OK, silly-premise time.
Assume that there is only so much sporting happiness to go around, especially here. You can’t have it all. But if you could have one, just once, which would it be?
Would it be Georgia, poised to play college football’s version of the Super Bowl. (Memo to Cox lawyers: Please check to see if I can use that analogy without the NFL siccing the trademark hounds on us).
Or the Falcons, still alive to play in the actual Super Bowl, where they made quite the impression – much like a 300-pound moth would on a windshield – in the last one. Granted, seeing this season’s version return still requires a good pair of reality-distorting goggles. And perhaps several high-gravity beers.
This is an awful lot of high-stakes football to take in, even for the American South, where every heart is a prolate spheroid, laced down the middle.
But just wondering, here in the infernal idleness between games, which of those teams would cause the greatest community celebration should either win everything?
Oh, to have that kind of power over the Fates: Make a simple selection and either the Bulldogs get their first national championship since 1980 or the Falcons their first NFL title ever.
That choice goes the basic spirit of the place we choose to live.
Atlanta is said to be the epicenter of college football, and has the Hall of Fame to prove it. And, while it seems that every university with an athletic budget has a thriving alumni club hereabouts, it’s always Georgia that wags the dog.
Yet, Atlantans, no matter where they are from originally, also have shown the ability to rally behind the local mercenaries when times are flush. The Falcons cause a mighty stir when winning, even if the love always seems more conditional than on the college side.
So, are you a Saturday person or a Sunday person?
Consider this particular choice from all angles.
On one hand, the Bulldogs are better positioned to win now. They are just one game away, and they’re practically at home. You may want to go with the surer thing, even if the prospect of playing Alabama is always filled with dread.
And, while Kirby Smart has shown every indication he is the Vegas headliner of recruiting magicians, there’s no guarantee these championship runs are going to be perennial. Don’t take for granted that if they don’t win Monday night that the Bulldogs soon will come this way again. Don’t take for granted the unique blend of this team and that it can be routinely recreated. This is special, and special doesn’t keep a regular schedule. Better grab it while you can.
Then there are the Falcons, the only NFC playoff team from 2016 to return to the party in 2017. Got to give them major credit for keeping any kind of footing on the Teflon surface of the league.
Selfishly, a Falcons championship at least would give you a real chance of getting a half day off work for a downtown victory parade. Georgia, after all, is really the property of Broad Street, not Peachtree.
Being a wild card, the Falcons are looking at a steady diet of road games if they are to get to the Minnesota Super Bowl. This would not seem the team most likely to go on a little surprising run, but, then, that’s why they’d call it a surprise.
As with Georgia, there is a certain imperative for the Falcons to win sooner rather than later. Matt Ryan’s no redshirt freshman, you know. And Julio Jones is no longer under warranty.
This is a January weekend quite unlike any other in these parts, with both the only pro team and the predominant college program still on a championship path. Since when are we faced with the issue of rationing emotions between two such rare prospects? Like, never.
It is a great, giddy question to be asking in January in Atlanta: Assuming that it would be entirely too much to ask for both to win championships before we shuffle off this mortal coil – which winning a title would give you the greatest joy, Bulldogs or Falcons?
“Neither” is not an option at this time.
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