And So Begins the Joey Harrington Era

The Joey Harrington era in Atlanta gets off to a better start than the one he left behind in Detroit a few years ago. Of course, in order for his first start as the Falcons quarterback to be deemed an unmitigated disaster, he'd have to do something worse than murder puppies, so with that perspective, it's probably a little early to declare this team Super Bowl bound.

Despite losing to the Jets, Harrington had a nice showing -- he was 6 of 9 for 88 yards, including passes off 22 and 37 yards -- and more importantly, he seems like he's a willing team leader:

You would have thought the Falcons had just a clinched a playoff spot by Harrington's reaction. He ran around, high-fiving teammates. He ran toward the end zone to greet [Jerious] Norwood [after a touchdown run]. He ran back to the sideline and embraced offensive coordinator Hue Jackson.

The question is if Harrington's teammates are willing to be led ... by him, anyway. You'd like to think so, if for no other reason than because Ron Mexico did such an awful job with the task. But as the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Jeff Schultz writes: "This is the franchise now - faceless and possibly buzzless. But they have 16 games to play, and the same can't be said for Vick."

And that's not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, if Harrington and the Falcons have some early regular-season success, nobody will be talking about Vick except to discuss his likely prison sentence (I've got 18 months in the office pool).