The Dirty Little Secret of the Dirty Birds’ Overseas Trip

FILE – New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees (9) is sacked by Atlanta Falcons defensive tackle Grady Jarrett (97) and defensive tackle Shy Tuttle (99) in the second half of an NFL football game in New Orleans, Sunday, Nov. 10, 2019. (FILE AP Photo/Rusty Costanza)

JOHN KINCADE
ATLANTA, Ga – It’s not just about losing a home game in 2020, it’s about losing respect.
It’s not just how close you came to that Lombardi Trophy in early 2017, but how far you have fallen off in 2019.
It’s a shiny new stadium that has somehow managed to lose its appeal to draw fans in a few short years.

The Falcons are off to London or Mexico or Spain…who knows?
What we do know is that the Falcons announced overseas trip puts them in strange company. A brand new stadium, huge PSL’s if you want to actually sit in the seats and a terrible 2-7 start. Losing a home game in 2020 may actually be a public service to the sanity of the community. This is a fan base that has left thousands of empty seats weekly, seats that are paid for except for the millions that have already defaulted on their payments.

You know who loses home games? Teams where the NFL fan bases don’t miss them! This should never be Atlanta, especially after the millions spent to build the new designer ATM. The teams that lose home games are those with stadiums under construction like the Rams and the Chargers. There are others like the Jaguars where you have to tarp over empty sections, so Duval County barely notices. The Raiders are exiting their city and heading to Vegas so the NFL has sent them overseas for a few years now.

You know who doesn’t lose home games? Tom Brady isn’t skipping Foxboro for Mexico City. The Giants and Eagles fans aren’t  having to tailgate in London. The Chiefs and Cowboys don’t need a map of Barcelona. This is troubling.

The Falcons fall from grace in the win column and fan support locally has been staggering. The loss in status around the NFL might actually be the bigger story. If you paid for that PSL and only get 7 home games, no big deal right? You deserve better.
No amount of 2 dollar hot dogs is going to help you stomach this.

Flowery Branch thinks the house isn’t burning down. They felt no sense of urgency to address a horrendous 1-7 start. Julio Jones might be the greatest motivational speaker of all time after this one! The 2020 home game lost says as much about what the NFL thinks about the home fan base as it says about the home team. I’m floored that it all came crashing down this soon, this fast.

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