ATLANTA -- There was a massacre here last December, on the carpet in the Georgia Dome. You could almost smell the burning feathers. Three of the best Falcons were injured, and they started a quarterback who hadn't started a game in two years. My brother John and I paid more than $100 per ticket for the privilege of sharing an upper-level section with loathsome buffoons in Eagles jerseys. No surprise there: Atlanta fans are often forced to cohabitate with carpetbaggers from the North. But today we felt a new kind of shame. A throng of fans in Falcons colors wore the name and number of the backup quarterback for the other team. His name, of course, was Michael Vick.
SI.com has dispatched writers to report on the 32 NFL training camps across the country. Here's what Peter King had to say about the Falcons camp in Flowery Branch, Ga. For an archive of all camp postcards, click here.
A dozen inner-city teens face off during a business plan competition in Ten9Eight: Shoot for the Moon, the latest documentary from filmmaker Mary Mazzio.
SI.com has dispatched 10 writers to report on the 32 NFL training camps across the country. For the complete schedule of postcards, click here.
Soon after the Atlanta Falcons informed Matt Ryan's agent, Tom Condon, that they were going to take him with their first pick on NFL draft weekend, Falcons president Rich McKay said to the veteran agent, "You know where we are. Can you do this early?"
The text message arrived on Falcons general manager Thomas Dimitroff's cellphone around noon last Saturday, three hours before the start of the 2008 NFL draft: trust your instincts. you have been training for this all your life. It came from Patriots vice president Scott Pioli, Dimitroff's close friend, former boss and mentor, and he took the encouraging words to heart. This was the first draft that Dimitroff, 42, would run, and the job ahead of him was monumental. Atlanta held six of the first 98 picks and had 10 holes in its starting lineup to fill, including quarterback. "This draft will be a milestone in the history of the Falcons," team owner Arthur Blank had said on Friday. "We're not starting a new chapter here. We're starting a new book."
Just 17 days out from the 2008 NFL draft, we hold these "truths" to be self-evident:
ATLANTA (AP) -- Michael Turner says he was won over by the Atlanta Falcons' aggressive efforts when he agreed to a six-year deal Sunday.
Not much has gone to plan for the Atlanta Falcons since the final month of the 2006 season or so, but you can't fault their execution in the pursuit and acquisition of free-agent running back Michael Turner this weekend.
ATLANTA -- He'd seemingly become the billionaire owner who now couldn't even buy a break.
They say that birds of a feather flock together, but I don't think this is the company that the Falcons and Ravens really want to be keeping these days. With the not-so-surprising news that Cowboys offensive coordinator Jason Garrett has told both teams that he's no longer interested in becoming their next head coach, I'm guessing the reality is starting to set in in Atlanta and Baltimore:
You can hold off on the notion that Redskins assistant Gregg Williams is a slam dunk to replace the re-retired Joe Gibbs in Washington, in light of the news that Redskins owner Daniel Snyder started his coaching search Thursday by interviewing Tennessee defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz.
If Falcons owner Arthur Blank wants to know what's wrong with his struggling franchise, he should look in the nearest mirror.
The only thing that jumps to mind is that I've seen this movie before -- several times actually -- and I know how it ends. Some how, some way, even though the story is painfully familiar, "The Return of Bill Parcells'' always has a surprise plot twist or two before it's over.
The star-crossed season of the Atlanta Falcons continued, stunningly, Tuesday afternoon when coach Bobby Petrino told owner Arthur Blank he wanted out as head coach.
As we have been virtually from Day 1 of the long Michael Vick saga, we're once again in uncharted territory. The length of Vick's prison sentence has finally been determined, but it's still hard to know how much time, if any, will be left in his NFL playing career when he's done paying for his involvement in that sordid dog-fighting ring.
Suspended NFL quarterback Michael Vick will find out in December what prison sentence -- if any -- he will face after a judge accepted his plea agreement Monday to a federal dogfighting conspiracy charge.
Michael Vick backed out of a scheduled appearance on a nationally syndicated radio show Tuesday morning, a day after pleading guilty to a federal dogfighting conspiracy charge.
Here I am with one of the richest men I've ever met, and I almost feel sorry for Arthur Blank. Almost. Not quite, but almost.
Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick is waiting to hear if he'll ever play professional football again after agreeing to plead guilty and face prison in his federal dogfighting case.
As Roger Goodell nears his one-year anniversary as NFL commissioner, he's bugged that some members of the media describe him as a hanging judge who makes knee-jerk reactions and comes down hard on repeat offenders. "I don't like that,'' Goodell told SI.com in a wide-ranging, 60-minute interview in his Park Avenue office last Thursday. "I don't think I've been heavy-handed. 'Hanging judge' implies to me that someone has not been thoughtful or responsible in his actions, and I don't believe that's the case.''
Cafferty: Dogfighting outrage
Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick pleaded not guilty Thursday to dogfighting charges, and a trial date was set for November after his defense attorney asked a judge for a delay, citing the complexity of the case.
In the wake of the NFL putting Michael Vick on the shelf for the foreseeable future, the NFL has to seriously investigate how many players might be involved in dogfighting. And they have no idea what they might find.
The Atlanta Falcons on Tuesday said they did not anticipate star quarterback Michael Vick's indictment on charges related to dogfighting.
Summing up what I know and what I think is likely to happen in the Michael Vick dogfighting case this week:
Senator: Dogfighting 'barbaric'
Fallout intensified Friday from NFL star Michael Vick's indictment on charges linked to dogfighting, a practice that a longtime lawmaker denounced as "barbaric" on the floor of the U.S. Senate.
It's bad enough that Barry Bonds, the Anti-Hank, is zeroing in on Hank Aaron's home run record. Pray that 756 won't come next month in Atlanta, where, until recently, the populace was reeling from a certified steroid-induced tragedy.
So let me get this straight. People who think Michael Vick is "innocent'' of any involvement with dogfighting believe that Vick could have visited the Smithfield, Va., house he owned at any time over the past six-plus years and never noticed anything slightly suspicious about the activities going on there.
A few observations on the Michael Vick saga a day after he was indicted on dog-fighting charges by a federal grand jury...
BABOONS DRIVE the dethroned alpha male out of the pack. Eskimos set their elders adrift on ice floes. And so it goes with departing CEOs, who are often shown the door as part of the new regime's assertion of power. But is this good management? It wasn't for Home Depot. In 2000, Bob Nardelli was named CEO, replacing Arthur Blank; within the next two years, Blank and co-founder Bernie Marcus gave up their remaining ties to the company. Nardelli, a GE man with little retail experience, consulted Marcus during the transition but soon stopped seeking the founders' counsel. "No one ever called or asked us our advice," Marcus recently told FORTUNE.
Baboons drive the dethroned alpha male out of the pack. Eskimos set their elders adrift on ice floes. And so it goes with departing CEOs, who are often shown the door as part of the new regime's assertion of power.
SI.com: Snap Judgmentsupdated: Tue May 15 2007 15:24:00
Ten last thoughts from around the NFL before I disappear on vacation for a while:
So now it's dog fighting. For at least the fourth time in a span of about five months, Michael Vick's name has once again surfaced in connection with a story that threatens to further tarnish his reputation, leading to a growing debate about the viability of his future as the face of the Atlanta Falcons franchise.
If the big investors who own Burger King have it their way, the next CEO of the floundering fast-food chain will be Greg Brenneman, former president of Continental Airlines. The man chasing Brennem...
The first big thing that Bob Nardelli wanted to be was a pro football player. But at 5-foot-10 and 195 pounds, he was the smallest guy on the line at Western Illinois University. "The rest of the w...
Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank were having dinner at an Italian restaurant in Atlanta, as they often do, when the conversation turned to Bob Nardelli. Marcus and Blank, founders of Home Depot, co-c...
Twenty-one years ago, Arthur Blank was fired as an executive at Handy Dan Home Improvement Centers. Blank, who'd lost out in a management squabble, quickly joined forces with Bernie Marcus, a fello...
Lest you think the Internet spawned this consumer-friendly age of direct, hassle-free retailing, consider the legendary General Robert Wood. Director of construction for the Panama Canal, he was th...
Home Depot is growing like angry crabgrass these days. Its monstrous orange crates are already as much Americana as the Golden Arches. Two new stores open every week. In three years the landscape w...
BERNIE MARCUS, co-founder and CEO of Home Depot, has a big pile of problems. One of his key executives and board members, Jim Inglis, has burned out on the job and is leaving for a while. Home Depo...
If ever there were a failure destined to kill a career, New Coke was it. Sergio Zyman was the marketing man behind the most disastrous product launch since the Edsel. Wounded, he left Coca-Cola a y...
HERE IS the service conundrum: In the cutthroat, cost-conscious, globally competitive 1990s, how do you get customers to love you? Visit a Home Depot store, a retail Disneyland for residential fixe...
COULD IT BE that last year every homeowner from southern Florida to northern California paneled the basement, retiled the bathroom, or painted the porch? How else to explain the 45% increase in sal...
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