Mora apologizes for outburst
"If I offended anyone, I apologize," coach says
By STEVE WYCHE
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 12/27/05
Flowery Branch ? Falcons owner Arthur Blank and president and general manager Rich McKay met with coach Jim Mora Monday evening about his emotional outburst during and after a radio interview following the team's 27-24 overtime loss to Tampa Bay Saturday.
No disciplinary action was planned, according to team officials, but Blank said he and McKay felt the need to address the situation, among other football-related issues, for which Mora publicly apologized Monday after being questioned by reporters at a news conference.
"It's not that I'm angry at him. I love Jimmy. I just want him to understand that there are better ways to deal with things," Blank said while driving to the Flowery Branch headquarters to speak with Mora. "He has to set standards. There are ways to act when things don't go well."
Blank said that he, McKay and Mora probably would speak again after the season for an additional assessment about the direction of the team, which was knocked out of the playoffs with the loss to Tampa Bay.
Mora admitted throwing a radio headset to the ground when radio analyst Dave Archer asked him about possibly running a play on fourth-and-two instead of punting late in the overtime. The Buccaneers kicked the game-winning field goal a few plays after returning the punt. Mora answered the question before tossing the headset and ending the interview.
"The question that Dave asked, there was nothing at all wrong with it," Blank said. "It wasn't off base; it was fair. Jimmy knows better."
"I just was emotional, upset as anyone who just fought their guts out would be," Mora said. "I took the headphones down and slammed them down. The things bounced and I walked out. I wasn't in a mental state, at that time, to talk anymore. We'd been through too much for too long."
Mora said he does not think he has an emotional issue and that what happened Saturday was a rare occurrence when frustration overrode professionalism. He has been accommodating during every public media appearance this season, including Saturday, when he addressed reporters about 25 minutes after the game.
"I'm not perfect," Mora said. "There are going to be times, because of emotions [of] a tough loss [or] getting knocked out of the playoffs, you don't react the way you want to. I'm not trying to alienate anybody, the media, anybody. It's something I've got to get better at."
Mora said he apologized to Archer near the team bus before it left Raymond James Stadium for the team flight back to Atlanta. Archer said he and Mora ironed things out, then and spoke twice more that evening. Mora appeared on a weekly radio show Monday night with Archer and play-by-play announcer Wes Durham and apologized on air.
"It's all behind us," said Archer, a former Falcons quarterback who played for the San Diego Chargers when Mora was an assistant coach there. "We've spoken and it's over with. We even wished each other a Merry Christmas."
Blank said he has spoken to Archer early Monday and Archer told him that Mora had apologized and things were fine. It is not known if Blank spoke to anyone else with Infiniti Broadcasting, the parent company of Dave-FM, which broadcasts the games.
Rick Caffey, senior vice president/market manager for Infinity Atlanta Radio Group, declined comment other than saying, "It's all behind us."
Mora said he would prefer not to do live postgame radio shows after this season. It is not known if he stated his wishes to team officials before Saturday's incident or whether he would lose any income should he opt out of a radio agreement.
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Mora under pressure here.
Going for the tie and not the win thing, is not a good tag to have placed on your back in the NFL.
Even his Dad critisized him on ESPN, I think it was.
This game will not be played to win by Mora, this game will be played not to make any stupid calls or decisions.Its called keeping your job.
In trying not to make a bad call, usually some crazy things happen to make it worse. Can almost gaurantee there will be some crazy play that will be the talk of the NFL.
When that happens , this play wins.
This is a big key to winning this game.
Just get the season over with, and get ready for a good draft and free agent spending.
