NFL thread. Because I feel so lost without one!

[meggonzo]

I was thinking of you during that game, Cyn! It's easier to watch games like that when you don't have a horse in the race. maybe I'll root for the Falcons now that the Packers are out. Not sure why they had to stink it up so bad like that. argh.

Hoping the Texans put up a good fight! I hate Tom Brady.

[jeffisjeff]

Both games yesterday went the wrong way for me, so let's hope today is the reverse. So far, so good. Atlanta . Now, if the Patriots can just hold it together...

[jenny12]

Hoping the Texans put up a good fight! I hate Tom Brady.

But he's so pretty!

I don't really want to see the Patriots win another one either. Rooting for all of the other teams, so that'll probably mean the Patriots will win.

[Rob]

That Atlanta ending was a nail biter. Great game. Bah Patriots. Don't like Beli or Brady.

[flyingsit]

This just sucks. I have no team left to root for... all that is left is the hatred of the Patriots.

[Badams]

This just sucks. I have no team left to root for... all that is left is the hatred of the Patriots.

I will join you in that club...

[numbers123]

yep.

[myhoneyhoney]

Niners!!!! Nuf said, hehehe. I do have to root for the Pats since hubby's co-workers are always teasing him can calling him Brady (they are similarities with their looks) but when it comes down to it, GO NINERS!!!

[milanessa]

This just sucks. I have no team left to root for... all that is left is the hatred of the Patriots.

I will join you in that club...

yep.

Yep, again.

[jeffisjeff]

Go Pats!!

[PRlady]

Go Pats!!

You are not alone. My crush on Tom Brady continues.

[jeffisjeff]

You are not alone. My crush on Tom Brady continues.

Brady triggers as diverse feelings as the Patriots.

[elka_sk8]

This just sucks. I have no team left to root for... all that is left is the hatred of the Patriots.

Same here, except replace "Patriots" with "Ravens." Blah! I am so ready for the Ray Lewis Goodbye Tour to be over already. Saturday's games were awful. Atlanta is the only team left I feel like I can get behind, which means they'll lose this weekend, lol. I was sure they were going to blow it on Sunday, nice clutch effort by Matt Ryan. A little gift from Pete Carroll didn't hurt either.

[Theatregirl1122]

Slightly belated but... GO PATS! bah to the haterz.

[skatingfan5]

Go Pats!!

You are not alone. My crush on Tom Brady continues.

Brady triggers as diverse feelings as the Patriots.

Slightly belated but... GO PATS! bah to the haterz.

to the haterz!

[jenny12]

Wow, if Tom Brady wins this year, he will be tied with Montana and Bradshaw for the most SB wins ever.

Kaepernick was awesome last week, but Atlanta's defense is far superior to Green Bay's so I'd be surprised if it was a repeat performance.

So far, Atlanta is owning Kaepernick. Wow. Green Bay's defense must have been horrific.

Spoke to soon (as always). Nice comeback for Kaepernick and 49ers.

Kaepernick for MVP! WOW!!!!

Funny how things change so quick!

[FSfan107]

So far, Atlanta is owning Kaepernick. Wow. Green Bay's defense must have been horrific.

Yes, my Packers were really bad last week. I'm rooting for the Falcons and Ravens today. Good game so far between the 49ers and Falcons.

[Cyn]

I realize this is long, but it's something I’ve been thinking about for the past couple of years (ever since The Falcons made the playoffs two seasons in a row, only to tank in the first round). Now that they’ve made it this far, I decided to write about it.

If you do read it, I hope you find it interesting. If not, oh well. These are my thoughts and feelings about The Falcons, my Dad, and our mutual love of football…..

I have more than my own Falcons fandom invested in this weekend's NFC Championship game.

Some of my best memories growing up (as well as an adult) were the countless football games my Dad and I watched together. As an Native Atlantan, he was a diehard Falcons fan, and along with most Atlanta, he (and I) suffered through thick and thin over the years (and believe you me, things for Atlanta fans got pretty damn thin at times). We spent many a day or night watching them on TV, to say nothing of the countless Sunday afternoons freezing out butts off in those miserably uncomfortable stadium seats at FulCo and later on at The Georgia Dome, which was mercifully enclosed and temperature-controlled.

Season after season, we cheered on the Falcons with excitement, groaned with frustration and, once we got home, had our own version of The Post-Game Show rehashing plays, discussing what could have happened if *we* had been in charge , and the like.

Those games (along with countless Braves games) and the time we spent together helped to re-enforce the bond of closeness we shared for over thirty years. In 1995, one of his Atlanta sports dreams was realized when the Atlanta Braves won the 1995 World Series over the Cleveland Indians, but as excited as he was about the Braves winning the Pennant, his dreams of the Falcons winning a Superbowl had been begun with the first game the Falcons franchise played in 1966 (the year before I was born). The 32 years that followed were a roller-coaster full hope and promise, only to be dashed year after year.

In the Spring of 1998, my father was not quite 70, and he was in remarkable health for his age – He exercised regularly, swam 2 miles every day, and he adhered to an incredibly healthy diet; Dad was in better physical shape than most people I knew who were my age (31) at the time. Although excited with yet another great Braves baseball season, Dad was looking forward to the Fall when the Falcons season would crank into gear.

All of that came to a screeching halt on May 7th, 1998, when an MRI for a nagging shoulder pain Dad was experiencing revealed a large, inoperable tumor that turned out to be Pancreatic Cancer. At that time, his doctor told him he had roughly three months left to live and was told to “get his things in order” (IOW, prepare to die). Needless to say, this news devastated our family, and that summer was shrouded in a cloud of sadness, despair, and at times, anger.

With dogged determination, Dad decided he wasn’t going to give in to this cancer without one hell of a fight. He faced it head-on, with an aggressive treatment of chemo and radiation, along with a strict, hard-core dietary and vitamin regimen, as he was determined to fight it with everything he had.
That Summer, between his treatments, we spent as much time together as possible watching the Braves, and when the Pro Football season got underway, he had already exceeded the life expectancy/prognosis given to him by his oncologist.

WRT the Falcons that season, they, against all odds (given their two previous season’s less-than-stellar records of 3-13 and 7-9), the Falcons finished the season with a 14-2 record to make the playoffs, with a Bye until the Divisional Playoff game.

When the WC round began January 2-3, 1999, it became obvious that the cancer was taking its toll on Dad’s body, and his health started to noticeably decline. He, however, was doggedly determined to watch every step of the Falcons on their quest for their first Superbowl victory.

The following weekend (January 9th), the Falcons played San Francisco in the Division Playoff Game (incidentally, the same team the Falcons are playing today for the NFC Championship). He and I commandeered the TV room, with Dad sprawled on the sofa in a makeshift bed, and me on the rug in front of the TV, playing solitaire while watching so that I wouldn’t drive him nuts with my usual case of what he called “the nervous fidgets.” By this time, although he did his best to hide it, he was in a tremendous amount of pain, and though he wasn’t real keen on taking the morphine prescribed by his doctor, insisting that he could tough it out, he took it that afternoon so that is enjoyment of the game wouldn’t be marred by feeling so uncomfortable and miserable.

The Falcons defeated the 49ers that day, 20-18, in a game that, until the last three minutes of the 4th quarter, looked to be a decisive 20-10 Falcons victory. QB Steve Young of SF ran the ball in for a touchdown with 2:57 left, and after the backup QB fumbled the snap for the PAT, he managed to save that mistake and throw the ball, resulting in a conversion and a score of 20-18. Somehow SF got the ball back with half a minute to play, and in spite of his god-awful pain, Dad launched into his armchair coaching/cursing and then whooped with happiness when Atlanta intercepted a pass right as the clock hit 0:00.

I think, had he been able to do so, Dad would have started dancing in the room, but since that wasn’t possible, he sat there, propped up on the sofa, grinning from ear to ear like a Cheshire Cat .

The NFC Championship Game between Atlanta and Minnesota on January 17th was, for us, one of the most exciting games in Falcons history. Unfortunately, in the week leading up to it, Dad’s health started to deteriorate rapidly, and I had sprained my ankle the day before, so we weren’t able to watch the game together. He was having to take Morphine around the clock to combat the constantly increasing pain and the only person he wanted by his side was my Mom. I called home after the game, and Mom told me that he dozed on and off throughout most of the game, but he was wide awake when the game went into OT, and for a few minutes at least, he reverted back to his “old self,” venting his frustrations at boneheaded plays and yelling coaching directions at the TV .

Winning the NFC Championship Game two weeks prior to the Superbowl bolstered his spirits immensely, and although he (and all of us) knew his death was eminent, he was looking forward to seeing them play in the Superbowl.

In that two week interim between the NFC/AFC Championships and the Superbowl, we received the devastating news that the cancer had metastasized into his liver, his lymphatic system, and parts of the brain . The weekend before the Superbowl, my dad entered the hospital, leaving his home for what would be the last time. That week, everyone in our family took turns staying with him, and even though he was pretty out of it most of the time from all the medications, he had his moments of lucidity. When I was sitting with him late one night, he asked me how many days until the Falcons played (the night he asked was Thursday), and he made me promise that I would make sure the game was on in his room and, if he wasn’t able to watch it, that I would let him know how they were doing. By that weekend, our immediate family, my Aunt and Uncle, one of his nephews, and his life-long best friend were pretty much camped at the hospital unless we absolutely had no choice but to leave for a short bit.

The night of the Superbowl XXXIII (on Sunday, January 31, 1999), we were all huddled in his room with the game on. As the game started, we knew that his condition was grave and it was clear that only had a few more hours, if that.

At that point, Dad couldn’t speak, but he could hear and comprehend what was being said if someone was talking to him. Although the game was on the TV, none of us were paying any attention to it – my father’s breathing was becoming more labored, and all of us knew that those hours left had become minutes.

At then end of the first quarter, my dumbass cousin (my Dad’s sister’s son, not the son of my Aunt and Uncle who were there) and who is a doctor, tried to change the channel over to PBS, and I damn near smacked him when he reached for the remote and reminded him that Dad wanted the have the game on. When he tried to tell me that there was no way Dad could know what was on the TV, I ripped into him and then promptly lost it.

As anyone who watched knows, Atlanta played dismally in that game. In the first half, Denver’s defense was outstanding, whereas Atlant’s defense was all but non-existent . The Falcons were unable to capitalize on an interception, and the Broncos had not one, but two touchdown runs of 80 yards or more. Although Atlanta managed to score two field goals in the first half, they also missed one, and at the end of the first half, the Falcons trailed 17-6. It was obvious, however, that the game was nowhere near to being as close as the score indicated (if one could call 17-6 a close game).

At this point, we were clustered around his bed, and me, my sister, and my mother were laying (as best we could) next to him on his bed, telling him how much we loved him, and that it was okay for him to let go. As uncomfortable as I was with doing it (and I have a feeling that some here may feel it was inappropriate of me to do), I kept the promise I made to him about the game and gently whispered in his ear that our team was playing like the Falcons of old.

We held his hands, hugged him, and kissed his cheeks, and after a few minutes, he died during halftime, very peacefully, with all of us by his side.

*********

It took a long time for me to watch the Falcons play and enjoy it without missing my father terribly. Now that they’re playing in the NFC Championship, I really, really want to see them win it all – not for Team Pride or for the city of Atlanta to have bragging rights, but to be able to look up in the sky (or at the ceiling cat, or the Flying Spaghetti Monster, or whatever floats one’s boat) and say,

“Hey Dad, guess what? THEY DID IT!!”

[Cyn]

Falcons

Oh well, Dad, I guess it wasn't meant to be this season

***********

....Feckin' Niners

Sigh.....I guess I'll pull for Baltimore in the AFC game as I can't stand the Patriots...

If I'm being honest, though, I can't really muster up any excitement about any of the remaining teams

Next year I want to see a Superbowl between the Falcons and the Bills.

[topaz]

I am a long time 9ers fan. My favorite 9ers players are Jerry Rice and Roger Craig.

I have not been happy with the benching of Alex Smith this season; Last week Colin was incredible as he was today. The 9ers D was great in the 2nd half, held the Dirty Birds to ZERO pts.

I never knew the Falcons were such an arrogant team. I'm rooting for the Ravens, I've never liked the cheaters aka the Patriots.