The Dirty Birds | The History of the Atlanta Falcons, Part 4

The thing to know about the Falcons is that they defy expectations at every turn. After the circus of the early-to-mid 1990s, they’d completely bottomed out and cleaned house. Now they found themselves with a head coach in his last stop before retirement, a running back who’d nearly went undrafted, and a journeyman quarterback who had never even appeared in a playoff game. What better time to make a Super Bowl run?

This is part four of a seven-part series.
Written and hosted by Jon Bois and Alex Rubenstein
Directed by Jon Bois
Produced by Alex Rubenstein
Additional contributions by Joe Ali
Rights specialist Lindley Sico
Secret Base executive producer Will Buikema
Secret Base managing editor Ryan Nanni

Corrections:

11:00 – This is addressed in the video itself, but it’s such a crucial error that it bears additional mention here. That player who was selected with pick number 196 and rushed for 2,008 yards did so in this very season, 1998. He was Terrell Davis, who, of course, the Falcons met in the Super Bowl. We don’t acknowledge him in the voiceover script because we planned on revealing him in a segment that we later decided to cut.
11:05 – Same story here: we were going to switch this out with a new chart after the Terrell Davis reveal that never happens. In fact, it’s Terrell Davis, who took the ball 481 times in 1997, who beats out Jamal Anderson’s all-time carries record by one.
26:00 – “Percentages percentage”? Good work, Jon.
47:05 – The Y-axis labels are misplaced here. The top vertical gridline represents .900.

[benrao]

“The score is 28-3. Nobody can come back from that, especially with an aging quarterback.” 😭

[Tytoalba]

You know, with all these references to "nobody can come back from 28-3, " "nobody can come back from being down 25 points, " and "nobody can come back that much with an aging quarterback, " I'm starting to suspect that this is some sort of foreshadowing, or something...

[oliverdennis]

This is an Alex Rubinstein appreciation post, he worked really hard on this along with Jon, I know we all love Jon, and I do too, but let’s give some love to the man who co-founded our favourite fan-based sports series.

[mikejames]

"He was efficient which is a compliment you give your furnace." Had me rolling

[packersfan]

I hope the “with such mediocrely unacceptable to Jeff Fisher” joke doesn’t go unappreciated

[LynchLagz]

Still laughing at “very special airplane man.”

[chico]

“Tuggle wasn’t a football player, he was an Atlanta Falcon.” Got me emotional

[TheMrelvisvicious]

Jon laughing at Steve DeBerg and saying “Oh no!” is absolutely hilarious

[kylemurray]

“Andersen played roughly seven million seasons.”

Jon’s deadpanning stuff like this gets me every damn time.

[notfives]

“They found themselves down 28-3, and no one can come back from that, let alone with an aging quarterback.”

oh how i love this show

[nickgilstad]

"The very special airplane man?!" was absolutely my favorite line, had me laughing way too hard

[Bovice..YT-handles-are-fn-dumb]

Fun fact: Jessie Tuggle's son is the current best defender on ATL.. Grady Jarrett.

[bakkadilla]

Watching this whole series as a Vikings fan, there has been a knot in my stomach knowing that the 98 playoffs were coming eventually.

[SapShoes]

"He would play golf with the man but wouldn't have dinner with him, which is the most cutting insult in a native Georgian's arsenal."

I nearly choked on my lunch over that line.

[stevenmcnabb]

"The Oilers had gone 7-9 and 8-8 over the last two seasons with Chris Chandler under center. With such mediocrity unacceptable to coach Jeff Fisher..."

That's such an underrated joke.

[itsdaniellyon]

Watching this in 2023 after SB Nation's Minnesota Vikings episode on this game 😭

As Jon perfectly said at 29:51, "that's a story for another time"

[megamuffin]

The long form torture of the inevitable with these 28-3 references are borderline experimental.

[kylemurray]

That Eugene Robinson buildup was absolute perfection knowing what was coming. This series is incredible. You have the amazing ability to get me invested in teams like the Mariners and Falcons, both of which I’ve not really interacted negatively or positively in my life.

[packersfan]

It’s not as legendary as the “Out of Nazareth” joke but “like a local news reporter knocking down an ice sculpture” was a *pretty good* joke

[staticbb]

"are we gonna talk about the football game"

Atlantians: Na it's cool, no need to talk about that, see y'all next week!