For once, I’ve gotta give the Atlanta Falcons some credit. When they dealt egomaniac problem child cornerback DeAngelo Hall to the Oakland Raiders, they got the best of both worlds. Not only did they get the Raiders 2nd round pick (the 2nd pick in the second round), they sent Hall to dwell in the quagmire that is the Raiders franchise under Al Davis.

Atlanta Journal-Constitution columnist Jeff Schultz said it best on his blog yesterday when he wrote:

“When Hall gets his money, it will sooth his ego for a time. The problem is, he’s a great player on a good team but a divisive player on a bad team. He will alienate teammates and drive his coach and owner crazy (although in the Raiders’ case, he probably can’t do Al Davis any further harm). It is unfortunate that the Falcons have to say goodbye to their best player. The problem is, Hall’s not a leader. He is immature, egomaniacal and petulant. The ego part isn’t unusual for a great cornerback. But the other aspects of his personality make him a bad fit for the Falcons, Raiders or any bad or rebuilding team.”

My problem with DeAngelo Hall has always been that he think he’s a much better player than he actually is. He is as flashy, attention-starved, and loud as Deion Sanders with about half the talent. It’s hard to argue that the Falcons are better off without a player of Hall’s ability but as they try to rebuild this franchise, they just might be.

Mike Luckovich’s political cartoon in today’s Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

In case you hadn’t heard, Bobby Petrino bailed on the Atlanta Falcons after Monday night’s schlacking by the Bush-less, McAllister-less New Orleans Saints and took the head coaching job at Arkansas.

The Atlanta press have shown the veracity of their New York brethren in going after Petrino, calling him a quitter and saying that it wasn’t the downfall of Michael Vick or injuries that saddled the former Louisville head coach in the ATL.

In today’s Atlanta Journal-Constitution, columnist Jeff Schultz writes, “Bobby Petrino. Not a man. He’s running like a coward.”

The AJC’s beat writer Tony Barnhart says Petrino has “absolutely no communication and people skills.”

Simply put, Petrino is a rat. He jumped ship in the Derby City (not before trying to take Tommy Tuberville’s job at Auburn, whom had hired Petrino to work on his staff) for the glitz (and the cash) of the NFL but wanted none of the responsibility of being an NFL head coach. But worse than Steve Spurrier and Slick Nick Saban, Petrino didn’t even make it through a single year at the helm of an NFL franchise.  And that’s the guy you want to lead 18-22 young men in Fayetteville? No, thanks.

If there was any doubt that Felix Jones was packing it up and heading for the The League a year early, this seals the deal. Darren McFadden was a done deal but with Jones, Arkansas still had a viable offensive weapon. What about now? Who’s going to lead that offense in the future?  Casey Dick? You can’t be serious.

And what does this hire say about Arkansas football? Is this how desperate they are to win? I know after Tommy Bowden, Jim Grobe and Tommy Tuberville all declined the job, there must have been some scrambling in the AD’s office for some viable candidates but there are a lot of good coaches out there (Ron English, comes to mind) and none with the character issues that Petrino has. But this is really a reflection of how out of whack the expectations are at Arkansas. After the team won the SEC West, that fan base legitimately lost their mind and thought they were Alabama or LSU. With this hire, Arkansas has cemented its position as a second or even third tier SEC program for the forseeable future.

For the record, I do not, in any way, feel bad for Arthur Blank. He hired Bobby Petrino and he entrusted the future of his franchise in the hands of a young man that never exhibited any indication that he was mature enough to handle it and now the franchise is in tatters. As the saying goes, you made your bed, now you’ve gotta sleep in it.

Been a while since I threw up a news post.. here goes..

I like…

USAToday’s Pop Candy blog has a cool story about the pen pal relationship between John Waters and a young Fred Armisen, now a cast member on SNL.

Arctic Monkeys have released some new tracks under a fake name.

Atlanta Journal-Constitution columnist Mark Bradley tears into the BCS.

Spin has a cool interview with Mike Doughty.

Anthony Bourdain is returning to work the sauté station at Les Halles in New York for a night. Working the grill station? Eric Ripert of Le Bernadin. Might not be a bad time to think about booking a table at Les Halles in the near future.

The new Chronicles of Narnia trailer:

To view the trailer in HD, head on over to Yahoo! Movies.

I don’t like…

BCS Coordinator and SEC Comish Mike Silve says increased parity in college football won’t change the BCS.

The Sabres have ended their 29-year relationship with the Rochester Americans.

I like…

Chef Traci Des Jardins prepared recipes for a Thanksgiving menu with wine parings for Epicurious and in return she wants to ask homecooks to request that their diners donate money to America’s Second Harvest, a national food bank that helps 9 million families annually.

Entertainment Weekly’s Jeff Jensen gives the Heroes graphic novel collective a B-.Glad I didn’t buy it.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Tony Barnhart thinks Georgia fans would be crazy to hope that Tennessee makes the SEC Championship to practically guarantee the Dawgs a trip to a BCS Bowl.

The AJC also has a good piece on UGA coach Mark Richt transforming into the football version of Bruce Pearl.

ESPN’s Todd McShay has a list of the top 10 freshmen in college football.

 Chefs to Know.

I don’t like…

The writers’ strike may cause the final season of Scrubs to air without a series finale.

New York Magazine’s Vulture blog has some disturbing information about NBC’s “Create a Hero” feature on the Heroes site.

I like…

Eric Gordon drops 33 in his debut for the Hoosiers last night.

Atlanta Journal-Constitution columnist Mark Bradly says Georgia is every bit as tough as LSU.

Fanhouse has a funny take on the Missouri-Kansas border war.

Marvel is offering an archive of 2,500 back issues.. not for free but still pretty cool.  Lost creator Damon Lindelof has a list of what you should start with.

USAToday’s Beau Dure has devised a hypothetical playoff system.

I don’t like…

ESPN is stockpiling journalists.

The Michelin Guide gave zero stars to chef Thomas Keller’s Bouchon in Las Vegas. Keller is the only American-born chef with two three-star Michelin restaurants to his credit (French Laundry and Per Se).

I like….

Serious Eats has some recipes for… wait for it.. bacon-wrapped Turkey.

The Indianapolis Star has a good article today about Big Ten teams and bowl eligibility. As of this week, only Minnesota doesn’t have a chance to become bowl eligible.

Georgia might be rocking black jerseys in their game against Auburn this weekend.

USAToday has a nice Indiana basketball preview story.

Lifehacker had a link to a handy app called BookBump. The application helps you keep track of books in your library, books you’re looking to acquire and helps student cite books in different formats for academic papers.

I like…

The Amateur Gourmet has a great Q&A with Michael Ruhlman on his new book, The Elements of Cooking.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Mark Bradley has a fantastic lead in his column today about the Georgia-Auburn series.

The James Beard Foundation has released its list of the 20 essential cookbooks.

The New York Times’ Grub Street blog wonders if white truffles have jumped the shark after today’s announcement that the restaurant at Times Square’s Westin Hotel will be offering a $1,000 white truffle bagel.

A nice article by SI.com’s Cory McCartney on IU being bowl eligible for the first time. It’s a nice article if you haven’t been reading these kinds of stories in the Indianapolis Star or other places who do a much more thorough job, as they should, of covering IU football.  McCartney’s article does, in my opinion, give a little too much credit to interim coach Bill Lynch for the job he’s done. Given their schedule, a schedule that doesn’t include Michigan or Ohio State, it would have been tough for them not to get to six wins this year. I don’t think he should be hired back at the program’s permanent leader but I’ll have more on that tomorrow.

I don’t like….

The Writers’ strike may bump the new season of Lost back to Fall 2008 or — February 2009! The LA Times has a great grid showing, by network, how many episodes popular TV shows had in the can before going dark this week.

Why are priests stalking Conan O’Brien?

Either way you cut it, Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville is about to get paid handsomely.

Rumor has it, Tuberville is one of the leading candidates for the Texas A&M job, which will soon be vacated after the Aggies buyout the contract of current head coach Dennis Franchione.

First things first, the reason that Franchione is being ousted at A&M has very little to do with the scandal over his newsletter, where boosters paid thousands of dollars to receive inside information about the team, including injury reports and the like. It has everything in the world to do with the team’s dismal record against rivals Texas and Oklahoma on his watch.

Being mentioned as a candidate, let alone the leading candidate, for a job like this is a perfect scenario for Tuberville. Either way, he’s getting paid. If Texas A&M comes in with an offer that ole Tubby can’t refuse, he’s off to coach the Aggies in the weaker Big 12 where the only games he will be pressured to win are the games against Texas and Oklahoma. He may also be able to leverage an offer from Texas A&M against Auburn to get more money to stay as the head coach of the Tigers. It’s worked in the past, just ask Steve Spurrier, who got a fat new deal when his name was even mentioned in connection to the Alabama job.

While the A&M job is nowhere near as presitigious as his current gig, Tuberville has a much higher chance of BCS success in College Station. No longer will he find himself fighting with Nick Saban for recruits in Alabama, fighting with Phil Fulmer for recruits in Tennessee or fighting the entire nation for the best of the best in the state of Florida. He will be recruiting in Texas, one of the nation’s richest recruiting pipelines and coaching in the Big 12, a conference that, aside from the monoliths that are Texas and Oklahoma, has been far from the schedule of landmines Auburn has been playing annually in the SEC.

If the money is right, I’d suggest Tuberville hit the road and gig ‘em.

_________

Tony Barnhart of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution said he thinks that if Texas A&M comes calling, Tuberville will listen.

Lighten up, folks, really. It appears that even days after Georgia handed it to Florida, some are still upset by Georgia’s first quarter flashmob-like celebration and Mark Richt’s instructions to his team in the pre-game to embark on such a celebration.

In today’s Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Terrence Moore takes Richt to task for ordering the celebration.

“Guess those little green men who sneaked into Jacksonville last Saturday for the Georgia-Florida football game and yanked the real Mark Richt away in their spaceship have returned him.

Welcome back, coach.

We forgive you.

Now don’t ever do that again - or anything close.”

Really? Is forgiveness in order? It wasn’t like Richt instructed a player to go out and hurt someone. His pre-game pep talk didn’t include the normally stoic coach telling his players, in no uncertain terms, that they were to punch each member of the Florida defense in the groin and face after their first offensive touchdown. This was simply Richt’s way, in a world where sports, as much as I love it, is wildly over-cared about, to remind his players, his kids, to go out and have fun. Fun is a word that isn’t often associated with “student athletes” in the corporate world that big-time college athletics have become. Do I want to see this sort of thing every week? No. Do I want to see the Tennessee offense break into a song and dance number when (maybe if, these days) they score a touchdown? No. But I’m ok with it and I would have been ok with it even if Richt didn’t apologize. Besides, whatever he said to those kids must have worked because that was the best game the Dogs have played all season.