on your front, and you don’t have to learn as much. I was very intrigued and had a great experience when I worked in the NFL.”
So much so that Petrino said he regularly preached the work ethic of pro athletes to his college athletes.
“Like I told all the players who played for me at Louisville, there’s a bunch of guys with the talent to play in the NFL that are walking the streets,” Petrino said. “It’s the professionals, that’s why they’re called that, the guys that get up at 5:30 in the morning, go lift weights, because that’s what they feel they need to do. The guys that stay there when the horn’s blowing — and you can leave — but get together to watch video with the quarterback and receivers.
“You know, there’s a reason they are professionals, and it’s their commitment and their heart and their passion for the game. That’s always intrigued me from the start.”
Well, that and competition.
To hear Petrino tell it, the ultimate competition is in the NFL.
“It’s fun to coach the best players out there, and it’s fun to compete against the best coaches out there, and I think that will be the biggest challenge,” Petrino said. “Your college schedule, you’ve got two or three, maybe four games sometimes, where if you don’t just foul it up, you should step on the field and win that game. But we know that in the NFL, week in and week out, it’s going to have to be the best preparation, and you’re going to have to play at the highest level.”
It sounds like Petrino always viewed himself as a pro coach.
Mostly, it sounds confusing.
Permalink | Comments (25) | Categories: Falcons / NFL, Terence Moore
A couch potato for the Super Bowl
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Furman Bisher
So this is what it’s like. Kindle a fire. Pop the popcorn. Cat at your feet. Tasty adult beverage in hand. Super Bowl a la carte.
You push a button and it is delivered to you (and 92,999,999 other viewers), cozily reclining by the fireside. No tipping. This time I even got to watch all those $2.5 million commercials, and I needed an interpreter for some of them. My favorite was the one of the little street dog that wound up on the Clydesdale wagon, but I saw little that’ll change my buying habits. I’m left to wonder how these companies that are losing billions - Ford, for instance - and these little companies that produce nuts and munchies can afford such extravagance.
And for the halftime show, I watched this one without distractions. We’d reserved halftime for dinner, and I’m still not sure what I was seeing. Prince is an entertainer, right? He sings and dances and attracts babes. He paid tribute to the weather. I guess that’s what “Purple Rain” was, but truth to tell, since Up With Something or Other, whatever the name of that wholesome group was, most of these halftime ballets have been over my head.
This must be said: After a week of predictions, repeated over and over again, and of Mike and Dan and Merle and Eric and Shannon and the television avalanche, not to mention Kevin and John and Buck and Mort and all those “NFL insiders,” it was time for some blood and thunder. Sunday morning always makes me nervous. You never know when another Stanley Wilson or Eugene Robinson or Barret Robbins is going to break his tether. Not this time, not with those two good Christian coaches. If you noticed, Tony Dungy even gave God some credit in his benediction. Good man.
The Hall of Fame Committee gave the weekend more Tabasco than usual. That must have been a knockdown, trash-talking session. Try as hard as they do, the presiding court cannot prevent leaks about the indoor wrestlemania that took place. The main feature was the bout that dealt with the just-retired commissioner, Paul Tagliabue. The Tagliabue issue set off a firestorm that lasted 57 minutes, and both the pros and the cons, I’m told, spared no ammunition.
Committee members come, largely, from cities in the NFL, with a few at-large. In the 30 years that I served, discussion began at 7:30 in the morning and ended no later than 11:30. Some of us timed it to work in a round of golf later. But lately, parliamentary sessions had been running dangerously close to the time television had scheduled to announce the newly anointed members. With sensitive foresight, announcement time had been moved back to 2:30 this year, or TV would have been stuck with dead air, for the bickering didn’t come to an end until 2:05. It was a session some described as “highly contentious.”
They came out with a full slate, finally, six members, but no Tagliabue. All athletes. Usually there is a coach or two thrown in for consideration, but by this time, I would hope, they must have grown wiser. For instance, Joe Gibbs was voted in, then came back out of retirement and has not had a Hall of Fame record. Marv Levy was voted in, and he’s now back as general manager of the Bills. Bill Parcells’ name came up, he was passed over, then later returned to coach the Cowboys. As for Tagliabue and his backers - and they were loud and strong, and offended, especially when they learned he had not even survived the first cut - they should consider that Pete Rozelle, probably the best commissioner of any sport all time, was put through this grinder eight times before he made it.
As for the game and the weather, it made the Georgia Dome look like a cozy haven, even with an ice storm. And you should know that the rain came down harder than it appeared on television. But, no, the Super Bowl will not be a full-time undercover game from now on. In fact, three years from now, it goes back to Miami. The NFL is a slow learner. I can assure you that had I been able to include it in my “Best-Worst” list, this one would have taken the prize for worst in show.
Permalink | Comments (6) | Categories: Falcons / NFL, Furman Bisher
Stranger things have happened
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
THE TUESDAY COUNTDOWN…
10: Predicted Super Bowl score in this space last week: Colts 27, Bears 16. Actual final score: Colts 29, Bears 17. But nailing it (somewhat) wasn’t nearly my Super Bowl highlight.
9: Rain! Downpour! Monsoon! After seeing Atlanta get blown off for another Super Bowl because of weather concerns, how sweet was it to see players hydroplaning across the field in Miami and rich folk in $3,000 seats sitting under rain tarps? Yesss!
8: Don’t know if Michael Vick stayed for the game. Saw where he made a visit to Arthur Blank’s yacht party Saturday night. Don’t know if he had to pass through harbor security.
7: Blank said Vick was “very apologetic” for that thing at the Miami airport. I’m sorry. “Very apologetic” for what? I thought he was innocent? Did I miss something? Dang! Well, I’m sure it will all be in the book one day, “Non-Denial Denials by a Tarnished Organization.” (Let it go? Who, me?)
6: Georgia (the conglomerate, not the state) is suing “Bulldog Movers” for infringing on its trademark, which I guess means that the school owns rights of the entire bulldog species, as well as the colors red and black. In a related story, the use of the phrase, “It was raining cats and dogs,” also now requires court approval.
5: Evander Holyfield has just finished filming an infomercial for, “The Real Deal Grill.” It comes with a lifetime guarantee, in the sense that its namesake believes you can keep using the grill, even long after it breaks down.
4: Love the story about the attempted kidnapping and love-triangle between astronauts. But isn’t there some guy rule that a quickie in another galaxy doesn’t really count as cheating?
3: According to something called the “Post-Chronicle,” Cardinals QB Matt Leinart has recently been seen with Paris Hilton, Britney Spears, Tara Reid, Scarlett Johansson and Allysa Milano (not all at once). I would say it sounds completely believable, except that the same publication Tuesday reported, “UFOs in Arkansas and Across Louisiana Skies”.
2: Going into tonight’s game against Buffalo, the Thrashers are a sub .500 team in the last 16 games (6-8-2) and a .500 team (11-11-4) in the last 26. Don Waddell keeps saying he likes this team. But how much evidence do you need that it needs another piece?
1: 2008 Super Bowl: Glendale, Arizona. Windstorm. Flying cacti. Philadelphia 16, Cincinnati 13. (Hey, I’m on a roll.)
Permalink | Comments (26) | Categories: Jeff Schultz, Quick Hit
Hawks leave fans wanting more
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
The Hawks are neither as bad as we’d feared or as good as they’d hoped. They’re better than they’ve been in the post-Babcock era — this, admittedly, fits the utter definition of faint praise — but they’ve fallen into the habit of tripping themselves just as they seem poised to take a real step forward.
And perhaps we shouldn’t expect much more than this halting form of progress. Perhaps we should feel grateful that this is no longer the NBA’s absolute worst team. Perhaps we should be patient over these next five seasons while Billy Knight finds every excuse possible not to draft the point guard he needs, but watching games like Monday night’s can only make the Atlanta audience less understanding, less as opposed to more.
The glitzy Lakers rolled into Philips Arena just past the midpoint of an eight-game road trip. The Hawks had won five of their last seven, the latest being a riveting overtime victory in New Jersey on Sunday. But here we witnessed, not for the first time and surely not for the last, the problems inherent in a team with a growing nucleus of big-time players that lacks big-timers at the two positions that matter most.
One is center, and we can excuse that failing because almost nobody has one. (Though the Lakers, in the 19-year-old Andrew Bynum, seem to have found something, and Bynum was drafted with the 10th pick of the 2005 draft, eight slots after the Hawks took Marvin Williams.) The other, as has been noted endlessly, is point guard, and the Hawks have passed over three good ones — Chris Paul and the Williamses, Deron and Marcus — in the last two drafts. And every time we see the Hawks lose to bottom-feeders Philadelphia or Charlotte (as happened three times in January), we’re reminded that a skilled point guard is the difference between consistency and oscillation.
There was no real reason for the Hawks to lose to the Lakers, but they did. They led 2-0 and never again. They made but 28.9 percent of their first-half shots because they had no one other than Joe Johnson to run the offense, and Johnson, as splendid as he is, can’t initiate and finish the same play. Not coincidentally, Johnson had more turnovers (six) than assists (five). Not coincidentally, Johnson needed 26 shots to score 27 points.
At the end, Johnson was also given the impossible task of shadowing Kobe Bryant, and that didn’t work, either. Bryant scored 11 decisive fourth-quarter points and nursed his otherwise unassuming team home, and the frazzled Johnson wound up missing free throws and getting picked clean by Smush Parker.
“We fought with them,” Josh Smith said. “Kobe just made big shots at the end, which is what he does.”
Well, yes. The sin wasn’t in getting beat by the best in the final minutes. The sin was in leaving the game there for Kobe to win. The sin was in letting a touring visitor gain an early advantage on a team that should have been primed to consolidate recent gains.
Once again, we have to ask if the Hawks have been given the right players with which to grow. They have really good swingmen, yes. As Jon Koncak, the former Hawk, said Monday: “They don’t need eight players anymore. They only need two.”
Guess which two.
At some point this accumulation of mismatched assets must yield to a more conventional deployment. At some point these young guys have to be given the chance to win more than occasionally. Asked if he gets impatient, Smith said: “Yeah, I do. This is my third year, and I want to be able to witness the atmosphere of the playoffs.”
We all would. But that won’t happen this spring, same as it hasn’t happened any spring around here since 1999. The Hawks aren’t so bad we can ignore them any longer, but watching closely only leaves us wanting more.
Permalink | Comments (29) | Categories: Hawks / NBA, Mark Bradley
Hawks leave fans wanting more
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
The Hawks are neither as bad as we’d feared or as good as they’d hoped. They’re better than they’ve been in the post-Babcock era — this, admittedly, fits the utter definition of faint praise — but they’ve fallen into the habit of tripping themselves just as they seem poised to take a real step forward.
And perhaps we shouldn’t expect much more than this halting form of progress. Perhaps we should feel grateful that this is no longer the NBA’s absolute worst team. Perhaps we should be patient over these next five seasons while Billy Knight finds every excuse possible not to draft the point guard he needs, but watching games like Monday night’s can only make the Atlanta audience less understanding, less as opposed to more.
The glitzy Lakers rolled into Philips Arena just past the midpoint of an eight-game road trip. The Hawks had won five of their last seven, the latest being a riveting overtime victory in New Jersey on Sunday. But here we witnessed, not for the first time and surely not for the last, the problems inherent in a team with a growing nucleus of big-time players that lacks big-timers at the two positions that matter most.
One is center, and we can excuse that failing because almost nobody has one. (Though the Lakers, in the 19-year-old Andrew Bynum, seem to have found something, and Bynum was drafted with the 10th pick of the 2005 draft, eight slots after the Hawks took Marvin Williams.) The other, as has been noted endlessly, is point guard, and the Hawks have passed over three good ones — Chris Paul and the Williamses, Deron and Marcus — in the last two drafts. And every time we see the Hawks lose to bottom-feeders Philadelphia or Charlotte (as happened three times in January), we’re reminded that a skilled point guard is the difference between consistency and oscillation.
There was no real reason for the Hawks to lose to the Lakers, but they did. They led 2-0 and never again. They made but 28.9 percent of their first-half shots because they had no one other than Joe Johnson to run the offense, and Johnson, as splendid as he is, can’t initiate and finish the same play. Not coincidentally, Johnson had more turnovers (six) than assists (five). Not coincidentally, Johnson needed 26 shots to score 27 points.
At the end, Johnson was also given the impossible task of shadowing Kobe Bryant, and that didn’t work, either. Bryant scored 11 decisive fourth-quarter points and nursed his otherwise unassuming team home, and the frazzled Johnson wound up missing free throws and getting picked clean by Smush Parker.
“We fought with them,” Josh Smith said. “Kobe just made big shots at the end, which is what he does.”
Well, yes. The sin wasn’t in getting beat by the best in the final minutes. The sin was in leaving the game there for Kobe to win. The sin was in letting a touring visitor gain an early advantage on a team that should have been primed to consolidate recent gains.
Once again, we have to ask if the Hawks have been given the right players with which to grow. They have really good swingmen, yes. As Jon Koncak, the former Hawk, said Monday: “They don’t need eight players anymore. They only need two.”
Guess which two.
At some point this accumulation of mismatched assets must yield to a more conventional deployment. At some point these young guys have to be given the chance to win more than occasionally. Asked if he gets impatient, Smith said: “Yeah, I do. This is my third year, and I want to be able to witness the atmosphere of the playoffs.”
We all would. But that won’t happen this spring, same as it hasn’t happened any spring around here since 1999. The Hawks aren’t so bad we can ignore them any longer, but watching closely only leaves us wanting more.
Permalink | | Categories: Hawks / NBA, Mark Bradley
A Super Bowl of firsts
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
Miami — Long before Prince spent halftime on Sunday belting out his famous “Let’s Go Crazy” in the not so Purple Rain streaming into Dolphin Stadium, the Bears and the Colts already were into crazy.
Five fumbles. A kickoff returned for a touchdown to start the game. An interception. A missed field goal from makeable range by the most clutch kicker ever. A botched snap on an extra point.
Then again, both teams had an excuse for their collective sloppiness. For the first time in XLI Super Bowls, one of these things was played during a steady downpour, which only was appropriate since this was a Super Bowl of firsts.
When the Colts finally conquered the icky weather and a shockingly inept opponent for a relatively easy 29-17 victory, this was first time the “Indianapolis” Colts won a world championship. This was the first time Peyton Manning won the Big One. This was the first time one of the NFL’s worst defenses during the regular season became one of its best during the playoffs. This also was the first time for that other thing involving Super Bowls.
That African-American thing.
Nobody remembers the second man to walk on the moon. Plus, most U.S. presidents between George Washington and Abraham Lincoln are a blur. So the Bears’ Lovie Smith just became an asterisk while the Colts’ Tony Dungy sprinted into history as an exclamation point.
“I thought about that as I was up there on the podium, being the first African-American coach to win [the Super Bowl],” said Dungy, who deserved such a distinction for so many reasons. It begins and ends with this: After Dungy finally got his chance as a head coach in the league following a slew of token interviews, he spurred the NFL careers of other black coaches. He gave Smith his first NFL job in 1996, when Dungy was the head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Just as impressive, Dungy kept using his legendary calmness from his Christian faith to help the Colts stiff arm adversity in the playoffs. For instance: Despite spending the season looking wretched against the run, they stuffed Larry Johnson and the Kansas City Chiefs. Then the Colts defense outslugged the notoriously rugged defense of the Ravens in Baltimore.
Later, after two previous failures, the Colts defeated the great Tom Brady, and they did so after trailing the New England Patriots by 18 points.
Now this, and remember: Dome teams aren’t supposed to prosper under these murky conditions. Not only that, the Bears took the opening kickoff 92 yards in 14 seconds, which would be enough to crush the meek. “We said coming in that there were going to be some storms in the game, so we weren’t shocked and upset after the opening kickoff,” said Dungy, who had the perfect antidote for the Bears — a highly motivated Manning.
Well, that, and a balanced Colts offense that featured lots of touches by Joseph Addai (19 carries for 77 yards and 10 catches for 66 yards) and 113 yards on 21 carries from Dominic Rhodes.
If you add that to Manning going from a rocky first drive that ended in an interception to MVP honors after completing 25 of 38 passes for 247 yards and a touchdown, you have the Colts surviving their early silliness.
Let’s just say the Colts got exactly what they deserved to start the game. They kicked to Devin Hester. You do one of those directional things. You squib it. You kick it to somebody else.
You just don’t kick to Hester. Not unless you want the guy to do something like sprint 92 yards with the opening kickoff to give the Bears a 7-0 lead and momentum.
Dungy is a fast learner. The rest of the game, he ordered the Colts’ Adam Vinatieri to turn Hester into a forgotten man on kickoffs whenever possible.
Too bad for the Bears that their quarterback also vanished. The same went for their defense. That dual disappearing act featuring Rex Grossman and the usually omnipresent Brian Urlacher happened soon after the Bears quickly countered Manning’s 53-yard touchdown pass in the first quarter. The Bears sprinted 57 yards on four plays to the end zone after a Colts turnover for a 14-6 lead.
It was all a mirage. Dungy could see through the rain that this world championship was destined for an NFL team into horseshoes. And now, with apologies to Prince, they are partying in Indianapolis like it’s 2007.
Permalink | Comments (22) | Categories: Falcons / NFL, Terence Moore
Manning will deliver for Dungy
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
Miami — As is the case for all Super Bowls, this one is about a lot of things, but it’s mostly about two coaches and a quarterback.
It’s about their journeys.
Tony Dungy and Lovie Smith are the coaches. Peyton Manning is the quarterback. The coaches’ journeys have entailed surviving all of those persons, places and things seeking to keep them from getting this far courtesy of their dark skin and mild personalities. The quarterback’s journey has entailed proving to others — but mostly to himself — that he can evolve into substance instead of style when championships are near.
Ultimately, it’s about how each of their journeys will conclude today inside Dolphin Stadium after the Chicago Bears face the Indianapolis Colts for the opening kickoff, after the Clear Rain of South Florida threatens to combine with the Purple Rain of Prince, after the avalanche of commercials across your television screen, after somebody finally hoists a $25,000 trophy that is worth significantly more than that to most in the NFL.
Expect Dungy and Manning to do the hoisting for the Colts. Then expect Dungy and Manning to fib about the meaning of it all. “I’m excited for our team that we have this opportunity, and this is not a personal mission or a personal goal for any of these players,” said Manning, trying to sound convincing. The truth is, he couldn’t slay Gators at Tennessee, and he only recently discovered a way to conquer Patriots despite an otherwise flawless résumé. Added Manning, “It’s a team goal [to win the Super Bowl]. The way you do it is together as a team. That’s really been our concept all year, [and that is] to win as a team.”
No question, Manning’s “team” also is on a journey. This is a group so united spiritually that nearly half of its roster joins the coach in studying different Bible passages each day.
Then you have the football part of the Colts’ journey. They’ve won 12 or more games for four consecutive seasons, but this is their only Super Bowl trip. That’s why the Colts have to win now, and so does their coach. “[Dungy] is such a great person that he’s almost like a father that you don’t want to let down,” Colts linebacker Cato June said of the mellow guy who couldn’t win a world championship in Tampa, but who watched somebody else do so just a season after he was fired.
Now Dungy is four quarters away from completing this portion of his overall journey. It began in sports as a hotheaded star athlete from Jackson, Mich. It continued during his prolific quarterback days at the University of Minnesota before he was forced to become a defensive back with the Pittsburgh Steelers. It stalled during the 15 years when he nearly became an NFL assistant coach for life after he was king of the token interview for head coach jobs.
“I think about it all the time,” Dungy said of his journey. “For the last week and a half I’ve reflected. [Colts wide receiver coach] Clyde Christensen and I were out walking one day [this week]. My wife and I were out walking a little earlier than that, and you do think about everything. Assistant coaching jobs. And how you got the next job. And what if [former Minnesota Vikings coach] Denny Green hadn’t called me? What would I be doing? And what if Coach Noll hadn’t called me in 1981? What would I be doing now? So you reflect, and I think a lot of that is the Lord’s track for you.”
Just ask Bears coach Smith, Dungy’s former aide in Tampa and strong Christian pal.
Smith’s journey in sports began as a prep all-state defensive player in the middle of nowhere called Big Sandy, Texas. He later coached his high school team and one in Tulsa. He was a college assistant coach for 13 years before Dungy called the next year to bring Smith to the Buccaneers, and now pupil goes against mentor.
“It’s been a long road, but we had a plan to go into the coaching profession and do well,” Smith said. “Having a chance to be at Big Sandy, where you win three state championships and all those games, winning becomes a part of you. So whatever profession you go into, you assume you are going to have success in it.”
You can’t just “assume” when the journey leads you to the Super Bowl. You have to win it, which is what that other coach and his quarterback will do.
Permalink | | Categories: Falcons / NFL, Terence Moore
The best and the worst Super Bowls
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Furman Bisher
(Editor’s note: Journal-Constitution columnist Furman Bisher has covered every Super Bowl but the first one in 1967. So who else is more qualified to select the best and worst games in Super Bowl history? He chose to end his streak this year, passing on a trip to Miami.)
By this time, as Super Bowl XLI is upon us, this sporting classic has become a bloated circus in which the game itself seems an intrusion.
In pursuit of the “Bests” and “Worsts” of this American exercise in excess, one finds candidates for the “Worsts” considerably more abundant than the “Bests.” In fact, it seemed years passed before one real nail-biter broke the boring stretch, and you realize that included the third game, in which Joe Namath guaranteed that the Jets would beat the hallowed Colts, and did, but there was little classic about it, except the classic flop of the Colts.
Who can forget the scene of Jimmy Orr waving futilely from the end zone while Earl Morrall looked futilely elsewhere? Morrall, the NFL’s Most Valuable Player during the season, had such a terrible game that the gimpy Johnny Unitas had to be called off the bench. While Namath had only three winning seasons in his career, you’ll find him in the Hall of Fame, but no Morrall, who was, after all, a backup playing out the season that Unitas lost to injury.
There was one stretch in which blowout followed blowout and the press box was awash in cynicism. There was little “super” to cheer about. There is this to be said about where the game is played:
Best site: New Orleans, for sheer convenience. Worst site: Miami, where events are spread from here to there, a logistical nightmare. For backups, you may throw Atlanta in as a best, Jacksonville as a worst. (That excuses Pontiac, Mich., and Minneapolis, both beset by snowstorms.)
THE BEST
Super Bowl X, Steelers 21, Cowboys 17: This was a thriller that ran down to the wire, decided only when Glen Edwards intercepted Roger Staubach’s last pass in the end zone. This is the game in which Lynn Swann played himself into the Hall of Fame, with four catches for 161 yards, the last for 64 yards and the winning touchdown. Terry Bradshaw connected with Swann for what turned out to be the winning score in the closing minutes. This was the thriller of all thrillers up to that time.
Super Bowl XIII, Steelers 35, Cowboys 31: Again. It took all of Bradshaw’s skills to offset Staubach’s. The Steelers quarterback passed for 318 yards and four touchdowns, and John Stallworth, his favorite target, caught scoring passes of 28 and 75 yards in the first half, and in truth, registered himself for the Hall of Fame — but, for some warped reason, had to wait until Swann got there first. Staubach, by the way, was taking no prisoners that day himself and threw for three touchdowns. You could pick the 10th or the 13th as the biggest thriller of them all and not be wrong.
Super Bowl IV, Chiefs 23, Vikings 7: This was played in the penetrating chill of old Tulane Stadium, in the last game before the NFL-AFL merger. Kansas City did far more to establish the AFL’s presence than had the Jets the year before. The Vikings were two-touchdown favorites over the Chiefs, who had been shaken by gambling rumors concerning Len Dawson during the week. But Dawson was not shaken, passing for 142 yards and a touchdown to go with Jan Stenerud’s three field goals. Joe Kapp was stifled and the Vikings were able to gain only 67 rushing yards. This was the highlight of Hank Stram’s career.
Super Bowl XXXIV, Rams 23, Titans 16: This took place here in the Georgia Dome, on the day of the infamous ice storm, and you never heard such fussing by out-of-towners who thought Atlanta should have a law against such flagrant weather. The game earned its place in this rating system because Kevin Dyson lay with the ball in his outstretched arm 1 yard from the goal line as time ran out. Mike Jones’ desperation tackle brought down Dyson after he caught Steve McNair’s pass. Great stuff, just like in the movies.
Super Bowl XXIII, 49ers 20, Bengals 16: Jerry Rice caught 11 of Joe Montana’s passes for 215 yards and a touchdown, but in the end it was John Taylor, a lesser-known receiver out of Delaware State, who caught Montana’s 10-yard pass for the winning touchdown with 34 seconds on the clock. The Bengals had taken the lead on Jim Breech’s 40-yard field goal with time running low. The Bengals had rebounded from one of those off-field incidents in which fullback Stanley Wilson had been found in his room drugged out of his mind the night before. But they gave the favored 49ers all they could handle.
THE WORST
Super Bowl XXII, Redskins 42, Broncos 10: You could have your pick of several wipeouts, but this one came apart in a series of 18 plays in the second quarter. Denver had a 10-point lead when Washington let loose an offensive flash flood, scoring five touchdowns in those 18 plays. Doug Williams threw for 340 yards and the Redskins scored like men against boys. A record was set by a player who soon disappeared from view. Timmy Smith, a rookie out of Texas Tech, ran for 204 yards and scored two touchdowns, but later tripped over drugs. Curiously enough, he showed up with the Falcons a few years later but lasted only four games.
Super Bowl XX, Bears 46, Patriots 10: There have been higher scores and wider margins but no game in which the loser has been so dreadfully whipped. Hard to believe that the Patriots once had the lead, 3-0, which was meaningless. Their quarterback, Tony Eason, is the only Super Bowl starter who never completed a pass. After 0-for-6, Steve Grogan came on, but neither had a chance against Buddy Ryan’s defense. That gang embarrassed the Patriots, but at the end of the game, it was Mike Ditka to whom the Bears gave a victory ride.
Super Bowl XXVII, Cowboys 52, Bills 17: You could have your pick of several cases of slaughter about this time. The Bills were taking care of business in their conference, but once on center stage, they were humbled. That is, except for the game in which Scott Norwood missed the field goal that would have beaten the Giants. This one was another one of those routs. Troy Aikman passed for four touchdowns, the Cowboys forced nine turnovers and one of the Cowboys’ linebackers even scored. It was another case of total humiliation.
Super Bowl XXIV, 49ers 55, Broncos 10: That was a scoring record for the 49ers, another one of those games that should have been stopped and the 49ers awarded a TKO. Funny thing, I remember very little about it in the Superdome because, I suppose, it was over almost at kickoff. The 49ers hogged the ball, almost 40 minutes to the Broncos’ 20. Joe Montana completed a lot of passes, Jerry Rice made a lot of catches and I can’t remember the name of a single Denver player, but I’m certain John Elway was somewhere in the house. It was awful.
Super Bowl XXXV, Ravens 34, Giants 7: This is another one of those mismatches that never should have been. The Ravens lived by the muscle, and though they scored 34 points, Trent Dilfer, the quarterback, never got a whiff of the MVP award, and oddly enough, was soon gone. That award went to linebacker Ray Lewis, who was famous in Atlanta only because of an escapade in Buckhead that left behind two unsolved murders. Fortunately, no lives were lost in Tampa, but the Giants barely knew what town they were in. Just another of so many Super Bowls that were less than super.
ABOUT SUPER BOWL I
If I may add a personal reflection, after seeing them all but the first, I find myself congratulating myself for not being there after all these years. The game is a sideshow that every actor, every agent, every guy with a gimmick and every advertiser with a few million to squander gets in a lick or two. Goofy thing, half the television watchers turn on the game to see who’s winning the commercial bout. It’s a farce.
I happened to miss the first, which didn’t have an official name yet, because our publisher brushed it off. “Just another championship game,” he said. “They’ve been playing them for years; what’s so big about this one?”
And besides, a flight to Los Angeles and the hotel bill and all the bar bills I’d run up, well, that would have been too much. It would have been a widow’s mite compared to a trip to Super Bowl XXL, or is it XXLI? I’ve lost count.
Permalink | Comments (14) | Categories: Falcons / NFL, Furman Bisher
State of rookie commissioner low key, at ease
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
Miami — If Pete Rozelle and Paul Tagliabue were at one extreme when it comes to addressing the world, Roger Goodell was at the other.
Not that this is a bad thing.
Take Friday, for instance, when New Orleans Saints owner Tom Benson failed to contain his glee at the Miami Beach Convention Center after the 47-year-old Goodell gave his first State of the NFL address. “I’m going to tell you, I thought it was excellent, because if I had been in his shoes, I would have been a little nervous, but he seemed to handle it just great,” said Benson, a 22-year veteran of these events, ranging from the famously smooth ways of Rozelle to Tagliabue, the condescending lawyer who always let you know he thought he was the smartest guy in the room.
In contrast to Goodell’s predecessors who ruled the NFL for a combined 46 years, Goodell was just Goodell. That means he was low key with a dose of firmness and confidence. This was the same guy who flooded Rozelle’s office with letters 25 years ago to become an administrative intern for the league. This also was the same guy who survived four other finalists after five ballots to be unanimously approved by acclamation of the owners.
Pittsburgh Steelers owner Dan Rooney said after the speech, “We’ve had a lot of different personalities as commissioner, starting with Jim Thorpe. We’ve also had others like Joe Carr, Elmer Layden and Bert Bell before Pete [Rozelle] and Paul [Tagliabue] came along.”
Then Rooney searched his 74-year-old mind to say, “The advice I’ve always given to every commissioner is that, whatever you do, just be yourself.”
So, for 45 minutes, before thousands of reporters from around the universe, Goodell gave his view of life with ease. There were the serious questions. (Do you think the presence of two black coaches in the Super Bowl will lead to more black NFL coaches and executives? “Whether it’s coaching, [trying to apply] for an office or for anything associated with the NFL, we want to have a sophisticated process that is open and diverse that will find the best possible candidate.”). There also were the ridiculous questions. (What do you think of reports that Brett Favre isn’t retiring? “Brett hasn’t called me recently.”)
In the end, Goodell lacked the wit of Rozelle, who once called his archrival, Al Davis, “a charming rogue” during the State of the NFL address before Davis’ Oakland Raiders won a Super Bowl. Even so, Goodell was solid enough to keep his bosses grinning and nodding. Said Benson, watching Goodell shake hands on the podium, “I thought he was direct and to the point. He answered every question. He didn’t hesitate. I’m going up there to congratulate him.”
Well, Goodell wasn’t that good. There were times when you got the feeling that he never completed a course on public speaking. His voice was fine. So were his body gestures. It’s just that, whenever he answered questions to his right, he failed to speak into the microphone. “I guess we’ll have to work on that,” NFL spokesman Joe Browne said, jokingly.
The new guy also had this habit of disagreeing with the premises of questions that were perfectly legitimate.
Questioner: Given the immense popularity of the league, do you see that these problems that seem to come in droves this year, chipping away at the league’s image to where it gets to be — I don’t know if crisis would be the right word — but where it gets to be a major problem?
Goodell: “I see it differently. I don’t see [these problems] coming in droves.”
Oh, really? The Cincinnati Bengals just had their ninth player arrested in the last nine months. That qualifies as “droves,” but Goodell is still learning.
Permalink | Comments (1) | Categories: Falcons / NFL, Terence Moore
How Herschel changed the football world
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
That Sunday morning Mike Cavan was at the Atlanta Athletic Club with his children, of whom he’d seen little recently, for an Easter egg hunt. It was only after he returned to his father-in-law’s house that he learned the folks from Wrightsville had been calling. (This was 1980, way before cellphones.) So Cavan drove home to Athens and dropped off his family and picked up two riders for one final trip to Herschel’s place.
These were the last words Cavan’s wife said before her husband departed yet again: “I hope you sign him, and I hope he never plays.” Cavan’s explanation: “The wives had had enough of Herschel.”
Vince Dooley, Cavan’s boss, had himself undergone a bit of marital strife. Barbara Dooley had planned for her family to spend Easter with her brother, who was studying to be an oncologist, in Boston. In midweek her husband said, “I can’t go.” Barbara Dooley wondered why. “Herschel hasn’t signed.”
Quoth Barbara Dooley: “To hell with Herschel!”
Dooley was the coach of a Georgia program coming off a 6-5 season, not to mention a string of offseasons that had seen heralded backs — William Andrews of Thomasville, James Brooks of Warner Robins, George Rogers of Duluth — sign with out-of-state schools. Cavan was the assistant charged with recruiting Herschel Walker, rated the No. 1 prospect in the state and the nation, and toward that end Cavan essentially moved to a cabin in Wrightsville for the winter and a goodly chunk of the spring. Nearly two months after signing day, Herschel still hadn’t committed.
Cavan had seen every Johnson County game the previous fall and had seen the young man himself on a daily basis ever since. (Back then, coaches were allowed to “bump” into recruits without restriction so long as the bumps were unscheduled.) “There’d be four to 10 other coaches down there every day,” Cavan says, “and not the same ones. They rotated.” A lot of days Cavan would simply sit in the bleachers while Herschel went through basketball practice — “just so he’d know I was there.”
The protracted pursuit had its comedic moments. One report had Southern Cal coach John Robinson — Clemson and USC were considered Georgia’s chief competition — checking into the Macon Hilton so as to sign Herschel the next day. The hotel confirmed it had a guest registered under that name. Says Dooley: “He was John Robinson, a salesman from Valdosta.”
Finally it came down to this: Easter Sunday, Dooley and Cavan and recruiting director Steve Greer hunkered down in Herschel’s driveway. They couldn’t see the apple of their eye sign the precious letter of intent because they’d used their allotted in-home visits. They could only shake his hand after the fact. “We sat in the car,” Dooley says. “We stood around.” And little did anyone know that the lengthy courtship of one teenager would give rise to the frenzy that rings this process today.
Herschel is regarded as the Elvis of football recruiting. (Which would, by extension, make Cavan the affable record producer Sam Phillips and Dooley the gruff manager Col. Tom Parker.) The chase for Herschel was the flashpoint for the evolution of a low-key ritual into a high-volume mania. Georgia signed Walker and won the national championship eight months later, and that unprecedented cause-and-effect left everyone awaiting the Next Herschel. Twenty-seven years later, he still hasn’t arisen. We search anyway.
“It created a fervor,” Dooley says. And then: “Back then, you’d get on the phone and call around the state. It was all underground. Now it’s above the ground.”
Says Cavan, who’s now a developmental consultant for Georgia’s athletics department: “It’s crazy how much everybody knows now. It used to take a week or 10 days for word to get around. Now with the Internet, it’s unreal.”
Even after Herschel, it didn’t happen overnight. First came specialized publications, then a groundbreaking recruiting talk show on Nashville’s WLAC, and then, ultimately and inevitably, the Internet. Supply keeps rising to meet demand, and today there are fans of all schools who seem to care more about winning — or, to be precise, about being perceived as having won — on a Wednesday in February than on any autumn Saturday.
Maybe this strange business would have gotten huge anyway, but every person I’ve ever asked, and I’ve asked several, has invoked one word to pinpoint that moment when recruiting struck the communal chord that resounds today — Herschel. He signed. He played. He changed the football world.
Permalink | Comments (151) | Categories: Mark Bradley, UGA / SEC
Braves’ bullpen rebuilt as fireproof
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
If you have ever seen what happens when a plastic fork is thrown into a campfire, it’s easy to recall the fortunes of Braves relievers last season. Like the fork, the pitcher would soften, bend, contort into some painful, sickly position and eventually melt down into an indecipherable blob.
The Braves, possibly amid rain, ice and freezing temperatures, will open a pitching camp Friday at Turner Field. The weather, we presume, will not serve as an omen for the upcoming season. No longer is the bullpen composed of plastic utensils. Or blobs.
“It’s going to be an exciting time,” Roger McDowell, the Braves’ pitching coach, said Thursday. “Or maybe I should say it won’t be exciting.”
As in “exciting” like last year?
“Enough said.”
Last season the Braves lost a division and finished under .500 (79-83) for the first time since 1990. They finished 18 games behind the New York Mets.
The bullpen blew 29 (of 67) save opportunities - the second-most in the majors behind only Kansas City (31), which is to assume Kansas City is in the majors.
The Mets blew 15 saves.
Do the math. There’s a race buried in the difference.
Disaster started when the Braves came to this same pitching camp and the ensuing spring training with Chris Reitsma as their closer. The appointment was by default. General manager John Schuerholz had tried but failed to sign anybody else, or at least anybody worthy.
Unlike Dan Kolb, Reitsma said all the right things. Like Kolb, he just wasn’t very good.
Reitsma is long gone. So are several others. There remains only a burnt smell around the mound that may linger until this season’s potential plays out.
Schuerholz re-signed Bob Wickman — who’ll turn 38 Tuesday — an unlikely savior who recorded 18 saves in 19 chances after being acquired from Cleveland in July.
He then made two other deals: Horacio Ramirez, a too-often-injured starter, was sent to Seattle for probable setup man Rafael Soriano, who had 65 strikeouts in 60 innings last season. First baseman Adam LaRoche, who was coveted by other teams but not viewed as a must-keep by the Braves, was dealt to Pittsburgh for Mike Gonzalez.
For most of last season, the Braves didn’t have one closer. Now they have two. Gonzalez had 24 saves with the Pirates - and botched none. He also had 64 strikeouts in 54 innings.
And you wonder why McDowell is excited. Or not excited. See, while starting rotations are built from one to five, bullpens are built from the backside forward. The Braves’ bullpen might have just gone from the punch line to the difference.
Last season, McDowell too often got dumped on. When the pitching staff sank to 20th in the majors with an ERA of 4.60, blind loyalists to the departed Leo Mazzone were quick to say it was McDowell’s fault.
This might be time to point out that while the Braves ranked 20th, Baltimore — Mazzone’s new team — ranked 29th with a 5.35 ERA. The Orioles allowed the most homers (216) and second-most earned runs (843).
Gee. Could it be that it’s more about the players than the coach?
“As a coach, you’re obviously not the one out there competing,” said McDowell, who split time as a setup man and closer during his 12-year career. “But while I can’t physically go out there for them, I can help prepare them.”
Then again, when you hand a box of Hamburger Helper to the chef, you’re going to be limited. McDowell may have been new last season, but even he sensed there might be problems.
“I guess,” he said. “But I’m just a positive person, so I thought things might work themselves out. But it didn’t happen that way. That said, we also got an indication from guys in terms of what they’re capable of doing, and in some situations what they’re not capable of.”
McDowell says he will feel “more comfortable” this season. He cited having had a year with the Braves’ returning pitchers. But his comfort might be less about those returning than those who have been added — and those who are gone.
Permalink | Comments (57) | Categories: Braves / MLB, Jeff Schultz
Similarities of coaches go beyond skin deep
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
Miami — Nothing is clearer in the spotlight of Super Bowl XLI than the fact that Lovie Smith is Tony Dungy, and Tony Dungy is Lovie Smith.
The beneficiary of such a thing is the NFL and society. We’re all changed forever through the classy and unprecedented ways of Smith and Dungy (or Dungy and Smith, if you prefer) during their search this week for a world championship.
More specifically, courtesy of these kindred souls, it just became more difficult for anybody to say publicly or privately that this person or that one shouldn’t be hired as a boss because of … Yes, because of that, if you’re thinking about the darkness of their skin, but also because of this: the softness of their voices. In addition to sitting only a couple of days away from serving as the first blacks ever to coach in a Super Bowl, Smith and Dungy are making it acceptable for folks to become leaders who lack the desire to combine a scream with a scowl.
Let’s start with Smith, the famously mellow coach of the Chicago Bears. You know he is showing his version of vintage Dick Butkus in rage when, well, I’ll defer to defensive tackle Tank Johnson. “You look up, and you see a couple of extra wrinkles on his forehead,” said Johnson, with a straight face. As for Dungy, another master of calmness while coaching the Indianapolis Colts, the situation is totally different. Said defensive tackle Montae Reagor, “He’s really mad about something if you hear him repeat the same sentence twice.”
Other than that, Smith and Dungy are exactly the same when it comes to just about everything else. Good. For everybody. Although Smith and Dungy work in a profession that usually chews up the meek and spits them out, they both are into serenity so much that they’ve forgotten how to shout. They both regularly practice the Christian principles that they preach. They both talk of family before football. They both embrace their roles as 21st century Jackie Robinsons in football regarding that black coaching thing and the upcoming Super Bowl.
They are friends. They are the closest of friends.
During the NFL season, they speak at least every Monday. It’s a time when the 51-year-old Dungy shares everything from stories to X’s and O’s to prayers with the now-48-year-old guy that he hired as linebackers coach in 1996, when Dungy was the head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Their conversations haven’t stopped, even though both Smith and Dungy are in pursuit of the hoisting of the same trophy by late Sunday.
“Tony and I have had a chance to talk a few times this week, and we do have a special relationship that will last for a lifetime as far as I’m concerned,” said Smith on Thursday, from the Bears’ team hotel. Three days ago, they met behind closed doors at Dolphin Stadium, away from the frenzied Media Day sessions for both teams. They didn’t swap game plans, by the way. Smith smiled, saying, “It’s just like playing a basketball game and looking to beat your brother.”
Dungy has expressed similar thoughts during the week. Then the mentor turned philosophical about what all of this means for his pupil, himself and mankind overall. “Lovie and I are just proof of the results of what can happen when people get an opportunity,” said Dungy, shunned for more than a decade in search of an NFL head coaching job until he was hired by the Buccaneers in 1996. “It’s been so difficult for African-Americans in a lot of venues just to get opportunities.”
Whatever the case, the Super Bowl has Dungy and Smith, and Dungy and Smith always will have each other. “Pretty much, they are two peas in the same pod,” said Anthony McFarland, the Colts defensive tackle who should know. Eight years ago, McFarland played for the Buccaneers, when Dungy and Smith were there.
“Both guys try to do things the right way, and both have exactly the same personalities,” McFarland said. “Both enjoy the game of football. Both want to do it the right way, and that’s being straightforward, being upfront, being honest with the guys. Not only on the field, but off the field.”
McFarland forgot something: Both wish to make the other guy’s team second best on Sunday.
Permalink | | Categories: Falcons / NFL, Terence Moore
Rating the NCAA regionals
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
Every Friday between now and the end of the regular season, we ll look at who’s up, who’s down and what you should be watching as the countdown continues to the Final Four in Atlanta.
If the season ended today, here’s what the top four seeds in each region should look like:
SAN ANTONIO
1: Florida
2: Oregon
3: Duke
4: Memphis
SAN JOSE
1: UCLA
2: Ohio State
3: Texas A&M
4: Air Force
EAST RUTHERFORD
1: North Carolina
2: Pittsburgh
3: Oklahoma State
4: Indiana
ST. LOUIS
1: Wisconsin
2: Kansas
3: Marquette
4: Butler
RISING
New Mexico State
March Madness in Atlanta:
Check out the AJC’s Final Four pageThe Aggies are 18-4 and tied for the WAC lead with Nevada, a team they beat last month. The NMSU coach is Reggie Theus, who as an NBA player was considered a coach-killer. (He lasted one disruptive season with the Hawks.) Theus coached the Las Vegas Slam in the minor-league ABA before landing at Louisville as Rick Pitino’s assistant. Known as “Rush Street Reggie” as a flashy Chicago Bulls player, Theus is 34-18 since taking over in less-fashionable Las Cruces.
FALLING
Syracuse
Whatever magic fell on Syracuse during last season’s run to the Big East tournament title departed with Gerry McNamara. The Orange have lost seven of their past 15 games and fallen to eighth place in the conference. In the span of 48 hours, Syracuse didn’t score a basket over 9 1/2 minutes in blowing a 14-point lead at Louisville and then yielded 61 first-half points in losing to Notre Dame at the Carrier Dome.
Kevin Kruger, UNLV guard
Actually, you know the name, and you definitely know the face. Kevin Kruger, a senior for UNLV, plays for his dad Lon, who once coached the Atlanta Hawks and who, in earlier stints at Florida and Illinois, had his lookalike son beside him on the bench. Kevin Kruger just returned after missing three weeks with a thigh bruise, and he’s the leading assist-maker and third-leading scorer for a 19-4 team that’s tied with Air Force atop the Mountain West.
WHAT WE’LL BE WATCHING
OHIO STATE AT MICHIGAN STATE
4 p.m. Saturday, CBS
Some of us watched this game last week, and a lot of us turned it off when the Buckeyes led 43-23 at the half. What we missed: The Spartans’ Drew Neitzel (left) scoring 24 second-half points to pull Michigan State within one, whereupon Ohio State coach Thad Matta chose to double-team the guard and make someone else - Maurice Joseph - take and miss what would have been the game-winning trey.
MID-MAJOR OF THE WEEK
Virginia Commonwealth
The Rams had won 18 of 19 before losing at Hofstra on Wednesday, propelling them to the top of the suddenly chic Colonial Athletic Association. (George Mason came thundering out of the CAA, in case you’ve forgotten.) VCU is coached by Anthony Grant, who’s in his first season after spending 10 years as Billy Donovan’s assistant at Florida.
FUN WITH NUMBERS
The Florida Gators are the reigning national champs and have been No. 1 in the polls the past three weeks, yet the NCAA’s official RPI ratings had them No. 29 last week and No. 19 this week. Ohio State, which Florida beat by 26 points, is No. 8. Kentucky, which has lost five games to Florida’s two, is No. 7. Perhaps Urban Meyer needs to turn his considerable lobbying skills toward computers.
Permalink | Comments (7) | Categories: Mark Bradley, Tech / ACC, UGA / SEC
Vinatieri gives Colts a leg up
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
I could see the Bears getting ahead.
I could see the defense making an early big play — akin to Ty Law’s interception that put the Patriots ahead of the vastly favored Rams in 2002 — and giving the massive underdogs reason to believe.
I could see that defense and the Bears’ ground game controlling the clock and keeping Peyton Manning off the field.
I could see Rex Grossman, who fits nobody’s image of a championship quarterback, making just enough key throws to move the chains — the way he did in the NFC title game, the way Trent Dilfer did for the Ravens against the Giants in 2001.
I could see the Colts’ statistically lousy run defense, which hasn’t hurt them yet in the postseason, hurting them big-time against a power-running team like the Bears.
I could see the Colts thinking they’d already won their Super Bowl by beating the Patriots and then, too late, finding out they hadn’t.
I could see Peyton getting antsy again.
I could see all of the above happening, but you know what I simply can’t see? Adam Vinatieri, the greatest kicker ever, missing the winning field goal in a game that will be decided by a field goal.
Colts 20, Bears 17.
Permalink | Comments (17) | Categories: Mark Bradley, Quick Hit
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