Johnson apologizes for comment
Greetings-
Notes from Tuesday.
1. Georgia Tech coach Paul Johnson, whose oft-unfettered tongue and unwillingness to back down to rival Georgia have earned him the admiration of Tech fans, apologized for a poor choice of words on his radio show Tuesday night.
Near the end of his show, a caller, presumably a Georgia Bulldogs fan, came on the air and said, “Hello? Hello?” and then began barking before either hanging up or being cut off. Johnson responded, “Hello? Hello? He just got off from Walmart.”
Johnson, who earlier in the day had commented how most Georgia fans he encounters are cordial, said, “Anybody who calls into a radio show and barks is either retarded or doesn’t have a life.”
After the show, Johnson said he meant his response as a joke, “but it was a poor choice of words on my part and I sincerely apologize. It was not my intention to offend anyone.”
Advocates for people with mental disabilities have campaigned to stop the use of the word “retard” or “retarded” as a slur, calling it hurtful and dehumanizing.
(Not sure what to say. It was a poor choice of words.)
2. A-back Orwin Smith, who sat out last Saturday’s game with a toe injury, practiced Tuesday and will try to play in Saturday’s game against Georgia.
“I will at least try,” Smith said Tuesday. “The worst that can happen is me going out there and me not being able to play, but I will give it a shot.”
Smith said he ran full speed at practice and “limped around a couple times,” but overall said he felt great. Smith is the Yellow Jackets’ most dangerous playmaker on offense. He averages 10.8 yards per carry and 23.8 yards per reception and has scored 11 touchdowns in 65 offensive touches. He has been receiving a variety of treatments, including hot and cold tubs and ultrasound, to stimulate healing of his turf toe injury, typically a painful malady.
Wide receiver Stephen Hill and A-back Roddy Jones were held out of practice for the second day in a row, but both expected to return to practice Wednesday and play. Guard Will Jackson practiced but was kept out of contact drills.
(The fact that Smith may be hampered is, obviously, noteworthy. Bears watching.)
3. Hal Miller, an All-American offensive tackle and a co-captain of Tech’s 1952 national championship team, died Monday following a short illness. He was 81.
In 1952, Miller helped lead the Jackets to a 12-0 record and a Sugar Bowl win over Mississippi, giving them the titled awarded by the International News Service. Born in Kingsport, Tenn., Miller was enshrined in the Georgia Tech, Georgia and Tennessee sports halls of fame.
The school is working on a tribute to honor both Miller and legendary Georgia play-by-play voice Larry Munson, who died Sunday, at Saturday’s game.
(While it’s sad news, I do hope that both are honored before the game.)
4. Hill is friends with one Georgia player he’ll likely see plenty on Saturday, cornerback Branden Smith. The two hung out last summer, Hill said. They played each other in high school and Hill played basketball and long jumped against another Georgia corner, Brandon Boykin.
“They’re real fast,” Hill said. “Their technique is great, so it’s going to be a challenge.”
5. Defensive coordinator Al Groh on Georgia quarterback Aaron Murray:
“He’s certainly as good as we’ve seen. We compare him and his skill level to (Clemson quarterback) Tajh Boyd. He moves very well within the pocket as well as getting out. … He’s always got his feet underneath his shoulders. He re-sets very quickly. He makes a lot of big throws when the rush initially makes him move off his normal throwing spot without leaving the pocket.”
(One thing I appreciate about Groh: No player assessment will ever be, “Kid’s got a rocket for an arm.”)
6. Wide receiver Tyler Melton has been playing his best football the past two or three games, Johnson said. Melton has seven catches in the past three games for 122 yards, including three for 54 yards against Duke. The seven receptions are more than he had in any of his first three seasons and as many receptions as he had in the first eight games of this season. He has also blocked particularly well over that stretch.
Johnson said he’s not making a concerted effort to get Melton the ball, “but when the ball’s gone his way, he’s made a couple of nice catches and come down with it.”
(Melton has shown some nice ability to adjust for passes. I have no idea what his draft stock is, but he’s shown plenty of other skills – namely blocking ability and special teams play. If he can keep up his pass catching, he’ll hopefully get a shot in somebody’s camp. Remember that Kevin Cone – who caught six passes last year – fought his way onto the Falcons practice squad.)
7. Tuesday, Johnson dismissed an Internet report that Mississippi had contacted representatives for Johnson regarding its coaching opening.
“I don’t know anything about it,” he said. “That stuff’s crazy.”
I want to thank the posters who have kept things clean and respectful, for the most part. I was very tempted to not post the notes on the blog, because this seems like a fire waiting to happen, but decided that you deserved a chance to comment on it. If the posts aren’t respectful, however, I’ve got no problem closing commenting, and probably for the rest of the week. Please don’t be the bad apple that spoils it for everyone.
Ken Sugiura, Georgia Tech blog
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422 comments Add your comment
Hayseed Dixie
November 23rd, 2011
12:04 pm
Thanks for playing headley.
If you think Paul Johnson uttering a decades-long unoffensive word comes anywhere near UGA cannibalizing one of its own…. Kemp had three degrees from UGA.
I mean, I don’t know what to tell you.
Just give it up, son. You didn’t even go there.
1 4 GT
November 23rd, 2011
12:04 pm
I have just finished reading page 3 of this blog. All of you UGAG butt sniffers are really reaching for anything you can find to talk junk about CPJ & GT & GT grads & fans. It completely baffles me why ya’ll express no embarrassment at the idiotic actions of one of your own. WHAT DID YOU & HE EXPECT? HIGH PRAISE? Not! One of you even had the gall to say it was actually a GT fan and a setup by 790 AM and CPJ/GT. Get a life people, REALLY! I doubt many of you jerks will still be around to read this, but here it is.
Supersize that order, mutt
November 23rd, 2011
12:04 pm
Headley, Tech doesn’t “spit out” anybody. Nobody is telling a player who doesn’t finish his course-work in time that he has to leave the school. Many players leave without graduating, but many also either stay or come back and finish. Some actually make it in 4 years or less, and they walk away with not only a degree, but usually a job that pays pretty damn well.
Supersize that order, mutt
November 23rd, 2011
12:05 pm
1 4 GT, they will read it, but they will, AS ALWAYS, totally ignore the facts.
Delbert D.
November 23rd, 2011
12:08 pm
My children were raised by a guy who encouraged them to think for themselves.
George Stein
November 23rd, 2011
12:09 pm
Good lord. I was being ironical, DILLIGAF. Have a sense of humor.
Supersize that order, mutt
November 23rd, 2011
12:11 pm
ahhh, there’s the “real” headley, resorting once again to name-calling instead of believing the facts. Kudos to CMR for adopting special needs children and also for going on mission trips. Different people do different things to prove or disprove their class. I don’t think CMR’s chewing out a reporter before the season showed much class either, and I believe he has even used a 4-letter word in public on occasion (GASP!!!), but neither of those diminish the overall class he has. The fact that CPJ is outspoken and sometimes says something that he might have been better off not saying in no way indicates that he has no class. His unrequired and unsolicited visit to that MD player speaks volumes about his class in my opinion. YES, I would be proud for him to be an example to a son of mine.
Silly Bloggers
November 23rd, 2011
12:12 pm
GT’s academics in football are fine…it is basketball that they struggle with graduation rate.
Jimmy Crack
November 23rd, 2011
12:13 pm
“They’re already people by the time they’re 12. If you’d had raised any children you’d know this by now.”
Wow, what a sad response. That age and beyond are PIVOTAL for young impressionable minds with all the garbage going on in the world (and in high schools) today. I guess anybody can make their own awards given enough paper and glue.
GT Fan
November 23rd, 2011
12:14 pm
Folks,
Headley’s one of those people that’s “the smartest person he knows”.
He went to Troy (Troy, AL). That should tell you whether or not you even waste your time responding to the idiot.
Supersize that order, mutt
November 23rd, 2011
12:14 pm
Whoever suggested that that final call was a scripted setup is a damn fool, and typical of so many mutts who troll these blogs Regardless of whether CPJ used a non-PC word, his reaction came from his gut and was spot on.
Supersize that order, mutt
November 23rd, 2011
12:15 pm
GT Fan, headley didn’t GO to Troy; he got a degree from their correspondence school. That should tell you even more about him.
Moral Victory
November 23rd, 2011
12:18 pm
Man. I wish we could talk about football…
Silly Bloggers
November 23rd, 2011
12:18 pm
And before I get crucified by Dawg Nation for defending Johnson and the Jackets, I can’t stand the gnats but I can’t stand all the blind “facts” thrown around on these blogs either. It is bloggers like GTBob that can only spew vile and regurgitate the same nauseating facts over and over again that make me sick to my stomach on the fact that their life seems to surround the success or failure of UGA football and its players.
And yes, I realize that both sides deal with idiots of this caliber. Outside of that, I can’t stop laughing at these blog names and comments when making fun of each school. I simply love rivalry week and hope that we whoop ya by 21.
Supersize that order, mutt
November 23rd, 2011
12:20 pm
On a non-related football matter, I just read that tomorrow’s Texas vs Texas A&M game will be the last in the series. I didn’t know that, and I don’t understand why. Tech – UGA, Clemson – USC, FSU – Florida all continued playing after ending up in separate conferences; why not Texas – Texas A&M too???
Delbert D.
November 23rd, 2011
12:22 pm
Super – “why not Texas – Texas A&M too???” Hard feelings on both sides, I’d say.
GT Fan
November 23rd, 2011
12:23 pm
WOW! Didn’t know that Supersize.
Man-o-man, dude didn’t have the “stones” to matriculate AT the actual campus … head-larious!!!
Silly Bloggers
November 23rd, 2011
12:24 pm
Texas and A&M are stopping (in theory) as they are both childish about A&M leaving. A&M is taking the attitude that they are now superior to Texas for joining the SEC and they no longer need them. Texas is just being Texas…meaning they have their own TV network and they are the Notre Dame of the South.
Outside of the politics, I think the rivalry will renew at some point down the road when cooler head prevail.
Supersize that order, mutt
November 23rd, 2011
12:27 pm
Yeah, I guess you are all right. Sure seems stupid to me. I can remember watching that game every year on Thanksgiving Day when I was a kid. It’s a shame to end it. I can’t imagine the real football fans in Texas being too thrilled about it coming to an end.
?????????
November 23rd, 2011
12:27 pm
Waiting on a reply from headley regarding his continual usage of Reuben Houston being reinstated to the Tech football team. But he is a coward who will disappear now that he has had his fun and been called out. Gutless coward comes on these blogs, slings his same old tired Tech filled hate opinions as fact and then slinks off when confronted.
And to answer your question, if my son were 5, and I had 6 months to live, I would gladly accept either CPJ or CMR to raise him. Who I would not have raise him would be a gutless, coward like yourself, he would be better off going it on his own than to have the sort of values and morals that you exhibit here on a daily basis, not to mention your usage of questionable or no facts. I’d rather he grow up to be like eitehr coach rather than an angry, illogical rage filled loser. Correspondence school!!! Really!!! LMFAO. Now that you have slinked off of this blog, I’ll look for you to start fresh in a few hours once Ken puts up a new article.
Supersize that order, mutt
November 23rd, 2011
12:28 pm
GT Fan, I have posted that about headley on MANY occasions, and he has never refuted it, so it is obviously true. I figure he couldn’t get accepted to either Tech or UGA.
Supersize that order, mutt
November 23rd, 2011
12:29 pm
@ ????????, well put…..VERY WELL PUT!!!
?????????
November 23rd, 2011
12:37 pm
Supersize, You spend enough time on here to know that that guy is the worst of the worst and a very clear pattern. He’s gone for the day, but the coward will be back on the next article. And he will have no answer for any questions, just spewing the same garbage until someone calls him out, then he’ll run away.
Dawglasville
November 23rd, 2011
12:40 pm
It doesn’t matter. We play Saturday.
Supersize that order, mutt
November 23rd, 2011
12:40 pm
@ ?????? Yeah, I know his “style.” He also uses MANY aliases, and not just the “cupcake” one. And the interesting thing is he loves to call Tech bloggers liars, but he once claimed that he never used aliases. Then Ken called him out on it one day, and he had to face the truth. He is more of a liar than anybody else on here.
?????????
November 23rd, 2011
12:48 pm
Guess who’s over on the new Roddy Jones article? To be fair, it’s only about 35 comments in and he has yet to mention Tech’s drug policy or Reuben Houston, give him time.
Supersize, were you around summer before last (2010) when, in the wake of all the pub UGA was getting on the way to the Fulmer Cup, he alleged that Tech had as many arrests, but that the APD was covering them up. Spent a whole afternoon asking him for any kind of proof, when he was not ignoring me, he would simply repost the same thing as fact. Chased him around 4 or 5 articles calling him out on that. Never got a response. After about 4 or 5 similar encounters, I figured out his game.
Supersize that order, mutt
November 23rd, 2011
1:07 pm
@ ??????…..Well, I don’t remember that, but it definitely is his style. I made what was apparently a mistake on one of my posts more than year ago….a MISTAKE, mind you, and he still brings that up calling me a liar. What I said was that Dooley had voted against Tech’s re-entrance into the SEC back in the 80s, or whenever it was. He said that Dooley had NOT voted no, but had abstained. I don’t remember reading that he abstained, but even if he did, that was a mistake on my part, and not a lie. But even if he DID abstain on the vote, it served the same purpose as a NO vote, and when coupled with the no votes by the Mississippi schools, it kept Tech from rejoining the SEC.
Arcangel
November 23rd, 2011
1:13 pm
Go Dawgs!!!
TechGirl
November 23rd, 2011
1:14 pm
There are many words that come to mind in describing Paul Johnson, the only one that fully descibes him now is ignorant. With a family member who is a special needs child (and his father a GA Tech graduate), I can only hope that Paul Johnson and his family are never affected by such. Hopefully, when his daughter is grown and starts a family, Paul Johnson won’t have to refer to his grandchild as a retard. He is without a doubt the most ignorant man on the planet. I don’t care what games Tech wins or loses from this point forward, I can assure you that as long as that man is the Coach, I will never attend another game. I am so glad that he is in his perfect world where only his thoughts and feelings matter.
?????????
November 23rd, 2011
1:18 pm
Super,
It was my first encounter with the wonderful Headley, and it is true, you never forget your first. He has yet to disappoint me.
TK
November 23rd, 2011
1:30 pm
As a parent of a child with special needs I am always offended by the R word. It’s comparing stupid people (the caller) to those who have no say in how they were born. It’s like saying, “He’s as bald as a chemo patient”. I have just lost more respect for Coach Paul Johnson.
Supersize that order, mutt
November 23rd, 2011
1:31 pm
TechGirl, if you are that narrow minded and naive as to think that one poor choice of words defines a person, then good riddance to you. Tech doesn’t need you as a fan…….not that you ever were one to begin with. I’m sure you are totally guiltless when it comes to saying something you shouldn’t have said. Remember, little girl, 20 years ago that word was commonly used by just about everybody to describe stupid people; it’s a little hard to break old habits. But I guess you are perfect and couldn’t understand that.
Supersize that order, mutt
November 23rd, 2011
1:33 pm
TK, I can appreciate your reaction, but like I said in my last post, until 20 years ago, just about everybody used the word in that manner. That’s not saying it’s right to have done so then or right to do so now, but it IS hard to move beyond old habits.
GT FAN IN PA
November 23rd, 2011
1:36 pm
To all here that wishes to make comments about the comments that CPJ made using such words as stupid and ignorant- WHO are YOU??? The very same people come across that you are perfect and would never-well last perfect guy I know died and rose over 2,000 years ago- UGA fans refer to your coach he can tell you all about him! GTGIRL you have good seats you wish to sell?? If it is that wrong or PC word remove it from the English Dictionary- poor choice or words he used- the man apologized now if he uses the word again…we can tar and feather him!!! As for all my true TECH FRIENDS and FAMILY———– I have one thing to say……THWG!!!! Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!!
Delbert D.
November 23rd, 2011
1:37 pm
TechGirl – I hope you read my comment at 11:19 a.m.; I certainly take yours to heart. The question now is, what does he do from now on? The thing about ignorance is that it can be overcome. It’s all up to him. I’ll watch and see how he handles it.
Supersize that order, mutt
November 23rd, 2011
1:47 pm
Delbert, don’t be fooled by TechGirl. She, or someone using that name, made some HIGHLY INAPPROPRIATE posts on the Tech blogs a couple of months ago; “she” was just another mutt troll pretending. This may indeed be a different person, but I wouldn’t bet on it.
George Stein
November 23rd, 2011
1:51 pm
I think it’s difficult to take anyone seriously that thinks Paul Johnson is the most ignorant man on the planet. Seriously? More ignorant than, say, all of al Queda or the Llano?
George Stein
November 23rd, 2011
1:52 pm
Sure it does. If something is irrelevant, you say so and move on. Arguing the point confirms its relevancy.
Delbert D.
November 23rd, 2011
1:59 pm
Super – My comment stands. As to who posted as “TechGirl”, I don’t care.
TK
November 23rd, 2011
2:22 pm
Supersize, when you are the head football coach at a highly regarded university, you should know that the R word is offensive and never use it! Is CPJ just figuring that out now?
Delbert D.
November 23rd, 2011
2:38 pm
TK – I think he has figured that out now. He may have figured it out before. I had figured out well before 1966 that I was not a bigot, but that didn’t stop me from yelling at a member of our platoon in frustration using a phrase that I’ve never forgiven myself for.
GT Fan
November 23rd, 2011
2:42 pm
I’m just relieved that “GT Girl” and TK where able to get their thoughts off of their repspective chests.
Thanks for weighing-in you two.
Now, try to do your absolute best to just GET OVER IT!
Supersize that order, mutt
November 23rd, 2011
2:53 pm
None of us are perfect, although an awful lot of people like to think they are, both public figures and not-so-public ones.
Tech86
November 23rd, 2011
2:53 pm
From Georgia Sports Blog using the term “retarded”: (about Reuben Houston)
Doug said…
Let me make sure I’m crystal-clear on this. Darrius Swain gets nabbed three times over the course of two years for driving on a suspended license, and spends 45 days in jail. But Ruben Houston drives around with a pot stash weighing as much as two small children, and gets . . . no jail time whatsoever?
Two words: completely retarded.
See this is in appropriate also, just move on. I work with a lot of special needs childern so I know of the challenges all parents have. CPJ was wrong, apologized. Move On.
4/05/2006 9:34 PM
RamblingReck
November 23rd, 2011
3:08 pm
‘Retard’ may be a slur, but I sure can’t see what’s wrong with using ‘retarded’ in the proper and respectful context.
Delbert D.
November 23rd, 2011
3:16 pm
Enter your comments here
Delbert D.
November 23rd, 2011
3:25 pm
If you want to read some stuff that is both enlightening and absurd, Google “euphemism treadmill”.
Supersize that order, mutt
November 23rd, 2011
3:31 pm
Delbert, you are one of a few (VERY FEW) posters on these blogs who has a reason to be concerned / ticked off / offended by what Johnson said. You have expressed that concern on here and, as far as I can tell, you have moved on. I applaud you for that
Delbert D.
November 23rd, 2011
3:36 pm
Super – I’m scrutinizing the euphemism list to see if “moved on” means I’m dead.
Supersize that order, mutt
November 23rd, 2011
3:40 pm
LOL @ Delbert. I am pretty sure you’re still hanging in there