I hate the Falcons. As a Saints fan my entire life, I’ve been taught to despise the Falcons. I hate the Falcons so much, I can’t bring myself to root for the Braves, even though their team is the closest baseball team to New Orleans (I consider Texas another continent so that doesn’t count). I’ll never forget the loss they handed us in New Orleans during the playoffs which ruined our 1991 season, when the Saints were good enough to make a Super Bowl run. I’ll never forget them stealing Bobby Hebert from us. He wasn’t the only one, either, as the Falcons made a habit out of stealing former Saints players. Joe Horn, Brett Maxie, Morten Andersen… that’s just to name a few. I hated Deion Sanders with a passion. Still do. I was no fan of Jamal Anderson or the dirty bird era. In Atlanta they consider the term “dirty bird” an endearing nickname. I use it as an insult.
There’s lots of rivalries that get lots of talk. Celtics-Lakers. Penn State-Ohio State. The Colts and Patriots have really gotten a good one going in the last 10 years. The Redskins and Cowboys. The list goes on… but the one that always get overlooked because the teams haven’t historically had much success is the New Orleans Saints and the Atlanta Falcons. Make no mistake, though, there is a bitter rivalry between the two clubs, and it’s one of the most underrated rivalries in sports. I’m not saying this rivalry in on the level of some of the epic rivalries I mentioned, mostly because these two clubs are almost never really competing for a Championship. But the battle is always for football pride in the South. Anyone who lives in the south knows that the culture is embedded with a big sense of pride and passion with regards to football. The winner of this game dictates southern professional football supremacy until the next matchup. The first goal for a fan of the Saints is for the team to make the playoffs. A close second is for the team to sweep the Falcons. If the team doesn’t make the playoffs, a sweep of Atlanta is necessary to give the season some sort of redeeming memory. Frankly, were the Saints to make the playoffs and not earn a split with the Falcons at minimum, I would consider the season a failure. We could practically win the Super Bowl, and two losses to Atlanta would leave me disappointed. I think many of the Falcons fans feel the same way about the Saints. For a long time, beating Atlanta was all we had as fans, because we were never going to be good enough to compete for a Super Bowl. I think a big part of the rivalry was that for so long both teams were so bad. This game was our Super Bowl. Neither team could compete historically with the Steelers, Cowboys and 49ers, so instead we competed with each other. As both teams have gotten better in past years, and are now both heavy favorites to make the playoffs, the meaningfulness of the games is more pronounced. They now stand in the way of each other not only for regional pride, but for a chance to win the NFC.
The Falcons lead the series 45-37, and both teams have played each other every single year since 1969. The Saints have had the edge lately, though, winning 7 out of 8 during the Sean Payton era. In fact, the Falcons have not won a game in New Orleans since 2002 (though they did win @ the Saints in 2005 when the “home game” was played in San Antonio during the Katrina season). The Falcons need this game to prove they can hang with the Saints on the big stage. The Saints don’t want to lose at home to the Falcons because that’s almost equal to blasphemy. So while this game may not be the most nationally respected rivalry, make no mistake about it, few matchups in sports get any better.
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