Monday Morning Moans & Groans

Bye, bye Byron.......In Sunday's 31-7 loss by the Atlanta Falcons to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers , Byron Leftwich was.....well ...brutally ugly. After missing 2 games with a bum ankle, Mr. Leftwich return as a starter even though Joey Harrington had led the birds to two straight victories. First year coach Bobby Petrino stood by his man....Leftwich started, struggled, struggled more and eventually was mercifully benched in favor of Harrington. How bad was Byron? He completed 15 of 28 passes for 106 yards, no touchdowns, 3 sacks and 2 interceptions. Harrington engineered a meaningless drive late in the game to get the Falcons their 7 points. Who will start Thanksgiving night against The Indianapolis Colts is any one's guess.


Welcome back Tom.......Tom Glavin has agreed to a one year contract worth a reported 8 million dollars to come back home to pitch for the Atlanta Braves. After spending his first 16 years with the Braves, Glavin signed with the New York Mets after the 2002 season. Even though he won his 300th game while in a Met uniform.... Glavin was never a New Yorker....He and his family maintained their residency in Atlanta throughout the 5 seasons as a Met. In the last game of the season, Glavin pitched his final game for New York......An outing that saw Glavin have one of his worst starts of his career. He lasted only a third of an inning and gave up 7 eared runs on 5 hits, while walking 2 and striking out none. Glavin will be reunited with ace John Smotz with hopes of returning the Braves to postseason play after a two year void.

Happy Trails....Lloyd Carr..... The Michigan head coach resigned this morning after 13 years as the leader of the Wolverines. This season saw Michigan (ranked 5th in preseason polls) lose to Appalachian State to start a tumultuous year. The 14-3 lost to Ohio State Saturday marked the six consecutive year Michigan has lost to their rival.

No more undefeated NBA teams. ......The Boston Celtics aim at going 82-0 came to a sudden halt in Orlando last night as the Magic beat Boston, 104-102. The trio of Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen had been averaging over 20 points apiece , but Sunday, only Pierce achieved that .....scoring a team high 28. The Magic (9-2) was lead by Dwight Howard with 24 points and 6 rebounds.

Witness protection program? Alabama coach Nick Saban had better get his family to a safe house if his Crimson Tide keep up the current trend of losing to the likes of Louisiana-Monroe.


A 24 1/2 underdog, the Warhawks of the Sun Belt Conference embarrassed Alabama in Tuscaloosa Saturday, 21-14. Alabama (6-5) has lost 3 in a row and must travel to arch rival Auburn this Saturday. Saban, the highest paid college coach in America (4 million a year) , was hired by the good folks of Alabama to restore this once proud school to prominence again.
With too many more of these kinds of losses, Saban had best get the moving vans ready. These 'Bama folks have been known to run a few coaches out of town.