Oh Atlanta

Not to brag, but I think I was the only one who was not shocked by the Atlanta Falcons blowing a 25 point lead in the third quarter to lose Super LI to the New England Patriots.

After all, I've lived in Atlanta all my life ( okay, Marietta) and I just assume an Atlanta sports team is going to do something goofy to lose an important game.

If it is not being deked out by a second baseman, it is a reliever hanging a slider to a second string catcher. It is having an infield fly rule called on a ball hit to left field.  That's just three things that happened to the Braves.

The Hawks drafted probably the best player of his era, but due to a contract snafu, only plays one game as a Hawk ( Julius Erving).

The Flames brought NHL hockey to Atlanta but they moved to Calgary in 1980. Of course, they won  The Stanley Cup eight years later.

But, the Falcons hold a special place in our hearts, because they have been a "special" franchise since the beginning.

The very first play in Falcon history was a kickoff. The Falcon kicker ran up to kick the ball. He missed it. I am not making this us.

It doesn't get much better.

One year, The Falcons were pretty competitive and they were even on "Monday Night Football", which was a big deal back then. They beat the mighty Minnesota Vikings. Atlanta was all abuzz about The Falcons making the playoffs.

Do I have to tell you their season fell apart after that game? Head Coach Norm Van Brocklin blamed "bartenders and Peachtree Street hookers".  Norm wasn't a player's coach.

How could we forget poor old Dave Hampton?  In the last game of the season, Hampton became the first running back in Falcon history to run for 1,000 yards. The game was stopped and Hampton was awarded the ball he carried for such a milestone. On the next play from scrimmage, he suffered a six-yard loss and finished the season with 994 yards. Again, I am not making this up.

The last time the Falcons went to the Super Bowl, they seemed more concerned with a new end zone dance they created ("The Dirty Bird" think of a new version of "The Funky Chicken") than with actually winning The Super Bowl. One player was arrested for seeking the services of a working girl. The Falcons got killed.

Now matter. The Falcons were on their way. The first game of the next season, their star running back, Jamaal Anderson, blew out his knee.

In this century, we had a truly incredible quarterback who was put in federal prison for dog fighting. A head coach quit before the end of the season to move to Arkansas.

I thought the Falcons had more than a puncher's chance at winning The Super Bowl. Turns out I was right. The Falcons were better than New England for three-quarters. The only problem is there are four quarters in football.

The GOAT of New England (GOAT stands for Greatest Of All Time), Tom Brady, knew what he had to do to win. Atlanta didn't. That's all there is to it.

So now Atlanta has to deal with another funky loss. We were close. But close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.
 
But at least we have pretty women. It will start feeling like spring around here pretty soon.

Which means Braves baseball is just around the corner, waiting to tear out our hearts.