Born and raised in North Atlanta, I live and breathe Atlanta Pro Sports. In the fall, I’m rooting for those Dirty Birds on Monday Night; in the winter and early spring, I’m on the edge of my seat as the Hawks go to work in Philips Arena; and if there’s any indication of how much I love those Bravos, it’s those twenty games I went to at Turner Field the summer before my freshman year of college.
But being an Atlanta fan is not exactly the easiest bandwagon to hop on. The only major league title the city has belongs to the 1995 Braves, who had *five* World Series appearances in the 1990s (91, 92, 95, 96, 99). The Hawks have never made it to the NBA Finals, and the only other time the Falcons have made it to the Super Bowl was 1999, where we were crushed by the Broncos.
Sunday’s Super Bowl game in Houston against the New England Patriots is about as Atlanta as it gets—a decisive dominance at the start and an a tragic last-second downfall. It’s an outcome so unsurprising to a Falcons, Braves or Hawks fan that personally all I could do last night was shrug my shoulders and accept it.
But despite the continuation of an age-old tale, that Super Bowl game meant so much more to the people of Atlanta than just the opportunity to raise the Lombardi Trophy. It was a moment where a true underdog city was reminded of what it’s capable of.
Before the Super Bowl, a Boston sports writer talked about how pathetic a sports city Atlanta is—little does he know what it’s like to actually be one of us. Sure we’re not a city that gets to see a championship game—let alone win one—on a regular basis, but our fan base is stronger for it. It feels physically impossible to be a fair-weather Atlanta fan given our track record, and yet even on the rebuild years, you’ll see a good crowd at the home games.
The fact is, we were a young team playing against an all-time great—Tom Brady. We played in one of the most historic games in Super Bowl history, and the result won’t be remembered as the Patriots winning, but as the Falcons losing. And given how everyone expected the game to go—a total blowout by one of the most dominant teams in NFL history—the 2016 Falcons’ story won’t end with that game.
Sunday’s game was not only a tale of a legend, but also the tale of a team on the rise. And if there’s anything being from Atlanta has taught its fan base, it’s that you have to be patient. We learned that with Braves baseball in the 1990s, we continue to learn that with this decade’s Falcons football.
At the end of the day, like any proper Atlanta fan, I’m still unbelievably proud of what Matt Ryan and the Atlanta Falcons did this year. No one expected us to even make it to the NFC Championship, or ever have a 25-point lead at the Super Bowl. And despite the disappointment and frankly the lack of shock that pairs with it, this is why I’ll always be coming back next season, hollering “Rise Up!” once again.
