Archive for February, 2009

A tall, thin blonde woman walks into the room and men look up. Hey, it happens.

But when a thin blonde woman walked into the room the other day, Bill Curry wasn’t in a restaurant or a nightclub. He was in an administration building at Georgia State, and the old football coach realized he might be looking at his next boss.

“I sat in this room, and here comes this lovely sophisticated lady,” Curry said. “She wasn’t my stereotypical idea of an A.D. I read her resume and it was impressive. But I was skeptical. We’re all victims of our own prejudices. I’m married to a blonde scholar. She’s a great mom, but I don’t think she ought to be an A.D.”

Cheryl Levick must’ve broken the stereotype in a one-hour interview because she won over Curry. Her next challenge will be more difficult: breaking the stereotype of Georgia State.

She is Georgia State’s new athletic director. My guess is that few people even realized Georgia State had an athletic director until Mary McElroy announced …

Continue reading It’s time to adjust our thinking about Georgia State »

  Before we get started in this week’s Countdown, this just in: You guys are a bunch of degenerates.

  I received quite a bit of feedback following last week’s debut of the new blog format. Most of it was positive. Some of you don’t like my glasses. Some of you also blame my glasses, my hairline, the new blog format and global warming for Michael Vick being in jail, which I’m still trying to figure out.

  But overwhelmingly, the comments in email, online reader postings and grocery store/canned food aisle shout-outs generally included two words: Lindsay Lohan. My half-joke about using pictures of bikini’d vixens as a tool for cheap page views brought readers together like nothing since that Tuesday when the garbage truck picked up the recyclables and Bobby Petrino.

  So here’s the deal. As long as it doesn’t get me fired, I will TRY to provide you, the lowest-common denominator, with a picture of a female who has some direct link to sports and probably has a lot of wonderful …

Continue reading Earth to Josh Smith (and OK, here’s another hottie) »

  It was about a year ago this time when we presented our completely unscientific inaugural rankings of area sports teams.

  The unveiling had such a profound impact on the sports landscape that No. 1 ranked Georgia went on to allow 135 points in losses to Alabama, Florida and Georgia Tech, and the No. 2 ranked Braves lost 90 games and bankrupt several HMOs.

  Perhaps, like the BCS, we should just go to a playoff system.

  But no, we’re back. This ranking isn’t based merely on projected win totals but also direction, leadership, structure, stability, coaching, drafts/recruiting, fan support, litigation and any time one co-owner calls another co-owner, “evil” (thank you, Bruce Levenson).

  So here we go, top to bottom, with last year’s ranking in parenthesis:

So guys. Now that you've fixed the Falcons, what are your thoughts on the economy? Iraq? Orphan socks?

  1. FALCONS (3): Last year’s high ranking was based on the hiring of Thomas Dimitroff and Mike Smith. So we got …

Continue reading Ranking the teams, from top (Falcons) to bottom (duh) »

  When this NBA season started, Rick Sund admitted he pretty much was like the rest of us. He didn’t know whether to judge the Hawks on three playoff wins or 45 regular season losses (as well as all those that preceded them). So he steered clear of sweeping changes.

  He called this season, “a barometer.”

  It’s late February and nothing has changed. The Hawks stood pat at the trade deadline. They are nine games over .500 (32-23). But any assumptions that the new general manager suddenly has his blueprint for the future would be a mistake.

  The players aren’t safe. The coach isn’t safe. The team’s grade this season: incomplete.

  When asked what the expectations of the Hawks should be moving forward, Sund paused, then said: “That’s a question that should be asked and answered at the end of season.

  “My feelings are consistent with what I’ve said all along, that this season is a barometer. We’ll analyze it when it’s all over.”

  Wise man. To take any other position would be …

Continue reading Sund assuming nothing about Hawks right now »

Forget for a moment that Ken Griffey, Jr. played 11 seasons with the Seattle Mariners and will go into the Hall of Fame as a Seattle Mariner and, oh, gosh, golly gee, wouldn’t it be so nice to finish his career as a Seattle Mariner.

Think of this: He is 39 years old. His legacy in baseball is secure. He has played the game with the joy of a little leaguer and never once has been accused of frequenting the same Dominican Republic CVS as Alex Rodriguez.

But what is the one thing missing in Griffey’s career? A World Series. What is the No. 1 goal of any great player who is at the end of his career and is without a championship? Winning that championship.

The story is not that Griffey didn’t sign with the Braves. The story is that he signed with another team that, sentimentality aside, actually lost 11 more games than the Braves. He didn’t base his decision on a phone call from Willie Mays or a newspaper story that may or may not have angered him. He based it on the fact that …

Continue reading Maybe you believe, but Griffey shows nobody else does »

  So welcome to the new me.

  As you can see, the new me is missing part of my head. (OK. There’s the underhanded softball pitch. Go ahead. Whack it out of the park. “Hey Schultz! I know where the rest of your head is! Hahahahahahahaha.”)

  As soon as I figure all this new technology out, it should be pretty cool.

  But be patient.

  You have to understand that when I started in the business, we had typewriters and paste buckets and, well, newspapers.

This used to be me, sort of

(That should get me fired.)

   The great thing about this new technology is rather than send columns and blogs to editors — who mutilate the copy (industry term) and then write spectacular misleading headlines aimed primarily to grab your attention and get me in trouble (that won’t get me fired; it will merely get my tires slashed by the night crew) — I now will be able to directly post stories myself and write my own headlines!

  I should warn you, however. Given that today’s online media is all …

Continue reading Hello, world! Meet my blog and Lindsay Lohan »