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This is probably a better topic for the off-season, but I just thought of it now, so here it is.

This isn't about stats, wins, or superbowls. It is simply, who were the Falcons that you liked the most. List off as many as you like.


My favorites:
Deion Sanders - I didn't watch the Falcons regularly until he was drafted.
Tim Dwight - Loved this guy, he was a fearless freak! Trading him for Vick probably made me a bit biased against Vick from the beginning.
Jamal Anderson - Dirty Bird + his mom + his smile made me happy to be watching him.
Alge Crumpler - I think that he is a favorite because he always seemed to be giving back to the fans.
Michael Koenen - I have no idea why I liked Koenen so much, but he was, and remains, my favorite kicker. I know he's not the best, and that our current kicking tandem is probably better than he was, but I still really liked Koenen.
Matt Ryan - Best QB the Falcons have ever had. Talented, humble, smart, determined, and a leader. To think, I wanted to draft the other guy... <sigh>
Brent Grimes - He's my underdog. I believed in him since I first saw him play.
Tony Gonzalez - This man has never given me a reason to say one bad thing about him. He is the image of perfection in the NFL.
Joe DeCamillis - My favorite coach... By leaps and bounds. I was very unhappy that we lost him.

I'd go with:

Terrance Mathis: Absolutely loved watching him play!
Brian Finneran: Old reliable, sticky butter fingers, tutor to Roddy, and nice guy.
Brent Grimes: Yep, watched him in NFL Europe and always wanted him to succeed.
Bob Christian: A fullback I could trust [until the SuperBowl, but I've forgiven that]
Steve Bartkowski: 'My' QB when I chose the Falcons as my favorite team
Matt Ryan: Saved the franchise in its darkest hour, nuff said.
Warrick Dunn: Any time we can take something from the Bucs and use it against them is awesome, and Warrick is a great community guy.

Ernie Wheelright==because he looked like Muddy Waters
Mick Luckhurst--how cool is it to have a kicker in ATL with a Brit accent?
Deion--why not?
Brian Jordan--Falcons and Braves? Could he bring the wood both places? Oh yeah!
Jesse Tuggle--why not?
Tim Green--99 reasons and a bitch ain't one
Chuck Smith--nasty boy...and Glanville hated him

No particular order:

QB Matt Ryan
QB Michael Vick
RB Jamal Anderson
RB Warrick Dunn
RB Ironhead Heyward
FB Bob Christian
FB Ovie Mughelli
WR Tim Dwight
WR Eric Weems
TE Tony Gonzalez
TE Alge Crumpler

DT Jonathan Babineaux
DT Travis Hall
DE John Abraham
DE Chuck Smith
DE Patrick Kerney
LB Jessie Tuggle
LB Sean Weatherspoon
CB Deion Sanders

Matt Ryan
Tony Gonzalez
Warrick Dunn
Morten Andersen
Brian Finneran
Roddy White
Julio Jones
Matt Bryant
Sean Weatherspoon

I'll do a top ten since that always seems right with these lists. Remember I'm a young buck and only been watching since 1999 so it'll be a lot of current guys.

1. Roddy White- You can make all the jokes about his stupidity on twitter but he's the man. He looked like a bust but transformed into an all-pro. Terrific player, couldn't be happier that he's a Falcon.

2. Matt Ryan- The Iceman has won my heart over ever since that performance against the Saints in 2010. He was outstanding in that game and haven't looked back.

3. John Abraham- We had our twitter war but it doesn't hide the fact that he's one of my favorites. Always brings the heat and performs at a high level. Nothing better than saying "The Predator" when he makes a big play.

4. Patrick Kerney- Old school pick! Well maybe not that old school but Pat was my guy growing up. Didn't have the flashy spin moves like Abraham but he worked his tail off and always wrecked havoc on quarterbacks.

5. Alge Crumpler- Alge was super popular in Atlanta and was always the security blanket for Vick. He was a damn good one and played at a high level for many years.

6. Sean Weatherspoon- Spoon is going to be a top 3 guy for me when he retires as a Falcon. Other than Ryan, this will probably be Dmitroff's best first round pick ever. Totally sold on him being a star.

7. Jerious Norwood- People were very critical of him for good reason, but Jerious was so much fun to watch. Still waiting for Quizz to break out some big plays to make me forget about him.

8. Warrick Dunn- He always seemed to defy the odds and perform. Warrick was a joy to watch and will always appreciate him. He was the guy behind DVD and produced the most ( Dunn Vick Duckett)

9. Brent Grimes- It was 3 years ago where Grimes would make my top five least favorite. Now he's on this list even though he may never play for the Falcons again. I gained so much respect for him over the past few years and really blew me away with his skill.

10. Jimmy Williams. wait just kidding. Tony Gonzalez- The old man himself has been incredible the past two seasons after hints of declining from 2010. Another guy that made me appreciated his legacy and how special he is.

Really, nobody is mentioning Vick? Look, I know we all retroactively hate/dislike Vick, but still when the question is "Who were your faves?" then Vick has to be near the top of that list. I know for me, I've hated Vick for longer than I liked him, but I cannot deny that there was absolute love for the guy for at least 3 years (2002-04), and tepid admiration of him for another (2005).

You cant alternately hate the guy and have him as your favorite. It's like Lance Armstrong, or Mark McGwire: at one time they were darlings, now they are scoundrels.

Lance will never race again, and have his titles stripped. MM will always be known as a cheater, and no matter how 'good' Vick plays, or how many superbowls he wins going forward, he will never,ever be in the HOF. He's not Rae Carruth, but that doesn't make him John Elway

It is what it is

Old Bird Brain used to say he thought Lance was the greatest athlete ever. Would be interesting to get his take now. OK, I liked Vick very much when here as with Jamal and Eric Metcaf and many others. Just figured I'd pull a few rarer faves out. I've been known to praise Brent Grimes.

Lance is still the best. I had done a bit of digging about the juicing in cycling when they stripped him of his titles. Turns out that just about everyone he raced against has been found guilty of juicing at one point or another. The thing about Lance is, he was never caught. EVER. All of the rest of them were. If Lance was juicing, he was beating other guys who were juicing. Does that make it right? Nope. But it is pretty obvious that the cycling world is rife with juicers. Lance is the best among them.


Back to the Falcons... Err... Back to football. Vick was never one of my favorites. He was, and remains, a bad QB, and a horrible person. Heaping amounts of raw talent, a pinch of brain matter, and a handful of laziness. He was never one of my favorites. I saw some potential in him for about a year and a half. Once he refused to get back on the field after his injury, I knew all that I needed to know about him.

*note to Pudge* sorry about the threadjack into Lance Armstrong. I know it should be in another forum like the Lounge.Forgiveness please..

the problem was, he was a dick about it. Its ok that everyone was doing it, but they way he was 'doing it' was what set him apart. It's what made his teammates and collegues rat him out. He is the Jeff George of the cycling world, with a little Cutler thrown in for good measure:

http://www.theweek.co.uk/cycling/lance- ... ht-survive

He needs to seperate from his charity. Then, he needs to go to rehab, cry on Oprah's couch, and start enterting triathalons and hope for an arthitis sponsorship. Or , he can just be bitter and take his ball and go home. I think Sheryl Crow didnt get her tumor from her cellphone, it probably came from Lance's rotten sack.

In 1998 I was on my honeymoon, and we went to Europe. One of our stops was France, and this was during the World Cup and the Tour De France, in July. Stupid travel agent didnt know those 2 things were going on at the same time! Anyways we got out of Paris and rented what they called a 'penichette', which is really a little river/houseboat. It was cheap and a way to see the countryside through the rivers and canals. We stopped at a little country town and found the one local tavern, and decided to stay and watch the TDF and the WC there for a couple days. So we got kind of familiar with the family that owned the bar and thier crowd.

To a person, these people admired and actually rooted for Lance. They rooted for him in his win in 1999, and they sent us a nice note to let us know they were on his side..I thought that was kinda neat...They thought of him as an underdog, and they thought the same thing of thier national football team. They were touched by his story, and they all readily admitted that all of them juiced. That really didn't matter.

I fell out of touch with them in the 00's, but found them again in 2010 online. I know its anecdotal, but I think when he won his 3rd or 4th TDF, and was basically flaunting his use and denying using, that's when the locals there had enough. They pretty much told me they considered Lance a prick. I thought that was really sad. Here, they had rooted for this guy, and then he kept coming back and being the 'ugly American' who mocked the testing companies and the cycling authorities who were 'trying' to keep it clean...That's not at all like our MLB, where they ALL knew juicing was going on, but turned a blind eye to help recapture fans after the strike. They dont view the testing or authorities like we do. In fact, this is thier lil sport: and they dont like it being taken over by pharmacueticals.

I say this because early on, I was a Lance guy: who thought all the testing was done to harass him, or they were trying too hard to bust him. Yeah, I might have had that stupid yellow bracelet at one point, too. But after looking over the evidence, that's not the case. And I guess somewhere in rural France, there's some wine bottles popping.

sorry for the hijack folks. back to your regularly scheduled programming

Cool story, FG. Biek racing is kinda like the Grateful Dead were, i.e., I wouldn't walk across the street to watch it but I realize "if it makes happy it can't be that bad."

Not in this order, just namin.

Matt Ryan
Micheal Vick
Tim Dwight
TJ Duckett
Patrick Kerney
Shane Dronnett
JesseTuggle
Brent Grimes
Sean Weatherspoon
John Abraham
Jamaal Anderson

I didn't say he remains my favorite. I said he was one of my faves.

The analogy I would use is a couple that falls in love, is married for 20+ years, and then has a brutal, bitter divorce, to the point that those people can't be in the same area code without coming to blows.

Now if someone was to ask who was the love of your life, your anger, hatred, and bitterness may make you not mention that ex-wife out of a spite. In all honesty, if you could take a step back from yourself you would probably say your ex was indeed the love of your life. In fact, much of the anger/hatred stems from the fact that you loved so much.

I don't buy that there are many Falcon fans that between the years of 2001 and 2005 didn't count Vick as one of their favorite players. May not have been #1 but certainly Top 3. BirdBrain is the only person that I'd believe if they said that because he's on record for being that person. Maybe Wease too.

Hate/love are two sides of the same coin...

I never liked Vick. I have eight jerseys and he isn't one of them. Did he have moments that made me say 'holy balls, that was awesome!', sure, but I never really thought he was the answer or that he was a part of the team.

We'll never forget Vick in ATL. He was to memorable.

I was a fan of the dog killer for a while, but was an early bailer off the bandwagon.

Favorite Birds in no particular order:

Scott Case
Fulton Kykendahl
William Andrews
The Alfreds
Ironhead
Mike Kenn
Rick Bryan
Matt Ryan
Terrance Mathis


Was not a huge Bill Fralic guy for some reason.

Bryan Jordan was nice, but was in Germany during those years so it was hard to really get into the players then.

W

Favorite Falcon players no order:

1.Wilson "the Chief" Faumina
2.Lynn Cain
3.Junior Miller
4.Jeff Van Note
5.Brian Cabral
6.Tony Smith
7.David Archer
8.Jumpy Geathers
9.John James
10.Bob Christian

ok here is my real list.

1.Deion Sanders
2.Mike Vick
3.Matt Ryan
4.William Andrews
5.Tony Gonzalez
6.Roddy White
7.Patrick Kerney
8.Chris Chandler
9.Billy White Shoes Johnson
10.Alfred Jenkins
11.Scott Case
12.John Abraham
13.Jamal Anderson
14.Michael Haynes
15.Mike Kenn
16.Chuck Smith
17.Morton Anderson
18.Travis Hall
19.Sean Weatherspoon
20.Julio Jones

I don't particularly like Keonen. He was great as a Falcon, but he didn't need to comment about the locker room atmosphere when he became a Buc.

I will throw a few kickers out there, though.

Feely - all for his onside kick recovery vs the Rams. He laid himself out to get killed but got the ball.

I also like Bosher. He goes in to tackle on returns and has really stepped up his game after starting very poorly.

If Nicholas could stay healthy, I'd put him here. Some personal adversity is self-inflicted--Blank and Vick showed us that. Some personal adversity is a chance for people to transcend--Blank and Nicholas showed us that.

Kearny was a great player, as was Tuggle. Gonzalez is an incredible athlete.

Vick was sick, but he was also sick; I hated listening to him speak almost as much as I loved watching him run. Not a guy to build around tho.

Warrick Dunn is likely the best person on this list. 5'8", he came to play. His work in honor of his mother is really touching.

But the question isn't favorite person, it's favorite Falcon.

Far and away, Matt Ryan. He turned "no consecutive winning seasons in franchise history" into "18 games won in the fourth quarter." The first pass of his career. The throw along the sideline (Jenkins wasn't worth keeping for $1.5 mil? Stupid contract . ..). Not snapping his ankle when Baker stepped on it. Getting up after the split against Phily. Never throwing his line under the bus despite getting crushed at times. Never pouting under a towel. Able to do it without being bitchy, antagonistic, completely insane, or on a cereal box.

Ok, I'd let the last slide.