Bartkowski Q/A

This has nothing to do with Georgia football, but I thought some folks might be interested to read it anyway. I attended a luncheon for Columbus' Second Harvest Food Bank today and former Atlanta Falcons quarterback Steve Bartkowski was the speaker. (The Georgia angle, if there was one, was that I asked him if he had met Thomas Brown yet and he said he hadn't, but he works in the same company as Thomas' dad and has heard nothing but good things about Thomas).

I spoke with him for a few minutes afterwards for a story on the Falcons I wrote for tomorrow's paper, comparing the team's current situation (and with rookie QB Matt Ryan) with the one the Falcons faced when they drafted him first overall in the 1975 draft.

Yeah, the team wasn't facing the PR disaster of the Mike Vick thing and the coach leaving to coach in college three-quarters of the way into the season, but there are some parallels between the two years. Like how the team fired Norm Van Brocklin eight games into the 1974 season and hired Marion Campbell, then finished with only three wins. And how they turned over the franchise to a highly touted QB draft pick hoping he might turn things around. Bartkowski (now on the franchise's Board of Advisors) said there are some similarities, but he thinks the current Falcons are closer to winning than the team was when he was a rookie in '75. Here's what he had to say.

On the similarities between where the Falcons were when he was drafted first overall in 1975 and where they are now, after taking Matt Ryan with the third overall pick:
They’re much further along. We’ve got a lot more players than when I first got to Atlanta. We’re gonna surprise some people this year. We’ve got to have four or five of the new guys step in and play right away and be successful playing right away. I’m not so sure that includes Matt, but at some point he’ll take the reins and he’ll take his shots. We’re not there yet, but we do have a fairly good basic football team. We’ve got a real good, basic football coach in Mike Smith. He’s a terrific guy.

So is it safe to say there are a lot of parallels between when you were drafted and the expectations Ryan’s facing now?
The expectations are certainly on him. He’s a very wealthy young man now. He’s able to really kind of balance that aspect of his life against his professional endeavors. It’s gonna be very important. He’s obviously a very intelligent young man. I think he’s probably had good upbringing, which you look for that. Mom and dad are there and involved in his life. I think we made a really, really wise choice and I think he’s gonna be the franchise quarterback for the next 10 years.

Are you guys similar players at all? What are the similarities and differences between you?
I think so, yeah. He’s fairly agile in the pocket. I was, until they took my legs. I think very similar. He’s incredibly accurate throwing the ball – maybe more accurate than I was when I came in – but it’s sort of a trade-off. I don’t think he has the strength of arm that I had. But I think that being accurate is a whole lot more important than being strong, being able to throw it a long way.

What does being on the Falcons’ board of advisors entail?
Two or three meetings a year where we basically get involved in the economics of the team, a lot of the administrative situations that they’re going through. It doesn’t involve a lot of on-the-field input or this player or that player-type stuff. That’s handled by the general manager and coaches. But I’m proud to be connected to them, I really am. I love the owner. He’s a terrific guy and just a wonderful person.

It’s a really unique point in the franchise’s history right now…
It’s almost like starting all over again. It’s really almost like a new franchise. Unfortunately, I think we were building toward a lot of good things and it’s amazing how one guy can upset the entire apple cart. But in fact, losing Mike made us realize that we just didn’t have a whole lot of good football players around him. That became painfully evident.