Sports Stories

A few sports stories that caught my eye while I was trying to decide if Atlanta really has a pro basketball team...

The only people who seem to be doing great in this dismal economy are Wall Street executives, lottery winners and baseball players. Among the latter, Rafael Furcal might be returning to the Atlanta Braves. The shortstop is mulling over a $30 million, three-year deal. Then again, he may go to the Athletics or stay with the Dodgers. Who knows at this point?

Charles Barkley ripped his alma mater, Auburn, for hiring Gene Chizik to be their head football coach. He would have preferred Turner Gill, head coach of the University of Buffalo, and says the only reason they didn't hire Gill is that he is black. Gill has since signed a contract extention at Buffalo.

Contrary to what Tim Tebow said after the Heisman presentation, Florida coach Urban Meyer says that offensive coordinator Dan Mullen will stay on at Florida long enough to call the plays for Gators in the BCS national championship game. Mullen has been hired to fill the head coaching vacancy at Mississippi State.

Accidents and spins were at their lowest levels in five years in NASCAR's Sprint Cup Series. There were 211 incidents that resulted in a caution flag in 2008, down 12% from the previous year.

And Michael Vick's attorney told a federal bankruptcy judge that Vick could be out of jail and in a Virginia halfway house by late January.