AJC > Sports > Columnists > Archives > 2007 > September > 12
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Falcons should sign Leftwich — now
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
Joey Harrington is 23-44 as an NFL starter. There’s a quarterback available who’s 24-20. If I’m the Falcons, I sign Byron Leftwich today.
Maybe Harrington will work out. (In his defense, he did complete 23 of 32 passes against Minnesota, and one of the two interceptions wasn’t his fault. It was Michael Jenkins’, who looks like the worst first-round pick this franchise has made since … Bruce Pickens? Steve Broussard? Aundray Bruce?) But Harrington won’t last through September if he’s going to get sacked six times a Sunday, and the thought of Chris Redman as the No. 1 quarterback is even more disquieting.
So: Why not Leftwich? He has been a starter. He has thrown more NFL touchdown passes (51) than interceptions (36). He can deliver the deep ball. (Whether any of the Falcons’ receivers can get deep is another matter.) He can’t run, but neither can Harrington. At worst, he’d be a more viable backup than Redman. At best, he might be able to win a couple of games for a team that won’t win many.
As mentioned earlier this week, these Falcons don’t have much time. The happy talk of preseason, already a fading memory, will be rendered totally inoperative if these first four games end without a win. (And the fourth of those games, as luck would have it, will be against Matt Schaub and Houston. Imagine if the Falcons fall to 0-4 by losing to the quarterback they jettisoned.) If nothing else, hiring Leftwich would send the message that this organization is doing what it can to keep this season from going really bad really fast.
The season can and probably will go bad anyway. But that doesn’t mean the Falcons should surrender. Give Leftwich a call. Try as I might, I don’t see a downside.
Permalink | Comments (183) | Categories: Falcons / NFL, Mark Bradley, Quick Hit
This UGA bunch needs an alpha Dog
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
Athens — More than anything else, with the horror of South Carolina and that Spurrier guy threatening to haunt the rest of Georgia’s football season, these gifted but raw group of Bulldogs need somebody who can growl while throwing a chair across the locker room.
Somebody who can make sure Georgia doesn’t sleepwalk on Saturday at Sanford Stadium against pitiful Western Carolina before trips in two of the next three weeks to Tuscaloosa and Knoxville. Somebody who can make sure the Bulldogs realize they can become puppies in a hurry, especially since they’ll also spend pre-Halloween facing Vanderbilt, which shocked Georgia at home last season, and Florida, which slams Georgia all the time.
That somebody is …
“Uh,” said Asher Allen, a sophomore cornerback for Georgia, thinking and thinking. “To be honest, we don’t have that person. Well, not yet, but if I had to say a name, I’d say Kelin Johnson. He really has been the guy who has been out there, making sure everybody is ready at practice, doing the small things, and also making sure the young people know what’s going on.”
Yeah, but what about the growl thing and chair thing?
Redshirt freshman safety Reshad Jones frowned, saying, “Kelin is not that type of guy, but I’d say that he is a vocal leader. He speaks what’s on his mind, and he’ll come out and make plays when needed.”
The same goes for center Fernando Velasco, among the seniors cited by Georgia coach Mark Richt as rising team leaders. Then, upon further review, Richt added, “I’d say Fernando is No. 1 [as a leader] on the team. But you know, defensively, we’ve got a bunch of guys. I’ve been pleased with [defensive end] Marcus Howard. Kelin is doing a nice job. Jeff Owens is a junior, and he’s doing a good job. Brandon Miller — quiet, not a big rah-rah guy, but he’s playing outstanding, and he works hard, and he gets emotional on game day. He’ll rally the troops.”
All of that’s fine, but that’s not the point. If the Bulldogs wish to go from their early deficit in the SEC East to bowling in the BCS, they’ll need what they’ve always had when they’ve finished better than good.
They’ll need THE leader.
Thomas Davis. Greg Blue. David Pollack. D.J. Shockley. The Stinchcombs (Jon and Matt). Eric Zeier. David Greene. Frank Ros. Will Witherspoon. John Brantley.
This isn’t an optional thing for the Bulldogs. This is a must thing, and this won’t come from Richt or any of his lieutenants. “Coaches will always ride herd and try to keep the standards at a certain level, but when you have players that will make sure that everybody is doing what they ought to be doing, that’s a huge deal for your team,” Richt said. “The leadership, in my opinion, has to come from within the ranks to have a great football team.”
It happened last season, when Georgia dropped four of five games, including a fiasco to Vanderbilt and another to Kentucky. Before long, the Bulldogs were sprinting into 2007 with consecutive victories over nationally ranked Auburn, Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech.
The thing is, Tony Taylor and Tra Battle were THE leaders during that stretch, but they are in the NFL now.
Now what for the Bulldogs, or should we say who?
“I remember during the South Carolina game that we were going out there for a kickoff return, and playing the amount of snaps I was playing, going out there for special teams, you’re tired,” junior tight end Tripp Chandler said. “But Kelin was in my ear, B-Miller was talking to me, just leadership all around from our seniors giving you confidence to help you get through.”
Sounds like leadership by committee at Georgia.
Whatever works.
If it works.
Permalink | Comments (92) | Categories: Terence Moore, UGA / SEC
PGA life evidently not as easy as it looks
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Furman Bisher
Now, we all know that golfers playing the PGA Tour have the softest life in sports, short of fast race horses. Horses have to account to no one. No nagging wife. Somebody else raises their kids. Nobody spying on their night life. In fact, no night life.
Look at the jollies of being a Tour golfer, courtesy of Phil Mickelson, who was appearing before a cast of journalists at East Lake on Wednesday:
“We get to play golf for a living. It’s a wonderful deal.”
“We get to make our own schedule.” No team, no nasty manager to obey.
“It’s very difficult,” but they get to travel with their kids when they choose to.
They have agents to cover any glitches. A caddie carries their weapons. Courtesy cars await, keys in the switch.
But through all these hardships, they must be fresh mentally and physically. So a fellow needs some time away from tournament pressure and the ordeal of playing all those “outings.” Oops, “outings?” Yeah, after the Congressional, an “outing” around Washington, and after the PGA Championship, another “outing.”
An “outing” is not your kind of picnic. It’s another day’s work, presenting your celebrated body for a round of golf that some corporation pays a king’s ransom for. Not required. Nothing to do with Tour business. It’s the player exercising his own corporate self.
“For me, it’s 10 out of 13 weeks in a row, starting back at the AT&T National, the Scottish Open, the British Open, two weeks in Europe, then to Akron, then the PGA Championship, then I have four days off before a four-week stretch with the FedEx Cup,” Mickelson said, inserting all those unforced “outings” in between.
Then you have school starting and you go on from there, the golfer’s marathon. So he wins one of the FedEx prelims and takes a bye. Tiger Woods did, didn’t he? “You’re trying to practice and work out and trying to have family time … it doesn’t allow you to play your best every single week for months on end.”
Whew, he’s wearing me out. Just the day before, Rory Sabbatini once again had barked out his challenge: Play all the four FedEx events, or forfeit. “We’ve all learned to take what he says with a grain of salt,” was Mickelson’s retort.
This is, as you may have determined by now, a house divided. Some players prefer cash payment on the 18th green Sunday. Some simply go along with company policy. You see, there’s more than just than the $10 million prize up front. There are 25 millions to be distributed down through the rest of the 30 players.
Tour commissioner Tim Finchem had a press conference Wednesday afternoon and painted it all with a golden tone. Crowds great, TV ratings great, players excited, “a successful run,” as he put it, “not to say it can’t be done better.”
For one thing, telecasts on the Golf Channel have been atrocious. Continuity non-existent. Weekends on the major networks haven’t been much better, and I’m a watcher. I’ve bought into the Golf Channel since its first month. After all that time, I have to say the quality is just above stagnant. So there.
Thus, I have this to propose: If the Tour is as muchly concerned as it seems about bucking football, U.S. tennis championships, and one it seems not to have heavy on it mind, the major league pennant races, I suggest that the official PGA Tour season come to a close with the Tour Championship the last week of August. That leaves time for the Fall Series, as they call it, before the first snowflake and wintry storm. And all those guys outside the exalted FedEx class can have a race of their own to the exempt line of 125.
Permalink | Comments (10) | Categories: Furman Bisher, Golf
Hawks should have one owner
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
The Maryland Court of Special Appeals ruled that Steve Belkin can’t shove aside the rest of the Atlanta Spirit folks to become the Hawks’ sole owner. Or that he needs to try again in court, or that he should just go away, or that he must put Dijon sauce on his crab cakes.
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| AP |
| Hawks GM Billy Knight (left) refuses to shake hands with Steve Belkin (right) in a 2005 courtroom encounter. |
Who knows?
This is for sure: Even if Belkin is ousted — to the delight of Billy Knight, the Hawks’ general manager whose hands are apparently allergic to Belkin’s — the Hawks still will have about seven owners too many. If you include the estranged Belkin, they have eight right now.
One owner, please.
Nothing against the other guys with the Hawks, but either of the extremely knowledgeable and always personable Gearons (Michael Sr. or Jr.) would do just fine. When it comes to pro sports, there is a reason why most world championships have gone to teams owned by an individual instead of a corporation or a consortium.
Anyway, I knew this Atlanta Spirit thing was headed for divorce court within 24 hours of its first news conference. That’s because Belkin left an Alexander Haig message on my answering machine.
To paraphrase, “Contrary to what was said in the news conference that all eight of us are equal in ownership with the Hawks, I’m more equal than the others.”
Did I say the Hawks should have one owner?
Not Belkin, please.
Permalink | Comments (16) | Categories: Quick Hit
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