Pro-Bowl Got It Right

The Pro-Bowl is a popularity contest.  Just like our election, the pro-bowl is always right.

The public bases their opinion on stats.  So stats don't lie.... or do they.  Losing teams like Carolina play more defense.  They also have to throw the ball because they are behind and typically are going to face softer defenses that allow for stats but not big plays.

So while Greg Hardy from CAR looks like a beast on paper.. well he is.  However, it'd be a lot nicer to have a Defense Rating similar to a QB Rating that took into account snaps played, plays impacted, etc. ... I digress.

The only team I care about is the Falcons so, let's say they got it wrong.

Before anyone says it, statistically, all of these players except Thomas DeCoud are not "pro bowlers."

Pro Bowl Snubs -

1. Roddy White - Top 3 receivers right now, Calvin, Roddy and Julio.  Just my opinion
2. John Abraham - He's not leading in stats, but he's one of the scariest DE playing right now. 
3. Thomas DeCoud - 6th overall in interceptions and has stepped is game up considerably!

Honorable Mentions

1. William Moore - guy is still playing like a beast, stats or no. 
2. Tyson Clabo - Totally underrated, but love this guy protecting Ryan.
3. Jonathan Babineaux - This guy is a beast, he's playing all over the field and you can bank on him ending up in the highlight reel. 

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The Atlanta Falcons Are Bad For Atlanta Sports

You read the title right, it's not some teaser.... and No, I am not drinking. I think the Atlanta Falcons franchise, more specifically, this Blank person and Dimitroff have totally ruined Atlanta. I hope we run them out of town... well, maybe that's a bit too far.

How did I arrive here?

Let's reminisce a little bit.

Authur Blank buys the Falcons, we get all excited. An owner who can spend money and an exciting player. During that time the Braves were still making runs into the playoffs and never winning.

Year before last: All 4 franchises suck and the worst one of all was the Falcons.

Now, what I am upset about is that this Blank character goes off and hires some surfer dude to come into Atlanta with a real plan. Then they hire a Coach that gets "it." The Falcons have a great year, Dimitroff makes more moves and now the expectations are even higher.

That's all well and good, the NFL is very competitive... it's only natural that people root for their team to get to the superbowl, even if they have no shot at it all *cough* Raiders *cough*.

However, in the NBA, it's pretty much decided. In fact, in some cases, even injuries don't play a role.

Let's get to the point. The Hawks dominated talk radio today. I really pity the hosts and the callers. I realize that the real evil is that the Atlanta Falcons organization has raised the bar for every one. To think that people talked about moves the Hawks could make to get to the next level, is ridiculous.

IT"S THE HAWKS, PEOPLE! THE FACT THEY HAVE A WINNING PERCENTAGE OVER .500 IS NEWS ENOUGH.

Now the people of Atlanta want to move pieces to get even further in the playoffs. HELLO! IS ANYONE THERE?!?!

PLAYOFFS (in Mora voice) ?! Really. Let's just be happy that we had a winning season and try not to mess up a good thing.

Ultimately I think the Atlanta public would be just fine if the Hawks made the playoffs as an 8 seed every year and failed to make the championship. Rattle off a few years like that and you can then harold the franchise as one of the most storied of all time.... then again, we already have a franchise like that - The Braves.

So yes, the Atlanta Falcons are bad for Atlanta Sports because they've raised our expectations on all the franchises in Atlanta. Shame on them.

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Who'd a Thunk It?

Optimism in Atlanta? Really. The whole reason I haven't posted in a while is that there is very little drama in Atlanta sports. Sure, the Atlanta Hawks are the NBA's whipping boy for players going to Greece and yeah, they picked some guys playing pick up games at the Run n shoot, but you know, the look pretty good in Pre-Season. Even though Yahoo! thinks that they will suck, I for one will be rooting for them.

.. and the Falcons. Are you kidding me? Amazing what a Coach and an accurate passer can do for a team. Not to mention a HUGE Tackle. That's the piece they've been missing all these years. Sure it was really cute when Alex Gibbs was here to take out opposing teams knees, but even I can take on a 250 tackle. Goodness, Jamaal Anderson would have 10 sacks against an Alex Gibbs oline playing the power running game.

Again, there is at least one moment in every game that I destroy my remote even further, but a win is a win, we'll give the rookie coach a pass for believing Roddy White caught that bounced ball.

... and yes the Braves! I'm so happy that the Yankees fell short of winning 15 seasons. That'll be ours. Of course, they actually WON something, but a record is a record. Bobby's with us for one more year and to be honest I'm happy about that, considering what else is out there.

Oh and the economy may not be what you want, but if you are able to spend time reading this, then life must be pretty darn good. You've got time to waste and at least $20 you don't need.

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Friday Fu - Detroit Pistons Are Shopping for Smiths

HAWKS
Detroit is in the rumors of every site on the net for the NBA team and Josh Smith negotiations are on every site as well for almost every team.

I really hate to see him go. It's kind of funny or ironic though. The same reason I got into the NBA last season is now the same reason my interest is waning with the Hawks situation. Why do NBA players have to negotiate this way or better yet, why does MY TEAM have to be the one that makes history with disgruntled overpaid players.

BRAVES
Frank Wren went on the radio today to lie about not talking about Jeff Francuoer. Frenchy is not tradable in my book, sorry, if we're going to stick it out with some of these other players, then Frenchy needs to be the next "Chipper."


FALCONS
The Atlanta Falcons seem to be the lone "feel good" in the ATL right now. I'm gearing up to go see their scrimmage at Mill Creek High School.

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Friday FU - Chilly Reaction, AJC Plays the Race Card, Again, and the Braves are in it?

Friday FU (Follow Up) for July 25th, 2008

Chilly Reaction
Josh Childress is gone and in the aftermath, who can blame him. He's a low level player wanting big bucks. Not sure if bought into the fact that he was drafted 6th by possibly the worst drafter in the history of the NBA, but it's a moot point. The Hawks couldn't throw that kind of money at him.

Sure, I'm upset he's gone or that he doesn't love Atlanta enough to stay, but face the facts. If the Spirit put an offer for him that he accepted we'd have the most overpaid player for the 2008 season. Sorry, a 6th man on a sub .500 team simply isn't worth that.
AJC plays the Race Card
I'm over here looking for something to write about my Falcons and come across some articles. One talking about Horn showing up to camp (who cares), one about Martrez Milner (that one is a feel good, but pointless), another one about Sam "Stubby Arms" Baker & Curtis "Most Likely To Appear on 'Cops' " Lofton potential for holding out (sleeper) and finally one about Black QB's who are out of work and want to blame race by the AJC.

Really?! Seriously, this is the reason why I don't subscribe to the AJC in the first place, it's worthless race baiting talk. Jobless QB's are being discriminated against? OK, I'll play along, who is getting discriminated against?

• Byron Leftwich - Um, has he ever played a full season? He blew his free pass due to Petrino when he got hurt, again. Sorry, league minimum or not, I can't put my teams hopes on the shoulders of someone who can't take a hit.
  
• Daunte Culpepper - This one is almost there. I rank him right under a Trent Green, Jeff George comeback kid. He had a great game for a team that didn't do anything last year. He's worth the minimum, but word on the street is that he wants to play. Sorry, there's only a handful of jobs, and frankly, we've seen what you can do (and what you can't)
• Quinn Gray - OK, this must be the writer's cousin or something. Who is Quinn Gray, Really?! Do a google on him and get this photo of the cheerleader. Oh yeah, he went threw for 54 yards and 2 picks in a game last year. Bring 'im home Dimitroff!
  
• Shaun King - Hey, if the article was just about him, I'd agree wholeheartedly. All he did was run a good ship for the Bucs into the playoffs and what did he get in return... Fired. Of course, it doesn't help that he can barely see over the steering wheel let alone a 6'5" 300 LB lineman.
• Aaron Brooks - Really?! Are you serious. The comparison is that the there are scrubs that happen to be white that are getting jobs over proven failures. The key here is that these scrubs don't mind doing the dirty work for the job. Sorry Aaron, you'll get no love here.
  

Bottomline is that these guys all want to be starters and they have proven that they don't have the skillset for the job. Two are injury prone, one is a bonafide bust, one is too short for the NFL (and on that he IS getting discriminated against) and one will be lucky if he's the answer of some obscure trivia question.

Braves Are In it?
Although Cox is the master of the 2nd Half, he might have the magic to pull out this season. With 60 or so games left and 24 of those against the 3 teams ahead of them the Braves will have to win almost every game down the stretch to even have a shot. So will Texeira stay or go. I wish they'd get off the fence and say, Yes we will compete or no, let's get ready for next season. Time will tell.

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Most Distraught Atlanta Franchise Is The Only One With A Plan

One year ago, I'd say that there was only one franchise in Atlanta Sports that had any sort of plan at winning. It wasn't that the Falcons weren't trying, it was just a number of events that took them out of the entire equation. The Hawks, well, they're the Hawks... and are we really going to talk about the Thrashers? Yes, the Atlanta Braves, the staple and example of a winning team seemed, at the time to be the only one with a plan.

Today, there is still only one Franchise that seems like it has a plan to win while the others are languishing with unanswered questions.

The Atlanta Hawks have yet to select a GM and with their ownership situation it will be harder to lure any of the top candidates. Until that is settled, it leaves the coach up in the air as well as the two Joshes.

The Atlanta Braves are doing well with Chipper and their patchwork bullpen, but Smoltz had a set back and there is no consistency out of their starting pitching.

The Thrashers traded away a player that is taking his team to the Stanley Cup...

Yes, The Atlanta Falcons, believe it or not, have developed a winning formula. They've hired a GM for a winner, drafted a winner at QB, hired a winner at Coach and for once have some depth there, at least in terms of backups. They have an actual owner.... there's a lot of positives. There's some hope at least. There's some question marks about the team obviously, but there is only one place to go for the Falcons and that's most certainly is up. To think last year, this was the leagues worst franchise to come into this year with a team with some major promise. Maybe not this year, but in short time the Falcons seem poised to get rid of that record for years without a consecutive winning record.

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Horses, Soccer & Softball More Important Sports News Than Atlanta Has...

I was watching ESPN yesterday and it was the first time in a long time that I got to see a whole episode of Sportscenter. Amazingly, they spent no time on the Atlanta Brave's 5 game winning streak (no team in baseball has a better home record! Or worse Road record), no time on Atlanta Hawk's GM Billy Knight stepping down and no time on the Altanta Falcon's Michael Boley situation. Instead, we had more recaps of Lebron's non-performance, more drama over an injured horse and some special about softball.... YES, SOFTBALL.....

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Yahoo! Article Suggest Hawks Are NOT making History

You take by far the worst team in NBA history to make the playoffs against one of the best teams put together in many years and turn it into at least a 6 game series... and you don't have more than good things to say?

I really don't understand the sports writers for a lot of this stuff. Maybe it's because they are national. Maybe they don't truly understand what's going on.... OR maybe the team that is creating history has looked so underwhelming on the road that it doesn't seem plausible that they would have any shot at defeating the Celtics.

Whatever the case may be, the Atlanta Hawks have to win one more at home to even start this discussion again.

Here's the Y! Article

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A Beginning of An Era ...

I've grown up in Atlanta and I am old enough to have enjoyed Dominique's Run as a Hawk or seen Deion or watch the Braves at Atlanta Fulton County stadium, but I've never seen anything like this. Atlanta has been seen as a Basketball town for ages, but attendance proved otherwise. With the buzz around the Hawks and the Falcons, this time was so exciting that it pushed me out of my regular blogging status into wanting to talk about my favorite thing, Atlanta Sports.

Welcome to my Atlanta Sports Blog.

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