Bradley’s Buzz: Ranking Stafford and creeping Socialism
Much ado about Matthew
Matthew Stafford didn’t throw a ball at the NFL combine, but that hasn’t stopped draft watchers from forming an opinion on what he isn’t based on what he didn’t do. Two video clips from ESPN.com are instructive. In the first, Mel Kiper Jr. makes fun of Todd McShay for saying Detroit shouldn’t draft Stafford No. 1 overall. In the second, McShay reveals he thinks Detroit will take Stafford No. 1 overall. Got that?
Actually, I kind of understand. McShay has Stafford No. 8 among all prospects. (Kiper has him No. 3, behind linebacker Aaron Curry and wideout Michael Crabtree.) McShay thinks Detroit should take an offensive tackle because Stafford is too big a risk. Kiper thinks that’s silly. Much debate ensues. And the draft isn’t until April 25!
Frequent Buzz contributor Don Banks of SI.com has Stafford going 10th overall in his post-Combine mock, which seems severe. Banks’ colleague Peter King writes about Stafford in this week’s print Sports Illustrated — did you know it has been 50 years since the Lions traded Bobby Layne and that Stafford and Layne went to the same high school? — and online King makes much of a 30-minute conversation Stafford had with Drew Brees at the Super Bowl. (Pete’s big on conversations, as we know, especially the postgame cellphone interview.)
Back to Banks: He has the Falcons taking Oklahoma State tight end Brandon Pettigrew in Round 1, which I suspect would go down nicely with the team’s backers. Speaking of whom …
Patience, Falcons fans
On his blog The Falcoholic, Dave the Falconer advises followers of the local NFL team not to panic over the outflow of personnel these first few days of free agency. It’s sound advice. (It’s so sound I might tackle the topic very soon.)
Toward that end, Pete Prisco of CBSsports.com rates the winners and losers of early free agency, and he can’t understand why Dallas wanted Keith Brooking or Baltimore signed Domonique Foxworth. The better course, Prisco writes, was sitting this dance out.
Back by popular demand — Len Pasquarelli!
It’s with great pleasure that I present this next link — a rundown of free-agent losers, in which Keith Brooking’s name is invoked — because it marks the first time in the seven months I’ve been doing Buzz that I’ve been able to point you folks toward a story by esteemed former colleague Len Pasquarelli of ESPN.com. His return to health is happy news for us all.
Good news for Tech basketball, sort of
According to Chad Ford of ESPN.com, Gani Lawal’s draft stock has slipped so much he probably ought to return to Georgia Tech for his junior season. And NBAdraft.net has removed Lawal from its 2009 mock draft, where he was previously listed as a lottery pick.
If you check NBAdraft.net’s 2010 mock, you’ll find both Lawal and Tech recruit Derrick Favors among the top eight picks. But this apparent blessing could have a downside: Since Lawal and Favors essentially play the same position — Favors plays it better — will they mesh in what figures to be their brief time together? Or will next season be a rerun of Chris Bosh’s one and only collegiate turn, which wound up in the NIT?
Does recruiting really matter? (Part 27)
On SI.com, Andy Staples re-examines the signing class of 2006 and finds nothing surprising. Rivals.com rated Florida’s class No. 2 back then, and in hindsight Staples puts it No. 1. Rivals had Georgia’s class No. 4, and Staples has it No. 4. Tune in next week when we crunch numbers and discover water is wet.
Hunker down, Hugo!
Last week we linked to an imaginary meal between Lane Kiffin and his AD at the Sevierville Waffle House. This week’s fractured fairy tale involves a telecast of a football game between Georgia and South Carolina played in Maturin, Venezuela. (The item is about halfway down the page.) This was the brainchild, so to speak, of Doug Gillett on the Hey Jenny Slater blog, and if you’re wondering what in the wide world of sports could have prompted it … well, check the picture above.
Hugo Chavez is the president of Venezuela. He’s a Socialist and an avowed hater of these United States. He was photographed recently wearing a familiar-looking ballcap, prompting some among us to wonder if Michael Adams, not content with having established a UGA footprint in Costa Rica, had opened diplomatic relations with Venezuela. But no.
Chavez is a supporter of the Guaros de Lara football team, which is based in Barquisimeto and which plays the other kind of football and which bears an eerily similar “G” logo. Which prompts the litigious question: Can you sue a team based in a Socialist country for trademark infringement?
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107 comments Add your comment
RAMBLE ON!!!
March 2nd, 2009
8:02 am
Yes Mark, it will be Chris Bosh all over again. No dance, just excuses.
Mark Bradley
March 2nd, 2009
8:31 am
Now there’s optimism!
GeoffDawg
March 2nd, 2009
8:45 am
Don’t worry Mark. With the current administration, we’ll be socialists ourselves soon enough. Then we can work this out over a bottle of vodka while waiting in line to buy toilet paper.
Mark Bradley
March 2nd, 2009
8:48 am
More optimism! Must be a Monday.
1953 dawg
March 2nd, 2009
8:57 am
Please no more articles about Stafford&Moreno. They never cared about UGA, they only cared about themselves, and i’m glad they are gone. Here’s a good idea, try to write about the players that are still at UGA. I could care less if these 2 even get drafted. Would be nice to here about the players as they get ready for spring practice, and who is going to help out next years team. Would really be nice to read about how Martinez plans on changing his defense. Don’t think Richt’s prayers are going to be enough.
T-Bone
March 2nd, 2009
9:44 am
A good coach will figure out how to make Favors and Lawal work on the same court. And PH has about a season to prove that he’s a good coach.
81Dog
March 2nd, 2009
9:46 am
I dont understand the bitterness some people who claim to be UGA fans have against Stafford and Moreno for leaving early. All either of them did was bust his rear end every second he was on the field for UGA. You never heard either of them complain about anything. There was no pouting about the defense, or the offensive line, or special teams, or the play calling, or how many touches or passes either was involved in.
You can certainly speculate on whether either, or both, would be served by coming back for another year. No one should blame them for chasing the NFL dream, and no one who calls himself a UGA fan should have a single bad thing to say about either. They played hard, they won a lot of games (if not as many as they or we would have liked), and they comported themselves well off the field and on it. Coach Richt said it best: they’ll be good citizens on their new teams and in their new communities, just as they were for UGA. Good luck to both of them!
Bill
March 2nd, 2009
9:48 am
Mark if you are looking for Socialists,look no further than you employers editorial board
Mark Bradley
March 2nd, 2009
10:06 am
I don’t understand the bitterness, either. They came, they played, they stayed eligible, they left. Can’t fault Stafford and Moreno for any of that.
Ted Striker
March 2nd, 2009
10:14 am
### Mark: If it were possible for UGA to sue Venezuela, the Athletic Association would jump on it like a rat on a cheeto. ### GeoffDawg: Don’t knock vodka. I may run out of whiskey and tequila someday and be forced to improvise. ### 1953dawg: You think you can read Stafford and Moreno’s minds — yet you require a newspaper to fill you in on other UGA guys? ### 81Dog: Folks knocking the character and motivation of Stafford or Moreno never met either of them.
Rabun Dawg
March 2nd, 2009
10:16 am
81 Dog, that was a great post you made about Stafford and Moreno, and all of the Dog Nation should feel the same way. Any of us would probably have done the same thing if we had been in their shoes. I wish them well, and I hope that their dreams do come to fruition!
Bookie
March 2nd, 2009
10:17 am
The copyright suit would emanate from the Green Bay Packers. That’s where UGA’s helmet design was lifted from.
Mark Bradley
March 2nd, 2009
10:21 am
Yes, but there’s a “green” in Green Bay. And I’m pretty sure that cap on Pres. Hugo’s head is red.
Mark Bradley
March 2nd, 2009
10:22 am
But Bookie, you get mad props for use of the word “emanate.”
Halsey
March 2nd, 2009
10:30 am
Dawgs fans who have hurt feeling over Stafford and Moreno leaving are being childish. You’d leave UGA too if you had a chance to make millions of dollars. If Stafford goes #1 overall, he’s going to get in the neighborhood of $35 million guaranteed. You’d leave UGA for that kind of money too…even if you think you wouldn’t.
Gordon
March 2nd, 2009
10:34 am
3 Tech BB questions for you Mark.
1) Are you optimistic about Tech next year?
2) Do you think Hewitt will bring in new assistants (might affect your answer to #1)?
3) Do you think Radakovich has a performance baseline (e.g. NCAA bid, NCAA win, etc.) for Hewitt to stay beyond next year?
Bookie
March 2nd, 2009
10:35 am
it aren’t the coler-it’s the dezine. emanate???
Coondawg69
March 2nd, 2009
10:36 am
On the air last year, Todd McShay tried to bully Mel “perfect hair” Kiper Jr. last year about Joe Flacco. It made McShay look like a young punk trying to one-up a living draft legend. Trey Wingo, also noted the exchange months later on ESPN radio w/ Mel Kiper. Mel, being a professional, simply took the high road.
Love Mel Kiper. He knows A LOT MORE than just football. McShay, well, it is virtually impossible to make a first impression, for a second time. Hopefully he’s learned …. and grown up.
Mark Bradley
March 2nd, 2009
10:38 am
1. Yes, guardedly so.
2. Yes. I think Dean Keener will be back.
3. I don’t know. I know the buyout in Hewitt’s contract — it’s $7.1 million today and will be $7.1 million a year from now — makes Dan Radakovich a bigger Hewitt fan than even Dave Braine was.
Thanks for asking, Gordon. Good questions.
Huh?
March 2nd, 2009
10:38 am
I think its the old timers that have a hard time with the leaving early thing. The baby boomers. They don’t understand money. Oh they sure think they do, but they don’t. That’s why they got us all in the mess we’re in right now. Oh I could go on and on about this but this obviously isn’t the forum. I wish Stafford and Moreno well. They made an excellent decision.
FloridaDawg
March 2nd, 2009
10:41 am
The more players good enough to leave early for the NFL…the better.
The only thing important is what UGA does with the players when they have them.
Big Dog
March 2nd, 2009
10:42 am
If anyone should sue it should be the Green Bay Packers. UGA copied thier G when coach VD stole the logo just like the rest of the High School Teams.
Mark Bradley
March 2nd, 2009
10:43 am
Three words I don’t believe I’ve ever before heard in tandem: “Love Mel Kiper.”
frank
March 2nd, 2009
10:43 am
What about KEntucky Basketball? I need my fix mark!
Shane
March 2nd, 2009
10:46 am
All this socialist talk and Obama is funny. Reminds me of when Clinton was in office and the “black helicopters” were coming. Some people always need a bogeyman. LOL
Rabun Dawg
March 2nd, 2009
10:47 am
Mark, watched the Cats the past few games, OUCH! I suspect that the Rupp arena bunch is getting a tad distraught with Gillespie,to say the least! What you think about the situation up there?
Mark Bradley
March 2nd, 2009
10:48 am
I think the Big Blue needs a little fixing itself, Frank. Good thing Georgia comes to Lexington on Wednesday.
Ted Striker
March 2nd, 2009
10:49 am
Radakovich has two win/win options with Hewitt: 1) Hope he wins 2) Hope he gets hit by a campus bus.
Mark Bradley
March 2nd, 2009
10:50 am
I don’t think Gillispie is any immediate trouble, if that’s what you mean. Unless the Cats don’t get in the Big Dance, in which case the dynamics change. But I think they’ll make it.
Rabun Dawg
March 2nd, 2009
11:02 am
Mark, yea, Georgia coming in makes the next game a little brighter. At this juncture, how many from the SEC get in the NCAA tourney? I can see only about five, and not real sure about that number. The way the SEC East is beating up on each other, maybe only three from that side? LSU looks to be the only sure thing from the west, maybe Auburn as well. Lebo has done a great job, and should be the Coach of the year in the SEC, don’t you think? Another question, when will the SEC tourney return to the Ga. Dome? I can’t see Tampa being a very good venue for the conference.
GeoffDawg
March 2nd, 2009
11:10 am
Few things:
1. Not that I agree with everything the Bush administration’s done but reasonable people can conclude that he’s been the media’s boogeyman for the last 8 years.
2. I personally like vodka. A nice martini, screwdriver, or vodka tonic always hits the spot. Perhaps the most versatile liquors and one of Russia’s most positive contributions to world culture.
3. Also, I don’t see the need to badmouth Stafford or Mareno either. Of course, I wish they’d stayed but I wish them luck in the future. Success in the NFL will only serve as good marketing for future recruits.
Mark Bradley
March 2nd, 2009
11:11 am
I think the SEC is in real danger of only getting four NCAA bids. Florida or Kentucky could get left out. Auburn needs a big SEC tournament run just to have a chance.
Lebo has done a nice job, sure. But what about Darrin Horn?
The SEC tournament will return to the Dome in 2011. It’s in Nashville in 2010, and in 2012 it goes to New Orleans. (But not to the Superdome. To the arena next door.)
Get a Grip
March 2nd, 2009
11:19 am
You rednecks need to stop taking your advice from Hannity and realize you’ve been living with socialist programs your whole life in this country….but now that your backwards, out-of-touch, racist, fear-mongering, greedy, torturing, war-machine political party isnt in power anymore you freak out and think we’re all going to be socialist? It is the greed of your own party that got us into this mess and now your bitter when people turn against you? What exactly did you expect? Get a grip.
DirtyDawg
March 2nd, 2009
11:23 am
I read the SI piece on Stafford. It was pretty nice. The kid’s really looking forward to removing ‘The Curse of Bobby Layne’..of course it would also mean he would be drafted No 1 and that means money…but who wouldn’t? Face it, college isn’t the be-all and end-all for these kids (even Herschel left us early). We all went to school in order to position ourselves for the rest of our lives…and so did Matthew and Knowshon.
The criticism of Stafford, from both some UGA fans as well as some ‘Pundits’ (interestingly the word pundit likely has it’s origin from the word ‘pun’ which means, alternately, quibbling over a minor point, or just a joke. Either way, it works for me.) has bordered on ridiculous. The other day I heard this guy ‘Cowherd’ (assume that’s the way he spells it) on 680 claim that Stafford was just another of those ‘big-arm’ OBs…that all he could do is throw hard and that meant he would be a risk to Detroit to take at #1…he then proceeded to compare him to other ‘big-armed’ QBs that threw a lot of interceptions during their careers, which I assume he saw as a negative. He then named those he put into that category – Elway, Bradshaw, Favre and Namath. So, you’re telling me that if Detroit thought Matthew Stafford would be a HOF quarterback they wouldn’t draft him first because of this ‘Cow-Herd’ guy’s comment? By the way, I don’t care what a cow heard, I don’t have any secrets from a cow.
gdawginkalamazoo
March 2nd, 2009
11:30 am
Mark, actually “Green Bay” does have a red hat out there with the yellow and green trim for the “G”.
Mark Bradley
March 2nd, 2009
11:31 am
Good one, DirtyDawg.
Mark Bradley
March 2nd, 2009
11:34 am
Not to sound like Johnny Carson, but … I did not know that, Kalamazoo.
Baltimore Bullet
March 2nd, 2009
11:44 am
Mark, any more word on UGA possibly looking at Bobby Knight? If not, who is on the radar?
Mark Bradley
March 2nd, 2009
11:47 am
I never thought Knight was a realistic fit from Georgia’s perspective. If I had to guess — and this is just a guess — I’d still bet Anthony Grant of Virginia Commonwealth against the rest of the field. His team just won the Atlantic Sun.
gdawginkalamazoo
March 2nd, 2009
11:47 am
Stafford and Moreno “only” played well enough for Georgia to be considered first round draft picks. How the hell did that hurt the team in any manner? Good luck to them. Hope Stafford is picked #1 and Moreno is the first RB chosen.
GeoffDawg
March 2nd, 2009
11:54 am
Get a Grip – I’m sorry to get all “factual” on you but it’s socialist style financial policies that have played a large part in getting us into the current economic mess. Not taking into account issues like the rise in energy costs and the financial fear mongering of presidential candidates, it’s the guaranteeing of risky loans through quasi-governmental entities like Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac that are the backbone of this recession. If financial institutions have no risk of failure due to governmental enticements, then it’s the very act of government intrusion on the free market that brought this about. If government had taken a hands off approach, banks would’ve self-regulated and been more selective in the loans they were underwriting. This is a prime example of what happens with the economy when government thinks they know better than the private experts in the field.
GeoffDawg
March 2nd, 2009
11:57 am
BTW – sorry to get too far off topic but Mark did bring up socialism.
AT
March 2nd, 2009
11:58 am
Hey GeoffDawg, the current administration is trying to clean up W the retard’s mess of 8 years not to mention restore some honesty and morals back in government. Did you already forget Ted Stevens, Mark Foley, Duke Cunnigham and Larry Craig. Ahhhh, good ol conservative christian values!
Alpharetta-bound
March 2nd, 2009
12:00 pm
Mark — Were you around when Hearst and Hastings left? What was the sentiment then? Just curious as to how it compares to Stafford and Moreno.
Mark Bradley
March 2nd, 2009
12:01 pm
All this talk of Socialism has got me humming “The Internationale.”
With apologies to Dave O’Brien, here’s the first verse:
Arise, wretched of the earth
Arise, convicts of hunger
Reason thunders in its volcano
This is the eruption of the end
Of the past let us wipe the slate clean
Masses, slaves, arise, arise
The world is about to change its foundation
We are nothing, let us be all
|: This is the final struggle
Let us group together, and tomorrow
The Internationale
Will be the human race
Mark Bradley
March 2nd, 2009
12:02 pm
Back to football: I was around when Hearst and Hastings left, but the disappointment was tempered by Eric Zeier’s decision to stay.
GeoffDawg
March 2nd, 2009
12:12 pm
Really AT – I guess supporting increased taxation while conveniently forgetting to pay your own is a virtue in this cabinet.
Mark Bradley
March 2nd, 2009
12:15 pm
Enough politics. Let’s talk religion. Me, I’m becoming a Catholic. I even had my picture taken with Archbishop Gregory on Saturday.
TommyP
March 2nd, 2009
12:18 pm
I, too, love Kiper. Anyone that’s as passionate about what they do like Kiper, Vitale Jimmy V and Rick Pitino is alright in my book.
Kiper is a very good listen on radio even outside of football. Knows his baseball…
RAMBLE ON!!!
March 2nd, 2009
12:28 pm
Get a Grip–calls us bitter?…”backwards, out-of-touch, racist, fear-mongering, greedy, torturing, war-machine political party”.
…don’t look in the mirror, kettle.