July 3, 2025 • 33 mins
Will McFadden & Tori McElhaney come to you ahead of the holiday weekend with a random assortment of the weirdest fun facts from the Atlanta Falcons history. From the first head coaching candidates to the first ever perfect QBR rating, they give you all the little trivia tidbits you need to sound like the smartest person at the barbecue.
0:00 - Intro
2:35 - First pro football game & first sale
5:51 - Other possible team names
11:20 - First coach, draft pick, & divisions
17:00 - Best sports nicknames
20:00 - Claude Humphrey & John Wayne
24:45 - 1973 season & Barefoot Bryant
32:30 - Outro
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Dirty Birds. What's up? And welcome back to the Atlanta
Falcons podcast Network. I'm your host, Will McFadden, joined as
always by Tory mclaney. Tory, We're here to celebrate a
couple of birthdays.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Big birthday Day.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Big birthday energy. We've got the Atlanta Falcons kind of
celebrating the sixtieth anniversary of when they were granted pretty
much the rights to Rankin Smith.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Crazy that it's been sixty years, eight years.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Yeah, June June thirtieth, nineteen sixty five is the day
that that happens. So happy birthday to the franchise. And
then of course we got the fourth of July coming up,
so you know, Happy Birthday America?
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Are they Happy birthday to our country?
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Big birthday energies. To kind of celebrate the merging of
those two things, I thought it might be fun for
me to just read some historical facts trivia moments from
the Falcons past, because how much do you actually know
about the nineteen sixty eight season.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
So before I have to be completely honest, like before
Arthur Blank bought the team, I really don't know all
that much. Like, of course I know the story of
be like signed with the napkin and you know the
offer and everything like that. And I know a lot about,
you know, from my lifetime from I was born in
ninety six to now twenty twenty five, so I feel
like I know a good recent history, but I actually
(01:14):
don't think I know a lot about like I almost
an ancient history, but like all the way back when
when the Smiths owned the Falcons and what the vibes
were back in what like the sixties and seventies. So
I'm excited.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
It's crazy. It's like my dad was five years old,
I think when they bought the Falcons, so like that
that just puts so much of that history in the
context where like, yeah, there's a lot of this I
didn't know.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Okay, which you're like the resident like historian all you
and Matt Haley, who's one of our like comms, Yeah,
read our vps of comms and like y'all can go
back and forth just like pulling out names left and right,
and sometimes I'm like, oh, yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Well I appreciate that. Yeah, I'm not actually sixty five
years old though even nice actually like I'm sixty five
years old, you.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Know, It's it's nice to know. It's nice to get
that confirmation.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
I was born with the spirit of a success. I
want to just make that very right. Yeah. I come
by that naturally, of course, But a little bit behind
the scenes. Didn't think too much about this, just kind
of went through Wikipedia pages, did some more deep dives.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Everyone knows that everything on Wikipedia.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
Is accurate exactly, but you know, this isn't isn't going
to be the hardest hitting introspective journalism I think I've
ever done in my career.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
No capital J journalism.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
That's just a chance to have fun. It's more like
some capital T trivia. So we'll start that off. Do
you know what the first professional the two teams involved
and they are still two cities in the NFL, two
NFL cities. The first professional football game played in Atlanta
between two teams not Atlanta.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
Can I get like a hint?
Speaker 1 (02:51):
They are both AFC teams in today's NFL the cities
really one one mascot has changed. If that, I'll give
you one other hint.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
No, it wouldn't be okay, one mascot has changed. Baltimore.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
No, No, that's good because of the Yeah, Baltimore is
a French and that were like multiple different iterations.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
Right, yeah, okay, Miami, Nope, no close close?
Speaker 1 (03:15):
Oh damn. We have the Houston Oilers who then moved
to Tennessee Titans now in Houston, Texans and the Denver Broncos.
Nineteen sixty two. It was an AFL preseason match. Was
the first professional football game played, not even an NFL game. Wow.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
So where where do you know where? They played in Atlanta?
Like what stadium at the time?
Speaker 1 (03:35):
I did they because they didn't have Fulton County State right,
yeah at the time, Yeah, Atlanta stadium. I want to
say they played. Was it like Georgia Tech or something
like that? Would make sense, they'd play like Emoy or yeah,
somewhere like that. But no, I don't have that written down.
It's a great, great thing for our fans to look
up and check out.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
This out let us know in the comments.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
So Rankin Smith, who who bought Falcons, paid eight point
five million dollars for the Falcons in nineteen sixty five.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
Okay, how much is that in like today terms?
Speaker 1 (04:06):
Very glad you asked eighty two million dollars, which is,
on the one hand, a ton of money that I'm
never going to see in my lifetime. So like that's
but also on the cheap side. But it's eighty two
much of NFL franchise of.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
NFL franchise in today's money. Like I was thinking you
were going to stay closer to like it would be like.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Two hundred and fifty eighty two million dollars.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
It actually seemed less than what I thought the conversion
would be, like what.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
Even a low number would be, because you would expect
all right eight point five with inflation, sure, and just
the valuation of the NFL waivery than it was, like
it's going to be on the low side, but like
I didn't expect under one hundred million.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
No, No, what a steal?
Speaker 1 (04:44):
Yeah, what all this talk about inflation, I'm not so sure.
I don't believe it. I don't believe in inflation. No,
just kidding, I absolutely do. Yes, just for a reference point,
Washington sold recently for six point zero five billion.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
That was why I w when anything to your point,
anything under one hundred million, I was like pocket change.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
Crazy, right, go back a million team in the early sixties.
It seems like a great investment. I tried to look up,
like what what could you buy with eighty two million dollars?
Google's AI told me, like super yachts and you can
invest in charity is the other thing that it told me. Basically,
those those are.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
Those are the only two options.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
You can do nothing else of the like, are we
totally separate podcasts? We'll get like we got to use
AI better. AI needs to generate me like a list
of here's one hundred thousand things that you can buy
with eighty two million dollars. That's what we need to
be doing.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Yeah, no, it only gave you two options. I think honestly,
chat GPT is probably a little bit like lazy about it.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
Put it in the bank, you can invest it, right, Yeah,
you do that with dollars.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Man. We want to do some fun things with it.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
So they obviously they they ended up picking the Falcons.
A lot of submissions. As for the nickname rite in uh,
but some of the other names okay, actually tell me.
The other name for for the Atlanta Falcons were the Knights. Okay,
with a with a K, yes carry it gets dark
in Atlanta sometimes it does. Yeah, beautiful moon out the
(06:13):
bombers kind of that's an interesting one, you know. Maybe
it has to do like Dobbin's Air Force.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
Base maybe maybe, But how long has Dobbin's even been there?
Speaker 1 (06:22):
That's a great question, right assume. I mean I think it.
I think it was around for both of the World Wars.
If somebody knows the answer to this, we're gonna sound
super foolish.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
I honestly love that. We're just kind of making stuff
up and we're like.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
Yeah, sure on ourselves without even knowing it.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
Oh yeah, so okay, so the Bombers, rebels, rebels makes sense?
Speaker 1 (06:42):
Yeah, Crackers, oh no, you know, Confederates Oh oh no,
this was these are getting worse thrashers Okay, so yeah, okay,
the Lancers Lancers, lancers?
Speaker 2 (06:56):
What is that?
Speaker 1 (06:57):
On the one hand, I believe it was like an
old series of television, Like I think it was an
old TV series. I don't think. I think it's more
maybe like you're lancing something like I don't know, a lancer,
a pimple or something like that. Like it's kind of
you like puncture it to like maybe let it drain. Okay.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
Producer Jared has dropped in an image of what it Okay, this.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Is about the Bombers, so we do have Yes, there's
a major airplane factory yep in Atlanta Bell Bomber plant.
So there we go. Okay, Aircraft Corporation. Interesting, Okay, did
they go on the fund Bell South.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
TVD Okay, I do need to know. I need to know.
I don't know what a lancer is, and I feel
like that is a strange.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
I'm pretty sure their lancer was mentioned in the movie
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. I don't think that
helps us here, but that's why I'm saying it's a
TV show. Well, while producer Jared is in on that
for us looking up lancer Firebirds fire Birds which came
back for the Atlanta United Yeah, and that was my
personal favorite. I think Firebirds, you know, it's just like
(08:05):
there's something so interesting and original about Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
Also, quick pause on Firebirds. If anyone's watching and just
saw my face, it's because producer Jared just sent a.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
Picture, the most metal picture I've ever seen.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
It's a man on a horse stabbing someone, which I
assume is the lancer with.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
All right, so when if anybody is familiar with jousting,
that's basically a lance. Okay, oh my god, Yeah, that's
of course that's a lancer, right, Yeah, it's a lance.
Nice tale a Lancelot.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
That's okay, I'm out on lancing.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
That seems I'm out on me after that. Honestly, did
I how did you not know what a lancer was? Will?
Speaker 2 (08:40):
I mean, I think it's pretty fair to not know
what a lancer was?
Speaker 1 (08:44):
Fair, but like a lance anyway, fire Birds, fire balls,
and Thunderbirds were the final three. Oh, firebirds are thunderbirds,
which is cooler.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Thunderbirds, but I feel like the thunder it's because of
the Thunderbirds brand of the plane that I consider that
to be the cooler of the two. Fireballs is a little.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
Bit on the not great side. Fireballs fireballs, fire balls
like great balls of fire for every.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
Every touchdown, every single one. Honestly great brand. But no,
I think I personally like think the thunder but if
like the thunderbirds. Telling of the thunderbird's been around like
as a naming for the plane.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
A long time. Was also a car.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
Oh yeah that's right.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
It was so like, Yeah, Thunderbirds is not the most
but it's still really cool. I don't know how in
use it is right now, that's how to like plants
and stuff, right, But there's firebirds.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
Right. I'm kind of glad that it's interesting that those
were all of the options and then they landed on
the falcons, because there are a few that I would
have been like, oh, that's really cool, Like I really
liked I like firebirds. I think firebirds is pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
I think bombers is kind of sick.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
Bombers is interesting considering the history of it, and there
that there was a the Bell bom bomber plant in
World War Two. I think that's interesting. What was the
other one before we.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
Got to Lancers? Uh, Thrashers?
Speaker 2 (10:11):
What was the one before that?
Speaker 1 (10:13):
No? Not no nights?
Speaker 2 (10:18):
Nights? Oh that was what I was gonna say. So apparently,
do you remember going to Thrashers games?
Speaker 1 (10:23):
Okay, had many birthday parties there.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
Okay, what's the lore? Wasn't there like some type of lore?
I remember being like super young, and they would while
you're singing the national anthem at Thrashers games, like, uh,
whenever you said night, everyone would yell nights.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
I do Was there a minor league hockey? I know
they've got the Gwinnett Gladiators. Was there in Atlanta? Maybe
there was a hockey team? Maybe there was. Again, we're
showing our age here, so if you guys like DM
like we I want I actually.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
Genuinely want to know why why we did that? Because
I was like eight or nine going to games and
watching Thrashers, and so when they when you said Knights
like off the top, I was like, oh, maybe it
was like the interconnecting of like what the Falcons could
have been. But yep, I don't know that's interesting. Those
are hilarious names.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
Though, Yeah, we should look up. We'll look up Nights
Off Air and it's anything interesting, we'll share it in
the future episode. But but yeah, go look it up.
The first team head coach in Team Mystery was Nord Pecker,
but they really tried to make a push for Vince
lam Party, so Nord Pecker was an assistant on that staff.
Apparently though they had a handshake agreement with Vince Lombardi
really to come and coach Falcons, and he backed down
(11:34):
did because he's a coward.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
He didn't want to smoke.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
He couldn't handle the Firebirds.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
He couldn't handle the fire Birds, so there was a handshake.
How old do we think? How like, how was Vince Lombardy?
Was he retired at the time? Would he be?
Speaker 1 (11:50):
No, I don't think he had won. I don't think
they championships yet. I don't think he was. He was
right on the precipice of the kay.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
Wow, so he could have been a man. I wonder
if like he wasn't if he did like follow through
and he was like the first coach of the Atlanta Falcons.
What the trophy would be named after?
Speaker 1 (12:09):
Now? Oh wow, that's actually a great question. Okay, Yeah,
I was like, where are we going with this? Because
I don't know if they're immediately just gonna have the
success in the Packers.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
No, because I don't think they. I don't think they would.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
Have to be the Bill Walsh Trophy. Would it be?
Maybe like who's a Don Shula? Like yeah, like early.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
On, right, the best coaches of US a specific era,
like that specific era? Who would have won had vincellis
like had Vince Lombardi not been Vince Lombardi? Right?
Speaker 1 (12:38):
Yeah? Or would have been named after a player maybe
if maybe was part of it? That's a that's a
fascinating what if we could pencil in like an NFL
what if? But if just a great episode? Yeah, just
like the all time kind of like zags or sliding doors,
that would be fine. I like that. They also considered
a man named Red Hickey. That name stood out and
(12:58):
I loved it. Man, the sixties were.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
What a name? If I was going to be named
after a color, I think I would want.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
To be red red yeah, or magenta.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
Magenta, that's a good one.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
You know, blues clues. Yeah, the best dog. So when
they were courting their first ever draft pick, mister Falcon
Tommy Nobus, he was trying to decide between the Falcons
and the Oilers, both of whom selected him with the
number one overall pick. I believe just like a week apart, No,
just ten minutes apart. Ten minutes, sorry, ten minutes. Oh
(13:31):
my gosh, about being on the clock. So this is
also how crazy the sixties were, Like, we just don't
make him like this anymore.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
Well, the fact that you could have two teams vying
for one player.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
With the same time with one real tugle war. Yeah,
he's like he's a guy's on find of me?
Speaker 2 (13:46):
Like why why was that? Like why did they have
like why were they head to.
Speaker 1 (13:52):
Head on the pape and the two the teams aren't collaborate,
like the teams are competing or the leagues the least competing,
so like they don't care.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
That's sure.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
It was a wholes just taken. Yeah, we're just taking it.
And then they were different leagues saying, hey, come to us. No, hey,
come to us. This is living a PGA. You know,
they're they're fighting over players.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
So I completely forgot about, Like that's the structure of
how things.
Speaker 1 (14:12):
Were at that time. Yeah. As somebody who weighed in
on the decision for Tommy Nobis was Gemini seven astronaut
Frank Borman, who from space decided He's like, hey, I
got like maybe one phone call from outer space to Earth.
He said, tell nobus to sign with Houston. That's you
know whoa that's what he did. That is the crucial
(14:33):
information we got to send from space to Earth.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
Talk about like the universe sending you a sign like that's.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
Legit, and then you just send it right on back
and then you say.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
You know what, Universe, Yeah, suck it.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
I'm different from space. I'm going to Atlanta.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
I'm doing something different. That's so interesting. But I imagine,
like you don't get a phone call from space, like
I imagine it's more of like a telegram.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
I think they write something on the Moon.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
Ooh yeah, like.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
Space letters and it's just like no this God show
you check mark emoji.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
Houston, We do not have a problem if you come here.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
See you in Texas with the ies emoji. Yeah on
the moon. But they start. So the Falcons started playing
in the NFL NFL East Division, and they have been
part of the most wild divisions, I think, just the
makeups of them. In the NFL East Division in nineteen
sixty six, the Atlanta Falcons, the Cleveland Browns, the Dallas Cowboys,
the New York Giants, Philadelphia Eagles. So we got and
(15:31):
in Washington, so we got the NFC East in there,
Pittsburgh Seelers, Saint Louis Cardinals. That's kind of like the
weirdest hodgepodge of just like the East Coast. And then
we got the Saint Louis Cardinals in there. Yeah. But
later on in nineteen sixty seven they would play in
something called the Coastal Division. They had they were doing
a real legends and leaders thing in nineteen sixty seven
in the NFL. They had like the Central, they had
(15:51):
the Command, they had the Coastal, they had another sea
and it was the Falcons. The Baltimore Ravens, the San
Francisco forty nine ers, and the La Rams. Could you
imagine that's horrible? Yeah, Like we're we're freaking out about
like Oregon having to be in the Big Ten. Yeah,
the Falcons have to go like all their road games
are five hundred miles away minimum.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
Literally. Ever since we got the schedule for the twenty
twenty five season, all I've been complaining about is why
we don't have like a road trip out to the
West Coast to play San Francisco and Arizona instead of
having like doing it in one fail swoop, instead of
like one earlier in the season, one later in this season.
The fact that it's like in their conference, like yeah
(16:31):
is there, Oh yeah, guys.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
Go You're on to the West Coast and you're coming
back and you're gonna play I don't know, Cleveland and
the Middle Coast and you got Baltimore right here.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
That's that to me seems so like illegitimate and like
not in any type It doesn't make any type of
logistical sense at all.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
Nope, not at all. So we're we're about halfway through
my knowledge for you didn't go again all the way
up to today, so just kind of ten years. But
second coach in team history, Norm Norm van Brocklin had
the nickname the Dutchman. So I wanted to get your
thoughts on what do you think the coolest nicknames in
sports history are. I've got a couple. I've got a
(17:12):
few written down, so while you're thinking of some, maybe
these jug your memory. The Law Firm then Jarvis green
ellis just an amazing like creative nickname there, yeah, and
cool for running back like the Law Firm. That it
is pretty cool, right yeah? The round Mound of rebound
Charles Barkley, Yeah, creative, hurtful, little hurtful. The other side
(17:35):
of the weight spectrum, the Slim Reaper Kevin Kevin rant
for sure. I mean, yeah, we can say that DeVante
Smith is in the NFL that version, but I think
Katie owns it to two NFL all time nicknames. Night
train Lane maybe my favorite nickname night train Lane. First off,
(17:56):
like night train, what is it? Is it different than
a day It's just a train that runs a night,
but it sounds infinitely cooler, huh. And the night train
lane just the the rhyming and a falcon that I
think has such is such a cool nickname is Andre
bad Moon Rising. Oh, I do well Creeden's Clearwater Revival
(18:16):
for Andre Riisen, who was before Roddy White, before Julio Jones,
before Terrence Mathis, that was the guy. That was the guy.
So you got me, okay.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
So I just like I wanted to do some baseball
ones because I knew there were some like baseball ones
that I couldn't like really think, I mean, because I
just immediately my mind made immediately went to like hammering, hammering,
Hank Heron, like the hammer like that. To me, I
just love to Hank Aaron. He's my favorite player of
all time any sport ever. But so I just like
(18:47):
looked up some like major League baseball names, and some
of these are actually very funny because like they're very obviously.
Like Walt Williams they called him no Neck because he
didn't really have a neck. Don Mossi they called him
ears because he just had big ears, like these were
just whatever whatever they thought like that that was their
(19:10):
biggest point of like physical feature. There's like your big ears.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
It's like the John Mulaney stand up where he's like
thirteen year olds are the most mean people and They're like,
look at that man. He got feminine hips. Yeah, feminine
hips on the baseball team.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
So Ricky Henderson has the all time stolen based leader.
Wasn't always will be according to this the Man of
Steel spelled st e a l Oh yeah, which is that?
Speaker 1 (19:35):
Like that that?
Speaker 2 (19:36):
I like a lot, The Man of Steel because he
was steeling bases.
Speaker 1 (19:39):
I saw. Actually is that Germany made a an Iron
Man statue as attributes to him, and they titled it
the Man of Steel Perfect, which is imperfect because that's
obviously Superman's nickname. So oh yeah, that's right. They literally
like called iron Man the Man of Steel and ironhil Actually,
I take that back.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
It's very imperfect, hilarious, not at all accurate. Somebody used
to translation.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
Probably deserving of his own nickname. Claud Humphrey one of
my favorite players in Falcons history that I know very
little about, and one of gold of mine one day
is to just bury myself in the archives and read
all the Cloud Humphrey newspaper clippings I can, because the
dude had ninety nine and a half sacks with the Falcons.
He was defensive Rookie of the Year in nineteen sixty eight.
They drafted him number three overall. He's a Hall of Famer.
(20:24):
Claude Humphrey is like, did you when did you first
become aware of claud Humphrey? Are you, like, what is
your awareness of Claude Humphrey as a falcon? Because he's
all time great that we just kind of like, I
I'm sure people listening right now don't know who Claude
Humphrey is.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
I know, wasn't he from Memphis?
Speaker 1 (20:44):
I believe, man, you always throw a question at me
that I know.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
I'm sorry.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
I spend the last day doing research on this and
the first one you're gonna throw is like, I don't.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
Know the reason. A reason I know this is because
like I used to play softball and we would travel
all the time, and so I think in Memphis there
was like, yeah, there was something about Claude Humphrey and
unfortunately and then like the next time that I really
like thought about him was when he unfortunately passed away
in twenty twenty one, because it was like, yeah, like
(21:15):
we were getting things together going through the archives to
your point, and it's like, wait a minute, why are
not more people talking about what he was to the
Falcons like back in the day, because it was very impressive,
and I I mean that's the thing is like some
things just get lost to the history books and case
in point all of this that we're talking about today,
and Claude Humphrey is just like somebody that I think
(21:37):
embodied what the intro to the league was at that time,
like in his story and the success that he had
with everything mounted against him was just it's just it's
pretty inspiring.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
Yeah, So go go look up Claude Humphrey if if
you don't know much about him, because he really is
a phenomenal player and a cool part of Falcon's history.
Moving on, and we'll kind of do this next these
next couple a little quicker. This is crazy. I saw
this on a page two article about the craziest draft
stories in NFL history from ESPN way back in the day,
like two thousand and three whatever. Still it's on the internet.
(22:13):
In nineteen seventy two, the Atlanta Falcons drafted John Wayne,
the actor John Wayne. Hello Pilgrim that John Wayne.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
Wait okay, wait what draft pick did they use to
draft John wayn Because if we're talking like a day
two pick, I'm like number one of Wrotten I would
be like, what are we doing?
Speaker 1 (22:32):
So it was the seventeenth round back in the day.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
They ran out of options there like there are no
more football players left to draft.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
It is like if we had seventeen rounds. And how
Roseman was like, we're we're drafting Glenn Powell. Come on down, Glenn,
Come on Glenn. Yep, hang man, come on in, let's
do it. So they drafted John Wayne, and apparently Norm
van Brocklin, the Dutchman, my guy. He stands up, yells
to his staff and he says, quote, esp piece here,
do we want the roughest, toughest SOB in the draft?
(23:05):
The response, of course, was affirmative yes. So Van Brocklin
calls in FLHQ and says, Atlanta picks John Wayne a
Fort Apache State. And then Pete Roselle the GM just
allowed to pick. He said, no, you can't say John Wayne.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
So he wasn't joking, he was literally real.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
He called card and said John Wayne is our pick.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
And they said, actually we take that back. He don't
listen to him, listen to us. So what was John
Wayne doing at the time? I wonder, like I wonder
what the perspective of John Wayne was when he heard
the story or if he ever heard the story and
was like, wait a minute, honorary Falcon.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
Yeah, keep keep on speculating there. How old was John
Wayne in nineteen seventy.
Speaker 2 (23:47):
Two, because also like when did he even like, what
position did he play?
Speaker 1 (23:52):
Yeah, so apparently he did play He did play quarterback
or not quite sorry, he did play college football. Okay,
he got a scholarship to USC in the nineteen twenties.
I don't know what position he played. He was six
foot four so usually okay, maybe fella. Maybe he was
born in nineteen o seven, so he would have been
(24:13):
sixty five years old at the time. In nineteen seventy two,
they drafted a sixty five year old actor with the
seventeenth round pick.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
You know, sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do,
and they felt they were convicted. To use Terry Fontneau's term,
they felt conviction about John Wayne, and they're like, you
know what, get him here. We don't care what happens.
Get him here. And then the GM was like, actually, guys,
let's go a different route.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
Yep, they don't call him the Dutchman the Dutchman and
the duke. That would have been a nice little pairing there.
But yeah, I love the Cojones on that decision.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
Great job, mister Dutchman.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
So the nineteen seventy three season is one of the
craziest I think I've seen, just in terms of how
it all played out. They opened the seventy three season
with a sixty two to seven win against the New
Orleans Saints.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
Hey there you go.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
Yeah, it was seven zero zero after the first quarter.
They scored twenty four points in the second quarter twenty one,
and the third seventeen and the fourth blew them out.
Falcons had five hundred yards of offense near about four ninety six.
Dick Shiner, quarterback for the Falcons, perfect passer rating one
hundred and fifty eight point three, the first ever recorded
(25:18):
perfect passer rating in the history of that stat.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
In nineteen seventy three.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
Nineteen seventy three, the season opener between the Falcons and
the Saints, the first perfect passer rating in NFL history.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
And I wonder, like, do you get a plaque for that?
You know, like later later on in live it's like,
you know what I created, the stata a perfect stat
You're welcome. Thanks guys, I'll be here all week.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
It was. It was it was a site to behold,
and congratulations to him. But then there was another end
of the spectrum in terms of quarterback play. Later that season,
Falcons played Saint Louis and it was the only time
in NFL history that both starting quarterbacks had a passerrating
of zero. No in that game. How you can zero passerrating?
Speaker 2 (26:04):
Like this literally the worst and the best in the
same season.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
That one was Bobb Lee. So it's a different quarterback
for Atlanta, but same team. Also, what's more interesting though,
is that the Falcons lost the game thirty two to ten.
How a team puts up thirty two points with the
quarterback having a zero passer rating is beyond me.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
That's what's so, That's what I can't like really comprehend.
Speaker 1 (26:26):
It's like, only incomplete passes will leave you with like
a thirty two right passer rating. So you he threw
I think five interceptions in that game.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
They had to have scored on at least three or
four of those.
Speaker 1 (26:39):
You would think, yeah, a couple of pick sixes like
had to have But again, like that just the roller
coaster of it, and I've got it here. So after
opening the season sixty two to seven win, they then
lose the next game thirty one to zero, score sixty
two points, one week zero points. The next lose thirty
one to six, the next week thirteen to nine, the
next so sixty two to seven. They'd lose three straight
(27:00):
and they score a combined fifteen points in those three games.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
Crazy, right, that is so I can't even like really
even fathom that.
Speaker 1 (27:07):
It gets better. Oh god, they then win the next
seven games. In the next two games, after losing those
and putting up only fifteen points, they put up eighty
seven combined points. Then they go seventeen points, fifteen points,
forty four points, twenty points, twenty eight points. They are
eight and three at that point, everybody's like, what the heck.
Then they lose seventeen to six. Then they lose thirty
(27:28):
two to ten.
Speaker 2 (27:29):
It's just like so over the like how they were.
It wasn't even like they were having any like uh
middling of the road. It was either're all or nothing.
Speaker 1 (27:42):
It was yes, it was crazy. It was home runs
or strikeouts. Yeah, Like that's all that season was. I
kind of just want to go back and rewatch that
season on NFL films, I gotta go find it.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
What a weird what a weird season, And.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
So I'm spending with summer now.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
Also, I would just be like every day you'd wake
up and be like, I don't really know what you're
gonna get from them today, but it'll be interesting regardless.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
All Right. So I want to end you with this
one because I've discovered I think my new favorite, not
just Falcon, but maybe kicker of all time. Okay, player,
I had no idea frankly existed beforehand. Maybe he's kin
of mine. I don't know. His name is Brian McFadden.
Oh and he was a kicker for the Falcons at
least during the nineteen eighty eight season. That was his
(28:23):
final year as a kicker for the Falcons. Because in
a game against the Buffalo Bills, and this is you know,
the Buffalo Bills in their heyday, the four falls, Buffalo
making four straight Super Bowls, one of the best teams
in the league. He helps them win by converting not
just one, but two fifty plus yard field goals, which
at the time, you know, again we're talking nineteen eighty
(28:44):
eight here, they're not bombing sixty yards all over the
place he helps them win walk off field goal over
fifty yards. But here's the thing, and I'm going to
slack you this picture right now, got you can see
in real time? All right? Tell me what you see
on mister McFadden's right foot.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
Is that a boot? Or is he without any shoe?
Does he have no shoe on?
Speaker 1 (29:06):
He has sons shoe. He was a barefoot kicker. He
kicked the ball barefoot over fifty yards twice to beat
the Buffalo Bills in the same game that, my friends,
is the craziest thing I have ever learned about the
Atlanta Falcons. He carries my last name. I'm so excited.
I need his jersey six. I need the McFadden number
(29:27):
six throwback jersey.
Speaker 2 (29:28):
They're even wearing the like throwback helmets.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
It's so sick. I'm so happy that this hearefoot.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
I imagine there has to be a I would read
a whole expos on this as to why he decides
to kick breakfast right, And it's what's funny is he's not.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
The maccollins of kickers.
Speaker 2 (29:48):
Yeah, well he's not. What's funny is he's not barefoot
on the other foot, Yes, just one one he's fully
like fully gloves, sock, shoe, pant all of it and
the other one it's pant and then bear leg.
Speaker 1 (30:01):
It's like he stepped in a river. He does.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
Well, That's why I was like, is he wearing because
the picture is a little like blurry because it's old,
and I was like, is he wearing like a boot?
And nope, just absolutely fine. That has to hurt.
Speaker 1 (30:11):
It's gotta hurt.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
It's in the cold. In the cold, I can't handle
anyone even like poking my arm if it's under fifty degrees.
I'm a Southern girl through and through, Like i can't
handle the cold.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
Yea.
Speaker 2 (30:26):
The imagining like even if he like hits it wrong,
like you're hitting bone, you may hit a toe, talk
about like how painful that is. You can't eat? Like no,
I'm I'm hard out on this. I hate feet. I
hate looking at feet. I think they're kind of gross.
So I'm imagine how gross his foot was.
Speaker 1 (30:47):
Like, yeah, it's like cauliflower ear, but like.
Speaker 2 (30:50):
Like the bottom of his foot, I bet was disgusting,
and like, I bet it's dunk. Actually no, maybe it
didn't because.
Speaker 1 (30:59):
It was just on in the breezed. Yeah, it was
just easy, breezy, free breeze, it's swinging.
Speaker 3 (31:06):
Yeah, it's all good, easy breezy, beautiful cover girl like
he uncovered toe uncovered, Doe Gross Gross would say, ye,
but hey.
Speaker 2 (31:16):
You know, kudos sim He had a system and I
guess the system worked for him.
Speaker 1 (31:19):
The last bit about this because we're somehow not done.
So there's that. That fifty yard kick the game winner
was also his last kick ever because, as we mentioned,
break his tow. I don't know if he broke his toe,
but he did get injured before the next game, which
they didn't know about before the game because he got
hurt in warm ups and teams didn't have really backup kickers.
They weren't carrying two kickers on the roster. The punter
(31:40):
at the time had no kicking experience. So in a
absolute blowout loss forty five to three. The only points
scored in that game because again they don't have their kicker, right,
they scored three points. Yeah, Starting quarterback Chris Miller lines
up and kicks the worst field goal kick you're ever
going to see in your life, and it hooks in
twenty five yard and it's good. So Chris Miller made
(32:02):
a field goal the next game after Brian McFadden just
gave it all to glory.
Speaker 2 (32:06):
So did he did he also take a new barefoot?
Did he do a barefoot? Because maybe that would have
changed things.
Speaker 1 (32:13):
I think he learned. I think he learned his lesson. Okay,
I think also as the starting quarterback, probably don't probably
don't kick the ball there.
Speaker 2 (32:18):
Yeah, don't. Don't kick the ball at barefoot. Maybe don't
even kick it all. Maybe just convert on fourth down.
Speaker 1 (32:23):
Absolutely just just the toush push was invented that night
that day? Yeah, was this fun? I can't tell. Did
we do good here?
Speaker 2 (32:32):
I can't tell either.
Speaker 1 (32:33):
I have no idea if like I enjoyed this, but like,
this is a normal conversation for us, So I don't know.
Speaker 2 (32:39):
This is not un This isn't like a not normal
thing for us to not.
Speaker 1 (32:44):
The first time I've been like, hey, Tory, did you
hear about this? Yeah? Barefooted kicker.
Speaker 2 (32:48):
His last name is mcfad, Like this is pretty normal
for us. But like if you guys at home or
just like, what did I just listen to for twenty
five minutes? And to that, I say, you listen to
this and you're not getting your life back.
Speaker 1 (33:03):
So honestly, I feel great about that. I feel that
if that's everybody's saying to feel very good about what
we've done here.
Speaker 2 (33:10):
I did learn a lot at the John Wayne like
that's crazy, right, traffic is fascinating to me that he is, like,
you know what, you know who we need? Call him up,
John Wayne.
Speaker 1 (33:19):
How do you do Pilgrim? All right, well, thank you
Tory for joining me. Everybody, keep it rolling throughout the summer,
keep checking back in with the website, with the podcast network.
We got a lot of cool stuff coming up ahead
of training camp. But we'll be right back next week.
So for Tory mclaney, i' will macfatten and we will
see you guys soon.
Dirty Birds. What's up? And welcome back to the Atlanta
Falcons podcast Network. I'm your host, Will McFadden, joined as
always by Tory mclaney. Tory, We're here to celebrate a
couple of birthdays.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Big birthday Day.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Big birthday energy. We've got the Atlanta Falcons kind of
celebrating the sixtieth anniversary of when they were granted pretty
much the rights to Rankin Smith.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Crazy that it's been sixty years, eight years.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Yeah, June June thirtieth, nineteen sixty five is the day
that that happens. So happy birthday to the franchise. And
then of course we got the fourth of July coming up,
so you know, Happy Birthday America?
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Are they Happy birthday to our country?
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Big birthday energies. To kind of celebrate the merging of
those two things, I thought it might be fun for
me to just read some historical facts trivia moments from
the Falcons past, because how much do you actually know
about the nineteen sixty eight season.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
So before I have to be completely honest, like before
Arthur Blank bought the team, I really don't know all
that much. Like, of course I know the story of
be like signed with the napkin and you know the
offer and everything like that. And I know a lot about,
you know, from my lifetime from I was born in
ninety six to now twenty twenty five, so I feel
like I know a good recent history, but I actually
(01:14):
don't think I know a lot about like I almost
an ancient history, but like all the way back when
when the Smiths owned the Falcons and what the vibes
were back in what like the sixties and seventies. So
I'm excited.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
It's crazy. It's like my dad was five years old,
I think when they bought the Falcons, so like that
that just puts so much of that history in the
context where like, yeah, there's a lot of this I
didn't know.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Okay, which you're like the resident like historian all you
and Matt Haley, who's one of our like comms, Yeah,
read our vps of comms and like y'all can go
back and forth just like pulling out names left and right,
and sometimes I'm like, oh, yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Well I appreciate that. Yeah, I'm not actually sixty five
years old though even nice actually like I'm sixty five
years old, you.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Know, It's it's nice to know. It's nice to get
that confirmation.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
I was born with the spirit of a success. I
want to just make that very right. Yeah. I come
by that naturally, of course, But a little bit behind
the scenes. Didn't think too much about this, just kind
of went through Wikipedia pages, did some more deep dives.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Everyone knows that everything on Wikipedia.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
Is accurate exactly, but you know, this isn't isn't going
to be the hardest hitting introspective journalism I think I've
ever done in my career.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
No capital J journalism.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
That's just a chance to have fun. It's more like
some capital T trivia. So we'll start that off. Do
you know what the first professional the two teams involved
and they are still two cities in the NFL, two
NFL cities. The first professional football game played in Atlanta
between two teams not Atlanta.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
Can I get like a hint?
Speaker 1 (02:51):
They are both AFC teams in today's NFL the cities
really one one mascot has changed. If that, I'll give
you one other hint.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
No, it wouldn't be okay, one mascot has changed. Baltimore.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
No, No, that's good because of the Yeah, Baltimore is
a French and that were like multiple different iterations.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
Right, yeah, okay, Miami, Nope, no close close?
Speaker 1 (03:15):
Oh damn. We have the Houston Oilers who then moved
to Tennessee Titans now in Houston, Texans and the Denver Broncos.
Nineteen sixty two. It was an AFL preseason match. Was
the first professional football game played, not even an NFL game. Wow.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
So where where do you know where? They played in Atlanta?
Like what stadium at the time?
Speaker 1 (03:35):
I did they because they didn't have Fulton County State right,
yeah at the time, Yeah, Atlanta stadium. I want to
say they played. Was it like Georgia Tech or something
like that? Would make sense, they'd play like Emoy or yeah,
somewhere like that. But no, I don't have that written down.
It's a great, great thing for our fans to look
up and check out.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
This out let us know in the comments.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
So Rankin Smith, who who bought Falcons, paid eight point
five million dollars for the Falcons in nineteen sixty five.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
Okay, how much is that in like today terms?
Speaker 1 (04:06):
Very glad you asked eighty two million dollars, which is,
on the one hand, a ton of money that I'm
never going to see in my lifetime. So like that's
but also on the cheap side. But it's eighty two
much of NFL franchise of.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
NFL franchise in today's money. Like I was thinking you
were going to stay closer to like it would be like.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Two hundred and fifty eighty two million dollars.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
It actually seemed less than what I thought the conversion
would be, like what.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
Even a low number would be, because you would expect
all right eight point five with inflation, sure, and just
the valuation of the NFL waivery than it was, like
it's going to be on the low side, but like
I didn't expect under one hundred million.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
No, No, what a steal?
Speaker 1 (04:44):
Yeah, what all this talk about inflation, I'm not so sure.
I don't believe it. I don't believe in inflation. No,
just kidding, I absolutely do. Yes, just for a reference point,
Washington sold recently for six point zero five billion.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
That was why I w when anything to your point,
anything under one hundred million, I was like pocket change.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
Crazy, right, go back a million team in the early sixties.
It seems like a great investment. I tried to look up,
like what what could you buy with eighty two million dollars?
Google's AI told me, like super yachts and you can
invest in charity is the other thing that it told me. Basically,
those those are.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
Those are the only two options.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
You can do nothing else of the like, are we
totally separate podcasts? We'll get like we got to use
AI better. AI needs to generate me like a list
of here's one hundred thousand things that you can buy
with eighty two million dollars. That's what we need to
be doing.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Yeah, no, it only gave you two options. I think honestly,
chat GPT is probably a little bit like lazy about it.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
Put it in the bank, you can invest it, right, Yeah,
you do that with dollars.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Man. We want to do some fun things with it.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
So they obviously they they ended up picking the Falcons.
A lot of submissions. As for the nickname rite in uh,
but some of the other names okay, actually tell me.
The other name for for the Atlanta Falcons were the Knights. Okay,
with a with a K, yes carry it gets dark
in Atlanta sometimes it does. Yeah, beautiful moon out the
(06:13):
bombers kind of that's an interesting one, you know. Maybe
it has to do like Dobbin's Air Force.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
Base maybe maybe, But how long has Dobbin's even been there?
Speaker 1 (06:22):
That's a great question, right assume. I mean I think it.
I think it was around for both of the World Wars.
If somebody knows the answer to this, we're gonna sound
super foolish.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
I honestly love that. We're just kind of making stuff
up and we're like.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
Yeah, sure on ourselves without even knowing it.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
Oh yeah, so okay, so the Bombers, rebels, rebels makes sense?
Speaker 1 (06:42):
Yeah, Crackers, oh no, you know, Confederates Oh oh no,
this was these are getting worse thrashers Okay, so yeah, okay,
the Lancers Lancers, lancers?
Speaker 2 (06:56):
What is that?
Speaker 1 (06:57):
On the one hand, I believe it was like an
old series of television, Like I think it was an
old TV series. I don't think. I think it's more
maybe like you're lancing something like I don't know, a lancer,
a pimple or something like that. Like it's kind of
you like puncture it to like maybe let it drain. Okay.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
Producer Jared has dropped in an image of what it Okay, this.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Is about the Bombers, so we do have Yes, there's
a major airplane factory yep in Atlanta Bell Bomber plant.
So there we go. Okay, Aircraft Corporation. Interesting, Okay, did
they go on the fund Bell South.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
TVD Okay, I do need to know. I need to know.
I don't know what a lancer is, and I feel
like that is a strange.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
I'm pretty sure their lancer was mentioned in the movie
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. I don't think that
helps us here, but that's why I'm saying it's a
TV show. Well, while producer Jared is in on that
for us looking up lancer Firebirds fire Birds which came
back for the Atlanta United Yeah, and that was my
personal favorite. I think Firebirds, you know, it's just like
(08:05):
there's something so interesting and original about Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
Also, quick pause on Firebirds. If anyone's watching and just
saw my face, it's because producer Jared just sent a.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
Picture, the most metal picture I've ever seen.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
It's a man on a horse stabbing someone, which I
assume is the lancer with.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
All right, so when if anybody is familiar with jousting,
that's basically a lance. Okay, oh my god, Yeah, that's
of course that's a lancer, right, Yeah, it's a lance.
Nice tale a Lancelot.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
That's okay, I'm out on lancing.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
That seems I'm out on me after that. Honestly, did
I how did you not know what a lancer was? Will?
Speaker 2 (08:40):
I mean, I think it's pretty fair to not know
what a lancer was?
Speaker 1 (08:44):
Fair, but like a lance anyway, fire Birds, fire balls,
and Thunderbirds were the final three. Oh, firebirds are thunderbirds,
which is cooler.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Thunderbirds, but I feel like the thunder it's because of
the Thunderbirds brand of the plane that I consider that
to be the cooler of the two. Fireballs is a little.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
Bit on the not great side. Fireballs fireballs, fire balls
like great balls of fire for every.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
Every touchdown, every single one. Honestly great brand. But no,
I think I personally like think the thunder but if
like the thunderbirds. Telling of the thunderbird's been around like
as a naming for the plane.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
A long time. Was also a car.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
Oh yeah that's right.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
It was so like, Yeah, Thunderbirds is not the most
but it's still really cool. I don't know how in
use it is right now, that's how to like plants
and stuff, right, But there's firebirds.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
Right. I'm kind of glad that it's interesting that those
were all of the options and then they landed on
the falcons, because there are a few that I would
have been like, oh, that's really cool, Like I really
liked I like firebirds. I think firebirds is pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
I think bombers is kind of sick.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
Bombers is interesting considering the history of it, and there
that there was a the Bell bom bomber plant in
World War Two. I think that's interesting. What was the
other one before we.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
Got to Lancers? Uh, Thrashers?
Speaker 2 (10:11):
What was the one before that?
Speaker 1 (10:13):
No? Not no nights?
Speaker 2 (10:18):
Nights? Oh that was what I was gonna say. So apparently,
do you remember going to Thrashers games?
Speaker 1 (10:23):
Okay, had many birthday parties there.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
Okay, what's the lore? Wasn't there like some type of lore?
I remember being like super young, and they would while
you're singing the national anthem at Thrashers games, like, uh,
whenever you said night, everyone would yell nights.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
I do Was there a minor league hockey? I know
they've got the Gwinnett Gladiators. Was there in Atlanta? Maybe
there was a hockey team? Maybe there was. Again, we're
showing our age here, so if you guys like DM
like we I want I actually.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
Genuinely want to know why why we did that? Because
I was like eight or nine going to games and
watching Thrashers, and so when they when you said Knights
like off the top, I was like, oh, maybe it
was like the interconnecting of like what the Falcons could
have been. But yep, I don't know that's interesting. Those
are hilarious names.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
Though, Yeah, we should look up. We'll look up Nights
Off Air and it's anything interesting, we'll share it in
the future episode. But but yeah, go look it up.
The first team head coach in Team Mystery was Nord Pecker,
but they really tried to make a push for Vince
lam Party, so Nord Pecker was an assistant on that staff.
Apparently though they had a handshake agreement with Vince Lombardi
really to come and coach Falcons, and he backed down
(11:34):
did because he's a coward.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
He didn't want to smoke.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
He couldn't handle the Firebirds.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
He couldn't handle the fire Birds, so there was a handshake.
How old do we think? How like, how was Vince Lombardy?
Was he retired at the time? Would he be?
Speaker 1 (11:50):
No, I don't think he had won. I don't think
they championships yet. I don't think he was. He was
right on the precipice of the kay.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
Wow, so he could have been a man. I wonder
if like he wasn't if he did like follow through
and he was like the first coach of the Atlanta Falcons.
What the trophy would be named after?
Speaker 1 (12:09):
Now? Oh wow, that's actually a great question. Okay, Yeah,
I was like, where are we going with this? Because
I don't know if they're immediately just gonna have the
success in the Packers.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
No, because I don't think they. I don't think they would.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
Have to be the Bill Walsh Trophy. Would it be?
Maybe like who's a Don Shula? Like yeah, like early.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
On, right, the best coaches of US a specific era,
like that specific era? Who would have won had vincellis
like had Vince Lombardi not been Vince Lombardi? Right?
Speaker 1 (12:38):
Yeah? Or would have been named after a player maybe
if maybe was part of it? That's a that's a
fascinating what if we could pencil in like an NFL
what if? But if just a great episode? Yeah, just
like the all time kind of like zags or sliding doors,
that would be fine. I like that. They also considered
a man named Red Hickey. That name stood out and
(12:58):
I loved it. Man, the sixties were.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
What a name? If I was going to be named
after a color, I think I would want.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
To be red red yeah, or magenta.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
Magenta, that's a good one.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
You know, blues clues. Yeah, the best dog. So when
they were courting their first ever draft pick, mister Falcon
Tommy Nobus, he was trying to decide between the Falcons
and the Oilers, both of whom selected him with the
number one overall pick. I believe just like a week apart, No,
just ten minutes apart. Ten minutes, sorry, ten minutes. Oh
(13:31):
my gosh, about being on the clock. So this is
also how crazy the sixties were, Like, we just don't
make him like this anymore.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
Well, the fact that you could have two teams vying
for one player.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
With the same time with one real tugle war. Yeah,
he's like he's a guy's on find of me?
Speaker 2 (13:46):
Like why why was that? Like why did they have
like why were they head to.
Speaker 1 (13:52):
Head on the pape and the two the teams aren't collaborate,
like the teams are competing or the leagues the least competing,
so like they don't care.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
That's sure.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
It was a wholes just taken. Yeah, we're just taking it.
And then they were different leagues saying, hey, come to us. No, hey,
come to us. This is living a PGA. You know,
they're they're fighting over players.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
So I completely forgot about, Like that's the structure of
how things.
Speaker 1 (14:12):
Were at that time. Yeah. As somebody who weighed in
on the decision for Tommy Nobis was Gemini seven astronaut
Frank Borman, who from space decided He's like, hey, I
got like maybe one phone call from outer space to Earth.
He said, tell nobus to sign with Houston. That's you
know whoa that's what he did. That is the crucial
(14:33):
information we got to send from space to Earth.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
Talk about like the universe sending you a sign like that's.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
Legit, and then you just send it right on back
and then you say.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
You know what, Universe, Yeah, suck it.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
I'm different from space. I'm going to Atlanta.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
I'm doing something different. That's so interesting. But I imagine,
like you don't get a phone call from space, like
I imagine it's more of like a telegram.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
I think they write something on the Moon.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
Ooh yeah, like.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
Space letters and it's just like no this God show
you check mark emoji.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
Houston, We do not have a problem if you come here.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
See you in Texas with the ies emoji. Yeah on
the moon. But they start. So the Falcons started playing
in the NFL NFL East Division, and they have been
part of the most wild divisions, I think, just the
makeups of them. In the NFL East Division in nineteen
sixty six, the Atlanta Falcons, the Cleveland Browns, the Dallas Cowboys,
the New York Giants, Philadelphia Eagles. So we got and
(15:31):
in Washington, so we got the NFC East in there,
Pittsburgh Seelers, Saint Louis Cardinals. That's kind of like the
weirdest hodgepodge of just like the East Coast. And then
we got the Saint Louis Cardinals in there. Yeah. But
later on in nineteen sixty seven they would play in
something called the Coastal Division. They had they were doing
a real legends and leaders thing in nineteen sixty seven
in the NFL. They had like the Central, they had
(15:51):
the Command, they had the Coastal, they had another sea
and it was the Falcons. The Baltimore Ravens, the San
Francisco forty nine ers, and the La Rams. Could you
imagine that's horrible? Yeah, Like we're we're freaking out about
like Oregon having to be in the Big Ten. Yeah,
the Falcons have to go like all their road games
are five hundred miles away minimum.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
Literally. Ever since we got the schedule for the twenty
twenty five season, all I've been complaining about is why
we don't have like a road trip out to the
West Coast to play San Francisco and Arizona instead of
having like doing it in one fail swoop, instead of
like one earlier in the season, one later in this season.
The fact that it's like in their conference, like yeah
(16:31):
is there, Oh yeah, guys.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
Go You're on to the West Coast and you're coming
back and you're gonna play I don't know, Cleveland and
the Middle Coast and you got Baltimore right here.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
That's that to me seems so like illegitimate and like
not in any type It doesn't make any type of
logistical sense at all.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
Nope, not at all. So we're we're about halfway through
my knowledge for you didn't go again all the way
up to today, so just kind of ten years. But
second coach in team history, Norm Norm van Brocklin had
the nickname the Dutchman. So I wanted to get your
thoughts on what do you think the coolest nicknames in
sports history are. I've got a couple. I've got a
(17:12):
few written down, so while you're thinking of some, maybe
these jug your memory. The Law Firm then Jarvis green
ellis just an amazing like creative nickname there, yeah, and
cool for running back like the Law Firm. That it
is pretty cool, right yeah? The round Mound of rebound
Charles Barkley, Yeah, creative, hurtful, little hurtful. The other side
(17:35):
of the weight spectrum, the Slim Reaper Kevin Kevin rant
for sure. I mean, yeah, we can say that DeVante
Smith is in the NFL that version, but I think
Katie owns it to two NFL all time nicknames. Night
train Lane maybe my favorite nickname night train Lane. First off,
(17:56):
like night train, what is it? Is it different than
a day It's just a train that runs a night,
but it sounds infinitely cooler, huh. And the night train
lane just the the rhyming and a falcon that I
think has such is such a cool nickname is Andre
bad Moon Rising. Oh, I do well Creeden's Clearwater Revival
(18:16):
for Andre Riisen, who was before Roddy White, before Julio Jones,
before Terrence Mathis, that was the guy. That was the guy.
So you got me, okay.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
So I just like I wanted to do some baseball
ones because I knew there were some like baseball ones
that I couldn't like really think, I mean, because I
just immediately my mind made immediately went to like hammering, hammering,
Hank Heron, like the hammer like that. To me, I
just love to Hank Aaron. He's my favorite player of
all time any sport ever. But so I just like
(18:47):
looked up some like major League baseball names, and some
of these are actually very funny because like they're very obviously.
Like Walt Williams they called him no Neck because he
didn't really have a neck. Don Mossi they called him
ears because he just had big ears, like these were
just whatever whatever they thought like that that was their
(19:10):
biggest point of like physical feature. There's like your big ears.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
It's like the John Mulaney stand up where he's like
thirteen year olds are the most mean people and They're like,
look at that man. He got feminine hips. Yeah, feminine
hips on the baseball team.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
So Ricky Henderson has the all time stolen based leader.
Wasn't always will be according to this the Man of
Steel spelled st e a l Oh yeah, which is that?
Speaker 1 (19:35):
Like that that?
Speaker 2 (19:36):
I like a lot, The Man of Steel because he
was steeling bases.
Speaker 1 (19:39):
I saw. Actually is that Germany made a an Iron
Man statue as attributes to him, and they titled it
the Man of Steel Perfect, which is imperfect because that's
obviously Superman's nickname. So oh yeah, that's right. They literally
like called iron Man the Man of Steel and ironhil Actually,
I take that back.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
It's very imperfect, hilarious, not at all accurate. Somebody used
to translation.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
Probably deserving of his own nickname. Claud Humphrey one of
my favorite players in Falcons history that I know very
little about, and one of gold of mine one day
is to just bury myself in the archives and read
all the Cloud Humphrey newspaper clippings I can, because the
dude had ninety nine and a half sacks with the Falcons.
He was defensive Rookie of the Year in nineteen sixty eight.
They drafted him number three overall. He's a Hall of Famer.
(20:24):
Claude Humphrey is like, did you when did you first
become aware of claud Humphrey? Are you, like, what is
your awareness of Claude Humphrey as a falcon? Because he's
all time great that we just kind of like, I
I'm sure people listening right now don't know who Claude
Humphrey is.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
I know, wasn't he from Memphis?
Speaker 1 (20:44):
I believe, man, you always throw a question at me
that I know.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
I'm sorry.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
I spend the last day doing research on this and
the first one you're gonna throw is like, I don't.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
Know the reason. A reason I know this is because
like I used to play softball and we would travel
all the time, and so I think in Memphis there
was like, yeah, there was something about Claude Humphrey and
unfortunately and then like the next time that I really
like thought about him was when he unfortunately passed away
in twenty twenty one, because it was like, yeah, like
(21:15):
we were getting things together going through the archives to
your point, and it's like, wait a minute, why are
not more people talking about what he was to the
Falcons like back in the day, because it was very impressive,
and I I mean that's the thing is like some
things just get lost to the history books and case
in point all of this that we're talking about today,
and Claude Humphrey is just like somebody that I think
(21:37):
embodied what the intro to the league was at that time,
like in his story and the success that he had
with everything mounted against him was just it's just it's
pretty inspiring.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
Yeah, So go go look up Claude Humphrey if if
you don't know much about him, because he really is
a phenomenal player and a cool part of Falcon's history.
Moving on, and we'll kind of do this next these
next couple a little quicker. This is crazy. I saw
this on a page two article about the craziest draft
stories in NFL history from ESPN way back in the day,
like two thousand and three whatever. Still it's on the internet.
(22:13):
In nineteen seventy two, the Atlanta Falcons drafted John Wayne,
the actor John Wayne. Hello Pilgrim that John Wayne.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
Wait okay, wait what draft pick did they use to
draft John wayn Because if we're talking like a day
two pick, I'm like number one of Wrotten I would
be like, what are we doing?
Speaker 1 (22:32):
So it was the seventeenth round back in the day.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
They ran out of options there like there are no
more football players left to draft.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
It is like if we had seventeen rounds. And how
Roseman was like, we're we're drafting Glenn Powell. Come on down, Glenn,
Come on Glenn. Yep, hang man, come on in, let's
do it. So they drafted John Wayne, and apparently Norm
van Brocklin, the Dutchman, my guy. He stands up, yells
to his staff and he says, quote, esp piece here,
do we want the roughest, toughest SOB in the draft?
(23:05):
The response, of course, was affirmative yes. So Van Brocklin
calls in FLHQ and says, Atlanta picks John Wayne a
Fort Apache State. And then Pete Roselle the GM just
allowed to pick. He said, no, you can't say John Wayne.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
So he wasn't joking, he was literally real.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
He called card and said John Wayne is our pick.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
And they said, actually we take that back. He don't
listen to him, listen to us. So what was John
Wayne doing at the time? I wonder, like I wonder
what the perspective of John Wayne was when he heard
the story or if he ever heard the story and
was like, wait a minute, honorary Falcon.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
Yeah, keep keep on speculating there. How old was John
Wayne in nineteen seventy.
Speaker 2 (23:47):
Two, because also like when did he even like, what
position did he play?
Speaker 1 (23:52):
Yeah, so apparently he did play He did play quarterback
or not quite sorry, he did play college football. Okay,
he got a scholarship to USC in the nineteen twenties.
I don't know what position he played. He was six
foot four so usually okay, maybe fella. Maybe he was
born in nineteen o seven, so he would have been
(24:13):
sixty five years old at the time. In nineteen seventy two,
they drafted a sixty five year old actor with the
seventeenth round pick.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
You know, sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do,
and they felt they were convicted. To use Terry Fontneau's term,
they felt conviction about John Wayne, and they're like, you
know what, get him here. We don't care what happens.
Get him here. And then the GM was like, actually, guys,
let's go a different route.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
Yep, they don't call him the Dutchman the Dutchman and
the duke. That would have been a nice little pairing there.
But yeah, I love the Cojones on that decision.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
Great job, mister Dutchman.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
So the nineteen seventy three season is one of the
craziest I think I've seen, just in terms of how
it all played out. They opened the seventy three season
with a sixty two to seven win against the New
Orleans Saints.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
Hey there you go.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
Yeah, it was seven zero zero after the first quarter.
They scored twenty four points in the second quarter twenty one,
and the third seventeen and the fourth blew them out.
Falcons had five hundred yards of offense near about four ninety six.
Dick Shiner, quarterback for the Falcons, perfect passer rating one
hundred and fifty eight point three, the first ever recorded
(25:18):
perfect passer rating in the history of that stat.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
In nineteen seventy three.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
Nineteen seventy three, the season opener between the Falcons and
the Saints, the first perfect passer rating in NFL history.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
And I wonder, like, do you get a plaque for that?
You know, like later later on in live it's like,
you know what I created, the stata a perfect stat
You're welcome. Thanks guys, I'll be here all week.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
It was. It was it was a site to behold,
and congratulations to him. But then there was another end
of the spectrum in terms of quarterback play. Later that season,
Falcons played Saint Louis and it was the only time
in NFL history that both starting quarterbacks had a passerrating
of zero. No in that game. How you can zero passerrating?
Speaker 2 (26:04):
Like this literally the worst and the best in the
same season.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
That one was Bobb Lee. So it's a different quarterback
for Atlanta, but same team. Also, what's more interesting though,
is that the Falcons lost the game thirty two to ten.
How a team puts up thirty two points with the
quarterback having a zero passer rating is beyond me.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
That's what's so, That's what I can't like really comprehend.
Speaker 1 (26:26):
It's like, only incomplete passes will leave you with like
a thirty two right passer rating. So you he threw
I think five interceptions in that game.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
They had to have scored on at least three or
four of those.
Speaker 1 (26:39):
You would think, yeah, a couple of pick sixes like
had to have But again, like that just the roller
coaster of it, and I've got it here. So after
opening the season sixty two to seven win, they then
lose the next game thirty one to zero, score sixty
two points, one week zero points. The next lose thirty
one to six, the next week thirteen to nine, the
next so sixty two to seven. They'd lose three straight
(27:00):
and they score a combined fifteen points in those three games.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
Crazy, right, that is so I can't even like really
even fathom that.
Speaker 1 (27:07):
It gets better. Oh god, they then win the next
seven games. In the next two games, after losing those
and putting up only fifteen points, they put up eighty
seven combined points. Then they go seventeen points, fifteen points,
forty four points, twenty points, twenty eight points. They are
eight and three at that point, everybody's like, what the heck.
Then they lose seventeen to six. Then they lose thirty
(27:28):
two to ten.
Speaker 2 (27:29):
It's just like so over the like how they were.
It wasn't even like they were having any like uh
middling of the road. It was either're all or nothing.
Speaker 1 (27:42):
It was yes, it was crazy. It was home runs
or strikeouts. Yeah, Like that's all that season was. I
kind of just want to go back and rewatch that
season on NFL films, I gotta go find it.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
What a weird what a weird season, And.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
So I'm spending with summer now.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
Also, I would just be like every day you'd wake
up and be like, I don't really know what you're
gonna get from them today, but it'll be interesting regardless.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
All Right. So I want to end you with this
one because I've discovered I think my new favorite, not
just Falcon, but maybe kicker of all time. Okay, player,
I had no idea frankly existed beforehand. Maybe he's kin
of mine. I don't know. His name is Brian McFadden.
Oh and he was a kicker for the Falcons at
least during the nineteen eighty eight season. That was his
(28:23):
final year as a kicker for the Falcons. Because in
a game against the Buffalo Bills, and this is you know,
the Buffalo Bills in their heyday, the four falls, Buffalo
making four straight Super Bowls, one of the best teams
in the league. He helps them win by converting not
just one, but two fifty plus yard field goals, which
at the time, you know, again we're talking nineteen eighty
(28:44):
eight here, they're not bombing sixty yards all over the
place he helps them win walk off field goal over
fifty yards. But here's the thing, and I'm going to
slack you this picture right now, got you can see
in real time? All right? Tell me what you see
on mister McFadden's right foot.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
Is that a boot? Or is he without any shoe?
Does he have no shoe on?
Speaker 1 (29:06):
He has sons shoe. He was a barefoot kicker. He
kicked the ball barefoot over fifty yards twice to beat
the Buffalo Bills in the same game that, my friends,
is the craziest thing I have ever learned about the
Atlanta Falcons. He carries my last name. I'm so excited.
I need his jersey six. I need the McFadden number
(29:27):
six throwback jersey.
Speaker 2 (29:28):
They're even wearing the like throwback helmets.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
It's so sick. I'm so happy that this hearefoot.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
I imagine there has to be a I would read
a whole expos on this as to why he decides
to kick breakfast right, And it's what's funny is he's not.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
The maccollins of kickers.
Speaker 2 (29:48):
Yeah, well he's not. What's funny is he's not barefoot
on the other foot, Yes, just one one he's fully
like fully gloves, sock, shoe, pant all of it and
the other one it's pant and then bear leg.
Speaker 1 (30:01):
It's like he stepped in a river. He does.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
Well, That's why I was like, is he wearing because
the picture is a little like blurry because it's old,
and I was like, is he wearing like a boot?
And nope, just absolutely fine. That has to hurt.
Speaker 1 (30:11):
It's gotta hurt.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
It's in the cold. In the cold, I can't handle
anyone even like poking my arm if it's under fifty degrees.
I'm a Southern girl through and through, Like i can't
handle the cold.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
Yea.
Speaker 2 (30:26):
The imagining like even if he like hits it wrong,
like you're hitting bone, you may hit a toe, talk
about like how painful that is. You can't eat? Like no,
I'm I'm hard out on this. I hate feet. I
hate looking at feet. I think they're kind of gross.
So I'm imagine how gross his foot was.
Speaker 1 (30:47):
Like, yeah, it's like cauliflower ear, but like.
Speaker 2 (30:50):
Like the bottom of his foot, I bet was disgusting,
and like, I bet it's dunk. Actually no, maybe it
didn't because.
Speaker 1 (30:59):
It was just on in the breezed. Yeah, it was
just easy, breezy, free breeze, it's swinging.
Speaker 3 (31:06):
Yeah, it's all good, easy breezy, beautiful cover girl like
he uncovered toe uncovered, Doe Gross Gross would say, ye,
but hey.
Speaker 2 (31:16):
You know, kudos sim He had a system and I
guess the system worked for him.
Speaker 1 (31:19):
The last bit about this because we're somehow not done.
So there's that. That fifty yard kick the game winner
was also his last kick ever because, as we mentioned,
break his tow. I don't know if he broke his toe,
but he did get injured before the next game, which
they didn't know about before the game because he got
hurt in warm ups and teams didn't have really backup kickers.
They weren't carrying two kickers on the roster. The punter
(31:40):
at the time had no kicking experience. So in a
absolute blowout loss forty five to three. The only points
scored in that game because again they don't have their kicker, right,
they scored three points. Yeah, Starting quarterback Chris Miller lines
up and kicks the worst field goal kick you're ever
going to see in your life, and it hooks in
twenty five yard and it's good. So Chris Miller made
(32:02):
a field goal the next game after Brian McFadden just
gave it all to glory.
Speaker 2 (32:06):
So did he did he also take a new barefoot?
Did he do a barefoot? Because maybe that would have
changed things.
Speaker 1 (32:13):
I think he learned. I think he learned his lesson. Okay,
I think also as the starting quarterback, probably don't probably
don't kick the ball there.
Speaker 2 (32:18):
Yeah, don't. Don't kick the ball at barefoot. Maybe don't
even kick it all. Maybe just convert on fourth down.
Speaker 1 (32:23):
Absolutely just just the toush push was invented that night
that day? Yeah, was this fun? I can't tell. Did
we do good here?
Speaker 2 (32:32):
I can't tell either.
Speaker 1 (32:33):
I have no idea if like I enjoyed this, but like,
this is a normal conversation for us, So I don't know.
Speaker 2 (32:39):
This is not un This isn't like a not normal
thing for us to not.
Speaker 1 (32:44):
The first time I've been like, hey, Tory, did you
hear about this? Yeah? Barefooted kicker.
Speaker 2 (32:48):
His last name is mcfad, Like this is pretty normal
for us. But like if you guys at home or
just like, what did I just listen to for twenty
five minutes? And to that, I say, you listen to
this and you're not getting your life back.
Speaker 1 (33:03):
So honestly, I feel great about that. I feel that
if that's everybody's saying to feel very good about what
we've done here.
Speaker 2 (33:10):
I did learn a lot at the John Wayne like
that's crazy, right, traffic is fascinating to me that he is, like,
you know what, you know who we need? Call him up,
John Wayne.
Speaker 1 (33:19):
How do you do Pilgrim? All right, well, thank you
Tory for joining me. Everybody, keep it rolling throughout the summer,
keep checking back in with the website, with the podcast network.
We got a lot of cool stuff coming up ahead
of training camp. But we'll be right back next week.
So for Tory mclaney, i' will macfatten and we will
see you guys soon.
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