DeAngelo Hall....

does he not know how this movie will end?


By STEVE WYCHE
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 09/06/06
Flowery Branch — No need to worry about whom DeAngelo Hall will be eating dinner with in Carolina this year.
It won't be with Steve Smith.

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Streeter Lecka / AJC

(ENLARGE)​

Steve Smith burned DeAngelo Hall (above) for a touchdown catch at Carolina last year.

"I don't think it will happen," Hall said of spending pregame time with Smith, as he did before last season's game in Carolina. "It's a little bit of a different mind frame. Last year, it was a Pro Bowl push. This year, I feel like we need a Super Bowl. Period. If I got to put friendships on hold, or whatever, end them, that's cool. This is a business. You best believe, when he's hanging in the air, I will be taking a shot at him. Period. I'm trying to kill people this year. Period."
On the eve of Carolina's 24-6 home victory last season, the Falcons cornerback ate dinner with the Panthers wide receiver, a close friend.
Smith had dessert the next day at Hall's expense when he caught a quick pass near the sideline and close to the line of scrimmage, just beyond the outstretched hands of Hall, and raced 18 yards for a touchdown to break open what had been a tightly fought, one-point game.
Hall's fraternization with the enemy before an NFC South contest raised eyebrows.
The Falcons open their season at Carolina on Sunday. The third-year Falcons cornerback, who is coming off a six-interception season, said he's going to try to inflict his lethal wounds to the Panthers in three different ways.
"I'll be following [Smith] around in certain situations," Hall, 22, said. "I'll be playing receiver. I'll be back on ... special teams. It's time to let all your weapons show. I'm down."
What won't Hall, owner of the NFL's fastest man title, be doing?
"Probably sitting on the bench," he said.
Hall said he has already grown tired of hearing about how great Smith was last season and how Smith is one of the top receivers in the NFL. The evidence (103 catches, 1,563 yards, 12 touchdowns) bears as much, but Hall is still sick of hearing about it.
"I know he's a good receiver, a great receiver," Hall said. "I didn't think he had much success against me. Period. They weren't trying to go downfield with him at all. They threw a couple little narrow routes. Obviously, he broke that one. Bad tackling. Fluke play. You do it 10 times, I make that play nine times. So besides that one fluke play, the guy didn't have that much success against me."
Smith had seven catches for 65 yards and a touchdown in the 24-6 victory Dec. 4. The two Pro Bowl players didn't face each other in the season finale in Atlanta after Hall separated his shoulder the week before at Tampa Bay.
"I've watched every game he had from last season, from our game to playoff games to games where he had 200 yards receiving," Hall said. "I've watched every little thing he does, picked up some tendencies. We're much more prepared for these guys."
Smith isn't the only player Hall watched on film in the offseason. He has become the consummate NFL gym rat, leaving the Pro Bowl in Honolulu to land at the league's draft combine in Indianapolis for no other reason but to be around coaches and players.
"It wasn't unusual for me to come into my office at 7 in the morning in the offseason and walk past the meeting rooms and find D-Hall with his iPod and his headphones on watching film," coach Jim Mora said. "He really loves football. He knows the college game. He knows the pro game. He loves to talk about it. He loves to play it. He's usually in the middle of every animated argument that players have about anything football-related."
During training camp, he was usually in the middle of any argument.
Whenever fights broke out, Hall was either in the center of them or trying to get into the center of them. Most of his outbursts are chalked up to his unyielding desire to beat everybody at everything.
"There's this ongoing contest between him and Lawyer [Milloy] where they flip Gatorade bottles and see if they can make them land standing up," rookie cornerback Jimmy Williams said. "They'll spend 15 minutes at practice, or however much time there is where we're maybe not doing anything, seeing how many times they can get it to flip in the air and land.
"Any little thing he's a part of, he's either trying to win or be the big head honcho."
Hall derives his drive from anything that could be perceived as a slight.
"Yeah, I'm pretty good, and I can have a mediocre rest of my career and be financially set for life," Hall said. "There is something about being great that has nothing to do with money. It has something to do with that respect factor. With me it ain't about the money. It ain't about the fame. It's more about the respect. Until I get that from everybody, and it probably won't ever happen — or until it does happen — it's going to keep me driven or motivated."

 

I'm glad we don't have players like that, or at least that Fox keeps ours under wraps. I would be embarrassed to pull for a team with such behavior, regardless of wins and losses.

 

Another respect fanatic. Man, I have gotten respect at times in my life. It don't pay the bills, it don't make you look good. Respect is overrated. Aretha done fucked these boys up in the head....Just shut up and play...

 

again, we've all seen how the movie ends.

Smith in the endzone celebrating a TD, and everyone else dies.

 

god damn it...

 

Anybody see that clip of Hall blowing all his money on nearly a million in cars?

He was driving his Aston Martin around and scraped the shit out of his oilpan in his driveway. I lost respect for him that day. Him smacktalking Steve Smith doesn't help.

 

Seems to me he's just competitive as hell. He looks to be an almost mirror image of Smith on the opposite side of the ball in ability and attitude.

Look at smitty when he was younger and he did a lot worse than what Hall's done. There was a time when I was ready to see Smith kicked off the team. (the Anthony Bright incident).

I hate the Falcons with the rest of you but don't go being a hypocrite.

 

I wanted Smith gone too, but he doesn't go around talking about how awesome he is these days. Our guys want to win, not to be interviewed. Theirs want the individual spotlight and will throw everyone else under the bus when things go wrong.

 

Yeah, wait until one of the new safeties misses a tackle cleaning up Hall's shit.

 

I kind of like it. Seems like Steve is already in his head.