Mark Bradley

See this? Pictorial evidence of a Julius Peppers non-sack. (AJC photo by Curtis Compton)

News out of Charlotte today is that Julius Peppers says he doesn’t want to play for the Carolina Panthers because he has been ignored this offseason. (Peppers gave a radio interview, and his answer to one question prompted the usually straight-down-the-middle Associated Press to describe it as “rambling.”) Speculation has already suggested that Flowery Branch could/should be Peppers’ next place of employment. I have one word for this:

The word is “no.”

The Falcons need a pass rusher. Peppers rushes the passer — sometimes. He had 2 1/2 sacks in 2007. He had 14 1/2 in 2008. He had 10 1/2 last season in what was a contract year. Of those 10 1/2, six came against Washington, Buffalo and Tampa Bay. He had no sacks in four games against New Orleans and Atlanta.

There are times when you watch the Panthers and you think Peppers is Deacon Jones. Other times you think he has come down with the …

Continue reading Julius Peppers wants out; the Falcons shouldn’t touch him »

This, as you doubtless know, is not a recent picture. (AJC photo by Curtis Compton)

We keep hearing that the Braves’ rotation will be just as good without the man who finished fourth in the National League Cy Young voting  in 2009. The (thin) reasoning: That Javier Vazquez was unlikely to have such a season again, but that Tim Hudson — who underwent Tommy John surgery in 2008 and who has won two games since — will absolutely return to top-of-the-rotation form. This, I say again, assumes a lot.

I haven’t quite bought it, and I note for your edification that the estimable Buster Olney of ESPN.com hasn’t yet, either. Writing for ESPN’s Insiders, Buster O. lists his top five rotations — top six, actually — and somehow doesn’t include the Braves’. (Link requires registration.) His rankings:

• 1. Red Sox: Josh Beckett, Jon Lester, John Lackey, Daisuke Matsuzaka, Clay Buchholz, Tim Wakefield.
• 2. Yankees: CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett, Andy Pettitte, Javier Vazquez, Phil Hughes.
• 3.  White …

Continue reading Bradley’s Buzz: ESPN’s Buster doesn’t love Braves’ rotation »

Since this happened only once, apparently it never happened at all. (AJC photo by Frank Niemeir)

You knew it was coming, and come it has: The lazy and sneering comparison of Peyton Manning and the Colts to the Braves of the ’90s. I’ve read it a half-dozen times already, and each time I’ve laughed. I’ve laughed because if you’re a member of the Only-One-Championship fraternity, you’re still in sporting Valhalla.

Carl Yastrzemski won’t be attending lodge meetings, nor will Karl Malone. Barry Bonds won’t be there; neither will Dick Butkus or Charles Barkley or Juan Marichal or Dan Marino or Ernie Banks. But you know who will be showing up?

• Jerry West and Oscar Robertson, two of the 10 best basketball players ever.

• Jim Brown and Walter Payton, two of the five best football players ever.

• Hank Aaron and Willie Mays, two of the five best baseball players ever.

Because there’s so much air time and cyberspace to fill, every correspondent must have a “take” if he/she wants to get …

Continue reading Peyton and the Braves: Brothers in the derided one-title club »

I apologize. I've used this picture before, but it's too good. (AJC photo by Phil Skinner)

I don’t always agree with Jon Heyman of SI.com. He seems to believe Bobby Valentine invented the game of baseball, while I’m of the opinion Bobby V. only perfected the art of preening. But I can’t quibble with this assessment of the Braves’ offseason.

Heyman lists “eight teams that struck out this winter by not spending enough.” The Braves are No. 8 on that list. (The Mets are No. 1, intriguingly enough.)His rationale:

“[The Braves] were remarkably cheap this winter, and the result is a rotation diminished by the loss of Javier Vazquez and a lineup that still needs another big hitter. Melky Cabrera was the only immediate help received for Vazquez, who was brilliant last year. Troy Glaus could prove to be a $2 million bargain, and Eric Hinske seems to be a lucky charm [he played for the AL champion the past three seasons]. They also got former All-Star closer Takashi Saito. …

Continue reading Bradley’s Buzz: SI’s Heyman calls Braves’ offseason ‘cheap’ »

Tracy Porter intercepted Peyton Manning to seal the Super Bowl, same as he'd picked off Matty Ice in November. (AP photo)

On the morning after the Super Bowl, 54.9 percent of the American workforce drags in late; 45 percent calls in sick. Be ye advised that the Atlanta Falcons’ general manager was en route to Flowery Branch at 6:08 a.m. Monday, bound for Day 1 of Round 2 of draft meetings. Calling from his car, Thomas Dimitroff sought to address a fairly salient topic:

In 2008 the New Orleans finished 8-8. They weren’t second or even third in the NFC South; they were last. On Feb. 7, 2010, the same Saints — the same but significantly different — upset the Indianapolis Colts to win Super Bowl XLIV.

Over the past two seasons Dimitroff’s Falcons are 20-14. Prior to their  Super Bowl season the Saints were 15-17. The question: Does seeing their rival of long standing rise to become sudden Super Bowl champs lend even more hope for the immediate future?

“Though interesting and …

Continue reading Could next season’s Falcons emulate Saints? Um … maybe »

Even peerless Peyton Manning isn't perfect, this reporter has learned. (AP photo)

I ask you: What’s the world coming to when a guy can’t even be right about Peyton Manning?

I quote my erring self: “He never throws the ball to the wrong team with the game on the line.”

Except for the fourth quarter of Super Bowl XLIV, that is.

OK, so I was wrong again. That’s only about the 5,00th time this year. But I feel a lot better about this whiff than, say, the BCS title game. That one still drives me nuts because Texas, even with Colt McCoy lost on the first series, could still have proved me right if not for Mack Brown and his doggone SHOVEL PASS before the half.

The Super Bowl was different. The Saints were clearly the more deserving team — more aggressive, more inspired, better coached. (I mean, did the Colts even consider blitzing Drew Brees?) The Colts played a passive second quarter and never recovered. The key player on this day wasn’t Peyton but Payton, as in Sean, the Saints’ …

Continue reading It’s gotten this bad: I’m even wrong about Peyton Manning »

Peyton does his pointing-and-waving thing at the line. Dorky, but it works!

It comes with the plaid sport coat and the Olivetti typewriter: If you’re a sports writer, you’re duty-bound to pick the Super Bowl. Some years it’s hard — take it from a guy who picked the Rams to beat the Patriots 42-3 in 2002 — and other years it’s easy. This time it’s easy. Here are five reasons why:

1. The Saints are lucky to be playing. When you’re outgained by 218 yards on your home turf in the NFC title game, you figure to lose by three touchdowns. The reason the Saints didn’t is that the Vikings kept handing them the ball. And still New Orleans managed just one first down in the entire second half and one first down without aid of penalty in overtime.

Put it this way: When the other team turns it over five times and is still in position to win at the end of regulation — on the road, I again note — you deserve to lose. But the Saints won because Brett Favre is the Minnesota quarterback. (Or at …

Continue reading 5 reasons the Colts will win (professional advice included) »

"Mark, who do you need me to hire next? Nick Saban?" (AJC photo by Curtis Compton)

Chan Gailey didn’t rearrange the landscape of Southern college football when he was coaching college football in the South, but give Chan the Man this: He’s still trying. Since being hired — inexplicably, I feel obliged to add — to coach the Buffalo Bills, Gailey has altered the dynamics of two programs close at hand.

First he hired Giff Smith, the recruiting coordinator who’d constructed the 2007 recruiting class that propelled Georgia Tech, as coached by Gailey’s successor, to the 2009 ACC title. (Since you asked, Tech is still paying off Gailey’s contract.) Now he has hired George Edwards, whose term as Florida’s defensive coordinator lasted only slightly longer than Urban Meyer’s stint as Florida’s former coach. (And Gailey, as we know, is a Gator alum.)

These are not insignificant developments. Smith had bridged the transition from Gailey to Paul Johnson and was already building another …

Continue reading Question: Is Chan Gailey now helping UGA’s cause from afar? »

Georgia Tech defended Kyle Singler last month. Alas, that was then. (AJC photo by Johnny Crawford)

I covered Paul Hewitt’s first victory at Cameron Indoor Stadium — the date was March 3, 2004, and I still have imprints of front-row Crazies’ kneecaps in the small of my back — and it was a major breakthrough over a superior opponent. (Both Tech and Duke wound up in the Final Four.) And I thought the time was right for the Jackets to win in Durham again Thursday night.

I thought this for three reasons: First, because this Tech team is more gifted than that Tech team; second, because these Dookies aren’t close to those Dookies, and third, because I’m really stupid.

Final score: Duke 86, Tech 67.

I’m sorry. I expected more. I expected Gani Lawal to know better than to foul twice in 33 seconds. I expected the Jackets, who handled the Devils here 26 days ago, to have been buoyed by the knowledge that they could not only play with Duke but outplay it. Instead Tech authored its worst …

Continue reading In a step-up game at Cameron, Georgia Tech goes splat »

Don't look for another BCS game in the immediate future. (AJC photo by Johnny Crawford)

With a football schedule, the ideal is to have the soft games at their place and the tough ones at yours. Georgia Tech had that sort of schedule in 2009. (Road games were at Miami, Mississippi State, Florida State,  Virginia, Vanderbilt and  Duke. Not surprisingly, Tech won five of the six.)

The 2010 slate, released today, is rather different. At Kansas, at North Carolina, at Wake Forest, at Clemson, at Virginia Tech, at Georgia.

Tech will do well to go 3-3 on the road this time.

Tech will do well to go 8-4 next season.

Not trying to be overly negative here — as any Georgia fan will tell you, I’m the biggest Tech rooter on the planet — but Bobby Bowden, whose team the Jackets beat in Tallahassee en route to the ACC title and the Orange Bowl, always said: “To win a championship, you need a championship schedule.” (He pronounced it “SKED-yule.”)

In 2009 the Jackets had both the team and the …

Continue reading Tech’s 2010 schedule doesn’t set up for another title run »