Falcons fans looking for the cure

There is a sickness most sports fans in the state of Georgia deal with that some out-of-towners might not understand. There’s a disclaimer used for many to comprehend what history has done to stain any optimism about the favorite state teams.

One of our best callers on my radio show, Eddie from Acworth, actually gave it a name last week. Call it the BFS — Beaten Fan Syndrome.

For Atlanta Braves fans, that is caused by things like Kent Hrbek pushing Ron Gant off first base in the World Series or a week later Charlie Leibrandt hanging a slider to Kirby Puckett or maybe five years later when Mark Wohlers hung the same type pitch to Jim Leyritz.

Falcons fans have it worse. Mention “the Dallas game,” and those who remember just cringe. What other team would have its head coach the day after a game wind up on “SportsCenter” doing the “Pig Sooie” chant after taking off to coach Arkansas? And what other team’s quarterback would get arrested for dog fighting?

And then for the Falcons to get to the Super Bowl and on the eve of the game have the starting safety, Eugene Robinson, get arrested for solicitation — just hours after receiving the Bart Starr Award for being the NFL player “who best exemplifies outstanding character and leadership in the home, on the field and in the community” — was just typical.

We can only shake our heads and laugh. Yep, that’s the Falcons.

It makes you wonder how in the world Gary Anderson missed a field goal for the Minnesota Vikings in 1999. That opened the door for Morten Andersen to win the NFC for the Falcons.

So here we are with the Falcons getting ready for the NFC championship game once again. It’s only fitting that most Falcons’ fans are holding their breath, waiting for some shoe to drop that will crash and burn this remarkable run.

We’re all waiting for the BFS to make us feel uneasy about Sunday’s game with the Green Bay Packers. So, forgive most of us in advance for worrying more than necessary.

Not that Aaron Rodgers won’t give us enough to worry about. He’s doing something that may make you believe will only end with him raising a Super Bowl trophy. He’s just plain scary right now, but maybe it’s time we forget about the BFS and believe good things will happen.

This Falcons looked bad after the first game of the season. I will not apologize for the Sept. 14 column titled “Falcons are already in trouble.” They were. They looked horrible in the preseason after they had finished the 2015 season 3-8 following a 5-0 start.

What else were we supposed to believe? People were calling the radio show wondering if Clemson’s Deshaun Watson would be a good first pick. Yes, they wondered if Matt Ryan’s time was over and a new era needed to begin. They wondered if the Falcons would be bad enough to get the first pick in the 2017 draft.

It was that bad.

But looked what happened. Ryan found more offensive options than ever before. His new center, Alex Mack, fixed the offensive line. And the young defense jelled much quicker than anyone could imagine.

This seems different. This seems special. But don’t you dare berate any Falcons fan this week for still worrying what could happen to spoil this wonderful story.

Just call it the BFS — the Beaten Fan Syndrome. Maybe the next few weeks will cure us all from this horrible affliction.

This story was originally published January 17, 2017 at 12:47 PM with the headline "Falcons fans looking for the cure."