http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/writers/jim_trotter/01/04/niners/index.html

Too bad the Falcons aren’t in the old NFC West anymore- that would be two wins for Atlanta.

What a painful game to watch, especially losing by that wide of a margin to Tampon Bay. I realize that a lot went on this week, but the team looked totally unprepared.

Do we take a QB in the next draft or do we make a trade? The problem with drafting a QB is that we have to wait 2-3 years to get them ready.

So, Cowher and Parcells both said no-can’t really blame them. Bring back June Jones! j/k

A sad state of affairs that even usurps the dark days of the franchise during our youth. It all seems hopeless…

So Petrino has decided to cut and run. No major surprise there although waiting until the season was over might have been nice. Where do the Falcons go from here? It would be great to make a run for Cowher but I kind of doubt he would want to come back as a head coach to a situation like this. From a PR standpoint, I think the Falcons need to at least see if he’s interested. I think they need to get a former NFL head coach or a high (offensive or defensive coord.) ranking assistant, not a WR or DB coach. Any names come to mind?

We signed Byron Leftwich today. Do you think that he’ll end up being the starter before the year’s over and if so, will he be successful? I don’t think that there’s any way that they brought him in here for $6 million just to have him back up Joey Harrington.

Which athletes do you feel have really given the Atlanta Sports scene a blackeye over past decades?

1. John Rocker- Didn’t do much for promoting a new South, did he? He is the epitome of the dumbass redneck that closed-minded Northerners think of when they describe Southerners. I guess his career washing out was Karma.

2. Michael Vick- Maybe all of this will be a blessing in disguise as we will get rid of that albatross of a contract. While he was exciting, it just seemed like he was never going to take us to the next level. It’s not surprising that he was involved in something so stupid; his decision-making on the field wasn’t very intelligent at times either.

3. Kasten/Babcock- The effects of the ‘Nique trade are still haunting us; just plain stupid to trade away your best player when you’re in first place with less than two months left in the season. Jon Contract was another of their disasters and it seems to me that this deal really started the ball rolling in terms of mediocre players getting huge contracts. Way to be trailblazers, boys!

4. Dave Braine- No AD should ever admit that his Football program can’t be expected to compete and should basically strive for 7-8 win seasons. How could anyone be that stupid to utter something like that to the media? So much went wrong under his (mis)direction, including of course the Gailey extension after another 7-5 finish and a blowout loss in a third-rate bowl. Now, because of Braine-Dead’s 11th Hour dealings,  new AD Radkovich is stuck with this loser for four more years.

5. Otis Nixon- I really believe that we would’ve won the 1991 World Series had Nixon not been suspended for drug use right before the Playoffs. His speed and defense would’ve made all of the difference and I think that we would have won in Atlanta and wouldn’t have had to return to Minnesota in the first place. Imagine if we win that first one…who knows what might have happened after that? Maybe 4-5 World Series?

I’m really not feeling it for Pro or College ball right now. Obviously, the Falcons are a mess right now and it’s hard to get too excited about their prospects. Before all of the Vick mess, I was hoping that Petrino would finally figure out a way to best utilize Mike’s skillset. Now, we’ll never know.

As far as Tech goes, Gailey’s returned for another year of mediocrity, so that basically spoils it for me. While Ball won’t be there, neither will Calvin, so I don’t expect to see much to cheer about. I’m sure that there will be some huge wins, but those will more than likely be tempered with losses to teams on the Duke/UNC level; more than likely, these losses will come directly after those huge wins. Of course, we’ll lose to Georgia again, something that has become a Gailey specialty.

I’m sure i’ll watch both teams’ games out of a sense of duty, but I don’t see myself building any anticipation for them or getting too worked up over the results, whether they be positive or negative.

All indications are that Vick will never play for the Falcons again.  Given that, Who would you prefer play QB for the team, Harrington or Shockley?  I’ll say Shockley for no other reason than I could get a Falcons ‘Shocker’ foam finger…fingers.

In your opinion, what owners/players/front offices have had the most negative impact on each of Atlanta’s sports franchises?

 Hawks- The Knighmare. While Pete Babcock is a VERY close second, at least he had some playoff teams under his belt and brought in some good players. Billy-Ball has shown very little, if any, improvement in his four years. OK, so the team went from 13 to 26 to 30 wins over the past three years. To me, this is like being the Valedictorian in a Sped class- you might have shown major improvement, but you’re still among the dregs.

Falcons- The Smiths or Vick? This is also a tough one. The Smiths kept this franchise down for almost forty years and were so tight-fisted with their wealth that we couldn’t ever build upon our limited successes.

While Vick has killed us over the past two seasons and over this off-season, we can still make amends by getting rid of him (Is there a clause in his contract to cut him if he can’t behave?). If we do that, we’ll only be a few players away from being a playoff team again.

Braves- Even though he also did some great things for the Braves, there are some major decisions made by Ted Turner that have killed the Braves. For one, he axed a good young manager in Joe Torre in 1984 after taking a perennial loser to the playoffs in ‘82, 2nd place in ‘83 and 3rd place in ‘84. Turner brought in Chuck Tanner and Tanner effectively ran the team into the ground. The team was a last place place team every season for six straight years, until Schuerholz and Cox were able to turn things around in 1991.

Another detrimental decision that Turner made was selling the Braves to fucking AOL/Time Warner. Why did you do that to us Ted? From that point on, the payroll shrunk and we haven’t been able to attract high-level free agents. I don’t think that it’s just a coincidence that we haven’t been to a World Series since AOL/TW took over.

Thrashers- Hard to say much here, since the franchise is so young. I guess Heatley’s road race down Lenox Rd. didn’t do much for us. Hossa ended up being a fair swap, but to lose the life of another player in the process is not worth it.

Tech- Not a pro franchise, but I’ve got to throw it in. Of course, everyone that knows me knows that i’m going to say ….Dave Braine. Thought it was going to be Gailey, right? I blame Braine for hiring Gailey’s mediocre ass in the first place and continuing to reward him for 7-6 and 6-6 type seasons by giving him contract extensions. You can’t really blame Gailey for taking the extension-who wouldn’t take all of that money? The things that I do blame Gailey for is his horrible in-game management, poor pre-game preparation and his conserative play-calling when it’s not needed. However, a loser like Braine should’ve set higher standards for the school’s Athletic goals and provided better coaching than Gailey for the school’s student-athletes, not make comments about how we have the best that we can get and that we can never compete with the big boys.

Based on the federal indictment of Micheal Vick (http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2007/0717072vick1.html), I think all of us here need cool dog-fighting monikers.  Mine’s ‘C-yo.’

(My list is more of a Favorites rather than Biggest Moments) 

1. Braves win 1995 World Series

2. Tech goes to Final Four with Lethal Weapon 3

3. Tech makes it to 2004 NCAA Finals

4. 1990 Tech Football National Championship

5. 1991 NLCS Victory and World Series Run

6. Game 7 NLCS Comeback

7. 1996 Olympics

8. Hawks-Celtics Playoff Series 1987

9. Falcons Super Bowl Appearance; Reeves doing the Dirty Bird

10. Falcons run to the NFC Championship with Vick