Because of the coronavirus and the Falcons' bye week, the Falcons and the Georgia and Georgia Tech football teams are off on the same weekend within each team’s regular season for the first time since 2001 – and the second time ever.
All sports shut down in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks, so the Bulldogs, Falcons and Yellow Jackets postponed their games scheduled for Sept. 15 and Sept 16.
Otherwise, starting with when the Falcons began play in 1966, there have been no other instances in which the Falcons did not play on a Saturday, Sunday or Monday when Tech and Georgia also were off during those days.
A clean sweep almost happened in 1982. The Falcons missed eight consecutive weekends because of a player strike, and after Sept. 19 they did not play until Nov. 21. Tech and Georgia played each weekend from Sept. 25-Nov. 13, but not Nov. 20, which was the weekend that the Falcons resumed play.
One reason for this scheduling oddity is that bye weeks weren’t annually incorporated into the NFL schedules until the 1990 season. From 1966-89, the Falcons missed one weekend each in 1966 and 1987. The latter of the two was because of a one-game strike. Bye weeks did not become routine in college football until much more recently.
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