Georgia Bulldogs voted AJC Sports Turkeys of the Year
Congratulations to the Georgia Bulldogs, who were named the AJC Sports Turkeys of the Year Thursday.
The Bulldogs received 30 percent of the nearly 8,000 votes and edged the beleaguered SEC officials for the coveted title.
Florida linebacker Brandon Spikes finished third.
Fans disagreed with the selection of Braves’ outfielder Matt Diaz as a finalist. The top write-in candidates were: AJC sports writers (thanks!) and Braves manager Bobby Cox and G.M. Frank Wren.
Results and complete list of finalists are below.
Have a happy Turkey Day everyone. Till next year .. gobble, gobble.
Mark Richt's team, for the second straight season, was one of the most penalized teams in the nation. Bad, Dogs. Bad.
Brandon Spikes. Which is worse: intentionally trying to poke Washaun Ealey in the eye or the 1/2-game suspension he originally received?
Tennessee coach Lane Kiffin arrived in the SEC with plenty to say. He gobbled about this and that; some of it was even true.
Poor, indecisive Matt Diaz. After a September surge, his base-running blunder squashed a ninth-inning rally and the Braves' playoff hopes.
Jason Elam's two misses against the Saints were bad. Two in N.C. and N.Y. were worse.
How many SEC officials does it take to blow a call? Depends how many are on the field.
Who was the biggest sports turkey of 2009?
- Georgia Bulldogs (30%, 2,352 Votes)
- SEC officials (27%, 2,165 Votes)
- Brandon Spikes (16%, 1,238 Votes)
- Jason Elam (13%, 1,037 Votes)
- Lane Kiffin (12%, 937 Votes)
- Matt Diaz (2%, 181 Votes)
Total Voters: 7,909
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140 comments Add your comment
scott
November 24th, 2009
10:04 am
See, the UGA blunder is in the lead for voting, meanign this is not the norm. Folks are shocked by the season, good, expectations are hihg and should be.
Just be patient folks, things will turn, they always do!
jen
November 24th, 2009
10:32 am
Oldtimeplayer, very succintly put.
lt
November 24th, 2009
10:49 am
This is quite a line up. Lane Kiffin insulting people from S. Carolina to bozos dressed as zebras making game-changing calls that were way off. So, many choices-hard to decide.
Steve
November 24th, 2009
10:49 am
SEC officials have it hands down for me. I typically have some sympathy for officials ability to see everything when down on the field. That’s the reason for instant replay. But this year it seems the SEC officials have not only missed the correct call on the field, they have then held to the bad call even though several replays CLEARLY show they were incorrect. I’m (and the TV commentators are) asking, how on earth they missed it on the replay?
UGA and penalties…that just poor team disciple not necessarily wothy of Top Turkey status
Lane Kiffin needs to learn from his father…keep his mouth shut unless talking to his players.
Blaming Diaz for the Brave’s playoff woes is sorta like blaming the Chicago fan a few years ago who tried to catch the foul ball. Too many other factors also contributed to the Brave’s to blame Diaz for one play. If we’re going to blame one person, I think it was George W Bush’s fault.
dagnabit
November 24th, 2009
11:03 am
YELLERPETER is a joke. Who bought the computer for you. I’ll bet that the bulldog club claims you.
Bull butter
November 24th, 2009
11:12 am
Jason ELAM by far.UGA and Diaz should’t be on the list.Uga does’t deserve anything to bring thier name up.Jason Elam has kill’ed the falcons hopes for a wild card.
Free Mike Vick
November 24th, 2009
11:14 am
RELESING VICK WAS THE TURKEY OF THE YEAR!!
FLACONS ARE STRUGGLIN BECUZ OF THAT
WAY 2 GO MR BLANKS I HOPE U LOOSE THE REST OF UR GAMES
Poorjeff
November 24th, 2009
11:16 am
Enter your comments here
GeorgiaFan7
November 24th, 2009
11:37 am
The biggest turkey missing from the list is all the fair-weather Dawg fans. Last year they were singing the praises of Richt and after one bad season they want to get rid of him. Most reasonable fans knew that this was not going to be a stellar season and the opening game gave evidence to that. These same fans will be back on board next year if the Dawgs have a winning season. Like petulant children they have a short attention span and no comprehension of reality.
Grateful
November 24th, 2009
11:38 am
Whew, we are sure glad the list stopped at SIX choices.
Sincerely,
Special John Fabris
Willie
Joey Cox
Falcons DBs
Falcons Receivers (except White)
Buck “Man Crush on Cox” Belue
Chuck “Softball Question” Dowdle
Tell it like it is
November 24th, 2009
11:39 am
The Turkey award goes to the falcons Jason Elam.
DK
November 24th, 2009
1:00 pm
“Jason Elam is an absolute, full-blown moron.”
JJ – you and me would make great friends. I couldn’t agree more.
Dawgeye
November 24th, 2009
1:12 pm
I voted officials, who made a defining difference in some games this year, obviously wrong, with spikes second, but close- The others shouldn’t be considered-The Bulldogs were not supposed to be great this year- Could have been better, but hopefully, after changes are made , things will turn around- All others are just bad play- I do consider what the SEC officials did this year as criminal, as well as Spikes- By the way, why do we keep hearing about how Spikes got hit here, butted there, etc- Nobody has shown evidence yet- Hair was pulled, but if he buckled his helmet, and didn’t look like cousin it, maybe it would be alot harder to get a hold of-
Thomas
November 24th, 2009
3:10 pm
How can Lane Kiffin not be running away with this?
Volmaster
November 24th, 2009
4:47 pm
Thomas
November 24th, 2009
3:10 pm
How can Lane Kiffin not be running away with this?
Because he’s too tired from running away with the dogs’ pride earlier this season. And if ANYONE should be winning this “poll” hands down it should be that “Free Mike Vick” moron.
SugarfreeSailor
November 24th, 2009
4:50 pm
Nick Saban and Urban Meyer should be buying those SEC Officials Thanksgiving turkeys to say “thank you” for what they’ve done for their schools’ holiday seasons!
Braves #17 fan
November 24th, 2009
5:11 pm
Take Matt Diaz off this list. Honestly. Were you fishing for someone in baseball to add? If so, how about someone dishonorable, like Milton Bradley?
Burdell
November 24th, 2009
5:16 pm
Sugarfree– I think they have “bought” them more than a turkey!!
Happy Thanksgiving folks!!
GO JACKETS!!
Walt4
November 24th, 2009
5:27 pm
You have to go with the SEC officials. If reality is just repeated perception, than it really looks like they’ve agreed to do all they can to get Alabama and Florida to the Atlanta with undefeated records.
Atlfalcon
November 24th, 2009
6:18 pm
My vote for the biggest turkey is Jason Elam. His missed field goals have killed us and may end up costing the birds a trip to the playoffs.
tom
November 24th, 2009
6:28 pm
I am still waiting for the Falcons news conference to fire Elam.
Techfan1324
November 24th, 2009
8:12 pm
I Wish there were a “Select All” option
CatsFly
November 24th, 2009
8:56 pm
I say, “UGa fans”. Gobble, gobble, gobble. I heard the team was going to have “ban the fans” sewn on the back of their jersies this weekend.
ThugSayWhat
November 24th, 2009
9:30 pm
I wish we could round up Vick’s fan club and provide them with a oneway ticket across the Atlantic to reside in their former residency.
'Bama 1
November 25th, 2009
6:40 am
Lame (Convict) Kiffin should get the “Idiot Extrodniar” award this year
collegeballfan
November 25th, 2009
6:50 am
None of the above.
The biggest Turkey of the Year 2009 was the SEC Commissioner & his handling of numerous errors by SEC officials.
SEC FAN
November 25th, 2009
8:49 am
My vote is Les Miles. What an idiot!
HAYWOOD JABLOME
November 25th, 2009
8:59 am
WHO ARE THESE BRAVES OF ATLANTA U SPEAK OF???
War Eagle!
November 25th, 2009
10:21 am
I wonder if Paul “Bear” Bryant is rubbing UGA’s belly in right in the Eternal Fire now while Satan looks out on them.
A Mouthful of AWESOME !!
November 25th, 2009
10:38 am
Did Willie Martinez really murder UGA just to take all the attention away from him?
I don’t believe Erk Russell would’ve ever done anything like that.
If Truett Cathy were a football coach, he would probably be Erk Russell.
BG
November 25th, 2009
12:47 pm
Brandon Spikes is a THUG!
ref calls.....
November 25th, 2009
12:57 pm
give me a break with the ref call already. any real sports fan can see that they were done on purpose.
but for the poor officiating alabama and florida would be one loss teams trying to get back into the nc picture.
instead of having the wheel of fortune for the acc as espn like to have they really should be having one for the sec.
if the pubs can steal 2 elections why cant the sec AND espn steal championships!
Pittman4Two
November 25th, 2009
1:03 pm
The biggest turkey has to be the Culverhouse family for firing Gruden.
Alge Crumpler
November 25th, 2009
1:13 pm
Someone say turkey? I’m hungry!….Still!!
Fort Worth Dawg
November 25th, 2009
2:23 pm
Oklahoma Sooners – they fell much further than UGA. The randomness of LSU also caught up with them
Freelemur
November 25th, 2009
3:32 pm
I vote for georgia’s fans, the whiniest bunch of bitches in the SEC. At least the team gives an effor on the field. All their fans do is run their mouths with nothing to back it up.
ThinkPositive
November 25th, 2009
3:37 pm
Just once could we have a poll that doesn’t focus on negatives? There are a lot of things in Atlanta sports that have gone right this year! For example:
Falcons signing Tony Gonzalez
GT giving Paul Johnson contract extension
Hawks keeping the entire team intact and adding Crawford
Braves finally giving up on Francoeur
Braves putting together another great pitching rotation
And don’t forget that the college football game of the century (so far) will be played on Dec. 5th at the Dome.
There is more to life than UGA football, folks. So just relax, enjoy your turkey, and be thankful for a change!
Nick Manning
November 25th, 2009
3:56 pm
why in the world is matt diaz on here? He was our best outfielder all year and one of the most underrated players in the league. And he hustles more than any player on the team. Why don’t you put Chipper on there for costing us the playoffs? His career-worst slump happened right about the time the Braves stepped it up a notch. Fools.
BW
November 25th, 2009
5:55 pm
GA fans are so jealous of the Gators. They are fiiddling while their team burns. What a sorry bunch. It appears that most of the voters see the problem with the puppies, and you are worried about Spikes. You bunch of sorry losers.
By the way, sorry about UGA VII, he was a super mascot.
Bobbi Dud
November 25th, 2009
7:25 pm
The turkeys of the year are the AJC sports writers!
gatorman
November 25th, 2009
9:25 pm
In case you forgot….Spikes got his helmet torm off twice and Wayshon spit in his face
Maureen
November 25th, 2009
9:31 pm
Obviously… the Dawgs are the biggest turkeys. The people have spoken!
sleeze
November 25th, 2009
9:38 pm
Can we vote for Jeff Schultz and Mark Bradley? Or does the sports turkey actually have to have a clue about at least one sport?
chnstrp
November 25th, 2009
10:22 pm
Enter your comments here
chnstrp
November 25th, 2009
10:25 pm
MATT DIAZ IS ALL YOU COULD COME UP FROM THE BRAVES?? TALK ABOUT A TARGET RICH ENVIRONMENT.
UGA VII
November 25th, 2009
10:34 pm
Answers: Mike Vick, AJC Bradley and Schultz, People who want to fire Mark Richt.
Question: Who is the #1 Turkey of Atlanta for the past 3 years, Who Dont Know Turkey about sports, and Who dont know their Turkey from a hole in the Ground.Go Falcons and Go Dawgs, Go Tech(except when your playing the Dawgs)
o-me
November 25th, 2009
10:44 pm
Post has been up 5 days and only 96 comments. Looks like a Turkey to me==ajc award
Joe
November 25th, 2009
10:52 pm
The AJC writers for falsely saying The Braves had signed Ken Griffey Jr. and Rafeal Furcal.
dawg149
November 25th, 2009
10:55 pm
You know this is pretty pathetic for a list. Kiffin is a brash in your face coach who had enough balls to keep his dad by his side and turn the Vols’ program around. Diaz is a player I’d go in the trenches with any day of the week. Yes he made a base-running error, but it was out of hustle, and, hell, he WAS on base, unlike most of the reast of the team that night-LAYOFF!! The dawgs are in the middle of a transition-give the program time, we’ll be back. And finally, as a DAWG, damn if I can throw rocks at Spikes when we own the most penalized team in the SEC week end and week out. Come on guys…..get a life, quit whinning and face that guy in the mirror…..THEN you can complain!! Happy Thanksgiving everyone……….one more thing beware Techies…..season aint quite over yet…….just saying…….lololol
Richie
November 25th, 2009
11:04 pm
I find it interesting how kickers get so much blame for a team’s struggles when the kicker himself is struggling. Last season Jason Elam missed only two field goals the whole year and practically won the Bears and Bucs games and not much was said about his asset to the team. This year he is having by far the worst season of his Hall of Fame credential career and all of a sudden, he is the “turkey” and the reason the Falcons are not going to be a wild card contender. If anyone has earned a right to work his way out of this horrible slump he is in, it is Jason Elam. I would still rather have him getting ready to kick the game winning field goal in overtime for the Falcons than any of the other 4 guys they “auditioned” this past week. Hey JJ, missing field goals does not make someone a moron. Being ignorant does.