Word comes from friend o’ the site Jason Kirk that fullback Ovie Mughelli is scheduled to sing the national anthem at the Arena Football League’s Georgia Force game Friday night.

The Georgia Force website also posts some words about Mughelli’s appearance.

I’ve heard Mughelli singing in the locker room. He’s not bad. He’s no William Moore, but he can carry a tune. It’ll be interesting to hear what Mughelli has in front of an arena crowd. Might be more interesting to see what he’s wearing.

I was planning on going to that game anyway, so I’ll let you know how Ovie does. The game is scheduled to be carried live on NFL Network, so let’s hope they show his performance.

What Do You Think Of Ovie Mughelli Singing The National Anthem?online survey

ESPN.com is coming out with power rankings for just about everything these days. I expect the power rankings for all-time greatest TV dad to be out within days (here’s my suggestion for No. 1).

Anyway, ESPN.com released its NFL head coach power rankings today, and Falcons head coach Mike Smith makes the top 10 at No. 9, behind a slew of great NFL coaches.

You can view ESPN’s list of top head coaches here. Four of the eight panelists here didn’t rank Smitty in the top 10 at all. Of the other four, NFC South blogger Pat Yasinskas rated him the highest, at No. 6.

Personally, I think the top four are solid. Things get a little murky after that, for me. Should Tom Coughlin really be as high as No. 6? What about Sean Payton at No. 5? Rex Ryan right behind them?

Makes me wonder what the criteria was. What’s interesting is ESPN.com NFC West blogger Mike Sando’s comments about how he picked “coaches that walked into tough situations, won relatively quickly and then sustained the improvement over more than one season,” yet he didn’t rank Smith, who arguably walked into one of the most difficult situations a coach possibly could and saw immediate success.

What’s your take? Let us know below.

What Do You Think Of ESPN.com’s Rankings?Market Research

Curses? Seems like a whole bunch of mumbo jumbo to me sometimes. But there’s might actually be something to this whole idea of the Madden Curse. If you’re unfamiliar with it, you can read about it here.

It’s not a hard and fast rule that if you end up on the cover of the EA Sports Madden video game that you’ll end up on the trainer’s table at some point that season, it certainly doesn’t seem to help your chances.

If you’re a strong believer in the Madden Curse, you can breathe a little easier today as quarterback Matt Ryan is out of the running to be on the cover of Madden 12.

This year — much different than in past years — fans are getting the chance to vote on who they’d like to see on this year’s cover. There is a bracket-style voting platform that pits NFL stars head-to-head, based on seeds. Ryan, a No. 2 seed, breezed through the first round by beating Carolina’s Jordan Gross 89 percent to 11 percent.

A second-round matchup with Cleveland’s Peyton Hillis, however, was Ryan’s swan song as Hillis eked by with 51 percent of the vote to Ryan’s 49 percent.

How Would You Feel With Matt Ryan On The Cover Of A Madden Game?Market Research

It’s no secret by now that the EA Sports’ Madden 2012 video game will feature a cover model voted on by fans. It’s also no secret that Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan is running roughshod through the bracket.

The final votes in the Sweet Sixteen of the tournament will be tallied today and those moving on will be announced at 4 p.m. Monday on ESPN’s “SportsNation.” Ryan — a No. 2 seed — is currently up against Cleveland running back Peyton Hillis.

In the first round, Ryan easily moved past Carolina’s Jordan Gross with the biggest margin of victory in the first round — 89 percent for the Ice Man; 11 percent for Gross.

If you’re looking to help Matty Ice get into the next round, click here and cast your vote.

Last week was a grueling one for the 40 ladies that currently make up the 2011 Atlanta Falcons as they went through several difficult rounds of auditions. Now, you can put some names with the faces you may have seen during our coverage last week.

Below is the team photo taken after names were announced, with names attached for easy identification. Click on the image to see a larger version of the photo.

A lot of you have asked during the past few weeks if the Falcons have compensatory picks coming to them in April’s NFL Draft.

Well, here’s your answer: Not a single one.

The Falcons weren’t awarded any of the 32 compensatory picks handed out by the league Friday. I won’t attempt to explain this any better than NFL.com did:

“Under the rules for compensatory draft selections, a team losing more or better compensatory free agents than it acquires in the previous year is eligible to receive compensatory draft picks.

The number of picks a team receives equals the net loss of compensatory free agents up to a maximum of four. The 32 compensatory choices announced today will supplement the 221 choices in the seven rounds of the 2011 NFL Draft (April 28-30), which will kick off in primetime for the second consecutive year.”

The Falcons didn’t lose more compensatory free agents last year than they acquired, which would explain the lack of compensatory picks.

The Falcons are still expected to receive the draft picks acquired in the trades of cornerback Chris Houston to Detroit and tackle Quinn Ojinnaka to New England.

There were 23 teams that were awarded compensatory picks, with NFC South rival Carolina making out the best of any of them. The Panthers were awarded three compensatory picks, including one in the third round, because of losing defensive end Julius Peppers to Chicago in free agency.

Click here to see a full list of compensatory picks.

How Do You Feel About Not Being Awarded Compensatory Picks?online survey

We’re back for another round of Photos of the Week. It was an interesting week with Falcons cheerleader auditions taking place, so I tried to get a good mix of things.

Enjoy:

These are the doors on the left front side of the Flowery Branch facility. If there was any question about whether “Rise Up” would stick around for a while, here’s your answer. The door decor is all brand new. I come in this door every morning for work, and now I’ve got a gigantic reminder of my task for the day.

Fridays are pretty casual around the office, as events marketing guru Hamzah Ahmad shows by (foolishly) working with his sunglasses on. His optometrist would not be happy with this.

Last week’s post featured a photo of the fields. So does this one. Now, you can see the progression. Who says watching grass grow isn’t exciting?

There was a bit of time to kill Thursday night after getting everything set up for our live auditions show. Videographers Matt Moore and Robert Gilkes chose to sit and chat. Niki Noto, however, opted for other forms of entertainment.

After the 2011 Atlanta Falcons Cheerleaders team had been named, Falcons team photographer Jimmy Cribb had the task of shooting the group shot. I imagine for most photographers, this process would be like herding cats. With 40 extremely excited people to get organized and doing the same thing at the same time, the task might as well be impossible. Jimmy, however, does a fantastic job of getting people to do what he needs them to regardless of the situation. He’s good at what he does. Here’s a link to Jimmy’s shots from Thursday night.

Which Photo Is Your Favorite?customer surveys

You can always count on ESPN.com NFC South blogger Pat Yasinskas to come up with some really interesting stats, figures or polls to pour over. He doesn’t disappoint once again, as today he wrote about Falcons defensive end John Abraham being the only top 10 pass-rusher from the NFC South represented in ESPN.com’s pass-rush power rankings.

Pass-rush power rankings, you ask? Certainly. Why not?

Anyway, Abe came in at No. 7 in ESPN.com’s rankings — the lone NFC South representative in the top 10. If we look at the mocks, it’s clear that most experts believe the Falcons are looking to improve the pass rush during the offseason, particular in April’s Draft.

But ESPN.com’s rankings really underscore a problem for the entire NFC South. Apparently, it’s a division that’s keeping opposing quarterbacks safe and sound.

To be fair, Abe did anything but that during a Pro Bowl 2010 season with 13 sacks. But outside of him and Carolina defensive end Charles Johnson, who netted 11.5 sacks during a breakout year, the division lacked in this critical area.

Behind those two in the division were New Orleans defensive tackle Sedrick Ellis with 6 sacks, New Orleans defensive end Will Smith with 5, Tampa Bay defensive end Stylez G. White with 4.5 and then Falcons defensive tackle Jonathan Babineaux and New Orleans linebacker Jonathan Vilma with 4 in the top 40 pass rushers from the NFC in 2010.

Those numbers pale in comparison to the NFC East, which had 11 players represented in the top 40 pass rushers in the NFC last year and accounted for an astounding 84.5 sacks.

So while the mocks continue to project the Falcons getting deeper and better at pass rush positions, the same will likely be true of other teams in the NFC South.

And with Carolina, Tampa Bay and New Orleans all drafting before the Falcons in the first round, it could be a safe bet to see a pass rusher Atlanta wants on the opposite side of a division rivalry.

Now, to the poll:

What Would Upset You More During The Draft?online surveys

We’re just hearing now about some of the proposed rule changes passing by owners vote this afternoon. The one big rule change that seems to be pretty polarizing is moving kickoffs from the 30-yard line to the 35 — a proposal that easily passed today.

While touchbacks will remain at the 20-yard line instead of being moved up to the 25, many fans in my completely informal and unscientific Twitter poll are upset about the new rule change.

Yes, this most certainly has to do with the ability of Eric Weems to take a kickoff to the house — an ability which will now be slightly more difficult to see with kickers getting an extra 5 yards per kick. But this also works in the Falcons’ favor.

In 2010, one of the most overlooked storylines was Falcons’ kickers consistency on kickoffs. The Falcons kicked off 103 times last season. Of those kicks, 44 ended up in the end zone. Of those 44, 21 were touchbacks.

That’s 21 times that a team was forced to cut their losses on the kickoff — a very dangerous scoring play — and just take the ball at the 20.

Now, think about how that will intensify with the new rule changes. As one of my Twitter followers suggested, we’ll likely have to put up the net on kickoffs from now on.

What do you think?

What Do You Think Of The Kickoff Rule Change?online survey

Rich McKay, Falcons team president and chairman of the NFL’s Competition Committee, held a news conference Monday to discuss some of the changes that are being proposed to the rule book for the upcoming season.

I talked a little bit about one of the main rule-change proposals — changing the kickoff yard line — that’s gotten quite a bit of traction the past week or so, but McKay spent a good deal of time Monday explaining a change to the language of the defenseless player rule.

I won’t pretend to know everything there is about legal jargon and official NFL mumbo jumbo, so I’ll do my best to use McKay’s words instead of trying to explain it myself.

A section has been added to the defenseless player rule to take into account “illegal launching,” which McKay explained as, “When a player leaves both feet either prior to or during contact to spring forward and upward, and then strikes the opponent with the initial force being with his helmet.”

McKay goes on to explain that changes in equipment technology over the years has created a mindset amongst players that helmets and shoulder pads are “almost armament,” McKay said, instead of protection.

This rule, as McKay stated, is directed at trying to get the technique of launching out of the game.

Also proposed is an expansion of the definition of a defenseless receiver. We’ve all seen plays in recent years where we’ve thought a personal foul penalty should be called because a receiver was in a defenseless position when getting hit. McKay and the Competition Committee are looking to more clearly define the term:

“Basically, what we’re saying in this rule is that a defenseless receiver is one defined as, ‘either attempting to catch a pass, or who has completed a catch and has not had time to protect himself, or who has not clearly become a runner.’ We’re just trying to expand that window. We’ve got a lot of players, too many players, that are catching the ball, landing with two feet on the ground (and) before they can do anything, they get hit and they get hit in the head. In our mind, that’s kind of defenseless.”

Concerning the more noted kickoff rule, McKay said this rule is 100 percent about player safety. The proposal, if approved, would move the kickoff yard line from the 30 to the 35 to encourage more touchbacks.

“I don’t blame any of them for saying, ‘Wow, this is a big change.’ It is a proposed big change,” McKay said. “I don’t blame anybody for pushing back. But our focus in this one was dealing with what we saw and felt with respect to the safety issues, and the need to propose some changes, these are the proposals we came up with.”

That proposal could be voted on by the owners today.

By the way, if you’re interested in reading McKay’s news conference transcript, you can find it right here.

Also, if you’d like a little more context and opinion on what these changes mean, NFL.com has got you taken care of.

UPDATE (1 p.m.): Owners have voted to move kickoffs up to the 35-yard line, but the proposal to start touchbacks at the 25-yard line was turned down. Touchbacks will continue to start at the 20.

Now, tell us your thoughts.

What Rule Changes Would You Like To See?customer surveys

Last week, I shot a blog post out about the numerous ways you can get your questions about the Falcons, or anything else for that matter, answered.

The response was overwhelming and I received a lot of good questions during the weekend, which allows me to start a new feature I’ll call Mailbag Monday (because, around here, we’re pretty big on alliteration; i.e, Wordle Wednesday, Photo Friday, etc.).

If you’re interested in having your questions answered, check me out on Formspring, where you can anonymously submit questions to me without having to sign up for anything. You can always ask your questions on Twitter and Facebook, if you prefer those methods.

I’m just going to select a few questions this week and keep a few for the next few weeks, so if your question isn’t answered here, don’t be discouraged. You’ll likely see it in the next few weeks.

One more thing, I’ll always take the questions and apply them here as you write them. I won’t edit them at all, so that in most cases we don’t lose the meaning or context of a question. Therefore, if you’re a stickler on grammar, spelling and punctuation, check your question before submitting. If not, no worries. I can decipher darn near anything.

Anyway, on to the mailbag:

Question: do u know u r the luckiest guy? to be able to hang with th Falcons all the time? Jay i may not know every single detail about the guys but i have been a Falcon fan since i was little. i love my Falcons…..

Answer: Yes, I do know that I’m extremely lucky to be doing what I’m doing right now. Every morning I walk in the building, I take a moment to remind myself of where I started out and the dreams I had and how I’ve accomplished those goals I set for myself. It’s an amazing feeling when you get to a point you’ve always hoped you could, so if you’re currently working toward a goal right now, I highly recommend seeing it through, no matter how difficult things get. The payoff is totally worth it.

Q: Will Gonzalez be back next season?

A: Yes, from all indication, Tony Gonzalez will be back for the 2011 season.

Q: What is the status of Jerious Norwood? Will he be back as a Falcon this year?

A: I’ve heard nothing new about Jerious since he went on injured reserve, so I don’t know if he’ll be back this season. As soon as I know something, I’ll be sure to post it, but as of right now, he’s still a Falcon.

Q: do you have any inside information on the Falcons cheerleaders?

A: They’re currently in a very busy time of the year. Preliminary auditions took place yesterday and the field was cut down to, I believe, around 40 finalists. Those finalists will audition again Thursday night and then the final 2011 team will be named after that round. We’ll be streaming the final auditions live Thursday night, so definitely check that out. That’s all the inside information I have on the cheerleaders, but something tells me that wasn’t the purpose of the question…

Q: What position would you personally like to see the Falcons address in the first round?

A: I’ve said several times that people are going to have a hard time pinning me down to one pick I’d like to see the Falcons take in the first round. Positions are another story, but I doubt my answer is going to be all that satisfying to folks who want to get that one, solid, concrete answer from me (which, by the way, would likely be incorrect come the first round anyway). I’ll say this: I could see defensive end or offensive line addressed in the first round. I’ve looked at all the mocks and the roster and I’ve basically narrowed it down to these two positions. Is that what will happen? Possibly not. Well, probably not. The front office doesn’t ask my opinion on who we should draft, and rightfully so. But those two positions seem to make the most sense. I’ll also say that I could see a trade-back scenario or a best-player-available scenario happening. It’s too soon to tell and we’re picking too late to get a good read on something so specific.

Q: When did you decide you wanted to cover sports and why?

A: Honestly, I don’t know if it was ever a conscious decision. Sports have always been a huge part of my life. You name it, I played it. I played offensive line throughout high school and a year at the D-III level, but decided I was way too short to get any significant playing time, so I hung up the spikes. I guess a huge part of me wanted to keep sports in my life in some capacity, and since I was in school to become a writer, covering sports just seemed to be the natural fit. I spent six years in newspapers, covering every sport under the sun — from wrestling to regattas — but pro football was and will always be my passion. Covering sports allows you the leeway to have fun with what you’re doing. After all, at the end of the day, these are just games. What’s more fun than that? If you’re looking to get into covering sports, my biggest advice to you is to not take yourself too seriously.

Q: The extra draft picks the Falcons receive from the Quinn trade to NE and the Chris Houston trade to Detroit (especially) are all over the place. Which picks do the Falcons get, per the Falcons?

A: Excellent question, and to preface, the asker is referring to the compensatory picks the Falcons are due to receive because of the trades of Quinn Ojinnaka and Chris Houston. The answer is that there is no answer yet. These picks are usually named during the owners meetings, which are occurring this week in New Orleans. What I’m hearing is that those picks will now be announced at a later date. So, sit tight. We may not know for a bit.

Sad news to report today as the Atlanta Journal-Constitution writes that former Falcon Drew Hill passed away late Friday night.

The AJC reports that Hill became ill while playing golf Thursday and was admitted to the hospital. Former Falcons running back Jamal Anderson tweeted that he had heard Hill was in bad condition Friday, saying Hill had suffered a “massive stroke.”

Hill was originally drafted by the Rams and played with the Houston Oilers before finishing his career with the Falcons in 1992 and 1993. The wide receiver played in 32 games with Atlanta, scoring three touchdowns for the Falcons.

Each week, my trusty camera and I are going to go around the building here in The Branch and gather some shots for you. Here’s the first installment of Photos of the Week.

You may recall a few weeks ago that the Falcons were chosen by the Atlanta Sports Council as the Team of the Year. Well, here’s the nice, shiny award we got for that.

The NCAA Tournament started Thursday and that means brackets were everywhere. Here’s a shot of our new media video guru Robert Gilkes‘ bracket. Might as well write “busted” on it. He picked Louisville.

Speaking of the NCAA Tournament, here’s Tron Stamper on his lunch break. Multi-tasking at its best.

A welcome sight for any of us who are tired of cold weather. The grass on the practice fields is starting to turn from brown to green. It’ll be 90 degrees before we know it.

Step into creative services director Mike Benford‘s office and you’re bound to find something interesting. Here are a couple of tubes he created for a marketing promotion recently. I’d love to pull into a drive-thru teller at the bank and find one of these babies sitting there.

I wrote earlier today about one of the main rule change proposals that owners will have a chance to vote on, which is moving the kickoff from the 30-yard line to the 35.

NFL.com blogger Adam Rank takes a tongue-in-cheek approach to some other changes that he thinks should be made to the NFL rule book.

Well, two can play that game. Here are three of my suggestions:

• No. 1: If a team scores a touchdown and a commercial break is taken directly afterward, there’s no reason for there to be another TV timeout after the kick returner takes a knee in the end zone. That’s, like, five minutes of TV time with 10 seconds of football action. Spread it out.
• No. 2: A mercy rule/running clock rule should be instituted. If you’re a professional football team and you’re losing by more than 40 points at halftime, sorry, but we move to a running clock for the whole second half or until you cut the deficit by half. Time is short these days, and if we wanted to watch a three-hour disappointment, we’d put in our VHS copy of Avatar.
• No. 3: Make all linemen eligible to receive passes. We do it in pickup and flag football games, why not the NFL? Institute a mandatory five Mississippi count on the pass rush and allow the offensive linemen to go out for passes. Not only will this completely change the way the game is played, it’ll provide some really entertaining celebrations.

What’s your favorite?

Which Of Jay’s Rule Change Proposals Would You Like To See?survey software

Most folks think of Facebook and Twitter as all of social media. Truth is, there are a slew of social media sites and technologies popping up all over the place.

Take, for instance, Foursquare — a geolocating social medium, which means you check in at the places you go and earn points for it to compete with your friends (you can friend me there).

Formspring.me has been around for a little while, but it hasn’t gathered a whole lot of steam. Basically, Formspring.me allows you to ask questions to someone who creates a profile completely anonymously, if you wish.

So, I created an account. While I’m completely accessible on Facebook and Twitter, you can now go to my Formspring.me profile and ask me any question you’d like about the Falcons, our coverage on AtlantaFalcons.com or whatever you like without the hassle of people, or me, knowing who you are.

Each week, I’ll compile a few of the best questions and answer them in a mailbag post.

Go here to ask me a question. No need to create your own profile if you don’t want to.

As the game of football evolves, so do the rules.

We’ve seen how much of the game has changed in recent years, and that’s why the league has what’s called the Competition Committee to discuss and recommend possible changes to the game to make it more fair or safe or whatever the case may be.

One of the most notable issues that could find a solution this season is that of player safety during kickoffs and kickoff returns.

USA Today’s blog, The Huddle, writes that the Competition Committee — which is chaired by Falcons president Rich McKay — has proposed moving kickoffs from the 30-yard line to the 35-yard line.

The Huddle notes that kickoffs were moved from the 35 to the 30-yard line previously to encourage more kick returns, but now that we’ve seen a rash of injuries happening on kickoffs and kickoff returns, we could see kickoffs moved back to their original starting point to encourage more touchbacks.

With so much scrutiny on the game for the injuries it can cause and the lifestyles it can affect for players after they retire, perhaps trying to induce more touchbacks wouldn’t be such a bad thing. I know any team that faces Devin Hester, Josh Cribbs or Eric Weems would likely be in favor of it.

What say you?

What Do You Think Of The Kickoff Proposal?Market Research