Atlanta Football Fan

Rewind to this past summer and the predictions for football success in Atlanta this year were pretty bleak.

Georgia Tech was coming in with a new coach, a new system, and new (mostly) players. Polls had GT ranked as one of the worst teams in the country and some said they would only win 2 – 3 games.

The Falcons had a bunch of new players, a new coach (thanks to Bobby Petrino being a true douchebag), and no Vick. Many thought losing Vick was a bad thing. I personally was delighted and always viewed him as a poison on the franchise. He was always a thug and disrespected his team and his fans. Even with the benefit of getting rid of Vick the other factors made it look like a tough year for the Falcons.

Fast forward to today. GT should have been in the ACC championship game, beat FSU (broke a 12 game losing streak that started in 1992), beat UGA (broke a 7 game losing streak that started my sophomore year at Tech), is going to the Chick-fil-a Bowl, and is on track for 10 wins (and a 3-0 record against the SEC in 2008). Paul Johnson is a beast of a coach that talks straight, stays tough and aggressive, and knows how to win football games.

The Falcons for the first time since I can remember feel like a solid team that is well coached and has a foundation on which they can win games. No more quarterbacks made out of glass or thugs that sometimes have good games when not flipping off fans and killing animals. The Falcons are a good football team, headed to the playoffs, and I believe without a doubt going to snap the whole “never had consecutive winning seasons” statistic that hangs over the franchise.

Definitely a tangent, but just wanted to take a moment to reflect on the utterly pleasant surprise this past football season has been. Being a Tech graduate and fan living in Atlanta is a really nice combination for attending home games and if you aren’t a ticket holder now this would probably be a decent time to jump on board.