The Atlanta Braves are in warm, sunny Florida for spring training, which makes me envious for a variety of reasons.

Here we sit in the final days of February, but for many of us the 2020 gridiron season is already spinning in our minds.

Baseball has always been a favorite sport for me to watch. I have been fortunate in my sports journalism career to follow several quality programs and individual teams which have made strong postseason runs.

With every football collegian eligible for play-for-pay status in the National Football League, I reflected on the past when things were decidedly different and, in the process, learned something new about Bulldog history.

About 30 years ago, the spectacle of college football recruiting did not have the massive national fan base it does in 2019.

NEW YORK — The National Football Foundation had its beginnings three-quarters of a century in the past when a football coach, a sportswriter and a five-star general, founded the organization which has always put on a showcase banquet in Manhattan.

If nothing else, they got it right this time.

More than likely, like the rest of the provincial world, you have not paid attention to track at the University of Georgia, where the sport’s signature highlight came and went in a flash more than three-quarters of a century ago.

When it comes to sports, there is one thing that's always common denominator: numbers. 

In the spring of 1964, the new regime at Georgia was busy preparing for its first football season.

Many of us will gather this week with family and take a break from our often-hectic lives to observe another Thanksgiving.

SANTA ROSA BEACH, Fla. — Zeke Bratkowski spent more than four decades of his life on the biggest stages of the National Football League, as a player and coach, and then settled down in this laid-back, seaside community in the Florida panhandle to live out his life in gratifying serenity.

If you happen not to like Tom Crean you have to applaud his boundless energy and over-the-top passion which borders on fanaticism.

Champ Bailey played 15 years in the National Football League, earning respect from all peers and seasoned observers, regarding his cornerback play which was so proficient that he was elected to the NFL Hall of Fame as soon as he was eligible. Some, who would know, say he was the best ever at…

It was another week and another slate of games on the college gridiron.

The Georgia-Notre Dame game is a reminder that the pre-game pontification and prognostication can make fools out of all would be soothsayers.

NEW YORK — Recently, there were heavy downpours at Arthur Ashe Stadium in Flushing Meadows where the United States Tennis Open Championship was played, with Rafael Nadal taking first place in the men’s final.

With another anniversary of 9/11 this week (still seems hard to believe it has been almost two decades ago now since that event), I thought back to how that tragic event trickled down to all areas of our lives even the sports world.

Vincent Joseph Dooley, the Depression-born kid of Irish and Italian descent, is much different in the winter of his life than he was in its spring. That makes him as human as the rest of us.

Cogent leadership in sports has no defined blueprint or template.

When in the company of retired coaches these days, you often hear them remark how much they would enjoy unretiring and landing a five-year contract with today’s exorbitant salaries.

One of our country’s best traditions has returned for another year.

There are many indicators fans use to signal the start of a new football season.

There were few surprises coming out of the annual SEC Media Days this past week.

Rivalries in any sports are always fun, but that especially seems to be true for college football.

Later this month, the sports media will descend upon Hoover, Ala., for the 2019 edition of SEC media days.

It’s amazing how even today, in 2019, so many do not truly understand the role of a community newspaper.

It’s not easy being in charge. That goes for a job inside the sports world (such as a coach or athletic director) or someone who makes a living in the business world.

We will continue to have spring football in 2020 although it will be with one league rather than an expected two.

I drive by two local high school football stadiums on a regular basis and each time I do so it reminds me of how close we are to a new gridiron campaign.

We are now less than three months from the start of a new college football season.