Curse of the Falcons
A podcast for Falcons fans by Falcons fans. Join Chuck and Dan, both lifelong Falcons fans, for an in-depth journey through Falcons history. We feel every bit of your pain. We’re going to examine the Falcons historically more in-depth than any single podcast ever has. From Ernie “The Wheel” Wheelwright to Bijan Robinson, this is the place where we gather together to tape up and get back out on the field. Is THIS The Year? Surely it can’t continue… can it?… Join us weekly as we endeavor to Reverse the Curse!
Curse of the Falcons
So Close (2005)
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Another 6-2 start has us anticipating the first consecutive winning season. Then the bottom fell out. This is a long, agonizing trip through Dante’s Rings… and it begins here.
Hello, Falcons fans, and welcome to the Curse of the Falcons podcast. I'm Sonny, I'm Dan, and we're first cousins because I married Dan's first cousin.
SPEAKER_01Cousin Becky.
SPEAKER_00Cousin Becky. All right, and we have lived the nightmare of loving the Falcons since 1966. Now, before we get going on this week's episode, it's a quick reminder: everything you hear on the Curse of the Falcons is strictly our opinion. We are not affiliated with the Atlanta Falcons or the NFL in any official way. This podcast is just for us, the fans. So please enjoy the show and hope everybody's doing well. Really do. Yes. And uh and just stay in touch. I mean, we'll talk about that at the end of the show. But man, it's always great to hear from everybody and um for you to be chiming in with your thoughts and all that kind of stuff. Man, we we still want to know where you're coming from and all this stuff. We're just having a great time here.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely.
SPEAKER_00So yeah. Yeah. Dan. All right. What's going on?
SPEAKER_01What's going on is uh we're gonna pick uh this is a hip history, uh hippery, a history episode. We're gonna pick it up where we left off uh last time, which is now the beginning of the 2005 season. And uh uh we're coming off a successful 2004, uh, in which we won a dozen games. This is under Coach Jim Moore Jr., if you'll remember. Uh it included a 47-17 postseason slaughter of the Rams, which may have been the best performance in Falcons' history, honestly. Uh we're still in search of consecutive winning seasons, though, for the first time in franchise history, and this is our 40th season now, Brat. So we're we're hoping for a winning year. We had one of the better drafts we've ever had, uh, beginning with wide receiver Roddy White out of University of Alabama, Birmingham. He's in the Falcons Ring of Honor. In 11 years as a Falcon, Roddy caught 808 balls and scored 63 TDs, man. He was he was uh one of my favorite Falcons of all time, just just because he's goofy, but he's smart at the same time.
SPEAKER_00We had another Roddy White.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, talk talk to me about that one.
SPEAKER_00We have two Roddy Whites that uh that were associated with the Falcons and uh and uh the other Roddy Wright is uh Roddy White's a very dear friend, and um um he was with the Falcons, then left the Falcons and went, I think, to Jacksonville Jaguars for a while, and then moved back up and came here uh back to Atlanta again, and then uh and and then started working with the Falcons and and his responsibility was uh everything that didn't happen on the gridiron, it was his responsibility to make sure that you had the greatest game day experience from the time you get out of your car to the time you get back in. He knew everything that was going on. He was the guy, he was the guy. So uh so two Roddy Whites, and there you go. And both of them are great. Both of them are great.
SPEAKER_01Go figure we need to draft another one.
SPEAKER_00Y'all know any Roddy White picks.
SPEAKER_01Exactly. Jonathan Babineau, we picked in the second round, defensive end out of Iowa, 12 years with the Falcons, 27 sacks, 91 tackles for a loss. Chauncey Davis, defensive end from Florida State, six years in Atlanta, very solid performer. This was a good draft, man. Uh Michael Bowley, linebacker out of Southern Miss, played in the NFL for nine years, very good career, four with Atlanta. What if I told you a lot of fans still believe our best shot at winning a Super Bowl may have very well been the 2004 through 06 period? Let's dig into it and see if we can bring some clarity to that. We opened the year in 05 in the Georgia Dome against the Eagles, and the action started well before opening kickoff. God, do I remember this game? Uh went there with Chuck, of course. Um there had been a lot of chatter going back and forth uh between the two teams and and in the press in the days leading up to the game, and it boiled over into a pregame brawl. The Falcons were in payback mode because the last loss we had come the previous year had been up in Philadelphia in the uh playoffs, and uh the Falcons wanted to get payback. Uh we about 30 minutes before the kickoff during warm-ups near the sideline, players began jawing back and forth. Uh Falcons cornerback Kevin Mathis and Eagles linebacker Jeremiah Trotter got into each other's faces. Mathis shoved Trotter in the face mask. You don't do that. Thirty minutes before the game, Trotter responded by throwing a punch. Within seconds, players from both teams flooded the area and a full scale melee broke out. Officials and team personnel rushed in to separate everyone while NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabu watched from the press box. Good show, boys. D'Angelo Hall came became one of the most visible participants, as he is wont to do. As players were pulled apart, Hall grabbed an Eagle player's face mask, yanked the player's helmet off, and hurled the helmet across the field almost to midfield. That image wound up on highlight shows all week long. Yeah, that was not a good look. That exchange seemed to light a bigger fire under Atlanta as we jumped out to a 14-0 first quarter lead and spent the rest of the night holding on for dear life. Michael Vick committed three turnovers, two fumbles lost and a pick. But the defense was stout. The Eagles closed to within 14-10 with around eight minutes remaining, but barely crossed midfield by a yard for the rest of the game, and we won it 14-10. So after months of waiting to get back on the field, a full day and evening of libations and four quarters of hard nose football, I recall the Eagles fans still jawing at Falcons fans and picking fights. Seriously, we walked up to our car. I don't know if you remember at the Georgia Dome, you'd have to park over by where the old Omni was. And as we're walking up there, we still got Philly fans jawing at us, trying to pick fights, and we saw a couple of guys get in a fight. My brother Kerry was at that game, and he said he said he saw an Eagles fan jump on a fireman, and Kerry's best friend is a fireman and a big stout guy, and he just went over there and beat the crap out of the Eagles guy. You don't hit a fireman in front of another fireman. I don't do that. Uh uh. So yeah, it it was uh it was a tough night. But we won the game.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's that's amazing. Have you ever been to a game in Philly?
SPEAKER_01Oh Lord, no, I never would.
SPEAKER_00Uh-uh. I I I think that would be uh actually another level.
SPEAKER_01You would have to wear their colors in order to survive.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I think. Probably would.
SPEAKER_01You have to go in undercover.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Well, there you go.
SPEAKER_01What if I told y'all that season number forty that we're in represented the start of a three-year descent from the rarefied air of competing for a championship to the dry desert ground of a hapless and directionless franchise in search of just one piece of good news. If you've been with us the whole time, even part of the time really, it might not surprise you, but this fall from grace goes beyond even Falcon's standards. First half of the season went exceptionally well for the second straight year. And we once again found ourselves at six and two at the halfway point, one of those wins being in the New Orleans Superdome in typical wild fashion. That series is different than anything else in sports, in my opinion. This time we beat him 34-31, scoring touchdowns on a fumble return by D'Angelo Hall and on a blocked field goal attempt by DeMoria Williams to end the first half. So we got two weird touchdowns to beat him by a field goal. Of note, the Saints tied the game with a TD with only 46 seconds remaining. Then Vic brought us right down the field, completing all four of his passes, setting us up for a game-winning field goal attempt, which our kicker Todd Peterson missed with two seconds left. The Saints, however, being the Saints, were called for holding. And we got a second chance to win from five yards closer, and that one was good. So that's what you get for sucking, guys. Anyway, we sit at 6-2 and are in great position to secure back-to-back winning seasons for the first time, back-to-back playoff bursts, probab possibly even back-to-back appearances in the NFC Championship game, and even a Super Bowl, maybe. I don't know. We're all feeling really good. We're a good team beating other good teams, and our only two losses were each by only three points. A frustrating 21-18 loss in Seattle after trailing 21-0 at halftime was a good comeback. And a 31-28 home loss to Tom Brady and the Patriots, with Matt Schaub getting his one start of the year and playing very well. Matt Schaub looked good that game. Again. Sometimes a second half collapse can be attributed to injuries, scheduling, distractions, or something. Anything. But sometimes it defies explanation. As you've seen and as you're about to hear. Well hobby, I'll tell you what hobba. The second half of the Falcons' 2005 season falls into that second category. Wins in Detroit and at home against New Orleans, we crushed that day, 20 36-17, got us to eight wins, but a handful of losses brought us to eight and six with two division games left. This is when we start to realize that Jim Moore Jr. is kind of a knucklehead. His sideline cell phone incident with an eight-six record late in an overtime loss to Tampa Bay with the playoffs on the line. Moore pulled out a cell phone on the sideline trying to find out another game's score and how a tie might affect Atlanta's playoff chances. Now the NFL had specifically prohibited coaches from using cell phones on the sideline. Moore was fined $25,000. Wasn't a huge scandal, but it made the organization look disorganized and desperate. You know, we lost that game and Moore wasn't finished. Quote, the Falcons didn't just lose to Tampa Bay that Christmas Eve. They lost their composure. Jim Moore used an illegal cell phone during overtime. Then moments after, the season ended through a microphone that nearly struck a sideline reporter. It was the first public crack in the foundation of a regime that only 11 months earlier looked destined to lead Atlanta for years. Then we played the regular season finale versus Carolina with a record of eight and seven, and they shellacked us. It was pitiful. There would be no playoffs. Playoffs, uh no winning season, nothing but pure shell shock. We were six and two. What happened? I can only answer the same as I always do. This is Curse of the Falcons.
SPEAKER_00Yes.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00It is. Well, bless them. That's all I can say.
SPEAKER_01We had it. We had it. We're six and two. We're beating everybody.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01We fell apart.
SPEAKER_00Wow. Well, um and it sounds like from what you were saying that there's more coming.
SPEAKER_01Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_00Oh yeah. Oh yeah. That y'all hang in there.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, y'all hang in there. That that was bad, but it wasn't the worst.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Okay.
SPEAKER_01We're about to get there.
SPEAKER_00Well, okay. Well I guess maybe we should put this season to bed then, huh?
SPEAKER_01Only because well, yeah, we should, but but given that it it only leads to next season, you know.
SPEAKER_00Well, we'll take a break. How about it?
SPEAKER_01We'll take a little break.
SPEAKER_00Just a little break.
SPEAKER_01That's right. We'll see y'all next week. Yeah. Um, yeah, um, I'll take it out. Thank y'all for listening. We appreciate y'all. Uh, Curse of the Falcons is produced by Sonny Lawler set, recorded by Sonny and me, Dan Cox, and created by Chucky and me. Theme song Reverse the Curse, written, produced, and performed by Sonny and the original Reverse the Curse Dirty Burr Rock and Roll Band. Would appreciate any positive clicks such as follows, likes, or five-star reviews, that can help people find us. You know the algorithm and all that stuff. If you like what you hear, tell your friends. You can correspond directly with the show by email at cursofthefalcons at yahoo.com. Let's keep building this community so together we can reverse the curse. Far as that team down in Louisiana goes, Drew Brees cannot save you now. Curse of the Falcons is produced and recorded at Studio Ala Cart, located in historic old country, Smyrna, Georgia. This has been a cruise controlled production.
SPEAKER_00All right, y'all. Have a good week. See ya.
