00:00But, Mike, let's talk about this for a second.
00:0361 years ago today, the Falcons became an NFL franchise.
00:10And you're talking about 1965.
00:13Right.
00:14And for Falcon fans, and we get this all the time,
00:17and many of you who are listening, I've been in the city.
00:20And you say, I've been a Falcon fan forever.
00:22And I'm just looking at this and saying, I think,
00:26and you may think I'm crazy, that the best days are still ahead of us.
00:30You're crazy.
00:31For all the strife we've been through, Mike,
00:35and the heartbreak and all the stuff that this team has gone through.
00:39Right.
00:39From the early 80s when the team was really good
00:41and probably should have gotten to a Super Bowl, and it didn't,
00:45to in the 90s, into the 2000s with Matt.
00:49I mean, like, you can talk about these different eras,
00:52and there have been moments.
00:53But I say that to say this is what we're going into with this year, Mike.
00:58Like, 1965, 61 years ago.
01:01And so there is a lot of interest in our team.
01:05I think the fandom is as good as it's ever been.
01:07I do think people care.
01:09We know that because we know from the numbers and talking about this team
01:13how you guys feel.
01:14But I'm only saying this to say, like,
01:16we're talking about all these players and Stefanski
01:19and all the new faces in the front office.
01:21But I still think, like, the best stuff is ahead of us.
01:24And that's not just because we haven't won a Super Bowl.
01:26I just feel like, Mike, we haven't gotten on that run like other teams have
01:30where you have that decade of success where you're like, holy crap.
01:34Like, the 49ers have always been in that mix.
01:36They've had two different quarters.
01:37I mean, you think about it.
01:38You know, you look at where they've been since 2012,
01:41where we've been since 2012, right?
01:43Yep.
01:43You know, we went once.
01:44We probably should have gone in 2012.
01:46I mean, I thought we were certainly toe-to-toe.
01:48We were just as talented as that 49er team that beat the Ravens.
01:50We lost the Predator.
01:52John Abraham got banged up in a meaningless game.
01:54You know, it's always some snake-bit characteristic to some Falcon season.
01:57You know, 2010, you know, that was a pretty good team, too.
02:00We got beat by the Packers.
02:01You know, we had a bye.
02:01We got beaten in the second round.
02:03But you go back to your point.
02:05It shows you how hard it is to build that kind of legacy.
02:08You've got to have the star quarterback.
02:09We had Matt Ryan.
02:10Maybe we wasted some opportunities with Matt and what we built around it.
02:13You know?
02:14But in the case right now, look at the Rams.
02:16The Rams are this close.
02:17And they're all in this year.
02:19They are.
02:19I mean, but it's certainly a team that we aspire to be what they are, which is, you know,
02:24they're always in that mix.
02:25The Lions, they're going to try to regroup now.
02:28They've had a window, and they've kind of missed it a little bit.
02:30Eagles are going to be a new look.
02:31They've been really good for the last seven or eight years.
02:33But, you know, or five or six years, what are they going to be moving forward?
02:36We're not even there yet.
02:37That's not even our baseline.
02:39Right?
02:40And unfortunately, okay, you don't say it.
02:42I'll say it.
02:43We have the albatross around our neck of the greatest choke in the history of American professional sports.
02:47And it doesn't define what we're going to be.
02:50But until we get past it, it's always going to be there.
02:52You can never deny it.
02:53No.
02:54It's a part of the history.
02:56But it's like I said, you know.
02:58But you can't let that, as a fan, you can't get sucked into that negativity.
03:02You've done all the stupid things.
03:04The Saints did as many stupid things as we did.
03:06They started a year after us in the NFL.
03:08They came in 67.
03:09But, I mean, you can eventually fix it and get it right.
03:13We've just, you know, we've done some really dumb things.
03:16Or, you know, yeah, there's always luck involved.
03:18But, you know, I don't have to remind Falcons fans, you've lived it.
03:21But it's hard.
03:22It's hard.
03:23It is.
03:23I just think that it's important to point out only because I think sometimes, you know,
03:28we hear what people think about our franchise or what the perception is.
03:32And it's just not true.
03:33Like, outside of Atlanta, it's just not true.
03:35But I do think, Mike, consistent winning will grow the fan base.
03:38I've said this many times, guys.
03:40In the 90s, nobody cared about Patriots football.
03:43Nobody.
03:43Nobody.
03:44Okay.
03:44And then when they started winning and Belichick and Brady get rolling and all of a sudden,
03:49if you weren't a Patriots fan, you had a problem.
03:51So that run sustained the fan.
03:54And it grew the fan base, right?
03:57That's the stuff we haven't had.
03:58Right.
03:59So you've got longtime fans who have been down and hardcore, but we've not had those
04:04moments where we have grown the fan base.
04:07And you go outside of our Atlanta, you know, fan base or Georgia, Mike, and people are like,
04:12yeah, man, I'm a Falcons fan.
04:14That happened with New England, but that's through success.
04:16The only time the Falcons crossed over to become that national phenomenon was the Mike
04:19Vick years.
04:20Yes, right.
04:20But unfortunately, even then, we still didn't have back-to-back winning seasons.
04:23Yeah.
04:23And Mike's injury in 2003, that was like a lost season.
04:27But I mean, there have been moments where everybody was on board with us.
04:30And that Mike Vick time was one of those moments.
04:32It was.
04:32It was just like nothing like it.
04:34But it wasn't due to winning Super Bowls or multiple playoff games.
04:37It was the style.
04:38That's right.
04:40We talk about a unicorn with Pitts.
04:41He was the unicorn.
04:42That's the reason why.
04:43404-726-0929.
04:45You guys can chime in on that.
04:46We just want to pay homage, man, and talk a little bit about that, because it's kind
04:50of cool to think about it.
04:51And we don't talk a lot about that, because we talk about the now.
04:55And when you go, man, this franchise has been around 61 years.
04:59It's time for us to, like, we got to go.
05:02It's time for us to do this.
05:03Yeah.
05:03And you look at the Smith family.
05:06You mentioned earlier, I mean, I've got guys that I sit with in Falcon games that go back
05:10to, you know, and they're my age, but they were there as kids for the 80s.
05:13And, oh, man, those Barkowski teams just couldn't beat the damn Cowboys.
05:16You know, they were so good, that had enough talent to, you know, every, you know, Jeff
05:20Van Oat talks about being in the Pro Bowl and half the teams, the Falcons, one year.
05:23Well, Mike, I'll be honest with you.
05:24And having lived there and having family here, part of this Cowboy fandom happens to be the
05:33fact that, you know what, people got frustrated that they beat our team, right?
05:36You were here in Atlanta.
05:37If you were a fan of the Falcons and we couldn't get over the hump.
05:40And then the Cowboys, you know, every other year they're in a Super Bowl or they're in
05:44the playoffs.
05:44And then there's a, and people jumped on board, right?
05:47I don't know if it was the right thing, but I'm just saying like a lot of that happened.
05:50I had fans or family that were, man, I used to support the Falcons and then the Cowboys.
05:56And that goes back to that time period.
05:59Baseball is unique in the sense there's more games, more, you know, more nights.
06:02It's the soundtrack of your summer.
06:03But, you know, Ted Turner and TBS became America's team.
06:05The Braves could have been a regional team in the Southeast had they been consistently good.
06:09But all those great years with Barkowski and everybody else, they just never had back-to-back winning
06:12seasons.
06:13Falcons, yes.
06:13But yeah, I mean, you could have said that, you know, but then eventually, like Dale Jr.
06:17was a Redskins fan in Carolina because there was no team there.
06:21Correct.
06:21And Alabama, my mom's from Alabama, you didn't have a professional team.
06:25They jump on board.
06:26I understand why folks from Alabama are like, that's my professional team.
06:29It's hard to get mad when you don't have one.
06:31If you're in West Virginia, Mississippi, Alabama, you can be a fan of whoever you want.
06:35But a lot of that had to do with, well, I'm a Cowboys fan.
06:37Well, why?
06:38Because they were on all the time.
06:39And then, you know, they come to it.
06:40And they were really good.
06:41You know, it's kind of easy.
06:42If you're a younger guy, you got to see the Troy Aikman, Michael Irvin, you know, Emmitt
06:46Smith Cowboys.
06:46But we grew up with, you know, Roger Staubach.
06:48Well, yeah.
06:49That's what Tony Dorsett said.
06:50I'm saying even in the 80s.
06:51Before the three Super Bowls in the 90s, that took the whole thing to another level.
06:56The other thing that's going on today, and it's interesting as far as the Falcons are concerned,
06:59we're going to talk to Grant, get an update on the injuries.
07:02They're back in action tonight against the Cardinals.
07:04We have to start scoring runs again, guys.
07:06And we'll find out what Grant's saying also about Ronald Acuna.
07:09The report's out there about him maybe not coming back until after the All-Star game.
07:13What do you think about our safety tandem?
07:14You think we have the best safety tandem in the league?
07:17Xavier Watts and Jesse Bates?
07:18Jeff Ulbrich's been saying this, and I'm like, you've been around a long time.
07:22But he keeps talking about Bates and Watts and how they complement each other, Mike.
07:25They have this nonverbal communication thing that they just kind of know where each other is.
07:29Do we have the two best safeties in the league?
07:31He certainly feels that way.
07:33And Jesse Bates is one of the top three safeties.
07:35And Xavier Watts showed you what a ball hawk he is and what a playmaker.
07:38So as far as a combination of KG veteran and youthful inexperience, but a guy that showed out last year,
07:44yeah, I'd say you could make the argument for it.
07:46Yeah.
07:47Watts, the way he came out the box, man.
07:50I mean, like the picks, the impact that he had last year, it's kind of interesting.
07:54They are only going to get better.
07:55He's going to get better under the tutelage of Jesse.
07:58What are we going to do with Jesse Bates' contract?
08:00Well, if he's still playing the way he is, he ain't going nowhere.
08:03Why would you?
08:04Okay.
08:05Seriously.
08:06All right.
08:06I mean, it's one of those ones that gets kind of harder.
08:09It does.
08:09And harder as guys get over 30.
08:10It does.
08:11But I'd hate to lose him because what do you mean?
08:13Again, this guy's done everything.
08:14All the things that we've done, we just talked about the history of the Falcons.
08:17The last couple of years, all those seasons where we're just a game away from making the playoffs,
08:21we wouldn't even be there without Jesse Bates.
08:23Think about all the games he's responsible for winning you.
08:25It's a shame, man.
08:26I say that only because he's been so good since being acquired.
08:32I've said this.
08:33I think he's the best free agent pickup we've had.
08:35We paid him as the highest paid safety when we got him.
08:38In my time as a Falcon fan, Jesse Bates, Alex Mack.
08:42Mack, too.
08:42Yes, you're right.
08:43Because you and I belly ached all through 15 about not having a center.
08:46You're right.
08:47We got that.
08:47Now, if I remember correctly, Tony Gonzalez was a trade.
08:50That was not a free agent.
08:51From Kansas City, yeah.
08:52Otherwise, TG would be one of those guys.
08:53But, like, a guy that you go get and you pay money for and he comes in and produces,
08:57so many times my teams miss on that stuff.
08:59Yes.
09:00You know, and Jesse's not a miss.
09:02Jets always have all that cap space.
09:03He famously misfire with free agents, right?
09:05For sure.
09:05Hey, man, you can chime in.
09:06404-726-0929.
09:0961 years.
09:11What's the next 61 going to look like?
09:13What's the next 15?
09:15Better?
09:15The next 10.
09:16Fingers crossed.
09:17That's what I'm saying.
09:18I hope so.
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