SB Nation Atlanta - FairWeather Report

Longtime Falcon Steve Bartkowski Gets His Due As A College Star

2012-05-16T13:01:38Z

The Atlanta Falcons all-time leader in passing yardage and touchdowns has received yet another honor, this time for his excellence at the collegiate level.

His future was as bright as it could be. In his senior season at Cal-Berkley, Steve Bartkowski led the Bears to an impressive 7-3-1 record. He led the league in passing with 2580 yards through the air, completed 56 percent of his passes and had a favorable 12:7 TD-INT ratio. His four 300 yard passing games was a school record at the time.

And the awards would soon follow: Bartkowski would be named team MVP, first team All-Pac-10 and most notably a consensus first team All-American. Finally, he's being inducted into the college football Hall of Fame as well.

Moreover, it was this success as a senior that paved the way for Bartkowski to join the Falcons as the No. 1 overall pick in the 1975 draft. At the time, he was easily considered the best quarterback out of the west and one of the top college products available in that draft class.

Though his production as a Falcon would wax and wane, Bartkowski certainly had his moments. He would top 3500 yards passing in both the 1980 and 1981 seasons and make the Pro Bowl both years, guiding the Falcons to a 12-4 record and one of their best seasons every in '80.

And of course, this was an era in football when throwing for 3000 yards in just one season actually meant something. His two consecutive seasons of 30+ touchdowns has also grown more impressive time, with only eight other quarterbacks sharing the feat.

But mostly, it's just another accolade that Barkowski certainly deserves. Soon, he'll be joining the ranks of guys like Art Monk, Jonathan Ogden and Phillip Fulmer. And while I don't think he'll ever get a shot at the other Hall of Fame, it's still nice to reflect on what was an impressive Falcons career in an otherwise dark, dismal era.

For more on the Falcons, visit The Falcoholic; for everything Cal Bears, check out California Golden Blogs.

Reds Vs. Braves: Atlanta Battling Monday Blues

2012-05-15T10:52:50Z

The Atlanta Braves are like many around the country who struggle getting the work week started on Monday. Atlanta's series opening 3-1 loss Monday night drops Atlanta's record to 0-6 on Monday's this season. The Braves are 22-8 on all other days. Atlanta's offense has been a present surprise this season but the Braves have totaled just 11 runs in six Monday games this season.

While Atlanta has played the fewest home games of anyone in the National League they haven't exactly been playing their best when at Turner Field. The Braves have dropped five of their last seven at Turner Field and are 8-6 on the season. Contrast that with their 14-8 road record. Atlanta has three games remaining on their current four-game home stand before they head back out on the road for seven straight.

For more on the Braves head over to Talking Chop. For more news and notes from around Major League Baseball head over to Baseball Nation.

Mark Richt, Paul Johnson Both Considered Top 20 Coaches In New Ranking

2012-05-11T15:50:09Z

AOL Sporting News has ranked 114 college football head coaches, and Georgia's Mark Richt comes in at No. 14 overall and Paul Johnson at No. 19. While lists such as these are entirely arbitrary (and designed to elicit posts just like these debating them), there's some curiosity ranking Richt behind such coaches like Michigan State's Mark D'Antonio (No. 13) and TCU's Gary Patterson (No. 7), neither of which have won a major conference title.

The top five are the usual suspects (in order): Nick Saban, Boise's Chris Peterson, Urban Meyer, Les Miles (the strongest critique of Miles usually comes from his own LSU fans) and Bob Stoops, jokingly nicknamed "Big Game Bob" for his multiple bowl and championship game losses. There's room for debate, but nothing there worth screaming about.

Then again, second-year head coach James Franklin of Vanderbilt is ranked No. 25 with only six career wins, and BYU's Bronco Mendenhall is behind Richt at No. 15. Check the entire list out here, but understand that there's no reliable metric to actually rank head coaches, and this is purely for the fun of conjecture.

For more college football talk, check out SB Nation's college football page.

Video: Shutdown Fullback Tackles The College Football Apocalypse

2012-05-11T15:06:37Z

Jason Kirk and Spencer Hall prepare us for the Football Apocalypse in this week's edition of Shutdown Fullback

Falcons Rookies Report To Camp On Thursday

2012-05-11T14:04:44Z

Rookie minicamp for the Atlanta Falcons gets underway on Friday but most of the participants reported on Thursday to get formalities out of the way and also to get fit for equipment. The Falcons' official site has quite a photo gallery showing many of the players putting on Atlanta helmets for the first time. Notice there are no decals on the sides of the helmets, those must be earned which is what this weekend is all about.

For more on the Falcons visit The Falcoholic.

Finally, A Reason To Support Atlanta Spirit

2012-05-10T14:19:11Z

You spent years tied up in court squabbling with yourselves. You signed Joe Johnson to a dreadful contract. You allowed Don Waddell to kill hockey in Atlanta, then sold the team to out-of-state buyers. All that said, if you're going to rip on both Kevin Garnett for being dirty and the national media for applying a different standard to the Hawks' injuries as opposed to those of higher profile teams, then I am willing to forgive you ... a little. Take it away, Michael Gearon Jr.:

Did you see what Al Horford did last night? The timeline for recovery for his injury is another three months. He’s not even supposed to be playing and Josh [Smith] should not be playing. Zaza [Pachulia] can’t stand up, but if we can get past this round there is a chance that we can get him back. So this is a team that is overcoming adversity. I wish . . . some of the national media or even some of the local media, more the paper than the TV guys, recognize how hard these guys are playing based on how injured they are.

On top of all that, we don’t get any calls, which I know everybody always hears. But I’ll give you a stat. Last night, we are playing this old physical team. They are old. I know what happens when you play basketball, old guys foul. [Kevin] Garnett is the dirtiest guy in the league. We are playing Boston last night and they had two fouls the whole first half. We had five times that and we’re athletic.

This is exactly right. First of all, Gearon is hardly alone in thinking that Garnett is dirty, as the guys who actually play against him agree. Second, the Hawks' play during this series with the Celtics has been, at times, remarkable. The team was already playing without Al Horford (one of the Hawks' big three) as well as his back-up when Josh Smith hurt his knee with game two tied. After the Celtics won, it immediately became Celtic Pride. In game three, the Hawks took the game to overtime, despite a ridiculously short-handed lineup that featured Ivan Johnson, Erick Dampier, and Jason Collins all getting significant minutes, during which we were forced to listen to comparisons between that shorthanded lineup and the one the Celtics deployed in game two. That comparison ignores the fact that the Hawks were shorthanded because of bad luck with injuries, whereas the Celtics were shorthanded in one significant respect because their point guard behaved like an idiot at the end of game one.

If Al Horford did what he is doing in Boston or New York, then he would be Willis Reed. Because he is doing what he's doing for the Hawks, we only have one of our owners to sing his praises.

Roddy White Argues With Himself Over NFL Player Safety Issues

2012-05-10T12:54:43Z

Roddy White's Twitter feed has all the timeliness and lack of sensititivy that any top cable news program would - Hurricane Katrina, homosexuality and labor relations are all addressed with brutal honesty and little forethought. So it was a matter of time until the issue of player saftety, long term brain injuries and the lawsuit from among 1,500 former NFL players against the league would cross White's radar (it is NBA Playoff season, so you'll have to forgive his delay)

It's crazy how football players are killing our game you signed up to play a violent game and made a lot of money now u talk bad about #how
— Roddy White (@roddywhiteTV) May 9, 2012

Yes older players didn't make what we made but I remember when gas was 89 cents so the cost of living was different
— Roddy White (@roddywhiteTV) May 9, 2012

…cont) them suing the nfl I don't have to worry about it the nfl has enough money to pay them
— Roddy White (@roddywhiteTV) May 9, 2012

I don't have nothing against old players they made football what it is today and I love those guys and I don't have a problem with (cont…
— Roddy White (@roddywhiteTV) May 9, 2012

The train of White's thoughts stops there, either because he deleted the subsequent Tweets on the subject, or he just went back to watching basketball. The Atlanta Journal Constitution published this collection of his Tweets, which includes a published conclusion that contradicts his initial complaint, and now we're all cross-eyed:

"It’s crazy how football players are killing our game you signed up to play a violent game and made a lot of money now u talk bad about #how"

White later added: "Yes older players didn’t make what we made but I remember when gas was 89 cents so the cost of living was different. I don’t have nothing against old players they made football what it is today and I love those guys and I don’t have a problem with them suing the nfl I don’t have to worry about it the nfl has enough money to pay them."

For those scoring at home, White has approximately 4-5 news topics left before whatever he says, whenever he says it passes without any notice from fans or media.

For more on the trials and tribulations of Roddy White's social media exploits, check out The Falcoholic and SB Nation's NFL page

VIDEO: Rajon Rondo Not Happy With Cameraman Following Game 5 Loss

2012-05-09T16:03:00Z

Rajon Rondo was in no mood to be interviewed or apparently even filmed following Atlanta's 87-86 Game 5 win over the Boston Celtics. The series shifts back to Boston for Game 6 on Thursday.

For more on the Atlanta Hawks check out Peachtree Hoops.