ATLSportsGuy, editor-in-chief of Atlanta’s newest sports site SportingATL.com, stopped by the Comcastro studio for an hour to discuss with Maximüs Groves and guest host Matthew Queen the state of Atlanta pro sports, Georgia Tech fanaticism, and general enthusiasm for athletics. ATLSportsGuy, who goes by only the moniker ’T’ in order to remain both anonymous and gainfully employed, began his blog to make more productive use of his cubicle jockey downtime by publishing his thoughts on his primary interest in life: the Atlanta sports scene.
See more from ATLSportsGuy at www.sportingatl.com.
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What they’ll be like the only people who ever respond to the point where there will be fans become overly out of and that one guy who does that. Yet shops so is that we likely was on the show and everyone wins over fans and you look like actual news and all of the shit that are unsure if you’re even going to exclude a lot of revelers you’re going to miss Maximus group Queen. Would you like to introduce a lot of failure. LOL you’re about to listen to the editor sporting A.T.L. we’re just going to conceal sports get in he’ll sports guy was going to call him T was just so nice to see the sports that actually caters to what I like you know that anything you GA I’m just so happy there’s a night we’re going to going to feel tacked on. But I explained the basement. Mostly it was a fury and a lot of fun. So here we are the team from sporting a telling you your I’m sporting A.T.L. right and you went to Georgia Tech. Yes I did. Graduated in December of ten very cool you are in good company with the rest of us and so how many paychecks does sporting a tail get was kind of the first thing I learned when I got out of the business was not to disclose that type of thing I can tell you that it varies pretty wildly. You learn early on that you want to post can you know kind of get legs it will grow exponentially and especially when you put a name next to it like you know some of the guys we’re going to viewed like Reggie ball and Coy Wire Branagh on the voice of the jackets you know those kind of articles really get get a little bit more viral than some of the others but I’m going to have to keep in the dark on that. Exactly. Well actually that’s how I got a tense so I first noticed you guys website to that original interview was like so exciting as a perfectly timed just because it was leading into what a few weeks before the U.G.A. match winners just read long win streak and I read it again today and it was funny how much the guy I like opened up sort of like a person with a little little stories remember it was with his mom and dad like a kid who like this holding out until he talked about a kid and I know it’s been a while but basically he had you know almost kind of a Make a Wish type kid scenario where he looked after a young kid named Carter who had a terminal illness and Kartik endless practices and threw the ball at them and they you know gained a pretty good relationship and I hung out off the field and whatnot and. I don’t remember what year but Reggie and Tek were playing at Clemson and Tex losing by a couple touchdowns and it ended up being Carter the kids last night before it passed and before the game was over. Techs get routed and his kid and his dad try to put it to bed says you know go to sleep. Game’s over. You’re not doing very well physically. You know usually the kid says no no way Reggie’s going to come back and win the game he threw three touchdowns Calvin Johnson Megatron is born. When’s good as a wake up. So that’s kind of his I guess we’re going to go out. He went out on a he went out pretty happy so when he told that story you know Reggie has been you know not necessarily the favorite son of tech. Once you graduated you got the fourth down you know throw away and that’s what people like to remember was kind of unfortunate. He has a big Wednesday he beat Aldrin as a freshman you know with the Cadillac Williams and Ronnie Brown and Jason Campbell they were. Where’s number three at that time. Yeah not a lot of guys can do that other thing about Reggie and some people remember those that actually follow tech pretty closely after you know the kind of haphazard fair weather fans like you say already ball but the guys are really no Reggie. It’s probably the toughest guy that ever came through tech and I can remember then ever Mr Downer I mean he was hurting all the time he played up every single play. Never complained. Won a lot of big games unfortunately didn’t beat Georgia but you know he was a really good player and then when he comes out and does our interview he was pretty easy to get ahold of and very willing to talk and it kind of a little mind that no one had done that before. Yeah though we had the same experience you just like on Linked In or something the guy was very excited very gracious he was very willing to help you know I didn’t I didn’t know and now we’re you know sort of different. Yeah but you know he said let’s do it and I said I’m in this you know questionnaire because we’ve done at the time we’ve done everything primarily through e-mail and we were. You know many other writers of the site were kind of being anonymous at the time to make sure that our you know our day jobs we’re noticing that we’re spending on this website so I just sent an e-mail and we’ve done this with a couple other guys are sent to set us back some you know they put twenty minutes into the status of quick answers and Reggie just writes this three page doc really puts it all out there and say holy shit we’ve got a gem here. Has he really first of all he had. He harbors no ill will against all the kind of crap he’s taken for for his play on the flats and and then he comes out with a story and I’m reading and I’m driving down the road not pull over to read I’m like holy crap Reggie ball Roback this long thing. So I pull over and read it like holy shit we’ve got something here and then you know we we put it up and it caught fire got all the message boards and things like that we heard a lot of cool things back. And then the coolest thing about it was going to comment on it and it Carter the kid that passed his mom finds this and is the first on the she’s heard anything this Reggie said about her son. Oh well and she writes this page or comment herself about how much she meant to or and a real tear jerker if you know I think it was I was really cool so that was kind of one of the biggest breaks I guess we got at the site so you know I can’t imagine what it was like for Reggie ball than Atlanta media was so harsh on him and I mean there’s there’s no way around it like he made some mistakes in the football games but like you say he also did very well in a lot of games and I remember that game I was there I was I was in the band I was in I would say I was I guess I’m in the southern end zone of Clemson. And when Calvin Johnson made that catch I mean it was it to this day were the most impressive feats of athleticism I’ve ever seen. I mean I mean that in the tech fans came alive and then you also referenced the Auburn game we beat Auburn twice when I was a tank you know once when we were ranked number three where I was the only time I was in school. We tore down the goal posts and then we did it again when I was a junior at Auburn which I would have to go out and go out and see if there’s any Auburn fans listening to this that is the classiest group of people I’ve ever been to. Oh I’m not going to tack to the parking lot after that game by a drunk fan belligerent guy just walking past sees me my friends let me move. You take kids and this other guy I’m just going to name all right Robert Waters the fourth This is on you. OK So the guy walks past and saying that he’s all for Q. Obert kids as it were and so the guy has no following us to the parking lot. Like eventually gets into a sprint some other guy came out of nowhere he hits what I don’t know what’s going on. The guy was sprinting is coming at me I’m going to put this to just engineering and like engineering and whatnot but I grabbed the guy by the neck and threw him into the knees of the guy running and they were both so. Waste another one could stand up like it was just this beautiful thing watch him squirm for a second and we just tipped out of there you know. But so yeah I don’t think maybe there’s always a few right. You had the good once I had the shitty ones but I can see where you’re coming from in that that universe unfolds for us all. Yeah different when I was pretty much into it I mean I’m sorry completely take over this conversation here but I was that was the season the first game following an undefeated season where Auburn didn’t get the play for the national title. They were so bitter about it and rightfully so too I mean if that happened it was like I would have been writing in the street but on the first day of the year is this massive upset and everyone’s freaking out it is beautiful to that’s and you see that’s not really I think that game embodies what we do so well I mean I mean tech realistically speaking is not going to be in the hunt for a national championship year in and year out but you know we do well we can ruin other people’s seasons we’re a giant killer. And that’s and that’s like the best part of the attack is like you know when Georgia loses the Florida they’re disappointed when they lose the tech. Coaches get fired and like you know what do you GA likes to admit the rivalry but when you look at what happened to Jim Don And you know he lost to Tennessee on a couple of times and they were unhappy they lost to Auburn a loss to Florida. They’d have a tough time in Florida but it was when they lost a tech three years in a row they were like Goliath. What we don’t like those rednecks in Florida but we cannot lose to the nerds to be nice to start a streaky and this year. Damn how yeah so I mean is there a lot to look forward to for Georgia Tech. From your experience I think so I don’t know if he hasn’t kept up with National Signing Day but this is Paul Johnson’s by far his best class and what’s kind of depressing to see that and then go look and see that there are the tenth ranked A.C.C. signing class this year. So how’s Johnson’s best class for Stilton A.C.C. basically throw all the three star four star bullshit aside look at the A the amount the sheer amount of people we have got twenty seven guys Conan’s fresh twenty seven freshmen coming in. Only fifteen. Now do we have more is that like a scholarship that yeah it’s just kind of we had that many scholarships available and it varies throughout the year when they really were going to be on probation or so that’s kind of one of the weirdest things well last year we went eleven and three after we had ten guys leave for one reason or another with attrition you had to borrow a hundred days academically and eligible you know sentence brother you had the Autry kid the camera’s first name but the older brother of miles Autry the big rig we had last year that left Travis Henry some other guy. So we had and of course badly. So just that kind of attrition opens up a few more scholarships and next year you know what these twenty seven guys come in and twenty sixteen should be a smaller class. But it should allow Paul Johnson the kind of target a few of the bigger guys and kind of focuses effort on. On a concentrated you know class of four star guys hopefully but going back to the thing about you know what you see on Rivals dot com and some of these recruiting services don’t pay for it or the stars pay attention to their offer less pay to see who else wants them. Don’t look at all those guys only three star Why can’t we get a goddamn four star we’ve had one in several years. Well look at Henri saying armor the defensive end we’ve got coming in who’s got offers from Michigan State and Ohio State and Stanford and both Mississippi schools and Tennessee the list goes on and on. So that’s what kind of talks to me is who else wanted them. Like you look at guys like last year to Shawn Freeman had a one off or a list he comes out and he’s a freshman All-American as a three star has happened while recruiting services don’t know shit and they go to one high school game they see a couple highlights this is like a new Moneyball approach to recruiting you know it’s like putting the right stats so it’s a crapshoot for the most part. How much can you possibly learn about a high school kid they had this in a couple assistant coaches they show a couple games you know they get their measure bowls and that’s about it. So when I actually like that where you’re hitting on your kind of end. The Heisman quandary you know has that they have so many quarterbacks or receivers that’s basically all whoever wins the Heisman. You know quarterback a receiver and then they go off the N.F.L. never bust em like they did stats on this it’s like eighty five or ninety percent or maybe that’s exaggeration but it’s a whole lot of highs and winners go off the N.F.L. And they’re nothing they turn around like where to Tom Brady go to college or like where did Brett Farve go to college I think performance like these other Miss stayed in the soup insulin yet Mississippi State in all this missed out on far like something like what’s interesting about it is like it’s so hard to I know you must be near impossible to identify good talent. Harvey spear Falcon. That’s right he was yeah. Brett Farve or a clip where we drafted him and I couldn’t pronounce his name we draft him away trade him for peanuts I don’t know but you know what the odds are given the way the Falcons were managed back then he probably would have been a bust if he’d been with us like he goes off to you know the Packers who develop talent if certainly very well and he’s become a legend. Well he’s become a legend you know that guy and he just said you know Dr misfires right if I think you’re going to politics like he could have been mayor of Green Bay or help the walkers and absolutely and it’s that he’s like texting is dicta people refused to retire and playing for the you know team you die a hero or you live to see yourself that you can be not be self-aware enough to know that you know you sent a dick pic in your breath talk and far that’s not actually going to make its way to Deadspin and Case in point which is all this week on a solid Shepherd One of the again he can’t stay on Twitter man he’s an idiot I don’t know why someone in his posse doesn’t tell him to delete the damn account but this week he tweets out because he’s heard it somewhere on the Internet which is obviously always correct. Yes if it’s always a rumor that the Sandy Hook thing was a hoax so he tweets about it he said Oh my God a Sandy Hook thing is a hoax what else have we been lied to about nobody died Wow. It’s a response from like a mother of a kid who was murdered and says you know and it was creepy. She’s like do I need to show you the bullet holes in my kid’s shirt and show like this and it again made it Deadspin who loves to shit on chipper who does really stupid things like this and you know chipper was appalled he apologized blah blah blah when I first saw it I’m like I was chipper breaking this news to me and I searched the internet and I’m like I can’t even find a source that reliably or unreliably says so I don’t know where he’s got his information but he’s a redneck idiot that needs to stay oh so Chipper Jones like I have seen I’ve seen a remarkable split between males and females on this guy almost every guy attacked. Even an eight year old boys are huge fans because he’s like the larger than life he was the face the British a long time like bass player it brays like chipper. But then females you know anything about his personal life almost uniformly like scum. Yeah. It was like a laughably bad like the way he mistreats like it wasn’t like married like and then just like you know it was or is it a single mystery was pretty sure he had some infidelity at some point but you know he’s been divorced and then he had the Hooters waitress and now he’s married to the Playboy chick twenty five she is fucking hot but she’s like twenty five or twenty six but I live in the dream I guess. Yeah that’s not was he forty he’s got twenty five year olds in love passata forty. Yeah well good for him. Yeah we should all be so yeah there’s a lot of athletes out there but I can’t I can’t rip on him for that because I’m like my dad one time said something about Mickey Mantle being kind of a scumbag toward women and I like that he’s Mickey Mantle. Like are you aware of what he’s inundated with day in day out of the crowd was like Yeah yeah it is Mickey Mantle I mean it’s like it’s good larger than life when you become that you’re a target in like it so it’s not Pete. It’s not just people like Deadspin looking to find stupid things you say right there’s opportunists out there like females who will look at. Well I do read read a lot and like him. Yeah our stuff you seem to be of a young Snuggies posts I absolutely have not. This this guy is actually kind of interesting at best or something because he starts like Landau the hustle for like hot girls with low self esteem and N.B.A. players and like one guy it was like dating. Either the coaches of the owner’s daughter and then impregnated some other random girl and like even what I think he would offer her like a hundred thousand dollars going to portion or something. Wow I forgot this was but smug is basically the authority just lay him down guys you don’t know how it is and yeah he fucked up hard yeah he’s going to pay for that first life but still these guys these guys have been like sheltered like stock and focus on the game or entire lives and blow up into this whole like money and everything and fame going to World and give you some respect for Jeter. I mean yeah. Actually why does this give me respect for Reggie ball I mean here’s the here’s what I’ll never be able to understand is to grow up and be overwhelmingly better than everyone else. Athletically the only sport that really matters in the south so I’m always kissing your butt from age eight until you go to Georgia Tech and then he had a damn good freshman year and then he I think is a C. player that year. Freshman year. Thank you. A He I mean he knocked out the ballpark and then the media really scrutinized them and the problem with expectations were so high and for me even then I was a big proponent and defender because in Chan Gailey is often see had Patrick nixes off it’s a coordinator who’s now like Coastal Carolina or something because he’s fallen on its face everywhere he went he went to Miami after attack I don’t know how I felt then but basically he had a running back goes you know very good to shark choice. Who ran for eighty something yards in the first half of its workforce in A.C.C. championship game and I was seven and then didn’t use in the second half or he had Calvin Johnson and he would just run you know go routes on the sideline where he’s already getting double coverage he’s getting triple covered if you count the sidelines and they just ask Reggie ball throw it up they have a lot of bad routes he was not a good play call it but as you know a lot of bad situations in my opinion and in the opinion of a lot of people. He also didn’t utilize the fact that Reggie was big strong and fast and could run didn’t have a lot of design runs or draws or anything like that he didn’t really utilize that in a Reggie has told me he didn’t really want to run a whole lot you know he thought of himself as a as a passing quarterback which he could throw he’s got an arm but what are you guys used to bad in school we described him as like a younger Michael Vick because he had the speed and he had just enough like stock Enos to kind of punch through when you need it like he was always good for a couple yards of a quarterback sneak and you know all all we ever really want to see Michael Vick is like your third running back and you’re exactly right. We never saw them utilize Reggie to the talent I remember you you actually gave me opportunities like kind of vent about that you know try to see what he would think about plan Paul Johnson’s off and really. So which is the most gracious answer possible really was I gave I wanted in the shit on next year just to get I wanted headline grabbing quotes from him and he said that’s on me you know I hate that I didn’t live up to expectations for some of you but I had a hell of a lot of fun doing it I felt I was pretty good and if you don’t like it fuck you. He even went so far as to say like the fact that I got all this expectations as like sort of like an honor to run with. Yeah he was so he was really gracious and you know he’s completely comfortable in his own skin and how he finished attacks and now when he’s thirty and going back like I just can’t imagine like being twenty one years old having that kind of expectations on you and then having like everyone even your own like. Mom and Dad like looking at you every day and like just not saying that you’re doing as great as everyone thought you were going to do you know there’s a handicapped parking space attack and I was not and only Yeah so yeah imagine playing around when you’re eighteen nineteen twenty seven. Well here’s a question do you think Atlanta fans just in general get a bad rap from the rest of the media. Not really I think it Lana’s pretty well deserve it. Fair weather and fickle. But you know to use the same excuse that we always use it’s a melting pot of you know that’s the biggest knock right is we don’t fill up the stands and you know I can tell you from my friend group just to Georgia Tech and whatnot we’re less than half Atlanta guys you know it’s a it’s a pretty pretty big cultural melting pot people from all over the place. Well just equally as tough to get the games to cities kind of a spread out mass and you know modest terrible so it was already not easy to get to turn. We’ll yeah getting a little less easy. Well what defines a recovery forum like I was telling you earlier I work in Smyrna. It’s going to be walking distance from the new stadium we were in terrible because traffic’s going to be a good walking distance from the dome I just don’t get to go places on this. It’s just parked right next to it. Yeah the Hawks I went I saw their last loss on December twenty sixth and I am against it doesn’t matter to me and it doesn’t matter and then I saw the eighteenth when in their nineteen game streak and during the eighteenth when that was the loudest I’ve ever seen a basketball game except for tournaments which is another level of basketball but for regular season play I mean the Atlanta fans were there and there they were excited. Much like they work for the Braves or the Braves and it you know in minds like Los Angeles where if the Lakers are good everyone’s in the stands but if they’re not they’re out hiking or they’re out you know watching the Clippers or they’re off doing Holly with things like this. So many different things to do in a large city that’s another huge part about it though you have to compete for butts in the seat and and I F. I said it before and say it again you can never discount the effect of U.G.A. on an Atlanta sports like it’s it’s so big and omnipresent that you know you just have to concede like well there’s there’s Georgia and there’s everything else. I think it was an offense to an extent to get tired of seeing the same old thing so during the Josh Mitchell Johnson era you know you’re going to get a five seed succeed you know when forty five games are going to be decent and you’re going to do nothing in the playoffs because you just maintain the status quo every year. Not signing a big splashy free agent or not moving anywhere. They fair exchange that you know please put a better product on the court and I think you’re seeing that Atlanta will support a winner but they had eight years Maroney at the same starting five with Bibi and Joe Johnson and Josh met and there was nothing changing. So why would you go support a team when you know exactly what you’re going to get. So predictable. The Braves did have pretty good attendance through most of their you know fourteen in a row but the same time they didn’t produce in the playoffs either so it’s kind of the same thing. When the Falcons got Arthur Blank and Matt Ryan and you know that one year with Matt Ryan It sounds to me too often Mike Smith and Michael Turner on the same year and everything happened since that run. They’ve had good attendance you know supported one in their sport something exciting and some were you know even the last couple years we started the season thinking we’ve got a puncher’s chance you know we go and beat the Saints and in the Superdome and you know we think we’re back helping them to as we did we did beat him twice when you get that you’ve got a quarterback that can. He’s won one playoff game but you still got a lot of confidence that he can win game so when you’ve got that confidence that you can go out there to be some of the juggernauts then I think you know they’ll they’ll support him but you know you’ve seen with some of the other teams it you kind of know whether you know this but so in your mind like it’s like creativity from ownership is like does more to like push an exciting thing and I think that’s helping. The Hawks and maybe not from ownership because they had to get the C.E.O. employ Steve I mean it came over from Turner who was one of the marketing geniuses over Turner and before that Coca-Cola you know doing all these cool things like ten or night you sold I’m sure about that that was a little awkward really it’s kind of interesting. Yes it’s I don’t know tonight is they had a meter time to hook up at the hawks at the filter right. Pera Yeah that’s actually a genius. Well yeah so they had it well in theory if we actually went in first and it is in a public place and you go there and you meet them you actually matches all of which sounds cool didn’t really work out because you got knives and guns at a hockey game. Mostly corn dogs that want to go meet girls a tenner night and there’s you know a few of them there. So it sounded cool and press will but then you get there. Deepak eighteen thousand people the same stadium and cell phone service goes out anyway but it was cool to have some cool promotions in between stuff but regardless of whether how you know that gets you a that that’s the kind of thing. Stupid it’s done he’s talking about for instance. Why he wants an alternate court where a couple games a year he puts the blacktop looking wooden course that looks like a you know an outdoor blacktop because he wants eight year old video gamers to pick the Hawks an N.B.A. two K. because they’ll play on a cool court and then they’ll become Hawks fans because that’s who they play with in a video game. That’s the kind of ideas he’s got. So yeah he and he’s in talks with the N.B.A. about actually having outdoor preseason games because who gives a shit about India pre-season games. Let’s go put it out put a wooden floor outside to see if people will go. So yeah he’s he’s smart he’s saying you know we’re not going to keep doing things the way they’ve always been. He came in and heard all these comments from Bruce Levenson the owner all the racist things about we get the whites. Urbanite what he called he called it the Alpharetta unicorn is the guy says until now the site is outside of the perimeter that Levinson was trying to cater to and get the black people off the kiss cam because we want to get out a little bit more money Kunin came in and said fuck that those guys they’ll come to games. Let’s make it fun let’s make it a clubby type atmosphere let’s make a night spot so we’re all the youth in the morning also come to games and it’s working. And he’s increased attendance by three thousand a game or something this year. Norma’s percentage he’s lowered ticket prices he’s trying to build a fan base up there and then help in the dollars come later which some people have criticized and said that’s not a great long term plan but I’m going with the marketing genius from Turner and coke and assuming he knows what he’s talking about. He’s inject a lot of excitement and it’s going to great time for the house for good. Yeah I mean like if you’re if you’re going to change marketing strategy the best time to do it is right now not to mention they are also changing ownership. So. Now get out there out so Levinson was having to sell his majority stake because of that email and then you didn’t hear about anything for a long time. Ferry went away you know they kept all that quiet and then recently there were more the A.J.C. comes out and says that I don’t know how they got to happen but the entire spirit of selling their entire hundreds and hawks are for sale. Nothing’s happened since then. It had some potential suitors are going to dominate How can this or the campaign the tempo or progress will transmit Tombo Grant Hill all talked about it Chris Webber. Those guys are going to be one percent owners that are going to be the face that will hopefully lure free agents. OK but you’re going to have some you know like a little guy by the way like a year or two ago I read some article that was calling the Atlanta Spirit like the most dysfunctional ownership body and like all professional sports it was kind of like laying the entire Thrashers thing on their own like sort of self employed mess and they’re constantly suing the other members and no one wants to buy into it. If they also have to be partners. With these people right and it’s great that they’re getting out they’ve been a pretty terrible group with lots of different kind of sector groups that own the Hawks and you know like like you said that you know they can maintain a hockey team although I believe it when it’s very big enough market to support of that there have been rumors for the past several years with the Hawks moving because the spirit is there. Their dysfunctional group they don’t know how to inject excitement of the stadium they haven’t exactly put a lot of money into you know marketing or signing free agent players it’s not a destination. People want to go so I think getting a new ownership getting new ownership like the Clippers did they brought in you know a bomb or something like that it could be the success you’re seeing now could be a little bit more sustainable and it’s going to need to be somebody they can work with and that’s the biggest thing because he’s got all the strategies he’s cutting ticket prices he’s doing a lot of things to try to get people to stand it is working. He’s trying to appeal to the millennial and the the black community to him and it’s working for people to say I’m not doing that since Rick Bruno Mars as well as like Dell that’s. Go see them so they’re going to need an ownership they want to continue that support not somebody like Levinson is going to come in and want to go for thou for a unicorn and you know now it’s on the printer monitor you know one of the things that I see Atlanta compared to is you know we we don’t support our teams when they suck like that like they do in Chicago with the Cubs or you know you know and in Pittsburgh with the Steelers you know when they go down there fans don’t go away. But I also like can’t emphasize enough just how recent a lot of Atlanta sports I mean the Falcons weren’t around until the sixty’s. I’m not sure exactly when Hawks came into being but it’s relatively recent. You know look at Georgia Tech and you have been around for a long time college football which has the oldest of the. A modern sports. It has the oldest roots in the south. It’s no surprise that those are going to your dominant sports. I think like one one aspect with the Hawks is they haven’t been around for long enough to engender that that real deep love in the culture in the community and part of it is doing small things like he said like being cool in a video game get kids get get them hooked early exactly because it happens you know those kids grow up and they start teaching their children to start loving the hocks or start loving the Falcons and that’s that’s how you Brighid and now it goes without saying you have to have some degree of success in war or you have to be just a horrifically abysmal like you can’t be anywhere in the middle that’s another one of the things that kind of plagues that little sports as well. We’re really good at like you know kind of like middling but like you went off somewhere right. Yeah and that’s that’s a good point I mean I sort of think you know it’s really trying to do is he’s not just trying to being bring the young crowd in to make it a club atmosphere he’s trying to you know hokum early and it’s too late for the forty five year old middle aged man to become a Hawks fan I mean N.B.A. just hasn’t had a lot of success here lately so. You know they’re trying to get him early try to make them lifelong Hawks fans and I hope it works out they’re able to you know maintain a play on the court to keep to go on this network is going to start offering premium channels just online really. Yeah I saw that. Yeah at least one N.F.L. game this year is expected to be streamed online. Oh yeah didn’t buy one. I thinks I don’t has netflix I don’t know the service but yeah there was a lot of football game one yeah while I was an expensive but house of cards you pocket. But like so this network is going to offer a thing or two on a Slingbox or something where like what twenty bucks a month to get a family channel E.S.P.N. and see kind of thing really. Yeah that’s got to have the cable company quaking in their boots because realistically if you could decouple E.S.P.’s when one isn’t even one that you can decouple E.S.P.N. the rest of em off spinner H.B.O. and then. If we are to a lesser extent I mean I think they’re very strong as well but it’s definitely number one E.S.P.N. because they have like what like five literally five or six E.S.P.N. channels and H.B.O. is you know it’s I mean it’s a juggernaut because their original programming is so good you can’t I can’t discount the power of that and then after that like all the rest of the channels even to go on the AMC they probably would not exist if you don’t have those main anchors drawing so many subscriptions and a lot of sports is why I have cable I cannot yet I can do about that and the cost to them us doesn’t it. Yeah like what two hundred dollars hundred twenty hands. It’s ridiculous. So when you’re attacked where you like at every game we are in the swarm and I was in this war and I was in the ferny box right. Yeah I was that every game went to the road games that we could afford. But then in college which I want to get away stadiums if you see that he S.E.Z.. Well I’ve been there I mean it’s not going to Chapel Hill I’ve been to Vandy you know obviously Athens have been a sea change a ship and Charlotte and Jacksonville are going to Virginia Tech Blacksburg and this year we’re going to try to make it to Notre Dame. Now take it’s going to be expensive but yeah we’re kind of banking on getting there and finding a way and it just really was offsides and if Notre Dame grad they will sit there and just whine and bitch and if I think it’s objectively true. I don’t think you need clearly up there and any chance you get rich you get popular enough with all the tech alumni all the old players want to get everybody in for interviews maybe get some sort of sponsorship going to get the site you know life’s a live report in the game tweeting every minute I would be great. Yeah we’re hoping to get press passes this year and actually be on the sidelines for a lot of games. Hell yeah we were actually we were going to do that for the end of this month because Roman Reigns. I’m about to take it so that definitely accurately. Yeah absolutely. Already back into it for that reason for Roman Reigns you know because you were there when I was an attack and I got to see him when you reply with a Reggie. How do you read to get in touch with Joe to talk so but I believe he’s a little bit too big right now being the number one right now I gotta push people hate Why don’t you pay attention that I would hate that he won the Royal Rumble. Yeah and I’m not going to try to give a shit about the suit you know so awful it is that everybody else in the watch and I do want to feel terrible. I actually reached out to me for an interview it Joe and I and I got back to me today. Really Yeah well here’s what they said. Multimedia broke a month they say he’s currently in Abu Dhabi during doing W W E related events but when he gets back we may be able to work something out. That’s literally what we have a definite maybe at this point but let’s back up for a second. Do you go to Abu Dhabi. Oh my God that’s awesome. I didn’t realize that well maybe it’s like oh you are so sure. Well actually I had not even realized the other they’re like extremely close with the military and they are they are like military discounts there. Johnson is always whatever he’s a good guy he’s always like marine stuff. Yeah you know I mean kind of stick. Yeah. Or if he’s not he’s like fuck yeah I want to join Xena for how in one year it was a great day. Every man another chance like enemies he had a cancer stricken John Sr I don’t see any of it but did you follow any of they sort of like really pushing the development show called an X T No I did not apparently Triple H. as been a melody runs the whole rightward basically he while he’s a businessman now. Choice runs the whole thing. He’s like he married an investment man so are you married Stephanie McMahon and now like he and like both competent as you know what he’s doing. Apparently Yeah apparently he’s been pushing a developmental show of just like wrestling instead of storylines and like they had a successful paper. There’s no and having like real new kind of town emerge out of that you know I mean this sounds crazy but bear with me here. What if Delhi Delhi we hired like started showing actual wrestling like Olympic style and light had people like wrestling and show that I think it’s entertaining in the Olympics is there no market for that maybe is a spin off I’m not sure. Yeah I don’t I don’t think they’d reach the same amount of rednecks but I like it I think you have to kind of suspend your discipline real and suspend your disbelief and actually going to get into and forget the fact that it is extremely fake and then it actually becomes kind of tank it’s not going to for a couple weeks as we should all do. I heard that they started to like try to tone down like the attitude thing just because I like their adult fan base or all you have see waters now but they still got these kids believing in these like huge guys so they try to keep it to that kind of level storyline. Well the thing about OK I didn’t understand why I liked it when I was a teenager I just watched it. You know it’s like superheroes right like I have kind of and then I start thinking I’ve done zero research on this but this is my theory. So we do the show every time it was like well I have thought it well enough. That’s clearly the truth out of my ass to your ears but the guy like Kabuki Theater in Japan like they did a lot of like fake sword fighting and then that led to what we you know see as martial arts films. Similar I mean like there were those whole martial arts disciplines based just on looking cool I mean I was good looking and it looks ridiculous and nobody thought they were actually sword fighting but people went to go see those things because they were entertaining. It’s the same thing because they think I’m not at all suggesting that Vince McMahon researched Eastern culture and tried to figure out something like I’m not I’m just a giant man were asked to organise drilling us not I just think it I think it developed because people just kind of were goofing around it was on and then it just kind of started to grow and then once it grew it it took on a life of its own and now it’s this sparkly spectacle of just over. I think we are pretty spoiled too and we were younger we could not in the hours that they had and when you look at the stable now it’s just a week yeah. Roman arrange a lot of me with the facts I’m going to back that guy but you come on man I mean I grew up with Sting and Hogan and you know details about the C.W. guy with the F. was little bit to radar going up I was Hey Christian echo that I saw Mike really become like a champion F. in the W F wow why did I just like I thought that’s yeah that’s a Jericho is your favorite. He’s amazing like you just know full rounded character athletically unlike personality to the fifth undercard there are grown up but he wasn’t he didn’t get any kind of promotion of the moment they asked him to show he’s shown how. Yeah well they had a lot of talent back then so they could go deep I mean like any mentions of the all over flare we talk about all the people that they’re pumping now it’s one thing that people get pissed about when the rains when the Royal Rumble as he said at the end with Kane and the big show there goes all your you know drama because they know they’re not going to you know write in one of them. Those guys to win way past their prime so Roman rain’s going to have an easy route to the you know. Top spot basically the thing a Roman rain though is that he actually does have more kid appeal because he’s younger right and you know it’s entirely possible that they just said hey you know from up there maybe and I think some of the higher against Joanna why waiting it is simply because people think he didn’t have to pay his dues and eventually in terms of time they’re right. He did and he won it very early. He’s now is very successful and like it or not Georgia Tech graduate is the face of dilly dallying. Yeah I LOVE IT I HATE he gets booed at the Royal Rumble with the rock even when he wins but part of it too and this was kind of blows my mind is some of the nuts you know say that he’s not the entertainer he’s a good wrestler he’s powerful he’s athletic as hell. His studies he has like really well I have to say about Brock Lesnar. I mean what I’m saying here is the personality of a player. Yeah he just happens to be the physical specimen. Do you marry Sable why because he grew up jerking off too or something it’s like I can’t imagine they have ever had a conversation and not a whole lot of these guys have great acting chops I don’t know I don’t reckon on Raines I mean I’m sorry Dwayne Johnson join JOHNSON Yeah well he said he was the rock has like saying like water is wet if the man was born to entertain. Just happen to have this amazing outlook for it’s as if you know his dad was a wrestler to of course. Yeah you know as cousin too yeah yeah yeah I think I read that one out of the way and that’s crazy. That’s also often do the mad. OK I don’t think will happen because he’s like doing too well but imagine if Terry Crews and if you run I think he’d be amazing. Terry Crews Terry Crews he goes in as president Camacho and like pretending to be president the entire way through. Why not. I think you’d be wonderful. I would watch media like I mean to be perfectly honest if you didn’t if you if you could put Chris Adams and their dress up and kept American uniforms and that would be a really entertaining deluge of the smack down. You know they’ll be funny if Marvel comics movies like all made half as much money and suddenly like the actor revenues went way down or they had to have like day jobs to imagine they all make a new job. If Mike The Miz can come from the real world and be you know the superstar Yeah Chris have got he’s got a better resume than the Mets had one female This show has been listening for a while they’re like they’re going to stop talking wrestling they will they well like no that’s not stopping what we’re doing in our deals are you watching fighting. No I don’t I’ve never really got in the U.F.C. or any of that stuff. I’ve only recently kind of refocused on wrestling mostly because of the rain storyline and you actually went to a U.S.C. fight I got some free tickets one time up in Gainesville or going to but I’m sorry it’s going to Reno and what’s interesting about amateur U.F.C.. That they’re just as vicious but they’re not as good on defense. So it quickly devolves into a bloodbath and I just see the whole time like I really start to feel like I was like him like gladiatorial match which is exactly what people say about it I guess like a criticism for years as I count and it’s like highly technical and like you have to understand Martial Arts double blind them and they’re watching it live it was like holy crap it is Broca’s knows there’s blood everywhere. Dogma it was awesome. Like the whole night was very very fun. It is ridiculous I mean when Fox Sports one launched at the very beginning and a lot of fights on and I did watch a little bit and it was amazing how many of them ended really early with broken noses and guys we know a place like wow R M I should get out of this it never happened but is it like the faster it as this franchise grows like the more sort of like scrub scrappers are going to get her to show up breaking noses man. Protect themselves and maybe at the very low levels but as it’s grown what you’ve actually seen both parents like super charge at the top of them like well what I wear is going with this is the root of U.F.C. and M.M.A. in general it was me it was very similar to that movie Blood Sport was young for Street Fighter for those of you who know video games it was OK Mr karate vs a ninja without weapons or or it would be a traditional wrestler like like Greco-Roman versus jujitsu and like they would just see who the winner was and over time a to change the rules cuz grapplers were dominating everyone like like wrestling is like the most lethal thing there is out there. So they start changing rules to accommodate more striking forms because it’s more entertaining for the crowd and over time it kind of developed into its own unique different fighting styles but at first it was banned in a lot of countries just because when you see like a sumo wrestler just like damn near got his neck broken by some dude who’s doing wrestling moves on him you ban that stuff because it looks like cage fight looked precisely what it was it was cage fighting. Well what is neat though because it does seem like you get a longer sustained career than you. See the new wooden boxing because you’ll get your head beat and exactly. Yeah it’s like the whole you only have a few fights and you verses like constantly like RE approaching rhyme redeveloping your tiles break noses and jaws but you don’t get concussions and then imply that we’re actually getting to if anything a more civil group of our fights actually are looking into the duration of fighters. Well I mean statistically we’re in the healthiest happiest and wealthiest most peaceful time in all of human civilization. So of course are martial arts going to gets off to exaggerating. OK if you’re if you’re in the SE Please don’t beat me up I think it was very violent. Do you have any sports background to play grown up played baseball and basketball. Told not to take legal advice. Yeah yeah I don’t know how much fun is that it was a lot of fun getting to play basketball at C.R.C. against guys like to Marius Thomas and you know guys like that was fun. I’ve had Rashawn Dickey reject a shot into the running track on top of the master what I’m talking about. That’s why we call on our one time I had I actually met Lucienne sure he was a son or George George a passable for those of you listening and I met Luke censure in Las Vegas where they’re not really do you grab is the weirdest thing like we like we were in we were waiting in line for a club that was like one hundred thirty dollars to get in so I said it’s not worth it. So we go play back blackjack I mediately make one hundred fifty bucks some looking at a sign from God I was like OK we’re going in and the solutions are just in there partying we caught up with him turns out he’s an implant like Australian basketball for a while now and it is the standard show used toa nice guy we told him like who we were as like a pair of Georgia Tech guys and he just immediately lit up. Yeah I mean it’s like it’s such a neat bond so like me like you know one of your you know he’s one of the tech superstars national team. Again yeah I was in there for the Kansas I don’t know if you do or when we were in overtime in the Elite Eight will Biden had shot to win and I think he did eat you know Kirk American there and Carlson not Dan Collison there Carson So when that game and you go the same issue again is awesome we beat them an Oklahoma state with Tony Allen the year did as this is sad as a management major. I was in the band but even as a man to measure a seven tough to keep up with class because we’re traveling so much with the basketball team so then I started playing like I thought it was like How hard is it to study if you are like an actual athlete because like I’m just some schmuck you know I’m like these guys you know they’re practicing day in day out you know what do you think. Well like on the N.C. The lay like academics in general like is this set up and say Is it realistic to expect an education at the same sort of schedule of and it’s doubly athletes think they get plenty of support. I mean they’re loaded with you know tutors and and whatnot and I think they get a little bit of slack when it comes to class attendance and stuff because they’re always on the road. I don’t know I think it I think if you sign up for for college you’ve got some expectations you’ve got to meet and that incidentally has curtailed a lot of the practice expectations that they’ve had you can practice for like like football for fifteen hours a week which is pretty damn low. Now you know legally I think they can have football I heard the old they can have ten spring practices now it’s nothing I don’t think the commitment is that absurd. You know it’s been a couple of days’ study of couple hours studying a day I don’t think is too much to ask. They’ve got it pretty well I do think they need to get compensated more and they are OK money wise but so are you just thinking like things that take care of your life maybe if you need to see family or get around maybe so I think that kind of crap needs to be completely they need to be able to be supported if they’re in a pinch I mean. Should Baz Napier last year before the Final Four were saying that you know he goes to bed hungry and he’s you know leading you’ve gone to the national championship and making millions of dollars for a school I think the hardest part about it and everyone’s you know talk about this and this has been beaten into the ground but actually deciding on what the stipends need to be and how to do it you know do you go to the Olympic model and say that we’re not going to pay kids but let them go you know endorse Nike’s or whatever and let him do it that way that kind of maybe be a little bit more of a capitalistic way to let it you know figure itself out not let him see that way after you know oversee it all make it more of a free market that’s like that only goes just to the start of college I thought as well as the right and I think. I don’t think the women’s tennis player should be compensated equally as a starting quarterback but at the same time I think you want to send a player ought to be able to get a flight home for a funeral you know you need to use that example again. Well I think I should as Napier’s like I sort of just didn’t believe in you know I mean when you go to tech at least protect football players about a player’s had unlimited meal plan and believe me it was believed it was a plausible situation. OK Well these are on the same page there that like I don’t think you saw me the exact truth. Now there may have been some situation that sucked hard for him. Yeah and I’m sure you know I mean there are a lot of problems of the N.C. to lay system especially for the sports that don’t have a minor league I’m looking at football basically But you know when you have they are free they are unlimited dining hall access plus attack they had like a special cafeteria just for the athletes. Trust me I went there once I got a bus card when I was pretty good. It was better than Britain and west although we were just talking to Chris so he’s kind of like a booster for the club even though he doesn’t contribute money they just love the guy for the ballgame was all them really but he was saying the future the food is pure shit it’s a little better but damn you know. These kids need like personalized nutritionists and like incredible sort of like that. Well to to everyone here here’s the thing. Crystal was also comparing to the University of Alabama where you know their athlete facilities I mean they’re cooking I’m like you know French you know they have French chef cook and waffles probably more like an unlikely let’s let’s face it it’s very very good food. Fared well and that’s and that’s what Chris’s vision is for for Georgia Tech and when they start making as much money as Bama than maybe they can do that but actually that’s what’s impressive attack is our budget is about half of you gas’ and yet we’re still able to compete which is awesome. So if you read Five Thirty Eight dot com it’s Nate Silver’s Web site where he is really analytical. Was he like to work it was just the one where he was comparing star recruits versus what you’re getting when I was basically cross referencing rivals rating he was using rivals over the you know metric for how good of recruiting you know teams are are getting a job you know and then you get you know reference to guess how well they actually present and in the year two thousand and fourteen pretty obvious because we ended up you know being ranked seventh or eighth in the nation depending on what poll you looked at Tech was. The number one school and you know performance versus recruiting two thousand and five are like six I mean over you know nine year period so we actually develop players we’ve got a good system that can get the most out of the so called City recruits we hit and we’ve got a better eye for recruits than rivals does because it’s not like we’re just a gimmicky system that you know gets gets the most out of its players and you know achieves you know the sum of the parts type of thing. But at the same time we’re getting no four stars and then putting four guys in the draft or having the you know the merriest Thomases in the first round draft those guys are obvious N.F.L. talent there not just over achieving in college they are going on to play on Sundays and we’re fining them so what. You can make a strong argument that one of the biggest wasters of talent is Mark Richt in the whole U.G.A. program I mean they consistently have either the top or top five recruiting class and you know they’re not really delivering they’re not delivering the goods I mean they’ve they’ve won no national championships since eighty or eighty one. Basically they have Herschel Walker and it had nothing since then the couple S.E.C. championships here and there but you know if you’re recruiting you know you know on that level you kind of expect them to be at least in the playoffs. I admire Mark Richt as a coach however like you I have no problem with putting more hatred out towards U.G.A. and just the ether of communication into this like media presence. So yeah you know the way I think that’s what he’s a total asshole behind the scenes and it’s all Christian good ole boy thing is just like him like playing the media like a fiddle. Hemant T.-Bo he was if they do they keep it quiet somehow. OK. Yeah. Chipper Jones to go to their school for yet another day I’ll never hit until he delivered he did what you Georgia Tech could not he just pounded U.G.A. so hard and then he was so maligned by the media. Like I felt bad for the guys I was like you know I mean whatever everyone likes to hate hate hate on T.V. he was better than your credit for I mean he wins a playoff game and then gets you know goes into the New York media shitstorm and his name gets so he you know all the sudden he can’t complete a pass. He did He was a first round draft pick which was probably too high but then he won games in an ugly fashion sure but you know you’ve got other quarterbacks to do it the same way and their praise for getting the job done last season was a last minute victory every single game room for the Falcons. I think on some level to give us pride probably got in the way I mean the problem is they’re kind of in a better spot for her maybe is like a Tony Gonzalez replacement you know like like as a tailback or maybe as I go. Second running back or maybe as a backup quarterback I mean here’s the thing if you could not start maybe you’re good enough to sit on the bench and just chill. You know he wasn’t I don’t get the feeling he was willing to do any of that you know he had this you know I’m a quarterback mentality and how I mean if you’ve been a quarterback for twenty six or seven years and he won a playoff game in the Jets acquired and then stashed him on the bench and Rex Ryan wasn’t playing this good old boy Tivo no matter what they had Sanchez sucking it up giving him no chance to win. T.-Bo still can get on the field it seems like a personal vendetta thing there and I think that ruined his career I really think he had a better shot at being more successful as one of the worst starting quarterbacks in the league for not necessarily you know a cast off third stringer that’s not going anytime I mean they bring him in and they’re running a supposedly going to run this you know Wildcat formation he doesn’t get those type of snaps he was playing back on the punt team I really felt like it was kind of Rex Ryan sticking it to a guy he didn’t like but I don’t know I’m not that much of a conspiracy theorist but I did think the whole prayer thing was a little much but I didn’t hate him for it you know. It’s whatever I was annoyed when Mom loved it so much when Greg Hardy is going to get a contract after beating women on piles of guns. So if if that is you’re going stick that I think he should be OK with more you know and yet if we’re going to have losses. Well what’s your opinion on that do you do you think that. As perhaps traditionally private matters are ones that are handled in the courts because public for N.F.L. players do you think they end up taking on more from society that may be exactly what happened once. Or do you think you know this is kind of the cowboy justice being served in the sort of reaction. Well I think as many billions as the N.F.L. pulls and in a lot of its employees are doing what they do than they do have somewhat of a responsibility to you know kind of said I get it. Sample and send a good message at the same time the guys like Ray Rice and you know Greg Hardy Like I mentioned before kind of deserve to be treated like you know employees in any other ceria. The fact that their contracts get honored and you know the fact that teams don’t cut them because they’re obligated to pay them fifteen more million more dollars the next three years is kind of bullshit. I think they ought to lose their job just like anything anybody else. Sure only part of that is though they’re an industry that’s monopolized and they don’t have the opportunity to go push play for another company. There is no other N.F.L. So it’s kind of the other part their skills are going to transition anywhere else. If I get fired from my job for doing some sleazy he someone else might hire me if I’m an N.F.L. player you know. There’s nowhere else I can go do the same job so it’s a little bit different but at the same time I’m glad that athletes are starting to get the book thrown at him. Sure when we grew up and it was always swept under the rug and I was you know I thought when I was a kid off I get famous you know and get away with just about anything. So thankfully you know with I think social media got a lot to do with it and people are more aware that that shit just doesn’t fly anymore he can’t be a wife beater rapist and you know the Beloved I guess you can if you when Koby but. There’s also an element of shock I think for people who do not come from the lower socioeconomic class regardless of race but you know if you’re coming from the lower socioeconomic class of your part of the country the odds are you know there’s going to be much higher rates of spousal abuse domestic violence and those sorts of things but the truth matter is athletes are kind of thrown just throughout the population you know that like your natural genetic talent is not based on how much money you make. Right that being said whenever someone comes out of like a really rough neighborhood make it big now and then from the media now you’re seeing what. Really happens behind the scenes in a lot of these other house it’s just now writ large and I think a lot of people just don’t see it and they it’s so shocking that it creates these these he these huge stories. Right and I want to kind of tread lightly here but I think one of the biggest things there is not a lot of great examples from those guys and kind of the slower social and socio economic classes and there aren’t enough guys out there you know I guess teaching the you know the less well off kids that you know being idiot is not cool and you know you can’t you know be women and do stupid things like that but I don’t know I think society is pretty progressive and you know in ten twenty years things might change. They mean da you’re seeing a lot of it. India is a class of N.B.A. all stars right now is a bunch of pretty darn good guys. You’ll really see a lot of it in that league but the N.F.L. certainly got a long way to go. You know I’ve really been impressed with the quality of the N.B.A. The the game and I really believe like Michael Jordan was it was a high water mark and that kind of went down for a little while and now it’s kind of on the upswing again thanks in large part to the Spurs I mean watching Tim Duncan in Amman and you know really and the rest of those guys sit there and just play really good basketball for years. That turned me from totally totally like an interest and disinterested to kind of a fan of one team you know it started to disperse. But now I’m seeing you know the Hawks adopt you know some of those mechanics in their organization. It’s a lot more fun to watch. I was watching when we were playing it was the blazers the other day we were picking apart their office now we can’t rebound for shit but that notwithstanding just just watching us you know pass the ball and be able to manipulate where the the opposing team