Ire of an Atlantan

Despite this post's title, I would like to say thank you Mr. Blank. Thank you for not settling, which has been the trend of almost every Atlanta team in the past. Thank you for doing exactly what you said you would do at the press conference.

But all in all, I would like to thank you Falcoholics, for not being satisfied with these results.

You see as an Atlantan, (or ATLien, whichever you prefer) its much more than the Falcons winning a SuperBowl. It's about bringing a championship to the city. A city that has one championship in its entire existence.

Alot of that jumble that Rob Parker wrote up is true in a way, but I blame the media for most of it. Bobby Cox had arguably some of the greatest talent to be assembled on a baseball team and only won one title, yet the media has praised him for winning seasons. In comparison, Terry Francona won two titles in four seasons for Boston, yet was released for their epic collapse this past season. The 2011 Atlanta Braves suffered a similar collapse. Guess who still has their job?

The Hawks are the interesting story of the city. They are our only franchise to advance past the first round since 2005. Wrap your head around that. It's been 6 years since the Falcons last did it and an entire decade for the boys over at Turner Field. It is beyond me why people want to trade away in my eyes the star of the team in Josh Smith. But that's what we've come to expect with these teams and their fans: If you're not a choir boy, they want you out. Sometimes it takes that one guy with an attitude to change an environment. I know Drew Brees wouldn't have been jumping up in his lineman's arms without consequence if we had that guy.

This nice guy culture of the city needs to go. And fast.

I want to give you guys two quick comparisons in how franchises are run. I want to reference a trade the Braves made last season. They made a deal after the trading deadline for Matt Diaz. If you are unfamiliar with who that is, he's a player who formerly played for the Braves in the seasons prior to last but had signed a new deal with the Pirates, where he struggled mightily all season. Sure enough, the Braves trade for him in which they called "Bringing him back home". Unsurprisingly, he continued to struggle after the trade. Keith Brooking had a hell of a career with the Falcons, yet was released because of one bad season and one inexplicable play in the playoffs.

Notice something there?

Blank and Dimitroff are results guys. The other franchises are not. While the Braves are talking about moving on from this year, the Falcons are talking about what they can do to make sure this year doesn't happen again. I'm a Bravos fan til the death of me, but until the higher ups over there set their sights on more than just making the playoffs I'm not sure if we won't just see more of the same with them. I'm liking what I see from the Hawks, but won't get my hopes up quite yet.

And as for the Falcoholic, I wish our sentiments could be spread worldwide to every team. It is not ok to settle when you could be better. The worst thing in the world happened to the 49ers. They made a nice playoff run which was unexpected, ultimately falling short of the Super Bowl meaning they think the QB position is in good shape. Wrong.

Thank you Mr. Blank for finding this unacceptable. We're looking at five new coaches people. Five. That's the same number of championships the Braves probably should have won since 91.

The time for settling is done for the Falcons. The period for achieving excellence has just begun.