Perhaps the “BEST TEAM IN THE NFC” talk was a bit premature but it was sure fun while it lasted, wasn’t it? The Atlanta Falcons were kings of the NFC for a week after dispatching Cleveland up in Ohio, and folks from the local radio stations to the newspaper to some national media members were dubbing the Falcons the best of the NFC. Bill Simmons of ESPN.com predicted the Falcons to knock off the Eagles “Because the Falcons are headed for a 1-seed and 1-seeds win games like this. And because the Eagles are the Good Bad Team: They whup other bad teams and lose to good ones.”
Foxsports.com’s Adam Schein also called the Falcons the best in the NFC before the squad went to Philadelphia and lost to the Eagles. ESPN’s Adam Schefter had the Falcons near the top of his NFL Power Poll, behind just two AFC squads Pittsburgh and Indy. SI’s Don Banks also had the Falcons at No.3 in his poll for SI.com and John Kincade from 680 The Fan placed the Dirty Birds in his recent Top Five at Five, just days before the Philly loss. 790 The Zone’s Steak Shapiro was even in Philly covering the game for the Atlanta radio station, hoping the Falcons could shake off a recent losing streak to the Eagles.
Now though, it seems everybody is jumping OFF of the Falcons bandwagon, starting with the AJC’s Mark Bradley, who I am surprised hasn’t sprained an ankle with all of his jumping off and on bangwagons recently. After giving the Falcons an “F” on its performance against Philly, Bradley wrote earlier this week that he is “(slightly) disappointed in these 4-2 Falcons.” He points out that the team is good at gaining yards but not points as it settles for too many field goals. He notes that Michael Turner is no better than he was last year in an injury-plagued season. Oh, and he throws Matty Ice under the bus, saying that Ryan, “as an every-down quarterback isn’t significantly better than he was as a rookie.”
On the flip side, Bradley recently commented that Georgia is suddenly looking hot in what is turning out to be a very bad SEC East, or Least as he called it. Several weeks back after the Colorado game, Bradley was throwing dirt on the Dawgs season, predicting just a pair of wins over Vandy and Idaho State, but now apparently Bradley is back to singing the praises of Richt as being calm and cool and possibly “the most stable guy in his division.” Wow. I just hope you don’t hurt yourself as you jump from Falcons to Dawgs.
Speaking of the Georgia Bulldogs, the basketball program is starting to garner a little attention across SEC country. The SEC media declared Bulldog forward Trey Thompkins as the preseason player of the year and Thompkins was joined on the first team All-SEC by teammate Travis Leslie. Georgia in fact was the only team to have two members on the SEC preseason first unit. Thompkins received 18 of a possible 20 votes for the player of the year honor. As a unit the Bulldogs, who were winless on the road last season and have finished last in the SEC East the last three seasons, were picked to finish third in the SEC preseason media poll behind predicted champion Florida and a reloaded Kentucky. The Dawgs did receive two first place votes from twenty voters and one voter picked Georgia to win the entire SEC. (No I did not get a vote in the poll; otherwise, Georgia would have received three for the East and two for the overall title.) Mark Fox is really starting to build something in Athens and the media is starting to realize it. Hopefully the local paper and radio stations will give the college basketball teams the same attention that the football teams get. Paul Hewitt and Mark Fox could sure use the attention.
Score Atlanta’s The Official Visit was lucky enough to have former Tucker Tiger and Georgia Bulldog running back Thomas Brown join in for an interview on last week’s broadcast on Sports Radio 790 The Zone. Brown discussed his recruitment six years ago and how he took just one official visit and that was to Athens as he had pledged his word to Mark Richt and Georgia before his senior season, when recruits are permitted to take official visits. Brown did admit that he went on multiple unofficial visits, including one to Florida State as he grew up a Seminole fan.
Another issue Brown really touched on though was the fact that college players should receive some sort of compensation. Brown acknowledged that many underprivileged players received the Pell Grant, but he noted that what a school brings in on just ticket sales could easily take care of just one recruiting class’s worth of players in regards to a monthly stipend. Brown made sure to note that he never had contact with an agent but did say that while some of the media calls agents “a problem,” Brown said that some players look at agents as a sort of solution. He came across many players that he felt were forced to leave Georgia early to pursue an NFL career due to financial struggles at home.
Lastly, Brown said that he hasn’t ruled out coaching or even a venture into the broadcasting booth. Brown was also recently featured on GPB’s Sports Central, which you can watch online anytime at gpb.org/sports and click on the Sports Central link.
In what may be a first ever, the Atlanta Thrashers were featured on the front page of ESPN.com earlier this week. The Worldwide Leader has been following the Ondrej Pavelec story after the goaltender collapsed on the ice a few weeks back. The story was well constructed by Scott Burnside with quotes from the Thrashers head coach Craig Ramsay and Pavelec himself.
And finally, can someone send Mike Bell a memo that the whole Coach Beelzebub was only funny the first time and slightly amusing the second time? It might be time to send “Coach” back to the underworld.
Can you believe he said that?
“Interesting how winning a couple of games can change the mindset. Just two weeks ago, fans were barking loud. Now there is hope. I want to see these guys go on the road and win a game, before I start talking about running the table.”
That was 680 The Fan’s Buck Belue talking about why Georgia fans shouldn’t be as quick as the AJC’s Mark Bradley to rush onto the Georgia bandwagon. He is also putting out a very diplomatic statement should the folks at Georgia be reading his blog, debating whether or not to put him in for Scott “WHOOOOOOOOAA” Howard on the radio broadcasts.
No comments:
Post a Comment