Forgotten Falcons: Tim Mazzetti

Welcome back to Forgotten Falcons, an offseason series we first began in 2019. It’s an opportunity to remember some quality players who have been largely forgotten by the fanbase over the years. Today, we remember a specialist who had a brief (but memorable) career as a Falcon: Tim Mazzetti.

Time with the Falcons: 1978-1980

Statistics as a Falcon: 42 games, 95/104 extra points made, 45/68 field goals made, 230 total points, 4/5 playoff field goals made

Mazzetti, a converted soccer player, spent his youth in Brazil. He wasn’t even recruited to play football in college, but during his sophomore year at Penn, he wound up kicking field goals for the football team, a duty he’d haphazardly take over full-time during his junior season.

A hernia delayed the start of Mazzetti’s NFL career. But 6 games into the 1978 season, the Falcons signed him, and he quickly made his presence known. Mazzetti knocked down 13/16 field goal attempts during his rookie campaign. He also set a Falcons record for consecutive field goals made (11) and converted a whopping 4 game-winning field goals. His best performance that season came in an October 30, 1978 MNF game; he converted 5/5 field goal attempts, helping the Falcons defeat the division leading Rams, 15-7. And this was all of 3 weeks after the Falcons signed him off the street.

Ultimately Mazzetti’s contributions helped the Falcons secure a wild card bid in 1978, the first postseason appearance in franchise history. He’d hang around for a couple more years before getting cut prior to the 1981 season. That’d prove to be the end of his NFL career, although he did play a few seasons in the USFL. After hanging up his cleats, Mazzetti briefly dabbled as a sports reporter before jumping headfirst into commercial real estate financing.

Your thoughts about this Falcons legend?