It was rainy and cold, a good day to do anything other than pay money to sit in that weather and watch a football team that you don’t feel especially great about.
Carlos Silva chose otherwise. The Tucker resident and longtime Falcons season-ticket holder paid for tickets, hotel, gas and food (not to mention expenses of time and energy) to drive up from Atlanta with his two daughters and the elder daughter’s boyfriend to support the Falcons against the Panthers Sunday in Charlotte.
Despite the steady rain and temperatures in the 40′s, despite his displeasure with the head coach, despite the lack of results this season. At least his 12-year-old daughter Kayla had the good sense to question her father’s decision.
“I can’t feel anything,” said Kayla.
To be clear, she meant that she had lost feeling in her toes because of the cold, not in her heart because of the Falcons’ numbing season. Her father, whose attire included a Falcons-themed Mexican wrestling mask, has remained loyal.
“If they’re 1-12 like the Panthers, I don’t care,” Silva said. “I’ll still be here.”
Owner Arthur Blank has fashioned himself as the team’s custodian for fans like Silva, people who spend hundreds and even thousands of dollars (many of which go into his pocket) and make seemingly irrational decisions like driving to Charlotte to sit for three-plus hours in awful weather to cheer for a team that they don’t completely believe in, all because they can’t help but be Falcons fans.
As Blank considers difficult decisions regarding the direction of his franchise, here is hoping that he remembers his stated obligation to serve them.
Fans like Kendrick Hawkins and Benjamin Williams, who watched the game from the top of the upper end-zone stands, huddled under the massive video board. Despite the harsh elements, they were excited to have made the 3 1/2-hour drive to be at Bank of America Stadium, which was about 10% filled. Sunday was the first time they’d ever seen the Falcons play on the road. Hawkins got the tickets as a present for his 28th birthday.
“So cold, rain, sleet, snow, it didn’t matter,” he said. “We were coming.”
“We went to go see them last week against Tampa,” Williams said, referring to the Falcons’ home loss to the Buccaneers. “So we’re here to make sure they win.”
It was the second quarter. They did not yet know that Ridder would throw a senseless red-zone interception in the fourth quarter that opened the door for the Panthers to drive for the game-winning field goal to all but eliminate the Falcons from postseason contention for a sixth consecutive year.
“If they don’t win, I’m going to be heartbroken,” Hawkins said.
Credit: Ken Sugiura
Credit: Ken Sugiura
A few sections over, Falcons fans C.J. Starnes and Nick Barker stood watching the action. In the aisle, rain cascaded down the steps and puddled at the bottom of the section. Starnes had a request.
“Can you put in your blog that Arthur Smith needs to be left here?”
Barker may have been the only fan in the entire stadium dressed in short sleeves, a Falcons jersey. He committed to this act of loyalty after wearing short sleeves to a Cleveland Browns game the previous week while visiting his wife’s family. Consequently, he told his wife he couldn’t in good conscience wear long sleeves to a game in Charlotte.
Makes sense.
As the second quarter unfolded, Barker grabbed a fistful of jersey to wring it out. He dabbed at his brow with what looked like a drenched paper towel or napkin. At halftime, he retreated to a men’s room to remove his jersey and let it air dry.
The jersey? The No. 44 of former defensive end Vic Beasley, who led the NFL in sacks in 2016 but failed to replicate that production and was allowed to leave as a free agent in 2020. Barker got it as a Christmas gift from his father, who offered him the choice between Beasley or Grady Jarrett, the Falcons’ enduring team leader.
“It was right after Beasley had the big season,” Barker said. “I was like, ‘Give me the Beasley!’ That didn’t work out for me. I made the wrong choice. I’m good at making the wrong choice.”
During the second quarter, Starnes and Barker watched the Falcons false start on a punt for the second time that game. Not a fan of Smith’s play-calling, Starnes cheered sarcastically when running back Tyler Allgeier was stuffed on a run up the middle on third-and-3.
And yet, here they were, having stuck with their decision to drive from metro Atlanta to Charlotte to watch a team neither was particularly hopeful about, a choice not even most Panthers season-ticket holders were willing to make.
“We’ve been Falcons fans since the late 90s, so we were excited,” Starnes said. “Anytime you get to see them, you get excited about it. The rain, we knew the rain was coming, but we figured this would be a good time.”
I caught up with them again in the third quarter. They had taken shelter in the upper concourse and were watching the game on a mounted television. It was a little bit like being in a cold, drafty and damp sports bar, but at least they were out of the rain. At the time, the Falcons led 7-3. I asked Starnes how he was feeling about the game.
“Being a Falcons fans, I’m nervous,” he said.
Not long after, running back Bijan Robinson fumbled at the Falcons 21-yard line, a turnover that the Panthers turned into their second field goal.
I looked over at Starnes, who had figured going to the game would be a good time. He was doubled over, hands on his knees. And the worst was yet to come.
There were many more fans like them, men and women who regularly part with their money, time and hearts out of devotion to Blank’s team, and who on Sunday were the definition of fanatics of a team that has not demonstrated return on investment. One of them, season-ticket holder Angela Dixon of Atlanta, went to the game even though she wasn’t feeling well, making it to halftime before she decided to leave for the sake of her health.
Three more were Dana Berry, Tiffany George and Dina Raston, three friends from Atlanta who are part of a group called the Riseup Tour, a group of fans that attempts to attend every road game. The three had made almost every road game this season. I reached Berry on Monday via text.
A fan for more than 20 years, she estimated she had spent between $8,000-$10,000 this year alone on tickets, airfare, food and the like to follow her team.
I asked Berry what she would say to Blank if she had the opportunity. She came out firing. She is O.K. with keeping Smith as head coach but wants offensive coordinator Dave Ragone to be the play caller. She wants the team to draft a better quarterback and wants to know why there isn’t a quarterbacks coach. She wants to know who told Ridder to throw the game-changing fourth-quarter pass that was intercepted. (Smith said after the game that “you’re trying to call a movement keeper.”)
“Because for that play, someone needs to be fired,” she wrote.
All that said, she thinks the organization is great and hasn’t been to a stadium that compares with Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
“But we have to do better for the fans to stay engaged in the game and with the players,” she wrote.
So there you have it, Arthur Blank, straight from one of the fans whom you’ve said are the team’s true owners.
Do better.
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