A No-Brainer in Flowery Branch
Mike Smith deserves to be lauded for his achievements in Atlanta as much as he deserves scrutiny for his mistakes in two early playoff exits (both times his team was favored), and so it has to be the NFL’s biggest no-brainer that Mike Smith deservedly received a contract extension from team-owner Arthur Blank and GM Thomas Dimitroff for three years and what’s being reported as a big raise (though no details have come out as of yet to the size of the raise).
I know it seems as if I’ve used this space to be particularly hard on Mike Smith, the head coach of the Atlanta Falcons, and in some ways I have. I am hard on the man for good reason: he’s an excellent coach, and much should be expected of him and the team he leads. When he and his team fail to live up to not just our expectations, but his own, then a hard look must be taken to find out why that is and what must be done to correct grievous mistakes that lead to the failures.
Even with his post-season mistakes, Mike Smith has proven to be a excellent leader of men and a steady hand on the rudder guiding this organization to highs it has seldom experienced, or in some cases, never experienced before. Mike Smith is the only Falcons’ head coach to have more than one double-digit win season under his belt. I know that sounds ridiculous (and it is), but Smith is the only Falcons’ head coach to have more than one season of 10-or-more wins in his career.
Mike Smith is also the man who guided this franchise to their first-ever back-to-back winning seasons. Many fans around the league of other teams may take for granted this simple act of being average or slightly above average two years in row in the NFL, but until Mike Smith arrived in Atlanta, Falcons’ fans had never known what it was like to cheer on a team that was able to continue success from one year to the next. Even Tampa Bay and the Cincinnati in all of their histories of wretchedness had achieved the simple pleasures of back-to-back winning seasons, but never Atlanta, until Blank and Dimitroff hired the unassuming Mike Smith to lead the team.
The length of the extension is three years, and it is both an adequate length showing confidence in Smith and his vision, and a shrewd move by businessman-extraordinaire Arthur Blank. Blank, who by all accounts, is still angry about the playoff loss to Green Bay, knows the future of his team hangs precariously on the edge. He’s given Smith three years to prove whether he can evolve in the modern NFL; if he can adapt his football philosophy and become a more aggressive coach whose teams make things happen on the field as opposed to coaching his team simply to react to what the other team does. Truly great leaders are able to adapt their plan of attack and overcome the obstacles in their way. Leaders who fall in love with their plans, unwilling to change them, will eventually fail.
If Mike Smith can embrace change, can truly see his shortcomings and not only his successes, then he can become one of the great NFL coaches and lead the Falcons to the Promised Land. If he doesn’t, well, the shrewd businessman Arthur Blank, who built Home Depot, won’t be on the hook for his contract for very long.
Game Day Predictions (Super Bowl Edition)
On paper, this Super Bowl has it all: two of the NFL’s historically-best franchises (9 Super Bowls between them, the most ever to meet in the big game), two great young QBs, two aggressive, hard-hitting defenses, and two teams who somehow very wrongly think the color yellow is the color gold.
I see an ebb-and-flow Super Bowl, much like Super Bowl XXXVIII between the Patriots and the Panthers. I see the offenses prodding two excellent defenses in the first quarter, and then exploiting defensive miscues in the second. I see great half-time adjustments by two great defensive coordinators (Dick LeBeau for Pittsburgh and Dom Capers for Green Bay), followed by a furious finish in the fourth quarter.
In the end of what should be an excellent game, I just can’t bet against the man who may be in the midst of usurping the title of most clutch QB in the NFL from Tom Brady: Ben Roethlisberger. While to me personally (I have a huge man-crush on Brady), I don’t like that idea, given Roethlisberger’s past transgressions and general air of douche-baggedness, even I can’t deny that the man is simply magic when the chips are all-in.
However, I don’t see Big Ben winning the MVP. No, I see the Steelers down 31-27 with about four minutes to go in the fourth quarter and Green Bay driving in the redzone, when Troy Polamalu intercepts Aaron Rodgers for the second time in the game, giving Big Ben 80 yards to cover in 4 minutes. Of course, he doesn’t need that long, and leads the Steelers to the go-ahead touchdown with about a minute left in the game. Then, before time expires, Polamalu snags his third interception to ice the game away and earn Super Bowl MVP honors.
The Steelers win the Super Bowl, 34-31. Rodgers throws for four touchdowns, but his three INTs (one first quarter, two in the fourth) to Polamalu seal the deal.
Today in History
On today’s date, 04 February, in the year 2004, the biggest time wasting and addictive website in interwebs history was founded by a Harvard computer nerd with moderately poor social interactivity issues.
Yep, that’s right, today marks the seventh anniversary of the founding of Facebook.com (or, thefacebook.com, as it was known then) by Mark Zuckerberg (and if you’ve seen The Social Network, others who will go on to sue Zuckerberg).
I used to be active on Facebook, but am no longer. I’ve been facebook-free for about five months now, and unlike what I imagine quitting smoking must be like, it wasn’t hard at all. I simply suspended my account, and that was it. Suddenly, the air was sweeter, and my days seemed brighter. I guess I just couldn't take anyone asking me to watch their corn anymore.
And after quitting Facebook, I promptly signed up for Twitter, heh.
(In my own defense, I use Twitter as an information tool, I don’t let it use me, much as allowed Facebook to do. Also, Twitter isn’t trying to dole out my private information to the highest bidder… yet.)
Hey, follow me on Twitter at @UGABugKiller. Thanks!
The Jukebox
I love my iPod Touch because it gives me the freedom to not only listen to what I want with a swipe of my finger, but to create eclectic mixes and playlists on my iPod without having to connect to my MacBook as well.
Right now, I’ve been in particular love with what I’ve labeled “Old Country.” Basically, Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson, et al. Normally, I love my rock and especially my alternative (my high school years, the years that truly inform a person’s musical tastes, where in the mid-90’s) rock, but the old-guard singer-songwriters from Nashville were music’s first rebels, and they're awesome.
Most people don’t realize that most major country music stars are just pretty or handsome faces that can sing. Most of them don’t write their own songs; not like Cash or Haggard or Nelson did. There are few singer-songwriters left in modern country music (Toby Keith is one of which I know). In fact, you can say there isn’t much difference in modern country music and the lame pop acts of the last ten years like Britney Spears or the Backstreet Boys, who wouldn’t know how to write a song if you provided them pen, paper, key, and meter.
I urge y’all to head on over to iTunes to (legally) download some of the best singer-songwriters of the last century. Men who knew how to tell a story in song-form, men who rebelled against the conformity of their times to create great music. You won’t be sorry you did.
Smart Quote
I believe this quote is appropriate, given the situation in Egypt.
Dictators ride to and fro on tigers from which they dare not dismount. And the tigers are getting hungry.
Sir Winston Churchill, 1937
Hey, Check This Out!
Oh, how I miss you Tobias Fünke, and all of your hilariously inappropriate double-entendres! (Warning: may be considerd NSFW, so use headphones if you got'em.)
No comments:
Post a Comment