The Thrashers may have already packed up the moving trucks by the time you read this column, but something funny actually happened recently: Everyone was talking about the Thrashers in Atlanta. The television news stations, the cable sports stations, the newspaper, and the radio stations. The Atlanta Thrashers were finally getting some publicity. What a shame that the team, which has made the playoffs exactly ONCE in its existence and has won exactly ZERO games in its existence, is receiving more coverage discussing the team’s potential departure than it did during the season. Hmmm.
The Thrashers weren’t exactly playoff contenders but the organization did make a run one year ago and even added a big piece over the last off-season, inspiring confidence and offering hope. No. Nothing happened. And all of the local media (except for John Kincade of 680 The Fan’s Buck & Kincade) turned off the Thrashers.
That is until the chance of losing them went from nasty rumor to scary reality. Suddenly 790 The Zone’s Mike Bell, a long-time hockey fan, was humorously trying to pool money to buy them. He also was trying to get his co-host David Pollack to watch a playoff hockey game. WSB’s Zach Klein went to the attempt at a Save-The-Thrashers rally to cover the event and tweeted that around 250 people were there.
The coverage over the Thrashers’ departure was far more than any coverage of the team itself and perhaps that is why the Thrashers are about to leave a top ten market for Winnipeg. Sad, but people just gave up on the Thrashers and the coverage did too.
Speaking of hockey, I just have a minor suggestion, a quick note if you will for 680 The Fan’s morning show The Rude Awakening. Instead of taking 40 seconds to read an email about how you aren’t talking enough about the hockey playoffs and then taking around another minute to defend your not talking about the NHL playoffs, how about you just take that minute and one half and TALK about the hockey playoffs? I am not a huge hockey guy myself; I used to love to watch the playoffs when I was in college as the six-overtime games would be an excuse not to study, but I can at least stand a few minutes of hockey talk. Clearly there are people that live and breathe hockey. If they cared enough to email in, asking for a minute or two of hockey talk, instead of reading the emails simply to mock them, how about just throwing them the proverbial bone? Maybe you could sub two minutes of puck talk in there instead of giving the latest recap to American Idol and Dancing With The Stars? You are/were the official flagship of the town's hockey team for Pete's sake.
In an interview last week Falcons GM Thomas Dimitroff said that the team may have been open to the idea of appearing on HBO's miniseries Hard Knocks, which follows a team throughout training camp. The Falcons last Monday ended up declining the official invite, but it was interesting to hear that the Dirty Birds were considering it. The program has followed teams such as the Bengals, the Cowboys, the Ravens and last year the Jets and has been quite entertaining for NFL fans thirsting for access behind the scenes. True some of the coaching meetings and interactions seemed forced, and players have come out and said that some "scenes" were scripted, but nonetheless the show still lets the fans go inside training camp. The Falcons organization has been great at allowing fans to come to practices up at Flowery Branch as well as allowing both major sports radio stations inside training camp with plenty of access to interviews, but Hard Knocks would have opened up the Falcons to the entire country, not just to Atlanta residents. Teams such as the Steelers, Cowboys, Redskins and Packers have fans nation-wide; this may have been a chance for the Falcons brand to grow. Regardless it was still very cool to be approached by HBO and it shows that people are respecting the Falcons enough to want to get inside and see how the team works. Respect is something that is hard to come by in the NFL. Perhaps Falcons fans should be glad to be getting some, especially after so many wrote them off last year entering the playoffs and right after the Packers loss. Hard Knocks would have been cool to see the Matt Ryan evolution, the Julio Jones/Roddy White dynamic, the Dimitroff/Belichick comparison, the Brian VanGorder reactions, the Tony Gonzalez "one more year" watch. It would have been cool to see if Mike Smith cheesed it up like Brian Billick or if he product-placed like Rex Ryan. Oh well, but still cool to be considered.
Finally, Joakim Noah was the latest NBA star to fall victim to 2011's constant camera attention. During game three of the Eastern Conference finals, Noah was caught on camera shouting a gay slur at a courtside Miami fan, which earned him a $50,000 fine. Kobe Bryant muttered the same slur towards an NBA official this regular season and was docked $100,000. While I do not condone calling anyone what Noah said, I can ease up a bit on Noah, considering his mistake was in the heat of the game and the fan was apparently far over-served and apparently annoying fellow fans around him. Noah used a word that shouldn't be used, but at some point the security guards need to recognize when a fan is over-served and keep an eye on that "supporter," showing him the door if need be. While Noah's choice of "insult" was egregious to say the least, responding to a fan isn't the huge deal that some of the dopes from Around the Horn and national talk radio are making it out to be. He plays with passion; sometimes that passion carries over to the sidelines. I have no problem with Noah yelling at a fan, the same way I had zero problem with Roger McDowell yakking with a San Francisco enthusiast. I just wish they would have kept the gay slurs out of it, same as keeping race or nationality out of it. Come back with a witty remark and odds are these drunken fans will be confused and sit down befuddled
Can You Believe He Said That
The people getting shafted are the fans. No matter how much they want to keep the team, they don’t have a say in it
That was Atlanta Thrashers goaltender Chris Mason. He admitted that the players are rattled too, wondering where the team’s future lies, but he later took the owners and management to task for bungling the situation. Pretty refreshing to hear a player siding with the fans over the folks that sign his paychecks. At least there is that Thrashers fans…
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