We so needed this.
With a world full of terror, an economy filled with so much uncertainty and a general climate of doom and dismay, the Falcons may have proved there is a Santa Claus. And I’m Jewish.
No, seriously. What the Falcons accomplished Sunday by winning at Minnesota and clinching a playoff spot is indeed the best story I have covered since I spent every day watching that 1991 Braves team go from worst to first.
In fact, it may even be better.
The odds were so stacked against the Falcons going into the season that nobody even bothered to pay attention to them, unless it was to criticize. They were torn up by both the local and national media.
But up in Flowery Branch, an owner blew life into a crippled franchise with a new general manager and head coach and, now, the Falcons find themselves going into Sunday’s game with a chance to win the division and earn a first-round bye.
So, I wonder how Bobby Petrino—now the coach of an Arkansas team that went 5-7 this year—must feel about quitting on this team after the 13th game last season. Hey, Bobby! Way to stick it out through the tough times.
I wonder how Michael Vick feels sitting in that cell after his penchant for dogfighting last season brought this franchise to its knees. Hey, Michael! I think they may need a quarterback in Detroit.
I wonder how that Sporting News analyst feels after picking the Falcons to win just one game this year. Hey, Sporting News editor! Sounds like it may be time to find a new football writer.
In a way, the torture that Vick created and the lack of loyalty Petrino showed wiped the slate clean, giving the team a chance to draft a real quarterback and bring in a coach who knows a little bit about how to get his players to play hard and win.
It’s funny how things turn around and, sometimes, do so very quickly. A year ago, I wrote a column about Blank, describing the hurt he was going through as a man who had done nothing but try to build a winner here. Sure, he was a little over-exuberant, but that is what makes Blank successful. And more so, Blank learned from his mistakes, such as his coddling of Vick and hiring of Petrino, and quickly went and found a general manager named Thomas Dimitroff, a coach named Mike Smith and a quarterback named Matt Ryan.
But it goes much deeper than those three. As incredible as it may sound, the Falcons find themselves as one of the most balanced teams in the league with a chance to get to the Super Bowl – and even win it. They continue to win as a team, the last two weeks serving as good examples as they didn’t play their best football against either Tampa Bay or Minnesota, yet came out on top in both games.
That is what good teams do and, to me, the Falcons can be as good, on any given Sunday, as any team in the league this year.
But turning away from X’s and O’s for a second, all of the Atlanta media should acknowledge just how incredible their accomplishment is, regardless of what happens in the playoffs. I saw it first-hand. I was there last December and witnessed the diminishing morale of an entire front office staff that looked like it just had been run over by a truck. No one deserved the collateral damage that Vick and Petrino caused, which covered every inch of the franchise. It would have been easy to quit and say, “Well, it is going to be a few years before things get better.” But what we saw from Blank on down to the person who keeps those practice fields looking perfect every week was perseverance at its best. They showed up early for work, dug in and turned it all around, and this city should be very proud of its football team.
For Blank, though, it really has to be placed among the most impressive of his many accomplishments. And it happened because, like he told me earlier this year, he went back to the basics, which made him so successful at Home Depot. Many don’t realize that a good part of his front office was already there to take this team to the next level; he just needed to bring in someone like Smith to handle the team on the field and Dimitroff to pick the players. This has allowed former general manager and current president Rich McKay to focus his talents elsewhere in the front office, and everything suddenly has come together. A year later, the Falcons find themselves with one of the better franchises in the league.
Of course, finding a Ryan and a Michael Turner has certainly helped, but this turnaround is a big team effort, both on and off the field.
When Score was handling the team’s training camp guide back in July, I talked to Arthur and asked him what his expectations were for this season.
He told me, “I expect our team to play hard, and I expect them to be very well coached. I think those are the two things to count on. I know a lot of people are looking at this team and saying, ‘Oh, it’s a very young team. You have a young quarterback and a new coaching staff.’ All of that’s true, but one of the beauties of the NFL is that the system is designed to encourage and allow teams to move, if you will, from last to first. In fact, in the last four years in our division, the team that has finished last ended up finishing first the following year. The system really encourages teams to get out and do the best they can, and very often they are able to see really dramatic results. I’m not in the business of predicting wins and losses, but I am in the business of predicting our effort, energy and enthusiasm. I think you will see those at a very high level. And I think we are going to surprise a lot of people.”
Surprise they have, and I think you’ll find there is much more to come.
Rosenberg can be heard this Sunday afternoon during the Falcons game from 1-4 p.m. on 790 The Zone. He can be reached at ijrosenberg@scoreatl.com and 404-256-1572.
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