Healthy Forney
starting to take off
for Falcons

The former Hawaii star tackle
has shed his rookie status
and is maturing for Atlanta

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By Nick Abramo
nabramo@starbulletin.com

If there's one thing Kynan Forney tries to avoid on the football field, it's getting his cap peeled.

"That's when someone on the offensive line gets blasted," said Forney, the Atlanta Falcons starting right guard.

Forney's linemate, 11-year veteran tackle Bob Whitfield, is the one responsible for letting others know they got their cap peeled.

"When we're watching the tape of a game, we can all laugh about the different plays that we didn't do well on," Forney said. "And believe me, there's a few of those every week."

On Nov. 3 against Baltimore, Forney thought for sure he was going to be the butt of his teammates' jokes.

"After the game, I was telling Whitfield, 'I think I got my cap peeled,' " Forney said. "We were running a toss play and I was pulling behind the tackle and I couldn't see the guy, Bernardo Harris of the Ravens, coming. At the last second, I saw him and braced myself and he ran into me and I fell down. I know it looked bad.

"When we looked at the tape, I was saying, 'Oh man, here it comes. That play.' But that's when I found out our running back, T.J. Duckett, stepped on my foot and I lost balance and that's the real reason I went down. So no one laughed at me and told me I got my cap peeled."

An All-Western Athletic Conference tackle during his senior year for Hawaii in 2000, Forney missed a good portion of his rookie season because of turf toe on his left foot. Earlier this year, he battled turf toe on his right foot.

"It really neutralizes you because you can't push off and do a lot of stuff with your feet," he said.

But he's been healthy enough to start eight games for the Falcons (5-3-1) so far.

The 6-foot-2, 305-pound second-year pro worked hard in the offseason and reduced his body fat from 23 to 15 percent.

"My body has gone through some changes," he said. "I'm a lot faster, more explosive, with more endurance and I'm quicker off the snap on the first two steps."

Fat isn't the only thing Forney has shed. He also lost the rookie duty of buying donuts and fried chicken for veterans and coaches.

"It went a lot further than donuts and chicken," Forney said. "We would also have to pay whenever we went out to eat. It's a lot more fun now, making the new rookies pay. When the bill comes, I just say, 'Y'all pay rooks.' And so they're not very enthusiastic about going out to eat with me."

Forney is enthused with the progress the Falcons have made this season.

"I had a feeling coming into this year that this would be big," he said. "We could have made the playoffs last year and didn't and it left a bad taste.

"(Quarterback) Michael Vick makes us all look a whole lot better. He scrambles around, buys time, makes throws downfield or starts running. He creates lots of problems for defenses."

Forney's biggest moment as a pro came against New Orleans on Oct. 27.

"It was so loud in the Saints' dome that we had to go on a silent count the whole time," Forney said. "But I was on the field-goal unit for the game-winning kick and when the ball went through the uprights, all I could do was fall to my knees and thank God. Everybody had us picked to lose."

Forney's girlfriend, Christine Pascua, and son, Trajan Forney, live in Waipahu. They visited Kynan in Atlanta for a good portion of September.

Forney said he's proud of the Hawaii football team and its 7-2 record, and he wishes them "good luck the rest of the year."

The Warriors are bowl-bound, and Forney is working to help the Falcons become playoff-bound.

"I'm learning how to be a pro better this year," he said. "I'm learning how to prepare better. I know what to look for and know what we're doing. And I'm really able to go out and play more instead of doing too much thinking. Last year, I was learning a different position and getting used to the speed of the game. I'm still not quite there yet, but I'm miles ahead of where I was last year."

And so are the Falcons, who finished 7-9 in 2001, but are unbeaten in their last five games (4-0-1) after a 1-3 start.

"We have a whole new attitude," Forney added. "We've really stuck together after losing our first two games of the season (37-34 to Green Bay and 14-13 to Chicago) that we should have won.

"It's always fun when you're winning."

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Atlanta Falcons