Just in case there was anyone out there wondering, for the better part of the last two weeks I served as the acting news editor for The Moultrie Observer while our newsroom leader Kevin Hall and family spent some time away. Wayne Grandy assumed the role of main sports reporter during that time keeping you up to date on GRPA District 3, Bridge Creek Clays and of course Colquitt County Packer 7-on-7 results.

It was an interesting experience, preparing the overall front page, the editorial page and other pages with community and state news. Now I am back in the sports chair … well, it’s the same chair I’ve used for almost two years here now laying out sports or news … that’s metaphorically speaking, like putting the sports reporter’s cap back on, which is another thing we like to say in this business, all the hats we must wear, though there’s no real hats involved. Most of the ones I wear have a ‘G’ on them colored red and black.

So what kind of stories happened during the time I spent away from the sports scene?

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Damon Evans is an athletic director again. Yes, the former University of Georgia football player and the one who succeeded the legendary Vince Dooley as AD in 2004 is now in charge of the department at the University of Maryland.

Evans, as you will recall, was running the show in Athens for six years until he was charged with DUI and caught with a lady not his wife at the same time.

Just from a standpoint of doing the job, you can’t say Evans’ tenure as Georgia AD was not a success. That’s if you look at the financial numbers, the national championships won or the student-athlete graduation rate.

But all of that means nothing if …

As for Maryland, Evans didn’t just arrive in Terrapin country. He joined them in 2014, served as Chief Financial Officer and then Acting Athletic Director in April.

His departure from UGA is what opened the door for Greg McGarity. You may also remember the controversy surrounding Dooley and his desire to put off his planned retirement one more year, an idea rejected by then president Michael Adams. At that time I was able to see the job description for UGA athletic director.

Quite an extensive number of documents. I could only think, that’s a lot of wordage. Wouldn’t it be easier just to say, “Win football national championships and do whatever else Adams wants?”

Here’s hoping everything with Evans’ life is in order and he has great success at UM.

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The Atlanta Braves lost a game to the Baltimore Orioles where free-agent-to-be Manny Machado hit a home run in the 15th inning. You mean the Braves couldn’t swing a deal with the O’s for the All-Star by the 14th frame?

If you saw the movie “Moneyball,” you learned that, once a player is officially traded, he is gone from that team. No time for goodbyes, just get your stuff and get going, transportation already arranged and waiting for you. It would not have been too far to go for Machado.

True story: some time in the early 1980s a player had a day game and hit a home run. When that game ended, he learned he was traded, and his new team had a night game scheduled that day. He arrived there in time for that game, new uniform and all, went to the plate and hit a second home run for the day, an MLB first.

As for these Braves, they are having trouble recently with teams that look to be fighting to get the No. 1 overall pick in the 2019 Draft (BTW, if you felt a draft, it’s because all the big pro sports leagues held theirs over the last two months). Yet, the Braves still have a better than comfortable lead in the Eastern Division over Philadelphia, not the more loaded yet always underachieving Washington Nationals.

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We’ve known this for quite some time, but former Packer and Florida State lineman Cam Erving is holding a youth football camp for the first time today. It should be fun to see him and who knows who else from the NFL working with the youth at the newly minted digs at the high school.

Erving, as Packer head coach Rush Propst points out, is the only Colquitt County player ever selected in the first round of the NFL Draft. He plays for the Kansas City Chiefs now, but his original stop was Cleveland. Yes, that Cleveland Browns franchise with just one win over the last two years.

From what I read about the NFL structure, it is supposed to be set up to where every team finishes 8-8. Here, Kevin Durant does not sign with the Golden State Warriors, nor can the New York Yankees trade for Giancarlo Stanton after an MVP season (and might snag the aforementioned Machado plus Washington’s Bryce Harper this offseason, if the Red Sox don’t). Yes, one franchise does not threaten to go unbeaten every season, but here we have the Browns living on the opposite end year after year.

Something else about where success is found most often in the NFL defies logic. Who are those consistent yearly winners? New England, Pittsburgh, Green Bay. Not Miami, not Tampa Bay, not Arizona. Here, better success is happening in harsher climates.

The conclusion is that it’s not location, but people, the people who run things be it by coaching, scouting, owning or general managing.

It also should be known that the Atlanta Falcons have the NFL’s highest-paid player and highest-paid running back, but not the highest-paid receiver. Guess which one isn’t guaranteed to show up on opening day, at least not in the same uniform as his rookie year? Do understand, though, I’m not the one starting that rumor.