It hasn’t always been easy being an Atlanta Falcons fan. This hasn’t exactly been the Rolls Royce of NFL franchises. More like the Ford Pinto.
But here we sit, less than two weeks from a date with the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LI. I watched every minute of the NFL Championship game against Green Bay, and I still have a hard time wrapping my head around the idea that the Atlanta Falcons – the FALCONS! – are going to the Super Bowl.
But it surely wasn’t always this way. For much of this franchise’s storied history, the team was, shall we politely say, victory challenged.
Consider these facts:
– This year’s team has won 13 games. The team was playing its fifth season – in 1970 – before it tallied 13 total victories.
– The Falcons didn’t have a winning season until they went 9-5 in 1973. They didn’t make the playoffs for the first time until 1978, which was the team’s second-ever winning season.
– The Falcons have won five or fewer games in 20 of the 51 years the team has been in existence.
– Atlanta made the Super Bowl in 1998, making Dan Reeves a hero in Georgia. But even that is tempered by the fact the Super Bowl season is bookended by losing seasons, 7-9 the year before and 5-11 the year after.
We shouldn’t have been surprised at the team’s futility.
In 1966, the Falcons played their first game in Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium, an exhibition against the Philadelphia Eagles. The Falcons were to kick off. The referee blew the whistle. The kicker, a fellow named Wade Thompson, approached the ball.
He whiffed it.
As a child, I loved the Falcons. But they never made the playoffs, so I always had to pick a second team to pull for in the playoffs. I made a smart decision in 1972 to pull for the Miami Dolphins, the only team to finish a season undefeated. I wasn’t as smart a few years later when I started pulling for the Buffalo Bills and O.J. Simpson. Hey, I was young and naïve.
As an adult, I solidified my love for the Falcons, through good and bad. But you often admitted that you were a Falcons fan in the same hushed tones you used to admit you had a cousin who was in jail for robbing a liquor store or you had an uncle who once voted Democratic.
Falcons’ games on Sunday afternoons became a time for naps. Why not? The team often looked like it was napping, too.
Those days, thankfully, seem to be over. Falcons’ fans at last can hold their heads high. The Smith family sold the team to Arthur Blank, who has turned the franchise into a winner with only a few missteps, filed under “Vick, Michael” and “Petrino, Bobby.”
Blank hired Mike Smith as coach. He filled the front office with smart, football-minded people. Together, they brought in great players like Matt Ryan, Devonta Freeman, Mohamed Sanu and Julio Jones. God bless Julio Jones.
Smith became the first coach in franchise history to post back-to-back winner seasons. In his fifth year, he took the team to the NFC Championship game.
Dan Quinn is now the coach, and in only his second season, he’s one win away from a Super Bowl title.
These are giddy times for the fans who were around for all those 4-12 years.
The Patriots are good. Really good. Maybe it’s the fan in me, but I feel good about the game.
Birds by 3.
