If I were a betting man, Las Vegas would prosper on my behalf. I have an amazing ability to support teams that are losers. Well, no, I take that back. “Loser” indicates that they never win. The teams that I support win enough games (usually one or two) to get my hopes up and then they tank it for the remainder of the season.

TobyLet’s take college basketball as an example. When possible, I support my alma mater, Mercer University. Every year, the men’s basketball team shows promise and they occasionally beat a teamthat they have no business playing against (USC was this year’s victim). But when the games really matter….the winning does not occur. I’ve got an agreement with a couple of friends that if Mercer ever makes it to the NCAA tournament, we’ll buy tickets and go watch them. I haven’t had to cancel any plans during March Madness yet.

BuzzBut football is my passion. And lucky for my blood pressure, Mercer doesn’t have a football team (yet….or anymore…or…ah, whatever). So, I need a football team to support. When I was in college, I decided to throw my valuable half-hearted support to Georgia Tech because they are the only Division I-A engineering school in Georgia. And by definition, since I support them, they continually let me down. Recently they fired their head coach, Chan Gailey. YAY!! And then they hired Paul Johnson, a coach that likes to run the triple option. That’s really helpful if we have to play any teams from 1963. Unfortunately, most of the good players on the team (both of them) aren’t prepared for the rebirth of this antiquated offense, so they’re transferring. They’ll be sorry when Tech flexes its muscle to beat a few division I-AA schools.

I don’t see a national title over the horizon for Tech any time soon. Heck, a bowl game that doesn’t require our players to paint the field before the game or clean-up the trash afterwards would be nice…but still unlikely. So professional football it is!!
Falcon

No, wait, I support the Falcons. They recently fired their head coach as well, Yay! And then instead of interviewing the best candidate out there, they went ahead and hired someone. Sure, the new guy has the potential to be a great coach, lets do a quick comparison. When his defense played New England, they let Tom Brady start something like 24-for-24 and ended 26-for-28 (these numbers are just estimates based on my faulty memory….I’m too lazy to look up the real stats). The other guy who was out there? His defense almost beat New England the first time they were out there and then actually defeated them in the Super Bowl. Great job on being thorough, Mr. Blank!!

As much as I like to complain, the Falcons are starting to get their act together. They are already getting rid of some of the players that were either over-paid or were beginning to be clubhouse distractions. I wasn’t at all happy with the acquisition of Byron Leftwhich, and it’s good to see the new coach letting him go. But with free agency looming and the draft in a couple of months, I fully expect that they’ll find a way to bring in some players to help them over pay for only a handful of victories. Why? Because that’s the way they roll.

Falcon’s Trash

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