Thursday, May 01, 2008

Ryan in SI and other links

Matt didn't get the cover, but SI's Peter King did write a nice feature on the process of drafting him. Readers outside Atlanta are already latching on the racial divide aspect of King's article. Braves & Birds explained it well in their critique of the Ryan pick:
Ryan is not coming into a good situation with the Falcons. Leaving aside the mediocre receiving corps and substandard offensive line, Falcons fans are not happy with the drafting of Ryan. Speaking in broad stereotypes (always a recipe for disaster), the Falcons' fan base is primarily composed of two groups. The first group are African-Americans, some of whom still like Mike Vick and most of whom are well aware of the racial coding that goes on when the media slobbers all over Ryan for being a "leader" and "polished." They aren't going to be overly excited for a great white hope, given the circumstances. The second group are college football fanatics who view Falcons games as dessert after the main course on Saturday. (I would put myself in this group. I would also assert that there isn't tremendous overlap between group one and group two because college football unfortunately tends to be a white sport, especially in the South. I digress.) Southern college football fans, almost universally, view Ryan as an average college quarterback who has been hyped beyond his merits because he played in the Northeast. This group is also not happy with the Ryan selection.

Whereas most top five picks are greeted with unabashed, oft-irrational enthusiasm by the fans of the teams that draft them, Ryan is not going to get the same love in Atlanta. Atlanta fans tend to be a lot more positive and forgiving than, say, Philly fans, but the particulars of Ryan's drafting mean that he is going face an especially empathetic fan base. This is why the purported rationale of the Falcons to take Ryan for marketing purposes is so weak.


As an Atlanta resident, I think the racial divide is Arthur Blank's problem. Ryan just needs to win and play well. The rest will take care of itself.


Speaking of race...Deadspin played "gotcha" with a Notre Dame club in Pennsylvania. Nothing BC related in the link, but given what just happened on our campus, I think the thug label is too often thrown around.


Here is more on Pruitt signing with Detroit.


Former BC assistant Erik Johnson is now the new coach of the women's team at University of Denver.


Kevin Challenger has already been traded. Life is tough in the CFL.

6 comments:

we make our own movies said...

It is excruciating reading the reactions from some of these Falcons fans. Not only are they complete idiots without any clue of who Ryan is beyond having seen a game or two and viewing his stat sheet, but the two sides of the fanbase also seem to want to re-enact the Civil War. It truly sucks that he is going to be victimized by such a crappy fanbase. And it will be even more infuriating when he tears it up and they all claim that they were on board from the start.

Simply put- Atlanta doesn't deserve him.

Eagle in Brighton said...

Sorry ATL...but I have to agree with Doug: Atlanta doesn't deserve Matt. Really questionable fan base, in more ways than one...

I was pulling for the best with his selection (which worked out), but you have to think KC or Baltimore would have rallied around him (proving it's not purely a racial issue).

Mike.Mariniello said...

This is a pretty good article saying that they should not start him right away:
http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/draft08/columns/story?columnist=yasinskas_pat&id=3376422&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab3pos1

Lally said...

After listening to hour after hour of SEC-worship from every major sports outlet, I still don't see how people come up with this conclusion that there is a Northeast bias in college football.

America said...

It never cesses to amaze me how BC is looked at by the National Media and by National College football fans. I feel that when it comes to college football people really just don't get it. Maybe because there are so many games or maybe its because people don't care, but for David Glenn to write an article picking FSU and Wake Forrest to finish ahead of us is Bull. Furthermore the fact that BC is not ranked in the top 25 after finishing in the top 10 last year is down right criminal. If any of these people know one thing about college football they would know our Defense is going to be the best in the ACC and one of the best in the country.
Also saying Ryan is overrated and hyped proves that none of these so called experts watch more than two BC games a year. Ryan did what he did with terrible Recievers. I think they averaged over 2 drops a game. Also I would venture to say 1/3 of his INTs came on passes that deflected off or a reciever or that a reciever essentially fumbled into a DBs hands.
Look at the past decade of BC sports as a whole, football, basketball, hockey, even soccer. What are we going to have to do to get the slightest bit of respect Nationally. ND gets more and they haven't won a bowl game in nearly a decade. I am sick of it!!
Last point I will make is in this day and age when most big time schools look at their "student" athletes as money in the bank instead of future leaders, you would think the National Media would fall in love with a school that cares as much about academics as it does athletics.

Brian said...

well said, vincent