PhotoDude.com

The Fox broadcast, where they showed lots of tight footage of him yelling at his coaches, and apparently a referee, like they were bag dogs.

Well, there’s a bright side here: Falcons’ star players now merely yelling at bad dogs!

People forget he is only 23 years old-younger than some rookies. It’s not an excuse, but he just needs to learn some things aren’t worth it. Hopefully this will teach him that, because hes a great player and I really like him a lot. I just don’t like his mouth and temper at times…

Another thing, of course you should never lash out at your coach but what did petrino say to garner that kind of reaction, perhaps he could have handled it better.

To get rid of him for one game would be absolutely stupid. Look at Rex Grossman, why isn’t he gone? DHall held Smith to one catch for ten yards, the best receiver in the league was held to a single catch for 10 yards, that speaks volumes about DHall’s talent.

So hopefully he’s learned a very valuable lesson and everyone can put this thing behind them, not just because he is one of my favorite players(after Favre1, LT2) but because he’s an extremely gifted kid.

I like Dhall too. But he was being an idiot, and it’s not the first time we’ve seen this sort of thing from him. He should get suspended for at least a game.

If that attitude adjustment works, the loss of one game would be more than offset by all of the avoided future personal fouls.

As for Hall being young, OK, but you don’t get much time to mature in the NFL. And he’s no rookie, he’s a Pro Bowler. As for lashing out at the coach, I watched that exchange closely, to see how Petrino reacted, and he was Mr. Composure, with a player shouting in his face. He said one word for every ten Hall shouted. And no matter what the coach said, it’s the player’s job to deal with it. No matter how much you think the refs are picking on you, it’s the player’s job to deal with it.

On Monday Petrino was second guessing whether he should have benched him. That was my instinctive reaction after that third penalty: Hall needed to sit and chill, and Coach Petrino needed to show that level of insubordination buys you some bench time, just so you can ponder who is The Boss on Sunday afternoon.

I agree that Hall is a great talent. But he does not yet live up to his own hype, unlike the #21 who preceded him. Deion was brash and talked trash, on field and off. I’m never fond of that. But, he backed it up, every single time. He not only made the athletic plays, he made the smart plays. That is the only time I can accept that level of cockiness from a player … when they can back it up, 100%. And as good a job as Hall did at times with Smith on Sunday, you sure can’t call it 100%. Even if you judge that he “beat” Smith and overall “won” that individual match-up, he did it in such a way that he caused his team to lose.

This ain’t track and field. Your individual gold medal is scrap if you cause your team to lose.

And at this point, I don’t think it’s just about Hall. Jeff Schultz spells out what I meant about an opportunity and spot for the coach to lower the boom:

The next move Bobby Petrino makes will define his tenure with the Falcons [...] The message to DeAngelo Hall needs to be loud, and painful, and public. If the Falcons don’t suspend Hall, the punishment at least needs to give the man some humility. More important, it needs to scream to the team’s other 52 players that they don’t have another mush head in charge.

This is a team that has factured like the Grand Canyon by mid-season the last two years. It did so under a “player’s coach” who dumped the team bus to ride with Hall in his Lamborghini (true story, read Schultz’s column). Coach Petrino has an 0-3 team that needs to learn about a sense of accountability and discipline they haven’t been held to in some time.

And D. Hall served up an opportunity on national TV, on an obscenity laden platter. I expect Coach Petrino is going to take a strong swing at it.

I still don’t get the non-sequitur about Rex Grossman. True, he shouldn’t be playing, but that’s for a more prosaic reason: he sucks. Also, he’s different team. Huh?

I’m not condoning Hall’s behavior by any means. If I was in the NFL and I knew I was good even the best, I wouldn’t trash talk or anything. I would just play my heart out every game and let the quality of my play speak for itself. But Hall is definitely a ‘type-A’ personality. For some guys they just can’t resist speaking out. Again no excuse for the behavior.

I do the Petrino should have benched him once he saw he was getting hot, after the 2nd maybe, definitely the third penalty. He needed to chill out and collect his thoughts instead of just reacting. Sometimes things don’t go your way and you have to deal with it, and I do think some of those calls, well one on that particular drive was questionable at best. The thing that Hall needed to do was to keep shutting down Smith and let his performance take care of any questionable calls.

Hall did NOT single-handedly lose the game for them. Sure you can say anything you want about the momentum shifting, but in the end the Falcons just needed to score more points. If something like that happens with a teammate the rest of the team can’t allow themselves to be affected by it, and should even elevate their play.

The whole point about Grossman I was trying to make is that he has contributed to far more losses than DeAngelo Hall and he plays a more impactful and important position. Therefore, he should be held accountable for those losses. It is different in that Hall is skilled and Rex, well isn’t the most gifted QB. Also Rex just loses by performing terribly, wheras Hall contributed by stupid penalties. Sure Hall needs a slap on the wrist and maybe he should sit out a game, but what needs to be done more than anything is for someone, a veteran player or coach, needs to explain to him that he can’t lose his temper and helps him to stay cool in situations like this. No one can expect him to suddenly be able to handle the heat and learn to react better on his own, he needs leadership.

So there you have it. He needs some sort of punishment, but he needs guidance and leadership more.

Joel – Paragraphs 1-3, Agreed, agreed and agreed. Paragraph 4, I have quibbles, but they’re irrelevant and I’ll spare you.

Paragraph 5, kind of agreed . . .

I just think that a one-game suspension would provide some “guidance.” Mora let him do whatever, and I think it corrupted him a little.

DHall is a powerful force, and with his skills and personality, he’s the type of guy that provides leadership, positive or not. And even at age 23, he clearly wants to be a Hall of Famer one day, so he wants his leadership contribution to be positive.

That ambition makes him a willing student, but the Falcons have to take advantage of this teachable moment.

I agree a game suspension ought to do it. A game that he can’t play in and won’t get a paycheck for should really help send a message. Hopefully something along those lines will happen and D Hall will have an epiphany so to speak.

I know the NFL has a union and all kinds of persnickety rules about how a team can discipline a player, and doesn’t allow room for creativity.

But if they did, Coach PhotoDude would tell D. Hall… “I am suspending your pay for one week. I am not suspending you from play. If you show up this Sunday, you will do so because you love this game so much you’d play for free. You will do so to be there for your teammates.”

“I’m giving you an opportunity to save face. I’m also going to let you go tell the team and the media about your own punishment, and what you intend to do about it.”

“Don’t blow it. Or the only job you’ll have on any Sunday this year is tending the cord to my headset on the sideline.”

Oh, and Coach PhotoDude would also stifle D. Hall’s rights to free speech, by banning him from further media interviews or on-field trash talk for four games.

Because the government may not be able to stifle your speech, but your coach can.

Well, at least somebody who runs a football team has taken our recommendations!

Oh, my. I guess we now know how D. Hall would have dissed Coach PhotoDude’s punishment:

In another distraction for the Atlanta Falcons, Pro Bowl cornerback DeAngelo Hall said Wednesday he’s been fined $100,000 and may be suspended for at least a quarter of the next game for his meltdown last week against the Carolina Panthers.

Hall wasn’t pleased with the decision and plans to appeal through the NFL Players Association.

Asked if he thought the punishment was fair, Hall said, “I don’t think so. They think so, but I don’t think so. My agent is working on it with the union and hopefully we can get something worked out.”

Petrino would only confirm a decision was reached on disciplining Hall, but wouldn’t discuss the details.

“It is something that we are keeping in house,” the first-year coach said.

Coach, I’m not sure who you mean by “we,” but it does not appear to include “D”. I fear nothing was learned here. Not even pain avoidance.

Attitude adjustment is a process, not an event.

Coach Fleshy, I fear you may have been spending too much time with Coach Mora.

But my opinion is on hold, as I don’t have time to track this story. Could be different by Friday.

When you kick somebody in the balls, you expect their first reaction to be:

A) Why thank you, I needed that kick in the balls; or
B) Owww, Oh My god why, why, why did you do that?!!?!?

B is always the first answer. A requires some reflection.

It’s a process, not an event.

I do hope you’re right. And only time will tell. But two things come to mind.

I used to manage a dozen DJ’s. Even at that low level, there are some egos that have self-destructive traits that simply will not be constrained. If their modification is a process, it is a process of such length that the business can’t wait long. I know this because I have fired such people.

I fear D. Hall is such people. I’d love to be wrong.

Secondly, your “kick in the balls” metaphor. This was not the coach randomly and suddenly drop kicking him in the crotch. A student of body language could see Petrino’s foot raise slightly Sunday afternoon. By Monday, he was telling the media, “yep, I’m drawing back my foot and pickin’ which spot to kick.”

Nearly 48 hours later, the blow lands. In private. Coach hoped to keep it that way, from everything they’ve said this week.

Not D.Hall’s style, apparently. Another surreal day at Flowery Branch:

When players were available to the media in the locker room following practice, a pack swarmed around cornerback DeAngelo Hall, who angrily divulged that the team fined him $100,000 and that it plans to bench him for at least the first quarter against the Texans.

Though Hall said Monday that he would be professional in dealing with any discipline the team handed down following his third-quarter meltdown in Sunday’s 27-20 loss to Carolina, he changed his position after finding out about his punishment Tuesday night. He was not pleased at all and was not shy about letting anyone know.

Team officials had to be upset about Hall’s disclosure since they’ve spent three days saying any punishment would be kept in-house.

Well. Tension in the clubhouse … because this team simply hasn’t had enough this year. It’s like taking a hammer to your toe so you’ll forget the pain of the right arm you had cut off.

Maybe D. Hall will go out on Sunday and score a pick or two off Matt Schaub, and then not crow like a pro wrestler. Or, maybe he will have another jabbering meltdown.

That’s the fun of the Falcon’s this year, and most any year. You think, “what can possibly happen to make things worse.”

And then they show you.

I used to manage a dozen DJ’s. Even at that low level, there are some egos that have self-destructive traits that simply will not be constrained.

Even at that low level? I’d say especially.

Those folks all get weeded out before they make it to the NFL. To make it to the big leagues, you have to be willing to spend hours reviewing game tape, do tons of charity work, attend all of your college classes and maintain at least a B average, get positive reviews from the league’s community-relations review board and spend three months a year at a tibetan monestary under a vow of silence and poverty.

What you’re saying is just crazy talk.

“What you’re saying is just crazy talk.”

Because professional athletes don’t implode, right? For example, after this “weeding out” process, you simply couldn’t end up with the highest paid QB becoming an ankle monitored felon on a curfew who may never play again, in about five months time.

Not in the NFL...

But a guy who got arrested and had to plead would be very careful afterwards. Model citizen, living on nothing but brown rice and detoxifying tea. So parole violations (or their pre-sentencing equivalent) shouldn’t be any sort of concern.

Oh, yeah. Everything’s gonna be just fine.

.

On the bright side, Dhall ain’t Mike.

Well, this is less encouraging:

Hall was asked twice if he thought he could play for Petrino long term. He paused before responding: “Some things would have to change, obviously. Like you said, some guys are made for college. Some guys are made for the NFL. If he wants respect given to him, he must give respect back.”

I’ve been trying to stick up for you for a week, Mr. Hall. Come on, help me help you.

Oh, it gets worse than that:

I came in trying to drum up something. But he’s a little different. He’s not as personable. He’s not as loving.

Not as loving?!? Then he went on to diss some of his defensive teammates. It was also revealed today that not only did Petrino consult the captain’s troika of Crumpler, Brookings, and Milloy before issuing Hall’s punishment, it was those three who said Hall needed to be benched for part of today’s game.

I think the Falcon’s have their own T.O. I’ll have more on that later.

I still say that twenty minutes in a locked room with Crumpler should be the standard punishment for any player who isn’t with the program.