A few weeks ago, I wrote an article titled the Pain of a Georgia Sports Fan. It was in this article I wrote of the heartbreak that sports fans in Georgia are accustomed. After all, if you total up the Braves, Falcons, Hawks, Thrashers ( Now the Winnipeg Jets), and the Flames (now the Calgary Flames) seasons in Atlanta, there have been 170 seasons played (give or take a few due to strikes). The city has 1 professional championship, which was my 1995 Braves winning the World Series. The city has gotten close with the Falcons, twice now, and The Hawks a few times, but neither have been able to do what it takes to win a championship.
This year seemed different for the city. For the first time, people were wearing their "dirty bird" shirts and their Falcons Jersey, and we had a leader on the field with Matt Ryan, and a football mind on the sideline in Dan Quinn. No one expected a team that struggled to win 6 games a year ago have the type of season they had.
Chicago is a baseball city, and always has been. Specifically the Cubs on the North Side. The city got a taste when The White Sox won the series, and the Blackhawks took home the Stanley Cup, but pain was ever present for Cubs fans. They had been through so much with their team. Teams from the 60s that looked like they were gonna kill the curse of the Billy Goat, until a Black Cat ran in front of an on deck batter, causing their luck once again to fail. Then the Cubs made a run in 2003, which was an all but certain win, until a fan reached over the stands, preventing Moises Alou from making a catch, that would have all but put an end to an inning and the game, that would later kill the Cubs as they gave up 8 runs, and would lose the NLCS in a game 7. 16 years later the Cubs got its World Series. It took 100+ years to win it, but it happened.
Back to the ATL, some would argue that the loss that was handed to the Patriots killed the sports fandom that seemingly popped up over night. That if one play had gone differently, the Falcons would have out lasted the resurgence that was Tom Brady's offense.
However, I think this loss does something more. It puts a yearning for another championship in Atlanta. It shows that the city has the ability to put talent together and defy odds, but they just can't hold on long enough. The taste that Falcons have is bitter, Cubs fans had that taste in their mouth for 100+ years, but it was sweetened in 2016. That time will come for Atlanta, whether by the Hawks, Falcons, or Braves.
