FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. -- Falcons teammates Thomas Brown and William Middleton have known each other since they were 11 years old, playing Little League football for the Tucker Lions.
Fellow teammates Harry Douglas and D.J. Shockley have known each other since Douglas was in the 10th grade, his Jonesboro High Cardinals competing against intra-county foe North Clayton in football and basketball.
Brown and Middleton also were rivals in high school, with Brown starring at Tucker and Middleton at Marist.
On a professional football team such coincidences are rare, but not as much on the Falcons, who are chock full of home-grown talent on their training camp roster. Fully 12.5 percent of the roster – 10 out of 80 players – list hometowns or universities in the Peach State where the pigskin becomes a way of life at this time of year.
“Really it starts at the high school level,” said defensive coordinator Brian VanGorder, who was part of the University of Georgia staff that recruited Brown. “In Georgia, it’s important to the people, it’s important to the coaches and since you have a lot of emphasis on it, it’s just played very well and it’s exciting to the people.
“And any time people are excited in our sport, it’s contagious to the player.”
Contagious it is.
Only two Falcons, Verron Haynes (Georgia) and Vance Walker (Georgia Tech), came from out of state to play college football here. The rest all list Georgia hometowns. They are: Brown, Douglas, Tony Gilbert (Macon/Georgia), Aaron Kelly (Marietta), Middleton (Atlanta), Robert Shiver (Thomasville), Shockley (College Park) and Tony Tiller (Stone Mountain).
That 10 does not include placekicker Jason Elam, who attended Snellville’s Brookwood High but lists Fort Walton Beach, Fla., as his hometown.
“I think football here is just a big, big deal,” Elam said. “I’ve got a 12-year-old little boy now and he just started playing football here and I went out to the first practice and just to see the passion behind it and how serious the parents take it, it’s just a lot more intense than it was in, say, Colorado, where I spent 15 years.
“They really promote it. They put a lot of time and effort into it. I think of Brookwood where I went to high school and I remember going all the way back it was kind of like farm teams. They had a certain way they wanted to do it so they knew when they got to high school they were going to know their system and they were going to be ready… It’s just a big deal. So it pays off when they go to high school and you see a lot of kids getting scholarships and then there’s probably a lot of guys in the pros from this area.”Gilbert is used to seeing those fellow pros with Georgia ties.
“Even when I was in Jacksonville, wherever I’ve been, there’s always Georgia players,” he said. “It’s just how we’re bred here at Georgia and University of Georgia.”
Asked why they thought Georgians predominated on the roster, players gave a variety of reasons from a magical presence being present in the water to the steamy weather that gives rise to the appellation “Hotlanta.”
However, there is no doubt that chief among them is the early start that many get because of the state’s passion.
“Georgia’s always been big on football and sports period,” Brown said. “Football is a big thing in the South. You just have a lot of talented guys. I remember in high school getting recruited, the coaches would tell you that Georgia is one of the hottest places to come to get young talent.
“I don’t know if it’s something brewing in the water or if it’s just coincidence that we have a lot of guys raised in Georgia who play great football.”
Middleton, who grew up in Gwinnett County, said he played Little League in Tucker because of the program’s record of success that helped him to “sharpen his skills.”
“It’s just always hot for one thing,” Middleton said. “We always seem to have the most speed. Guys want to compete.”
Gilbert also said his early introduction at age 7 was instrumental.
“My father put me in midget league football,” he said. “He put me in, not to try and make a career out of it, but to instill discipline and learn how to work with teammates. You know, just like things a young boy needs to work on to make him out to be a man.”
Elam summed it up succinctly.
“It’s in the culture,” he said.
Day Two -- Sunday, Aug. 2, 2009
9:35 a.m./3:45 p.m. Practice
@FalconsJMoore "Words of the Day"
- TRANSCRIPT: Head Coach Mike Smith talks after the first practice
- FEATURE: State of Georgia produces talent for Falcons
- VIDEO: Head Coach Mike Smith | Sidbury | Reynolds
- BLOGS: J. Michael Moore's blog posts from Aug. 2, 2009
- PHOTOS: Images from the team's second day (Flickr)
