FanPost

My Life: God, Country, Corps, and Atlanta Falcon Football. Why I love the Falcons.

I fell in deep love with the Atlanta Falcons during the exciting Michael Vick era. I was born in Illinois, and most of my family would be Cheeseheads. Then, around 1999, we moved to Southern Mississippi. My love for football remained, and I remember almost being relieved that we no longer had to watch those guys in the ugly green jerseys play anymore. Luckily for me, Atlanta was obviously good at the time, and since there were no major teams in the area, I was introduced to the Dirty Birds. My infatuation grew, and my love for the Falcons grew.

September 11, 2001, our lives changed. We had a small Air Force base in my town, and everyone was pretty patriotic. I don't know what it was, but even being in only 7th grade, I knew my life had changed. I had always dreamed of being on the field as a Falcon, but after that day, I knew my dream had changed.

My focus now was to support our great country, and fight the ones who had done this to us. I started to lose focus on football, and worked on just getting my diploma and signing on the dotted line. And that day came. I remember watching the 2005 season, and still had love for Atlanta, and was kind of sad that I would miss some. I shipped out for Parris Island, South Carolina to be trained as a United States Marine.

Obviously, the next three months, pretty much passed by without a single though of football. This was June of 06, so there wasn't much going on anyways. After my training, I realized that it was time for football once again.

And then came the season of 2007. I'll just say that it was difficult. I put it all on hold for myself, and then it came back and I was beyond excited. It was time to get back in it, right? After the whole thing happened, and Bobby bounced, I was pretty down. I gave my Vick jersey away to Goodwill, (I know, I still regret that decision) and told myself that I was done with the team.

And that is where the values and principles that were drilled into me at Recruit Training kind of came into play. I knew what it meant to be a part of a much larger team, and fighting for a bigger cause than myself.

I got back into it fully, and we were getting in to the most crucial off-season of history. I had no idea who Mike Smith was, and no clue what was going to happen at the draft.

On April 2, 2008 I left North Carolina for Ramadi, Iraq. I remember being more bummed that I was going to miss the draft than I was about going to Iraq. This is what I had wanted to do since 2001. I just wasn't ready to give up football, already.

I found out through a letter that we had drafted Matt Ryan. I was lost. Had no idea who that even was. A good friend of mine that I was deployed with was from Boston, and a HUGE Boston College fan. He very easily passed on his love for Matty Ice to me. We would sit on post over watching an entry point into the city, and whenever we had time, would talk football. About two months into it, we got some satellites, and a couple of us put some money together to buy a small TV from one of the local Iraqi Police officers. We got the Armed Forces Network, which is a network they broadcast TV from some station in California so it can reach troops across the world. We had it. We had football.

Now, my Boston buddy was an enormous Deflatriots fan, but he was a great guy. We also had some Redskins fans, Packer fans, Cowboy fans, and one very sad, Chicago Bears fan. Now, that comeback against the Bears has to be one of my most favorite memory of the Falcons. There we were, just got back from sitting on an IED cordon site for about four hours, and about six of us huddled around this little TV watching magic happen. After that I knew that I was down with Matty Ice and these new Atlanta Falcons for the long haul.

I have enjoyed my nine years I have served in the greatest Corps in the country. But, it gets a little rough being all over the country and not really being able to watch. I have been to one away game. My wife surprised me with tickets to Atlanta at Carolina in 2011. I remember sitting there at half time, down 7 - 23 and being bullied by the Panther fans in the stands. But that win was rather enjoyable.

I have never been able to attend a game in Atlanta. This is a dream of mine, and I would love to go to the Georgia Dome before it gets shut down. Its rough, though, but that's why the order goes God, Country, Corps, and then the Falcons.

I have returned to South Carolina, but this time as a Drill Instructor, which is nice since the games are actually broadcasted here. But, now, I have to train those guys to get ready to fight. And it is awesome, but working 16 hour days for 83 days straight makes it rough to do anything for yourself. But, even if I have to track GameCenters on my phone while the recruits are eating chow, I'll always have to get my football in.

<em>This FanPost was written by one of The Falcoholic's talented readers. It does not necessarily reflect the views of The Falcoholic.</em>