Matthew Brown: Videos don't lie, but faces ...?

May 3—Say it isn't so.

Cheating scandals in sports are for all the other 49 states in the union so we here in Georgia can point our fingers and laugh about how we do it right. Michigan. Houston. Any other hated rival who hasn't been caught yet. That's the only way they can win big.

But this week, the head baseball coach of Texas A&M says he saw a video — and now I've seen it — of a University of Georgia pitcher doing something in the corner of the bullpen. No, not that. He was scrunched down, and the activity going on is shielded by the pitcher's thigh. Then he's looking at and fiddling with his glove as he's walking.

The pitcher is Christian Mracna. The coach is Jim Schlossnagle. I am so glad pronunciations are up to the reader.

In two innings of relief, Mracna had six strikeouts in the game in question, which Georgia won 5-4. It was the first save this season for the graduate transfer. The Bulldogs avoided an SEC sweep in College Station, which means five straight conference series have gone 2-1 or 1-2 for UGA to put them at 10-11 in the league.

Whatever the coach thought was going on in the corner, it did not cost the Aggies the No. 1 national ranking in at least two polls.

Why the secrecy, you, he and others may ask? I do not know Mranca nor his tendencies, so I cannot answer for him. It appears the school has yet to offer an answer either.

The accusation is about foreign substances. Gaylord Perry passed away about two years ago, so he must be looking down and smiling knowing that his 1970s tricks haven't died with him. But where was that stuff, though, when Georgia had a 9-0 lead after one inning in that same Texas A&M series and wound up losing 19-9 in seven?

Did UGA go out to the great state of Texas to cheat? Heavens no. Now the umpires are going to start checking college pitchers' gloves after every inning. And is everyone going to be on alert the next time Macaroni or Hey Macarena starts to warm up in the Bulldog pen?

Oh, the Sausage Dog or Wiener Schnitzel wasn't done. Another online report says this, "He also says that the accused rival is batting .100 points higher at home than they are on the road." Didn't specify, but the idea is that somebody is getting a live feed of the visitors' dugout at their home park.

Sure hope the Aggies win the SEC championship. Don't want to hear about a rigged tournament.

Let's move on to everyone's favorite topic of discussion since last Thursday night.

Me, I kept waiting for a trade announcement. Yep, those five big uppercase letters are bound to pop up on the screen at any moment. The Atlanta Falcons and the Denver Broncos ... O.K., the Las Vegas Raiders ... New York Giants? ... Seattle Seahawks, and that's my final offer.

Surely, the Falcons drafted a quarterback with a top 10 pick as a way to move down and get some much needed defensive support at edge rusher. Dominique Wilkins became an Atlanta Hawk via a draft-day trade with the Utah Jazz, and then the Hawks gave up Luka Doncic to the Dallas Mavericks for Trae Young a few decades later, so it's happened before.

Here it is more than a week later, and we have to come to grips with it. National championship runner-up Michael Penix Jr.'s draft rights belong to the Falcons, the same Falcons that committed nine figures to a free agent named Kirk Cousins. Why draft Penix Jr. if you signed Cousins? Why sign Cousins if you intend to draft Penix Jr.?

You hear the goods and bads depending on who is speaking. Penix Jr. is ready to go, not like Jordan Love needing three years in Green Bay (congrats to Javon Bullard BTW). Or, you need as good an insurance policy as possible given Cousins' age and injury history. But then injury history and Penix Jr. are synonymous terms. Penix Jr. playing now and possibly getting you deep in the playoffs means he's doing it on a rookie contract nowhere near what you are giving Cousins.

That's the hot thing to do in the NFL right now. Use a young productive quarterback you don't have to give half the city to and spread the rest of the big money out to the other pieces of a winning team. You could say it got Cincinnati, Philadelphia and even San Francisco to Super Bowls (yes, they are 0-3 in those games, but everyone from Dallas to Atlanta was watching those games).

Maybe it will finally bring "Hard Knocks" to Atlanta.

One more draft note, I was hoping Georgia tight end Brock Bowers would end up in the southeast, like with the Tennessee Titans. He's selected instead by those Raiders.

Much was said about daddy Bowers' sour reaction to the news, but if you kept watching after the highlight clip from Athens days, you will see a smile eventually appears on his face and a whole lot of celebrating behind him.

Maybe I can study video better than a baseball coach, but first we see Bowers returning to his couch probably after a call from Raider people. Some exhibit excitement, others must be waiting for his name to appear on a screen. Think about satellite delays, and he did have a Raiders cap handy.