Pro Sports

ATLANTA — For a little while longer, Michael Turner can go incognito, if he chooses. It's his theory he could walk down the middle of Peachtree and not arouse much notice, even now after starring in the most jaw-distending Falcons debut ever.

"I low-profile it. I'm enjoying that while I can," Turner said.

The days of melting into the crowd are quickly evaporating. Having spent a good chunk of his 26 years trying to run away from anonymity, it looks like Turner finally is pulling free of its gravity.

Check out this appearance at the ESPN Zone on Thursday night. Disguised beneath loose jeans and an oversized long sleeve dress shirt was 244 pounds of running back. The gathering, a couple hundred fans strong, recognized Turner as soon as he ambled into the room. The ovation was immediate and from the gut. Every flickering hope for an often-cursed franchise was laid at Turner's feet.

It wasn't until the last of his four seasons in San Diego that you could even find a Turner souvenir jersey. This night, the room was dotted with brand new No. 33 Falcons issue.

As the first 100 days of a presidency are said to be most important, the first seven days of Turner's ascendancy was most telling. On season-opening Sunday, he ran through and past the Detroit Lions for 220 yards, shattering Gerald Riggs' 24-year-old single-game team record. He wasn't LaDainian Tomlinson's stand-in anymore.

This is what he brings to the party, besides his on-the-field stunts: An easy-going manner. A ready smile. A habit of punctuating every other sentence with a staccato laugh, one that prompts his friends to label him "goofy."

Michael "The Burner" Turner also seems to have a very good grasp on how to be famous. Maybe it was all those years in San Diego around Tomlinson, one of the league's classiest stars. Turner never blinked during his first week as a main event.

"Mr. Turner, are you and Matt Ryan going to turn the Falcons around?"asked a boy at the ESPN Zone.

Without pause, Turner let loose another smile and said, "Of course. There will be a lot of exciting football this year. I can promise you that."

The Falcons didn't sign Turner to a six-year, $34.5 million deal to stay in the shadows. Their remodeling under new coach Mike Smith depended on such bedrock ideals as running the ball. In Turner and Jerious Norwood, the Falcons thought they had a very workable change-of-pace combination.

But no projection was optimistic enough to predict 318 yards on the ground against the Lions.

The gains surely will come more grudgingly today in Tampa. Still, the gifts of that Lions game just kept giving all week.

Last Saturday, Turner attended his first Fox network pre-game production meeting. He didn't know such things existed, meetings in which selected key players talk with the broadcast team to fill in details of their lives. That was but a little light stretching for the questions to come.

Monday, when the players arrived in the locker room, a regular media phalanx (by Atlanta standards) awaited Turner.

"All the requests, everybody wanting something. ... You like the attention but you know you got to put that aside," he said.

Welcome to notoriety, Mr. Turner. Don't trip over the wires and the lights.