The End Zone: BG's Sheehan still cooling off

10/23/2008
BY RYAN AUTULLO
BLADE SPORTS WRITER

Remember when your mother calmed you by telling you to count to 10? That s sort of the way things are done in college football. In the NCAA s effort to limit meltdowns during postgame press conferences, players and coaches aren t made available to the media until 10 minutes after the final whistle a cooling off period.

But BG quarterback Tyler Sheehan didn t want to take a few deep breaths or punch a pillow Saturday following a disappointing loss to Miami. Sheehan had reached wits end about what he believes is a discipline problem within the team and he aired some dirty laundry publicly. To Sheehan, the Falcons lack of control on the field (they amassed 101 penalty yards) can be linked to arrests and tardiness.

BG coach Gregg Brandon didn t agree with Sheehan s assessment and probably didn t agree with his quarterback s decision to express his thoughts so openly.

Sheehan, though, reiterated his feelings Monday after a 48-hour cooling off period.

Maybe this is a milder version of Joe the Plumber where Sheehan never thought his words would become such a big deal. Or perhaps he wanted the attention of his teammates. Whatever his intentions were, it was brutal honesty from a guy wanting things done the right way.