Falcons to cut Erik Coleman

Multiple sources are reporting that the 28-year old safety will be cut by the Falcons this week. Coleman started every game at safety in the 2007 and 2008 seasons but only appeared in 12 games in 2010, starting just one. He was due to make $3 MM in 2011, the final year of his contract.

Is a Thrashers move to Winnipeg imminent?

According to the Vancouver Province, it is:

There are more than a few rumors buzzing about the league suggesting the NHL is about to make a pitch to take over the Atlanta Thrashers with the end game being to move them to Winnipeg. Repeat, these are just rumors at this stage.

According to sources which purport to be close to the story, the league would raise roughly $160 million U.S. for the project and put $35 million of that money into a kitty to run the team on a temporary basis. They would then offer the remaining $125 million to the legal battling owners of the Thrashers in hopes that that would be tempted to take the money, in part to end their losses and perhaps make the resolution of whatever disputes remain between them easier.

Given there is virtually nobody at the Atlanta games these days despite the fact the team has had a surprisingly good season to date, the league would then arrange ownership in Winnipeg—likely with the ultra wealthy Thompson family—and then move the club as quickly and as expediently as posible.

After the Ilya Kovalchuk trade a little over a year ago, I noted that every great player Atlanta has ever known has eventually left for one reason or another. Apparently I was thinking too micro. If the Thrashers do pack up the ole Mayflower truck and head off to the great white north, I can’t blame them. Nor do I think I’ll feel sadness. I doubt I’ll be alone. While I consider myself a hockey fan, (At least by southern standards. I watched every minute of the last Olympic tournament; I watch the Rangers games regularly, plus whatever other games I can find on television) I do not consider myself a Thrashers “fan” in the truest sense. Sure I want them to do well, but the team never has quite captured my heart, nor has it captured the heart of the rest of the potential fan base. Maybe it’s because, I don’t know … Atlanta is not a hockey town?

A Thrashers relocation would make Atlanta 0-for-2 with pro hockey. (If you count the minor league Knights, who won an IHL championship in 1994 only to move to Quebec two years later, 0-for-3. Renamed the Quebec Rafales, the franchise folded in 1998.) Nobody mourns for the old Flames, and aside from the occasional throwback worn in a rap video, you hardly see any mention that they ever even played in the south.

If not this year, it will be the next year, or the year after that, but eventually the Thrashers are going to move to Winnipeg, or Hamilton, or the dozen other hockey-crazed Canadian cities which are lying in wait. While I won’t feel happy about it, I won’t feel sadness either. The Thrashers franchise is like a dog with terrible owners who is up for adoption – you just want them to find a good home, somewhere where they’ll be loved and treated well. Hockey wasn’t meant to be played in front of 12,000 disinterested fans from the southern United States.

Give another franchise back to Canada, it’s the least commissioner Gary Bettman could do.

…

On the ice, the Thrashers’ playoff hopes continue to sink. The team lost its fourth straight contest Monday, dropping them to 9th in the Eastern Conference standings. In an effort to turn things around, general manager Rick Dudley is actively exploring trade options.

Oversigning issue coming to the forefront for college football

Really enjoyed reading Kevin Scarbinsky’s takedown of  Nick Saban’s flimsy defense of the common ‘Bama practice of oversigning. Saban’s argument was essentially: “Nobody knows how many players we have on scholarship, it’s a mystery.” Which, as Scarbinsky points out, is kind of the problem. Alabama’s refusal to provide transparency only causes for more uproar whenever players mysteriously disappear from the program for one reason or another each year in order to get under the 85 scholly limit.

Allow me to translate. According to Saban, those of us on the outside of the Alabama program can’t criticize him for oversigning because we don’t know the exact number of players he has on scholarship from year to year.

Funny thing about that. Why don’t we know? Alabama won’t tell us, even though we ask every year.

…

Saban took issue with the numbers used by the media, but his school refuses to provide the actual numbers that could – if they’re on his side – undercut the argument from critics of his roster management.

The big news on Friday was that big-time OL recruit Cyrus Kouandjio chose to join Alabama’s top-ranked class. Great news for coach Saban, but bad news for critics of oversigning, like yep, oversigning.com.

If Alabama truly had room for 24 scholarship additions, where the hell did they come from?  They had 14 seniors listed on their roster, 6 of which were listed as SQ for scout team.  They had 3 Juniors leave for the NFL draft and they had 1 player announce he was going to transfer prior to signing day, BJ Scott.  That is 12 scholarship players (8 seniors + 3 juniors to the NFL + 1 transfer).  Saban said they were not at 85 total last year, so were they 12 under the 85?  And if so, why the grayshirt announcements on the last day before the deadline.

…

The math just doesn’t add up and it’s not even close.

Putting aside whether things like greyshirting (asking a kid to defer enrollment until the spring semester of his freshman year so his scholarship counts for the next class) is ethical, the problem stands with the NCAA.

This is a similar situation to the PED issue in baseball in the late 90s. Until the governing body of the sport actually admonishes oversigning, and puts legislation in place to effectively enforce it, the heavy hitters of college football will continue to employ whatever tactic they can to squeeze as many kids under the 85-scholarship limit as possible.

The current maximum a school can sign every year is 28 –thanks to the recently implemented “Houston Nutt rule” — which as even this communications major can tell you, makes zero mathematical sense. The scholarship limit for the entire roster is 85, yet you can sign 28 kids to a LOI each February. Is it wrong for Alabama, LSU, Arkansas, USC and at least a dozen other programs to take full advantage of the flawed system? Probably. But in the eyes of the NCAA, it’s perfectly within the rules. As always, the lesson here is “don’t hate the player, hate the game.”

Horford inactive vs. Wizards, Zaza to start

Al Horford will not play tonight, per Ken Sugiura, but plans to return for Tuesday’s game vs. Philadelphia. In Al’s stead will be Zaza Pachulia, making his second start of the season after getting just 9:36 of floor time last night vs. the Clippers.

Oh, and one more thing – The over/under for “times John Wall blows past Mike Bibby like Bibby’s not even there” is unofficially set at 32.5.

Al Horford = Rhinoceros testicles

Wincing in pain after crashing to the floor minutes earlier, Al Horford stepped to the line for the game-winning free throws. (Photo: Scott Cunningham/NBAE via Getty Images)

On a night when the Hawks continuously fell asleep on the defensive end (much to the benefit of Clips point guard Baron Davis’ stat line) and too often settled for long jumpers on the offensive end, it took a heroic effort from the team’s emotional leader in the final seconds to escape with the victory.

After a scary mid-air with Blake Griffin, and the subsequent hard fall to the floor, it looked as though Al Horford might not be able to shoot his free throw attempts — with the result of the game hanging in the balance — with 0.6 left on the clock. But Al wasn’t having it.

“Once I got up, I focused in. I just had to go in there and knock it down.” After taking nearly two minutes to peel himself off the floor, Al promptly buried both shots and, in doing so, buried the Clippers in front of a sellout crowd at Philips Arena.

After the game, Horford tweeted that he was getting treatment on his lower back, and as he told the AJC’s Ken Sugiura, he will travel to DC with the rest of the team for tonight’s game against the Wizards but did not know yet whether he’d be able to play.

Nobody will blame Al if he has to sit out a couple of games. The force of the collision with Griffin was that of a football tackle, only it happened with both players 10 feet off the ground. There’s no way that Griffin’s hard foul was malicious, nor do I think it was necessary to call it a flagrant, but it was certainly dangerous and scary as a Hawks fan. If Al’s lower back needs a game or two to heal itself, especially with the All-Star break coming up, so be it. He’s got nothing to prove.

Joe Johnson, Al Horford, among All-Star reserves

Four Boston Celtics were selected to the NBA All-Star Game, but the Hawks will also be well represented. For the second straight year, Joe Johnson and Al Horford made the Eastern Conference team as reserves. It will be the fifth-straight trip for Johnson, who is averaging 20.6 points, 5.5 assists and 4.2 rebounds per game this season. Horford will be making his second consecutive appearance and the second of his career. The fourth-year big man is averaging a career high in scoring (16.1 ppg) and has recorded 24 double-doubles so far this season.

Here are the rest of the Eastern Conference All-Star reserves:

• Ray Allen, G, Boston Celtics
• Chris Bosh, F, Miami Heat
• Kevin Garnett, F, Boston Celtics
• Paul Pierce, F, Boston Celtics
• Rajon Rondo, G, Boston Celtics

Western Conference:

• Pau Gasol F/C, Los Angeles Lakers
• Manu Ginobili, G, San Antonio Spurs
• Blake Griffin, F, Los Angeles Clippers
• Tim Duncan, F, San Antonio Spurs
• Dirk Nowitzki, F, Dallas Mavericks
• Russell Westbrook, G, Oklahoma City Thunder
• Deron Williams, G, Utah Jazz

Mike Smith gets an extension

Falcons head coach Mike Smith has two years left on his current deal, but that didn’t stop Arthur Blank from locking him up for an additional three. Financial terms of were not disclosed, but the team announced today that it had reached a 3-year extension. Smith has led the team to a 33-15 record as coach, easily the best success rate in franchise history.

Said Blank, “We are pleased to extend Smitty’s contract, and we are very proud of the way he represents the Falcons through his coaching of our players, in supporting our club’s business goals, and through his caring for our fans and the community.”