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Falcons bank on big hitter from little town

This may not encourage the masses who long for someone to commit sanctioned battery inside the Georgia Dome. But once upon a time, they called the Falcons new designated hit man Cotton Candy because little Keanu Neal was as soft as spun sugar.

Heaven knows Neal as a youngster had many of the essentials for a future career in football.

“He was an angry little kid,” said big brother Clint Hart. “When he was a baby, he was very feisty – biting, temper tantrums.”

And a childhood spent in tiny Webster, Fla. — a map speck located somewhere in the palmetto and pines between Ocala and Tampa — did not offer an extensive list of distractions or alternatives.