It’s time the Falcons won a Super Bowl

The Atlanta Falcons are due to win a Super Bowl. It is time.

There is no grand, sweeping reason why the Falcons should win. If the universe tilted toward fairness and goodness I could make that argument, and if the city of Atlanta wasn’t already blessed with rich culture and great music and frankly stellar food, I could push for a great balancing of the scales. The reality is that life goes on whether the Falcons win or not, and as much as we feverishly hope Atlanta will win and America supports a team that is way more fun and awesome, there are no guarantees. We’re not writing a novel, here.

Instead, I’m just going to give you some disorganized bullet points that sprang to mind as I tried and failed to put together the definitive case for my favorite football team.

• The New England Patriots do not deserve this Super Bowl. This team has now been in more Super Bowls than any other franchise, and they are frankly insufferable for it. They expect to win, their incredibly smug fanbase expects to win, and their success means nothing to them at this point. They’ve already stamped passes to Canton for Tom Brady and Bill Belichick, they’re already considered the greatest NFL dynasty of all-time, and a win will just affirm the idea that Boston sports is magical and special and every man and woman with Dunkin’ Donuts on their breath is owed sporting success by their birthright. Screw that.
• Atlanta has suffered enough on the sports front. This city doesn’t have a lot of championship under its belt, and those who have stuck with the Falcons for any length of time know that they simply don’t push this far and play this well for this long. This city and this fanbase deserve the kind of success they paid for through the years of bad defenses, inept quarterbacks, and Bobby F***ing Petrino.
• The Falcons deserve this. Dan Quinn and the coaching staff and the front office have built a terrific team through blood, sweat, tears, and sheer intelligence, and guys like Jonathan Babineaux and Matt Ryan have poured their life’s work into this without the kind of success that should come with that. I don’t care that this describes many quasi-successful NFL teams. They’re not mine. They’re not ours.
• This is borderline stupid, but it feels fated for me, the blogging guy. This is the tenth year of The Falcoholic, and the Falcons find themselves playing in the Super Bowl against the team I’ve spent years loathing by mere proximity as a New Englander. If I was going to build a narrative of this site, with the necessary tragedy and triumph and the hard work that has gone in into it, it would lead to something like this.

But of course, we’re not living a novel. Unless this all happens, in which case I’ll re-consider.

Suffice to say this needs to happen, and the New England Patriots just happen to be in the way. Go Falcons.