MATTHEW BROWN: Jackets, Stetson, Olson …

Published 11:45 am Saturday, August 17, 2024

Amazing how all the talk last summer was about running backs and franchise tags.

One year later, it’s a receiver on the west coast and an edge rusher on the east coast demanding trades.

Do you see the same solution I do?

Even if NFL franchises swap disgruntled players, it’s not like these players are going to find all their demands met in a new location just like that.

And that’s when they yell, “Collusion!”

Someone please tell Kirby Smart he’s holding out for a new NIL deal.

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The surprise team of the 2024 college football season? Why, it could be just a couple of hours away in the big town.

Yes, maybe it’s the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. Maybe the Jackets knock off Florida State because they have a little less Irish whisky flowing through their veins. Maybe GT plays in a conference championship game. Maybe … nope, be it Thursday, Friday or Saturday, the gap with Athens is still too great.

But still, how good could Georgia Tech be in 2024? They will have such a good football season that they’ll file their own lawsuit against the Atlantic Coast Conference. For no other reason than, isn’t that what the good teams in this league do?

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Staying in the CFB category, the point I really wanted to make last week about the size of certain Division I conferences … and the term ‘superconferences’ isn’t a myth anymore … is how things are getting spread out too much. Think about this: 12 years ago Texas A&M joined the Southeastern Conference and has still only played Georgia one time in football. That number isn’t likely to change for another couple of years. If it’s true that you play the same conference foes next year, at the end of the 2025 season the Texas Longhorns will have more SEC football games with the ’Dawgs than the Aggies.

Is it pure coincidence that Georgia gets Alabama, Texas and Ole Miss on the road this season (and at home next year?) while Missouri gets Arkansas, Auburn and Vanderbilt at home? The Tigers also get to go to Mississippi State and South Carolina while we host AU and the StarkDogs.

No, you can’t play everybody from your conference in one season in football unless you drop all non-con games. Even that wouldn’t come close to 100%.

I pointed out how Georgia is playing all other SEC teams in basketball but not baseball or softball. It was only a couple of years ago that MLB set a schedule where everyone will play everyone else – American and National Leagues – at least one series. In the NBA, as far back as I remember you always saw the whole league every year even with expansion.

The word I always hear about the NFL is your schedule one year is based on how good or bad you were the previous year. The better you were, the tougher your next slate? If that’s so, then how did the Kansas City Chiefs get the Atlanta Falcons’ division as Super Bowl champs?

I can imagine in every NFL season, a player is watching the Super Bowl, seeing who raises the Lombardi Trophy high, and saying, ‘We beat them.’ Or, ‘We never played them, and I know we could have taken them.’

What were Bulldogs thinking during Michigan-Washington?

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Here’s to Stetson Bennett making a grand return to the gridiron. When this guy commits a turnover, he turns into Joe Montana. What did he do after a fumble against Alabama in a national title game? Two touchdown passes.

Four of his passes for the L.A. Rams are picked off last Sunday (still looking for Ladd McConkey I suppose). It’s a preseason game, so no need to pull the plug. Like another former Bulldog before him, he becomes an exhibition legend with a good scramble and off-balance throw on target for a game-winning touchdown in the closing seconds.

One day later Jake Fromm signs as the fourth quarterback on the Detroit Lions roster. This is his fourth NFL team in four years. It was almost a year ago I am writing how he led the Washington Commanders past the Baltimore Ravens, which snapped Baltimore’s string of 24 straight wins in games that don’t count.

So when the Rams face the Lions in the NFC title game … Matthew Stafford and tackle Warren McCLendon will be the only Bulldogs of note involved. Sorry. Not that optimistic.

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Read an interesting article about achievements in sports over a seven-decade period. Reminds me of a great achievement that spanned over the 1980s into the 1990s. That’s when Cal Ripken played 2,632 straight baseball games, all for Baltimore.

Nobody talks about consecutive game streaks anymore because nobody seeks longevity anymore. But did you know that, by this weekend, Atlanta Braves first baseman Matt Olson will be at around 580 straight games played? Yep, another 12 or 13 seasons without a break and it could get interesting. He could surpass Cal the same day UGA finally sees A&M football again. Or plays its first SEC game versus Oklahoma.

I don’t think a day off is going to help his .230 average.

Is Olson the active leader? It’s hard to find out. At one point, that honor belonged to another current Brave, Whit Merrifield, when he played 553 straight for the Kansas City Royals over four seasons.

Only one player’s gone over 1,000 in a row in the 21^st Century, and he was a shortstop like Ripken Jr. That would be Miguel Tejada.

(If at all possible, give pet adoption a try through the Animal Rescue Foundation in Milledgeville. Donations of any kind are also in great need. ARF is a little red building at 711 S. Wilkinson St., and more information is available at animalrescuefoundation.org.)