Aretha Franklin sang about it. Rodney Dangerfield joked that he didn’t get enough of it. The British didn’t give a young bunch of American rebels that much of it. Nor are many giving a lot of it to a certain football team from the capital of the New South.
You know what I am talking about, that elusive R-E-S-P-E-C-T.
A little more than 10 days removed from making a tough Baltimore Ravens team crow “nevermore” after their they plummeted to Earth in a 26-21 loss to the Atlanta Falcons at the Dome, a number of pundits are doing city’s football birds dirty once again.
Sports Illustrated’s Peter King has the Atlanta Falcons at No. 5 in his power rankings, behind both the Philadelphia Eagles and the Green Bay Packers.
ESPN queried openly: Best in the NFC? Why not the Eagles?
The lack of love for the team from “the city too busy to hate” that transcends the media intelligencia is expected. But casual NFL fans haven’t exactly embraced the Falcons, either.
When the league released its first batch of numbers for fan Pro Bowl balloting, there was nary a Dirty Bird perched in the top 10 of player votes – despite the club having one of the best wide receivers in the game in Roddy White and a Hall of Fame lock catching passes at tight end in Tony Gonzalez.
Yes, both lead the vote tallies at their respective positions, but they didn’t get the same amount of love as Mike Vick, the Falcons’ former felonious signal caller that has atoned for his sins and risen from the ashes in Philadelphia or the 3-7 Minnesota Vikings’ Adrian Peterson. Vick and Peterson’s vote totals nearly doubled White’s and two-and-one-half times Gonzalez’s.
Part of the reason the Dirty Birds fly under the radar is that they are more like Sandra Bullock than Lindsay Lohan or more Taylor Swift than Britney Spears. They don’t make headlines. Headlines find them.
A terrible franchise history doesn’t help, either. A pair of back-to-back winning seasons in the franchise’s 45 year history doesn’t exactly get you the following of perennial winners like the Packers, New England Patriots or Pittsburgh Steelers.
But that’s just fine for Falcons coach Mike Smith, who is from the school that respect is earned from what happens between the white lines of a football field, not the smack teams talk or salacious stuff that happens off of it.
“We don’t really concern ourselves with (whether we’re flying under the radar),” he said. “Each and every week we try to go be the better team that Sunday. That’s how we approach it. We’re not concerned about anything else than being the better team on Sunday.
“Whether it’s a one o’clock kickoff or a four o’clock kickoff we want to be the better team that day. We figure if we’re the better team that day and play well we’re going to look up at the end of the season and we’re going to like where we’re at. That’s been our approach from the very beginning.”
About the only thing that Smith is looking for is a little help from their friends – all 70,000 of them – that will descend upon the Dome to watch their Dirty Birds take on the Packers on Sunday.
He wants them there loud, in their seats and proud of his Falcons in time for the 1:00 PM kickoff on Sunday.
“I just want to talk a little bit about the upcoming game and how important it is for our fans to get out there,” Smith told D. Orlando Ledbetter of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “We want it to be like Thursday night (against the Ravens). That was a big advantage for us as a football team to have the fans in the stands, rocking and rolling.”
Perhaps it’s time for Falcons fans to show Smith and the Dirty Birds some R-E-S-P-E-C-T by rocking the Dome on Sunday. I’m sure the rest of the league will find out how much it means to your football team.
Comments
Thats because their fan base is full of phonies and part-timers who love high school and college ball like they are still kids. Look at the Vic years-- fans with every win streak, never heard of the team when the drop down. Lived here 30 years and can still count on two hands the cars I see with Falcon bumper stickers, flags or magnets. Go to any real NFL home town team and they are everywhere no matter how bad the team. Even with the recent success past few years--no increase in clothing or outward signs of fandome from any other year, nothing. Falcon "fans" just jump on the bandwagon and jump off at the first sign of trouble. If the Dogs and Jackets are having a great year no body would even notice. I fly my teams flag every Sunday good year or bad, and my team is not popular down here. I do see a lot of college flags flying, so many students own homes LOL
I do agree that pro ball takes a back seat to the SEC here. However, it kinda hurts a fan base if you're team has alternated winning and non-winning seasons for every season until last year.
Winning cements fan bases. The Falcons haven't done enough of that to win over the millions of folks from Atlanta who are originally from somewhere else.
You're a phony for not saying who you are, why dont you just give us your name. its so easy to rip an enitre fan base when you don't have to say who you are.
I have been a Falcons season ticket holder for 7 years and I wear my jersey everywhere, but when the Falcons win the Super Bowl this year I'll make sure to send you a Super Bowl Falcons bumper sticker.
Btw who is your team? My guess by your name is who ever is winning at the time, which is alot worse than being a "phony" Falcons fan.
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