Saying his commitment to the New England Patriots, his focus on football, and his desire to win a Super Bowl title would remain his top priorities, Randy Moss announced July 3rd at Daytona International Speedway he was getting involved in NASCAR as a team owner in the Craftsman Truck Series.
Moss gained entry into the sport by purchasing a 50-percent stake of Morgan-Dollar Motorsports and will pair with co-owner David Dollar in forming Randy Moss Motorsports, which will field a No. 81 Chevrolet Silverado for driver Willie Allen in the team's debut July 19 at Sparta, Ky.
Accustomed to making long hauls on the football field, Randy Moss acknowledged he was operating far afield from his chosen area of expertise when it came to owning a NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series team.
But the Patriots wide receiver, despite being new to the sport, said he was prepared to make a long-haul commitment.
Morgan-Dollar Motorsports has posted 13 victories in the truck series, 11 with Dennis Setzer and one each with Bobby Labonte and Clint Bowyer. Setzer finished second in the championship standings for three straight years (2003-2005) as Dollar's full-time driver.
NASCAR has had other NFL players, such as Dan Marino, Troy Aikman, and Roger Staubach, dabble in team ownership, only to fail. Moss is aware he could wind up suffering the same fate.
The Atlanta Falcons have hired Tom Dimitroff, New England's director of college scouting, as their new general manager. His first task will be hiring a head coach. Dimitroff, 40, has been afforded the authority to hire the coach, even though outgoing general manager Rich McKay, team owner Arthur Blank and other team officials have spent the past two weeks interviewing potential coaching candidates. It is believed Dimitroff, as well as every candidate interviewed, provided names of potential head coaches they would like to pursue to replace Bobby Petrino, who resigned before the season ended to coach at the University of Arkansas.
Dimitroff is a highly respected talent evaluator who with the Patriots has worked in the shadow of coach and final decision-maker Bill Belichick and vice president of player personnel Scott Pioli, considered one of the best personnel men in the business. Dimitroff faces a challenging task of re-tooling a Falcons roster that was beset by injury, age and ineffectiveness in finishing 4-12 last season. Despite working behind the scenes for the Patriots since 2002, Dimitroff, who has 18 years of scouting/personnel experience, is well known for his work throughout the NFL. He was considered for the Minnesota Vikings general manager job two years ago.
Before joining the Patriots, Dimitroff worked as a scout for Cleveland, Detroit and Kansas City. He broke into the pro ranks working in the Canadian and World leagues.
His diligence in finding talent — typically late in each round of the draft because of the Patriots' success — is something Blank was searching for after making the decision to replace McKay as general manager three weeks ago. McKay had served as president and general manager since he was hired from Tampa Bay in December 2003.
Dimitroff arrived in Atlanta Monday to begin trudging through the multitude of tasks to try to fix the Falcons. The common thinking is that since he is relatively young, 40, he likely would hire a younger coach to grow with him in this rebuilding process. No one knows if anyone the Falcons have already interviewed - Dallas offensive coordinator Jason Garrett, Tennessee defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz, Colts assistant head coach Jim Caldwell - are on his radar.
Dimitroff will have significant, if not total input on hiring a head coach. Such decisions rarely, if at all, are made unilaterally, so Blank, McKay and others likely will give their opinions on coaching candidates. A good thing for Dimitroff is he’s also coming from outside of the organization, where he can comfortably accumulate opinions from other league officials about potential coaches.
Dimitroff also must hire a staff he feels comfortable with and a staff with experience in pro personnel to help with free agency and trades. Dimitroff’s expertise lies in college talent evaluation and he hasn’t been involved in a lot of trades, salary-cap decisions and things of that nature so he is going to need some help. There are several people already employed by the Falcons who are very capable but he might want to hire some people he is aligned with to support him when tough decisions need to be made.
The next few years will tell us if Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank chose well. This much we know: Blank has absorbed a lot of criticism of late. But after being conned by Bobby Petrino, used by Bill Parcells and dancing an illogical dance with Pete Carroll, he bounced back with a reasoned choice, free of emotion, pyrotechnics and clowns with exploding feet. Blank didn’t hire a sideshow. He hired a football guy.
Eight years ago the New England Patriots weren't so good. Then owner Robert Kraft did something radical: He hired a personnel chief (Scott Pioli) known only to hard-core football geeks and a head coach (Bill Belichick) who had been a disaster in Cleveland.
Tom Dimitroff worked for the New England Patriots. For the past six seasons, he has worked for arguably the best owner (Kraft), the best personnel director (Pioli) and the best coach (Belichick) in professional sports. There is something to be said for osmosis.
Personally, this writer is thinking more along the lines of a couple of Atlanta Falcon fans that posted comments on Wyches article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitutioon today.
By dufferdawg
let me get this straight…the Falcons hired a GM with NO experience handling free agency, trades or salary cap issues…??? If his strong suit is evaluating college talent, it sounds like he should REPORT to a GM not BE a GM !!! The abyss known as the Atlanta Falcons grows deeper and darker…
dufferdawg makes a great point on experience and I preferred Tom Heckert of the Philadelphia Eagles for just that reason.
By JCSmalls
I really don’t know what to think. How did Blank and McKay interview like 10 people last week in person and this guy not be one of them. I love the fact that he came from the Pats, but other than College Scouting, how much experience does he have? I would like it if we got Jim Caldwell in here as coach and if (Tony) Dungy retires, we could get a bunch of personnel from the Colts. Setting up our franchise with Colts and Pats personnel would not hurt my feelings.
I agree with JCSmalls. I want Caldwell for Head Coach. He appears to be the best candidate Blank and McKay have talked to that is interested in the job. With Caldwell on board under Dimitroff we might have something.
Now it is time for that feature of the week, Spot the Loonie. This week we are asking you to consider the Atlanta Falcon coaching candidates that are being mentioned or have popped up from the dark corner of my mind. Remember it is your job to spot the Loonie. Feel free to call in as soon as you have spotted the loonie.
1) Atlanta will check out Oklahoma’s Bob Stoops who supposedly is high on Atlanta’s wish list. But I don't think he is the loonie.
2) Atlanta will check out former head coach Steve Mariucci who should be considered simply for his past successes. Mariucci’s ties to the Packers Mike Holmgren made him a prime catch in the eyes of the 49ers, who were motivated to end a losing streak against Green Bay. The 49ers had three consecutive defeats to the Packers, two of them in the postseason. In Mariucci, the Niners believed they had somebody who could beat the Packers at their own game.
When the Jets hired Mangini away from Bill Belichick last January, they were in the midst of a six-game losing streak against the Patriots, their A.F.C. East rival and the dominant team of this decade. Today the Jets are preparing for a playoff game on Sunday. Mariucci's name has risen to the top again. Mariucci has the San Francisco pedigree that Blank and McKay are tapped into and has tasted success with the Patriots and Jets to boot. But is he a loonie?
3) Atlanta will check out Mike Martz, who transformed Jon Kitna into a 4,200-yard passer, and should be considered simply for his past successand for his offensive brilliance. Of course, Martz can’t afford to ask for total control and definitely needs a talented defensive coordinator in order to be successful.
Lions offensive coordinator Mike Martz stopped short of taking his name out of the running for potential head coaching vacancies this winter, but he did say he feels "certain" he'll be back in Detroit next year. When asked " Are you going to be here next year?", Martz responded, "Oh, sure. Yeah. I feel certain that I'll be here. Who knows?". Those are words that sound a lot like a loonie.
4) From dark recesses in my mind the name Jimmy Johnson has popped up. This makes sense to me because Arthur Blank could have talked to Jimmy during the season personally since Jimmy is a FOX and NFL broadcaster without it raising su####ions. A smart businessman does not fire a coach without already having a replacement in hand. I don't like Arthur's style, but he has a history of making fast decisions. And he has proven himself a smart business man with Home Depot.
Jimmy could be announced tommorrow. He was crazy enough to coach under Jerry Jones. And he is used to coaching questionable characters at "the U" and in Dallas. I may be out on a limb here but it makes sense to me. Call it a seventh sense if you want to. But I'm feeling it. Ladies and gentleman, Jimmy Johnson is a loonie.
Better put your money on the Kansa City Chiefs over the Indianapolis Colts right now. They are the luckiest team in the NFL and have all of the momentum, mo-jo, mo, karma, ka, force, whatever you want to call it in their favor.
It started with their impressive play against the Jacksonville Jaguars today in Arrowhead. Then the New England Patriots pulled away from the Tennessee Titans going on to win the game and knock the Titans out of the playoff race. Next the Pittsburgh Steelers, playing inspired football to get to 8 and 8 and give Coach Bill Cower what may be his last win, defeated the Cincinatti Bengals in overtime and knocked the Bengals out of the playoffs. Meanwhile, the Chiefs took care of business finishing off the Jaguars who had their playoff dreams dashed when the New York Jets defeated the Oakland Raiders earlier in the afternoon.
Now the Chiefs needed only the SanFrancisco 49ers to defeat the Denver Broncos. Yeah, right, that was going to happen. But wait, Jay Cutler and the Broncos had been struggling lately. Likewise, the 49ers were showing some promise during the last few weeks. And that folks, is exactly what happened as the 49ers defeated the Broncos in overtime knocking the Broncos out of the playoffs.
"We play to win the game."
Remember to tune in for Chiefs at Colts next Saturday afternoon in the first game of this years playoffs.
Vick, Andersen and Dunn could have record-setting day Sunday ROGER MOONEY Bradenton Herald Staff Writer
"TAMPA - Michael Vick has had bursts of 10 or more yards this season with greater frequency than Tiki Barber, Frank Gore and Larry Johnson. You expect it from those three. They are running backs. But Vick? A quarterback? Yeah, you expect it from Vick, too.
"He's a magician," Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach Jon Gruden said. "Any mistake and you're in trouble." Vick needs only 40 rushing yards to pass former Chicago Bears quarterback Bobby Douglass into first place for the most yards gained by a quarterback in one season. Douglass rushed for 968 yards in 1972. Vick's 929 yards this season has him third behind Douglass and Randall Cunningham, who rushed for 942 yards for the Philadelphia Eagles in 1990. But there's an even bigger prize to be gained Sunday afternoon. Vick needs 71 yards to become the first quarterback to rush for 1,000 yards in a season.
"I'd like to be able to say I rushed for 1,000 yards this season," Vick told reporters earlier this week at the Falcons' practice facility in Flowery Branch, Ga. "It's going to mean a lot to me, even though it seems like I didn't try hard to get there."
But wait,
There's more history to be had Sunday. Falcons kicker Morten Andersen needs seven points to pass Gary Anderson for first place on the NFL's all-time scoring list. Anderson, who made an NFL record 538 field goals, had 2,434 points during his career. The 46-year-old Andersen, who was signed Sept. 19, two days after former (editor, former?) Atlanta kicker Michael Koenen was 0-for-4 against the Bucs, has made 537 field goals. He has scored in an NFL record 342 consecutive games, a streak that dates back to Dec. 4, 1983 when Andersen kicked for the New Orleans Saints against the New England Patriots.
"It just means you've been around for a long time. You've had good people around you, and you've had good fortune," said Anderson, who's in his 24th NFL season and has played in an NFL record 364 games.
But wait . . .
Atlanta running back Warrick Dunn is just 48 yards shy of his third straight 1,000-yard season and fifth of his career. In keeping with Sunday's theme, he and Vick are just steps away from taking their place in NFL history as just the fourth teammates to rush for more than 1,000 yards in the same season. The others are the Miami Dolphins' Larry Csonka and Mercury Morris in 1972, the Pittsburgh Steelers' Franco Harris and Rocky Bleier in 1976 and the Cleveland Browns' Kevin Mack and Earnest Byner in 1985. Dunn (134 yards) and Vick (127) ran wild against the Bucs in their first meeting this season, a 14-3 victory at the Georgia Dome. "I think the first time we caught them off guard," Dunn said of Atlanta's spread option offense.
None are as dangerous as Vick, who's had 39 rushes of 10 or more yards this season and owns three of the top four rushing days by a quarterback in NFL history. "He plays the position differently then we're used to seeing it," Falcons coach Jim Mora said. "When you turn on the TV and watch Mike Vick, you're usually going to see something you didn't see on a football field."
Against the Bucs on Sunday, you might see Vick run into the record books.
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