Atlanta Falcons fans rocked Atlanta City Hall on Friday, with more than 500 people getting their “sway on” to thunderous music and ear-shattering shouts of “Rise Up!” in anticipation of the team’s trip next month to the Super Bowl.
Fans held nothing back at the early morning rally as Mayor Kasim Reed, Falcons President Rich McKay and pop star Usher turned the city's usually staid political center into a five-floor stone, marble and brass-railed tailgate party.
“Atlanta is a great place to live in, but an even better city to have a sports team,” McKay boomed into the microphone before the crowd broke into a window-shattering “A-T-L, A-T-L.”
Falcons fans have waited almost two decades for another shot at the Super Bowl, the nation's most-watched event. With more than a week to go before the team's showdown with oddsmaker pick New England Patriots, fans were ready to rejoice in team's accomplishments.
"Look how orderly we are," said native Atlanta Cynthia Pope. "And let me remind you, this is the fifth district."
The energy was palpable. Fans giddily took selfies with friends, munched on hot dogs provided by The Varsity or ate cotton candy in a place usually reserved for paying bills and attending long, complex City Council meetings.
If the music, featuring songs such as Usher’s “Yeah,” Shop Boyz “Party Like A Rock Star” and Lil Wayne’s “Turn Down for What,” didn’t get them, the reverberating call-and-response of “When I say super, you say bowl,” “Super,” “Bowl,” “Super,” “Bowl,” did.
LaShunda Bell, whose face was painted with a delicate Falcon, said it felt like a family event, where everyone was happy and the energy was intense.
“We have been waiting for this for so long,” she said. “We blew the roof off the (Georgia) Dome, and now we blew the roof off of City Hall.”
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