AJC > Sports > Columnists > Archives > 2008 > February > 15
Friday, February 15, 2008
Reputation, past performance mean little to Dimitroff
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
It tells us much about the new order of business that the rookie general manager’s first big personnel move was to dump two All-Pros. It tells us Thomas Dimitroff isn’t cowed by reputation, by history or by hierarchy.
Cutting Alge Crumpler made fiscal and physical sense: He’s a 30-year-old with a bad knee. Cutting Rod Coleman was instructive for the simple reason that Coleman was Rich McKay’s best free-agent acquisition. When you start by jettisoning a big-name guy brought here by your predecessor (who’s still technically your boss), it tells us you don’t much care whose feathers get ruffled.
The worst part about last fall’s epic plunge to 4-12 was the revelation that this vaunted roster was a house of cards — or, more precisely, one card bearing No. 7. Without Michael Vick, little else worked. There were too few playmakers, too many mediocrities.
It’s Dimitroff’s mission to trim the fat, and he began by cutting seven men Friday. It’s believed more cuts, perhaps involving bigger names, are imminent. And here we see why it was essential that an outsider be put in charge of personnel — as we know, Arthur Blank loves his players, and with such an affectionate owner a roster can easily become a retirement home for men who technically haven’t retired.
Said Dimitroff, speaking Friday after the names of those seven former Falcons were released: “I step back. My decisions are totally on me. I look with a clear eye. I put nothing in consideration of the past.”
The new GM didn’t see Crumpler as the one guy who consistently got open for Vick. (The new GM knows Vick only as someone who’s incarcerated in Kansas.) The new GM saw instead a tight end whose receiving yards had dropped from 877 in 2005 to 444 last season. Yes, Crumpler is a famously nice guy, but the 2007 Falcons had lots of nice guys, and you know where they finished? Last in the NFC South.
Said Dimitroff: “We did many comparatives involving free agents and the draft,” and those comparatives surely indicated that the Falcons could find players comparable to Crumpler and Coleman. After Friday’s paring, the team will have at least $17 million to spend in cap money, a figure Dimitroff called “a good start.”
The same three words apply to the man himself. Because he looks 20 years younger than he is, because he’d trained as a scout and not as an administrator, the fear was that Dimitroff might be so deferential to his elders that he got nothing done. Early returns indicate no such deference. He was the driving force behind hiring Mike Smith as coach, and Dimitroff, speaking of his first round of cut recommendations, said: “There was no objection [from Blank and McKay]. It involved sharing.”
One thing Dimitroff wasn’t willing to share was his intention regarding the draft. Does the absence of Coleman mean the Falcons are apt to take Glenn Dorsey with their first pick? Dimitroff: “Can I say, ‘No comment’?”
Or would the team in dire need of a quarterback prefer Matt Ryan? “It’s totally contingent on prospect evaluation,” Dimitroff said. “If a guy has all the traits to be a cornerstone quarterback, I would not hesitate to take him at 3, 4 or 5 [in Round 1].”
And if it means taking a step backward in 2008 simply to tailor the roster to his liking … well, Dimitroff didn’t seem opposed to that, either. “My aim is to put a team on the field that’s very aggressive and very passionate, a team that is beginning to believe in itself. That’s the first goal. The starting point is to have that in place.”
He said nothing about going 10-6 or making the playoffs. Rather, he spoke of establishing a template, of setting a new tone. Toward that end, nothing resonates like the rustle of a veteran cleaning out his locker. They’ll be hearing that sound often in Flowery Branch, where there’s a new man in charge, a bold man who cares nothing for yesterday.
Permalink | Comments (85) | Categories: Falcons / NFL, Mark Bradley
Arrogant Clemens looks like liar, not McNamee
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Furman Bisher
America got a long look at a one-shot television show the other day. It should have been called Inside Congress. Re-titled, it may turn out to be the Self-Destruction of Roger Clemens. Most disturbing to the tax-paying citizen was something the chairman, Congressman Henry Waxman, said in a state of irritation, addressing Clemens, the baseball pitcher.
“Only reason we held this hearing was because Roger Clemens insisted on it,” he said.
You mean, all any irritated American has to do is call Congress and say, “I want a hearing.”
As the hearing unfurled, there was little doubt that Clemens had been undone by solipsism. A victim of self. A man wallowing in his own conceit and feeling of invulnerability. He had visited some of the congressmen in their offices the day before, which some might be construed as tampering with a jury. Signing autographs, posing for pictures. These were his guys, then the lights and the cameras were turned up.
He stumbled through his introductory recitation, cold, steely, challenging. “I have never taken steroids and HGH,” was his punch line. Brian McNamee, the beleaguered one, came next and did you notice that Clemens’ former personal trainer first apologized to baseball? Humility is often more convincing than arrogance.
Clemens’ weapon was power. Big man kicking a little man when he was down. This is a plot that never sells. What carried a lot of weight within the hearing, and over the telecast, was something McNamee said in his written opening:
“When I told Senator Mitchell I injected Roger Clemens with performance-enhancing drugs, I was telling the truth.”
You can see no reason for McNamee to lie. You can see reason for Clemens to lie. His legacy, his ego, his place in pitching history, his ticket to the Cooperstown Hall of Fame. He said at one stage, “I’ll never have my record restored.” Solipsism again.
Congress gave Clemens a taste of what was to come right out of the box. Congressman Elijah Cummins came at him with an assortment of wrenching questions. No soft pitches there. That should have told Rocket that he was in for a tough day, more to follow. Another congressman from Indiana, Dan Burton, laid down a withering barrage at McNamee, who took it calmly. Throughout the day he never lost his cool, while behind Clemens his hovering team of legal beagles did, to the point they had to be dressed down. Lawyer questioning was not allowed by the rules.
If you care to dig into performance evidence, check into Clemens’ record in the middle of his career. With the Red Sox in 1993 he had his first losing season, 11-14 and a high earned-run average. Following season 9-7, then 10-5, with rehab time in the minor leagues. Then another losing season, 10-13 and another high ERA, Now as a free agent he signed with the Toronto Blue Jays, and who should he find there but Brian McNamee in some kind of training capacity. Ah, Brian McNamee, who became his personal trainer.
Sudden return to glory. He won 21 games, his earned-run average dropped to 2.05, a plummet, followed by another 20-win season in 1998. The Rogers Clemens story was being revived and re-written. And quietly carrying the torch was Brian McNamee, former catcher on the St. Johns University team in New York.
Back in the congressional hearing, this was not the way Clemens had seen his hearing developing. (In fact, it would seem to me that this was a case for the Department of Justice, not some for congressmen to be threshing about on out tax money.) Rising higher in esteem as it all unfolded was the figure of Andy Pettitte, Clemens’ close friend, and one who often fell under the influence of Clemens. He confessed to the use of some form of enhancing stuff. He stood out like a white knight, and there sat Clemens, now an unfrocked former hero. The plot is just beginning to thicken, and I go back to something written earlier:
I can see no reason for McNamee to lie. I can see all sorts of reasons for Clemens to lie.
Permalink | Comments (63) | Categories: Braves / MLB, Furman Bisher
