GodsendJen

Its NFL draft time and the Falcon's don't have a real shot at landing a marquee player that fans will actually care about. So instead of talking draft Falcon's fans are talking Dog Fights.  No, we don't mean the kind of dog fighter you watch with fascination at the end of Top Gun.  We mean the literal thing.  Dog versus dog, starvation induced limb-ripping action.  All this stems from the recent reports that a Virginia house owned by Michael Vick is apparently the site of dog fights, or at least appears to house a number of neglected abused dogs that look like they are primed for fighting.  Here is some insight provided by the AJC:

The Humane Society of the United States issued the following statement from Wyane Pacelle, president and CEO: "The Humane Society of the United States has heard troubling reports for some time that Michael Vick has been involved in organized dog fighting, and we fear that this investigation may validate that very disturbing allegation."

"We have well-placed sources in the dog fighting underworld," John Goodwin, deputy manager of animal fighting issues, told the Journal-Constitution. "His involvement has been brought to our attention numerous times. We pay people for information that leads to arrests."

Goodwin said The Humane Society did not know the location of a dog fighting of Vick's until Wednesday's investigation.

According to a records search by the Journal-Constitution, Vick owns the property at 1915 Moonlight Road in Smithfield, Va.

Vick, of course, blames the apparent degenerates among his extended family:

"The issue will get resolved. It's unfortunate I have to take the heat behind it. If I'm not there, I don't know what's going on. It's a call for me to really tighten down on who I'm trying to take care of. When it all boils down, people will try to take advantage of you and leave you out to dry. Lesson learned for me."

Thanks Mike.  We love it when you do your part to help improve the rep of the Atlanta Falcons and the Virginia Tech Hokies. Vick is supposed to appear at the draft with several other former Hokies as part of a ceremony related to the recent shootings at VT.  Does anyone else wonder if Roger Goodell is arranging a flight delay?  Also makes you wonder if Goodell is going to exercise his new ability to punish players for hurting the game.  Vick might not be Pac-Man Jones yet, but I wouldn't be surprised to see some discipline come down if these reports are true.

Ok, our new kicker isn't actually Moses, but at 46 Morton Anderson probably cheated off his paper on spelling tests in the second grade.  We needed a kicker, desperately.  I just never dreamed we'd find one so old.  Anderson hasn't taken the field in the NFL since 2004 when he was with the Vikings.  At one time Anderson was great.  He holds the franchise scoring records in New Orleans and Atlanta. Not surprising since he is only 76 points short of the all time NFL scoring record.  (Gary Anderson holds that distinction with 2,358 points. No word yet on if the two are related.) Anderson is from Denmark and his career highlights include kicking 3 50+ yard field goals in the same game.  I can't say that wouldn't be nice, but it happened in 1995 so I wouldn't hold out hope. It's possible he won't have the opportunity to do that for the Falcons again.  Koenen has a strong leg and I wouldn't be surprised if he doesn't get a shot at everything over 40 or 45 yards.  Plus Anderson is OLD.  A 50 yard kick might be enough to put him in the old folk's home. He holds a handful of records related to kicks over 50 yards and his pro bowl appearances.  Record highlights from his wikipedia entry:

• Most points ever in Pro Bowl history - 45 (15 points after touchdown, 10 field goals)
• Most points after touchdown ever in Pro Bowl history - 15
• Most field goal attempts ever in Pro Bowl history - 18
• Most field goals in Pro Bowl history - 10
• Most field goals (50 or more yards) in NFL history - 40
• Most field goals (50 or more yards) in a season - 8
• Most field goals (50 or more yards) in a game - 3
• Most games played in NFL history - 354

He's also a member of the Danish American Football Federations Hall of Fame (Who even knew such a thing existed?) and the NFL's all decade team for the 1980s AND the 1990s.  The annoucement on the Falcon's site is filled with career accomplishments as well.  It's clear that he was clutch at one time, I just hope he still has it. 

The question this really holds for me is what exactly did Todd Peterson do?  I know we have cap issues but he had to have really ticked someone in our player personnel department off to not get the call.  Maybe Peterson is sore about us not renewing him earlier and is demanding unreasonable pay....but he was pretty good for us and I can't believe we didn't try to work something out.  I wish Anderson the best of luck but I'd rather have a younger proven commodity.  Maybe some friendly staffer up at Flowery Branch will email me an explanation because this really baffles me.

Oh, one other note about Morton Anderson....he last wore #7.  Hope someone told him was have a fellow on our team who is already pretty attached to that number.  Thankfully his old #5 Falcon's jersey is still available.

Falcons Story
ESPN Article
Anderson's Career Statistics

So far the Falcons have missed 6 of 8 field goal attempts.  Everyone in the media is singing our praises but that wont last if we keep passing up the easy points. Len P summed up our kicking performance in today's game quite well:

Second-year veteran Michael Koenen, who is handling all three kicking chores for the Falcons, missed four field goal attempts Sunday and squandered an opportunity to bury the Bucs early. Koenen was an equal opportunity scattershot kicker, missing wide left twice (from 36 and 40 yards), wide right once (30 yards) and having a 30-yard effort blocked. In two games, Koenen has now converted 2 of 8 attempts. His six misses are three times as many as last year's kicker, Todd Peterson, had for the Falcons.

I think our cap guy needs to crunch some numbers tonight and find a way to get us a real kicker.  I would be happy if we just brought Peterson back.  I don't know who he ticked off but he never missed a gimmie indoors from 30 yards.  We can still let Koenen have a shot at the stuff outside 45 yards.  If we really can't bring outselves  to pay for a kicker then we should turn this into a marketing gimmick and just pick some lucky fan to attempt our field goals.  They would have just as much luck as Koenen and we wouldn't feel nearly as bad when they miss.

I went to the Falcons preseason opener against New England and I have to say the most astounding athletic feat was accomplished before the opening kickoff.  In case you missed it one of our beloved Frisbee-Dogs set the new indoor world distance record for catching a Frisbee.  His handler threw the Frisbee down field over 74 yards and the little pooch tracked it down and caught it.  (The handler really should get some of the glory, I mean how many people do you know who could throw a Frisbee straight 74 yards?)  Of course the local media is so wrapped up in their infatuation with D.J. Shockly ("Shock" as they call him) that they have completely failed to include the Frisbee dog in their post-game write-ups. Yes, D.J. managed to complete a 14 yard pass to put is in field goal range---but on his first drive he couldn't quite manage to keep the ball moving. Bryan Randel showed some amazing rushing ability on his drive, but his passing game was just ok.

How did the players who will actually see playing time this year fare? Our starting defense made it clear that all the hype is useless against the run.  Cory Dillon ran through them like water through a sieve.  John Abraham had a nice sack that forced a fumble...but that was against the second tier of New England players.  All I can say is if our run defense doesn't improve DeShawn Foster and Cadillac Williams are going to have their way with us in a most unpleasant fashion. 

As for the offense?  T.J. Duckett had a couple of nice runs.  Jurious Norwood looks like he might provide some sizzle.  Vick looks like his escapability is back, but the much touted chemistry between him and the young receivers might have been overstated. Michael Jenkins had a nice catch for a touchdown in the game (pass compliments of Matt Schaub I believe) but Roddy White didn't do anything worth mentioning.  We let Michael Koenen handle the field goal kicking and I have to say I thought he did a bang-up job.  The kicks all looked a bit lower than I'd be comfortable with, but the distances made up for it.  The distances ranged from 40-50 yards.  Maybe we should keep Yelk around for kick-offs and let Koenen handling the scoring opportunities.  I'll also take this opportunity to share a random fact garnered from the Shayne Graham chat transcript--the balls used in the NFL are harder than college balls.  Something tells me that affects kickers more than QBs and Receivers.

Here's hoping the offense and especially the defense can start living up to their hype when the season starts.

Its the time of year when you can finally hear the wonderful clicking of football pads whacking into each other on the practice field.  The Falcons are back in camp and welcoming fans to stop by.  Dorothy and I went by last Friday night for the fireworks spectacular dud and had a grand time.  It was her first practice visit and she was amazed that she had such access to the players.  Of course the big stars didn't find time to sign autographs, but she was thrilled beyond belief when Bryan Randal gave her his sweat towel.  Ah, another young fan created.

I made a tabblo of this pictures, check it out:

At least there is a small bit of goodness in the midst of my crappy weekend....I personally like it when my college team serves as the minor leauge feeder team for my NFL team. Go Hokies.

Update:  The draft is over and it should be noted that my Hokies set a record this year with 9 players drafted!  Three of them went to Carolina and others landed with Seattle, Pittsburgh, Cleavland, Sandiego and Arizona. You have to wonder if you'll one day hear Huuuuuuumes echoing through steeler nation the same way it echoed through Land Stadium.  One more member of last year's team will probably get signed as well as our Character guy, Marcus Vick, was not drafted.  You know someone will take a chance on him...