The Falcons received some heat for playing Jonathan Babineaux after his arrest last week but I learned early in my career to be very careful judging someone before they go in front of a judge and jury. Back in the late 1980s, I was covering Georgia Tech for the AJC and there was a fight which became known as the “Pizza Brawl,” where a coed was allegedly hit in the face by a football player. The next morning in the paper, we were sent a photo by a lawyer of the girl with her face bandaged. We ran with it and for weeks I wrote about it as well as the other media in town. It caused a lot of damage to the Tech program and the players involved, and in the end we found out that the girl was accidentally hit in the melee on the backswing of a player’s arm and that her injuries and the photo were exaggerated. All along, then-Tech football coach Bobby Ross stuck behind his players and kept playing them, saying he wouldn’t make a final decision until due process ran its course.
Back to Babineaux. Something obviously happened as, according to an arrest report released Tuesday from the Gwinnett County Police Department, he was smoking marijuana while he and a friend were driving last Thursday night. But this has become a legal and league matter, and likely the league will make a decision on whether Babineaux is suspended. That is why the league has a drug policy, which takes the team out of this type of decision making. If all NFL teams made the decision whether to play or sit a player based on moral judgments, you would be missing more than a handful of superstars on Sunday.
WHAT IS TIGER DOING? …
It may have changed since this edition hit the streets and he may have already done a surprise appearance on Oprah, but you have to wonder who is advising Tiger on his very messy situation. Rick Reilly of ESPN.com, who I have covered many events with and feel is the best all-around sportswriter in the country, wrote a great column about what he thinks Tiger should do, and I feel the same way. My first column on Tiger had everything to do with the way he treated people, including myself as a journalist, and that everything had to be his way, no matter whether he was on the course or not. But over the last two weeks, Tiger’s reputation sort of looks like Mickey Rourke’s face in the movie “The Wrestler.” Tiger has to come out of his closet and apologize in front of the public, but most importantly, he has to prove that he can truly change. Whether his marriage is salvageable or not, he has put his wife through hell and his recovery will involve many steps. But like Reilly wrote, if Tiger really wants to get back on the right track, why not put his corporate endorsement business on the sidelines before they do it for him? Reilly wrote that Tiger should tell these companies, “I’m not doing any ads or taking any payment until I can again prove myself worthy of your products. I’m sorry I’ve let you down. It won’t happen again.” Now that would mean a lot, because instead of just words, Tiger is making an awful big wallet a little thinner and we can all relate to how the loss of income hurts. But something needs to happen and it needs to happen quickly, before Rosie O’Donnell comes out and admits she had a fling with Tiger. Shoot, I even asked my wife if she had a thing with Tiger. I wouldn’t blame her. The last time I was on a golf course I scored an 11 (on a par 5), which is, what, already less than the number of women that have come forward so far and said they have been with Tiger?
AND FINALLY …
For those that didn’t get out to the Georgia Dome to watch the state championship football games last weekend, you can check all the games out on the net at GHSA.tv. As I wrote last week, we will be doing a girls and boys web basketball game starting every Tuesday in January on GPB.org and they will also be available at GHSA.tv. I did get a chance to see each of the games in the Dome and the best player I saw was Class A Wilcox County quarterback Nick Marshall, who was just offered by Georgia. Marshall, at 6-foot-2 and very mobile, is also a sensational basketball player but the bet here is we see him in Athens on Saturdays.
Rosenberg can be heard live on 790 The Zone during every Falcons game. He will be on this Sunday from 1-4 p.m. as the Falcons take on the New York Jets. Rosenberg can be reached at 404-256-1572 and ijrosenberg@scoreatl.com. Score continues to look for interns for writing, graphics, web design, video, radio, marketing and advertising. If you are interested, please email info@scoreatl.com.
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