FLOWERY BRANCH – A few hours after Santa Claus and his reindeer make their rounds, the Falcons’ charter airplane will lift-off for New Orleans.
For the players, coaches and their families, the holiday season is a scheduling nightmare.
For a regular game, the Falcons would have practiced the day before and then left for the game. But head coach Mike Smith is giving everyone the morning off so they can spend time with their families before the team leaves for New Orleans.
The team will then hold their walk-through practice in a hotel ballroom on Sunday night before their important NFC South showdown with the Saints on Monday night.
Special teams coach Keith Armstrong has an alternate Christmas plan.
“I generally do Christmas after Christmas,” Armstrong said. “You’re not in that mood because we’re going into this big game, here.”
The VanGorder household will be bustling.
“We’ll have the morning to enjoy Christmas and Santa Claus with [four of the family's five] kids,” Falcons defensive coordinator Brian VanGorder said. “Then oddly enough, my son [Mack] who’s at West Virginia, they are playing in the Orange Bowl. So Christmas day when I leave for New Orleans, [wife] Polly and a couple of the kids are going to head to Florida, where her parents live. A couple of days later, the rest of them will caravan down there. So they’ll be down in the Miami area during that time.
“We’ll have fun like we always do with our family traditions,” he said speaking of the adjustments required of a football family.
If you follow Falcons linebacker Curtis Lofton’s timeline on Twitter.com, you know he’s a fierce shopper, but a poor wrapper. He didn’t wait until the last minute to get his gifts. But he had to have the gifts wrapped by store clerks.
Tight end Tony Gonzalez has a flexible Christmas and TV viewing plan.
“They give you a schedule and you have to go with it, whether if you like it or not,” Gonzalez said. “We get the regular morning. My kids will open up presents. Santa Claus will come and give the kids presents and all of that good stuff. We just have to leave later on that day.”
Gonzalez, a former collegiate basketball star, won’t get to watch the Christmas Day NBA games.
“We get to enjoy the [NFL] games on Saturday, though,” Gonzalez said.
Adjusting the family’s plan around football is almost second nature to some because they have been doing it for years.
“We always have a meal on Christmas Eve,” center Todd McClure said. “But, me and my wife were talking the other day and we haven’t been able to enjoy Christmas or Thanksgiving, really enjoy it, since I was in high school.”
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