Who's the ultimate Falcon? And who's the ultimate anti-Falcon? That's what we're going to find out with our summer project: the Scale of Falconliness. We'll rate former Falcons on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the most Falconly. The rule: minimum of three seasons with the Falcons for coaches, five seasons for players.
Jamal Anderson, HB (1994 - 2001)
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Unfalconly |
- Eight years with the Falcons, and none with any other team.
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Two-time Falcons Player of the Year, a rare honor. One of only 11 Falcons, and the only Falcons running back, to be named an NFC Player of the Month. (Just discovered this great doc, which used to be on atlantafalcons.com, listing the history of such things. Let me know if that link doesn't work; I'm preserving it in my own Google Docs folder.)
- 1998 All-Pro, Pro Bowler, and our Super Bowl team's offensive MVP. I don't know if that last part was ever official or not.
- The Dirty Bird. A dance, a rallying cry, and an enduring nickname for our team ever since. The national media may not be aware of any Atlanta pro football franchise's existence were it not for the Dirty Bird.
- Responsible for the NFL's 15th highest single-season rushing yards total (1,846) and the second-highest carries total (410) -- both Atlanta's single-season records, obviously. Second-best single-season yards-from-scrimmage total (2,165) in Falcons history. Personally banged out 20% of the Falcons' 1,000-yard rushing seasons.
- Third in Falcons career rushing attempts and yards, second in touchdowns, and fourth among non-kickers in scoring.
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His official website: all red-and-black everything.
- While attending the surprisingly soulful University of Utah, somehow managed to track down enough Omega Psi Phi brothers to acquire an Omega arm brand. The Omegas, as you all surely are aware, are headquartered in Decatur, Georgia and spend their time pursuing such Atlanta-friendly activities as founding Southern universities or being Hank Aaron.
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Generous enough to do a two-part interview with our own Adam Schultz and not bring up Utah's demolition of Alabama. Part one, part two.
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Our team's all-time Twitter champ still lives in Atlanta, doing very Atlanta things.
- Somewhat of a noteworthy personality.
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- Only started 64 games as a Falcon.
- Though he usually cheers for Atlanta teams, he also roots for the Boston Celtics. (This goes in Jamal's Dave Choately column as well.)
- Held out after the 1998 season, which some suppose contributed to his various season-ending injuries.
- Eight years after retiring, became a one-time victim of our imperial overlord's corrupt and wasteful War on Users of Certain Drugs.
- Sorry bros, I slipped into all-out libertarian blogger mode there.
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Current standings after the jump:
