Dirty South Pride: The Talent in Atlanta Sports

It's been quite a year for Atlanta sports.

The Braves' demise, the Falcons' rise and the Hawks' surprise (and at least the Thrashers try) all marked 2008. But it was another year come and gone without bringing home a major championship.

Sure, it'd be fun to live in Boston with the Patriots, Celtics and Red Sox, but we can't all enjoy that kind of well-rounded success.

The rest of us have to find other reasons to have pride in our teams. Things like damn good hot dogs or kiss cams or MARTA access do the trick from time to time.

But listen up, Atlanta fans. When some joker from Boston or Florida starts giving you the business about how irrelevant our teams are, here are six good reasons to laugh in their face:

• Michael Turner
• Roddy White
• Joe Johnson
• Ilya Kovalchuk
• Chipper Jones
• Brian McCann

These are your Atlanta All-Stars. These six players were named the best of the best this year. No Bostonian can come into the Dirty South and claim we have no good players or no good teams.

With two playoff teams and six All-Stars, I'd say we're sitting pretty. There are 30+ teams in these leagues and only one can win the championship each year. And its been a long time since that team was the Yankees, Cowboys, or Lakers.

Sports isn't all about the championships. Sure, it'd be nice to have a couple more World Series titles and a Super Bowl win, but its hard not to feel proud about our boys when you go into the stadium and see those banners hanging: division champions, conference champions, league champions, etc.

Or when you turn on the All-Star game or Pro Bowl and see your boys taking the field alongside the game's best players, or when you read preseason discussions about which of your guys could win the Heisman, league MVP, or Rookie of the Year.

We may have down years, but our teams and our players are never out of the discussion. Matt Ryan was the NFL's Offensive Rookie of the Year, Michael Turner was the league MVP runner-up, Jonathan Dwyer was ACC Player of the Year, Matt Stafford could be the top pick in the draft, Chipper Jones won the NL batting title, etc.

Times are good in the Dirty South, even if we're not hoisting championship trophies like they are in the northeast. We are proud of our players' accomplishments year in and year out. If you keep putting talent on the field, the titles will come.

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