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closeLate last Sunday afternoon as spectators filed out of the Georgia Dome, gazing ahead into that rarest of air for Atlanta’s pro football franchise — the NFL playoffs — more than a few Falcons fans were savoring the fruits of the longest of long-shot seasons.
“Can you believe it?” a man in red suspenders wondered aloud. “Think about it. Eleven wins. Eleven wins!”
For a club that won just four games last year and heard the so-called experts deem its immediate future mediocre at best, an 11-win, five-loss season has served as a turnaround that not even the worst-to-first Braves of 1991 could have conjured up.
The Falcons — the team casual followers have come to love in rare good times and then forget about for seasons at a time — have once again served notice of their relevance. A win today over Arizona, in what is only Atlanta’s ninth postseason appearance since the team began playing in 1966, would put the Falcons two victories shy of a Super Bowl berth.
In the midst of her favorite team’s transformation, the notion of the Falcons’ rebirth hasn’t been lost on fan Carolyn Freeman.
Freeman, who lives in Bibb County, has had Atlanta season tickets for 15 years. She has, since the team’s Super Bowl run in January 1999, become known at games as the glitter-faced, wing-donning “Bird Lady.” Her costume looks like something ripped right out of Rio de Janeiro’s Carnival.
Friday, Freeman was gearing up for the trip to Phoenix for this afternoon’s showdown with the Cardinals. (What better venue for a “Bird Lady”?)
“The Falcons are my baby,” she said. “And whether you have an ugly baby or not, you’ve still got to love your baby.”
So just how much is the average fan loving that “baby” again this go round?
“The (Georgia) Dome is rocking and thumping now,” Freeman said.
“When the Falcons are doing bad, you’ve got those fair-weather fans. Last season, there were people that didn’t renew their season tickets. Then there were people like me that were going to be there. I’ve been there when I’ve had whole sections to myself. It was me, the coaches, the players and the cheerleaders.”
After the team’s franchise quarterback, Michael Vick, was sent to federal prison for bankrolling a dogfighting operation before the 2007 season began, Atlanta seemed destined to become an NFL backwater.
And it was.
For all of 12 months.
A new head coach, a no-name guy — Mike Smith — was hired and proceeded to work wonders with the club’s rookie general manager’s infusion of young talent.
First-year quarterback Matt Ryan emerged as the league’s offensive rookie of the year. Imported running back Michael Turner bowling-balled his way to an all-pro season. And a patchwork defense led by sack-artist John Abraham did just enough to keep the team in tight games.
In the end, it was a recipe for turning bird-cage liner into front-page fascination.
Jeff Van Note, a Falcons broadcaster who played center for the team from 1969 to 1986, said, “I’m a fan and it just kind of reinforces what they’re doing. That they’re doing it the right way and they’re getting the right people. You read about their exploits on the field rather than off the field.”
The five-time Pro Bowler added, “It’s just an interesting time to be a Falcon fan. You get to live off part of it. ... Basically this is entertainment. This is to get us off of the real problems we face every day as people. And you’re going to be entertained by an 11-and-5 team. You’re not gonna be entertained by an 0-and-16 team.”
By most preseason accounts, Atlanta’s black-helmeted birds seemed well on their way to laying more eggs in ’08 than they were to pecking out wins.
“I was thinking before the season that everybody was gonna walk all over us,” Freeman, the “Bird Lady” from Macon, said. “I was thinking, ‘We’re never gonna crawl out of this mud hole,’ and that it would be back to the days when I was by myself at the Dome.”
Instead, here it is January.
It’s playoff season.
Freeman and the Falcon faithful are still flapping their wings.
To contact writer Joe Kovac Jr., call 744-4397.
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