Atlanta Falcons

History

Professional football comes to Atlanta (1962)

Professional football first came to Atlanta in 1962, when the American Football League (AFL) staged two preseason contests, with one featuring the Denver Broncos vs. the Houston Oilers and the second pitting the Dallas Texans against the Oakland Raiders. Two years later, the AFL held another exhibition, this time with the New York Jets taking on the San Diego Chargers.

In 1965, after the Atlanta–Fulton County Stadium (then known simply as Atlanta Stadium) was built, the city of Atlanta felt the time was right to start pursuing professional football. One independent group which had been active in NFL exhibition promotions in Atlanta applied for franchises in both the AFL and NFL, acting entirely on its own with no guarantee of stadium rights. Another group reported it had deposited earnest money for a team in the AFL.

With everyone running in different directions, some local businessmen (Cox Broadcasting) worked out a deal and were awarded an AFL franchise on June 8, contingent upon acquiring exclusive stadium rights from city officials. NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle, who had been moving slowly in Atlanta matters, was spurred by the AFL interest and headed on the next plane down to Atlanta to block the rival league's claim on the city of Atlanta. He forced the city to make a choice between the two leagues; by June 30, the city picked Rankin Smith and the NFL.

The AFL's original expansion plans in June 1965 were for two new teams in 1966, in Atlanta and Philadelphia. It later evolved into the Miami Dolphins in 1966 and the Cincinnati Bengals in 1968. The NFL had planned to add two teams in 1967; the competition with the AFL for Atlanta forced the first to be added a year early in 1966. The odd number of teams (15) resulted in one idle team (bye) each week, with each team playing 14 games over 15 weeks (similar to 1960: 12 games over 13 weeks). The second expansion team, the New Orleans Saints, joined the NFL as planned in 1967 as its sixteenth franchise.

The Atlanta Falcons franchise began when it was approved to begin play in 1966 by a unanimous vote of the NFL club owners on June 21, 1965. Rozelle granted ownership nine days later on June 30 to 40-year-old Rankin Smith Sr., an executive vice president of Life Insurance Company of Georgia. He paid $8.5 million, the highest price in NFL history at the time for a franchise. Rozelle and Smith made the deal in about five minutes and the Atlanta Falcons brought the largest and most popular sport to the city of Atlanta.

Smith family era (1966–2001)

The Falcons' inaugural season was in 1966, and their first preseason game was on August 1, a loss to the Philadelphia Eagles. Under head coach Norb Hecker, Atlanta lost their first nine regular-season games in 1966; their first victory came on the road against the struggling New York Giants on November 20 in Yankee Stadium. Two weeks later, Atlanta won at Minnesota, and beat St. Louis in Atlanta the next week for their first home win. The team finished with a 1–12–1 record the next year, with the only win coming in Week 7 in a 21–20 win over the Minnesota Vikings in 1967. After a 0–3 start to the 1968 season, Hecker was dismissed. Norm Van Brocklin finished out the season as head coach with a 2–9 record. Van Brocklin continued to coach the team the next season. The team improved to a 6–8 record in 1969.

The Falcons had their first Monday Night Football game in Atlanta during the 1970 season, a 20–7 loss to the Miami Dolphins. The team went 4–8–2 in 1970. The only two winning seasons in their first 12 years were 1971 (7–6–1) and 1973 (9–5).

In the 1978 season, the 9–7 Falcons qualified for the playoffs for the first time and won the Wild Card game against the Eagles 14–13. The following week, they lost to the Dallas Cowboys 27–20 in the Divisional Playoffs. The 1979 team regressed to a 6–10 record.

In the 1980 season, after a nine-game winning streak, the Falcons posted a franchise then-best record of 12–4 and captured their first NFC West division title. The next week, their dream season ended at home with a loss to the Cowboys 30–27 in the divisional playoffs. In the strike-shortened 1982 season, the 5–4 Falcons made the playoffs but lost to the Minnesota Vikings, 30–24. Falcons coach Leeman Bennett was fired after the loss. The team then had losing seasons for the next eight years. Dan Henning was hired prior to the 1983 season.

In the 1989 NFL draft, the Falcons selected cornerback Deion Sanders in the first round, who helped them for the next four years, setting many records for the franchise. "Neon Deion" (a.k.a. "Prime Time") had a flashy appeal and helped bring media attention to one of the league's most anonymous franchises. Sanders was also famous for playing on major league baseball teams (New York Yankees and the Atlanta Braves) while simultaneously playing in the NFL.

Arthur Blank era (2002–present)

On December 6, 2001, billionaire Home Depot co-founder Arthur M. Blank reached a preliminary agreement with the Falcons' Taylor Smith to purchase the team for a reported $545 million. In a special meeting prior to Super Bowl XXXVI in New Orleans on February 2, 2002, NFL owners voted unanimously to approve the deal.

The 2002 season saw the Falcons return to the playoffs with a regular-season record of 9–6–1, tying the Pittsburgh Steelers. It was Vick's first year as the starter, and the team, with newly acquired running back Warrick Dunn, delivered the Green Bay Packers their first home playoff loss ever with a 27–7 result in the Wild Card Round. A 20–6 loss to the Donovan McNabb-led Philadelphia Eagles the following week, however, ended the Falcons' season.

On March 19, 2003, the Falcons presented their new logo. During the 2003 preseason Vick broke his leg and missed the first 12 games of the season. After losing 7 straight games, the decision was made to fire head coach Dan Reeves. Wade Phillips acted as interim coach for the final three games. Although the Falcons won 3 of their last 4 games after the return of Vick, they ended up with a 5–11 record that year.

In 2004, a new head coach, Jim L. Mora, was hired and Vick returned for the full season. The Falcons went 11–5, winning their third division title and earning a first-round bye into the playoffs. In the divisional playoffs, the Falcons defeated the St. Louis Rams, 47–17, in the Georgia Dome, advancing to the NFC Championship Game, which they lost to the Eagles, 27–10.

The Falcons again fell short of achieving back-to-back winning seasons in 2005, going 8–8. In 2006, Michael Vick became the first quarterback in league history to rush for more than 1,000 yards in a season, with 1,039. After finishing the season 7–9, however, coach Jim Mora was dismissed.

Bobby Petrino, the University of Louisville's football coach, replaced Mora. Before the 2007 season began, Vick was suspended indefinitely by the NFL after pleading guilty to charges involving dog fighting in the state of Virginia. On December 10, 2007, Vick received a 23-month prison sentence and was officially cut from the Atlanta roster.

Stadiums

The Falcons have called three stadiums home in their 59 years of existence, and its third home in their history opened in the late summer of 2017. The first was the Atlanta–Fulton County Stadium, sharing with the Atlanta Braves Major League Baseball team until 1991. In 1992, the Georgia Dome was built, and the Falcons played there from its opening to the 2016 season. The Dome has been frequently used for college football, including Georgia State football and college bowl games such as the Peach Bowl.

In an effort to replace the aging Georgia Dome and potentially host a future Super Bowl, team owner Arthur Blank proposed a deal with the city of Atlanta to build a new state-of-the-art stadium not far from where the Georgia Dome is located. Blank will contribute $800 million and the city of Atlanta will contribute an additional $200 million via bonds backed by the city's hotel/motel tax towards the construction of a retractable roof stadium. Blank will contribute additional money for cost overruns if it is needed. The team will provide up to $50 million towards infrastructure costs that weren't included in the construction budget and to retire the remaining debt on the Georgia Dome. In addition, Blank's foundation and the city will each provide $15 million for development in surrounding neighborhoods. Though the total cost of the stadium was initially estimated to be around $1 billion, the total cost was revised to $1.5 billion according to Blank. In March 2013, the Atlanta City Council voted 11–4 in favor of building the stadium. The retractable roof Mercedes-Benz Stadium broke ground in May 2014, and became the third home stadium for the Falcons and the first for the new Atlanta United FC Major League Soccer club upon opening in 2017.

Logo and uniforms

The Atlanta Falcons' colors are black, red, silver and white. When the team began play in 1966, the Falcons wore red helmets with a black falcon crest logo. In the center of the helmet was a center black stripe surrounded by two gold stripes and two white stripes. Those original colors represented the Georgia Bulldogs' red and black and the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets' white and gold. Although the gold was removed after several seasons, the white remains to this day. They wore white pants and either black or white jerseys. At first, the falcon crest logo was also put on the jersey sleeves, but it was replaced by a red and white stripe pattern four years later; the falcon crest returned on the sleeves in 1978. They switched from black to red jerseys in 1971, and the club began to wear silver pants in 1978, while also changing the numbers on the white uniform from black to red. The facemasks on the helmets were initially gray, becoming white in 1978, and then black in 1984; the team wore black face masks until its 2020 redesign.

A prototype white helmet was developed for the team prior to the 1974 season, but was never worn.

In 1990, the uniform design changed to black helmets, silver pants, and either black or white jerseys. The numbers on the white jerseys were black, but were changed to red in 1997. (The red numerals could be seen on the away jerseys briefly in 1990.)

Both the logo and uniforms changed in 2003. The logo was redesigned with red and silver accents to depict a more powerful, aggressive falcon, which now more closely resembles the capital letter F.

Although the Falcons still wore black helmets, the new uniforms featured jerseys and pants with red trim down the sides. The uniform design consisted of either black or white jerseys, and either black or white pants. During that same year, a red alternate jersey with black trim was also introduced. The Falcons also started wearing black cleats with these uniforms.

In 2004, the red jerseys became the primary jerseys, and the black ones became the alternate, both worn with white pants. In select road games, the Falcons wear black pants with white jerseys. The Falcons wore an all-black combination for home games against their archrivals, the New Orleans Saints, winning the first two contests (24–21 in 2004 and 36–17 in 2005), but losing 31–13 in 2006. The Falcons wore the all-black combination against the New Orleans Saints for four straight seasons starting in 2004, With the last time being in 2007, losing 34–14. They wore the combination again in 2006, against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week 2. The Falcons won that game, 14–3. The Falcons also wore their all-black uniform in 2007 against the New York Giants, and in 2008 against the Carolina Panthers and against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (for the second time). After that, the black pants and uniforms were retired and the white pants were now used full-time with the regular uniforms.

Rivalries

Divisional

The Falcons have shared a heated divisional rivalry with the New Orleans Saints (first the NFC West, and now the NFC South). The two teams were often basement-dwellers in the division; but the rivalry grew as a means of pride between the two cities, as they were the only two NFL teams in the Deep South for multiple decades. The series is the oldest and most iconic rivalry in the NFC South as the two teams have long harbored bad blood against one another. The Falcons currently lead the series 58-56.

In addition, the Falcons share a similar, rivalry with the Carolina Panthers, with both teams having been in the NFC West from the Panthers' founding in 1995 to the NFL realignment in 2002. Similar to their rivalry with the Saints, the Falcons have often endured several competitive divisional battles with the Panthers for lead of the NFC South, though the two have yet to meet in the postseason. The series is also known as the "I-85 Rivalry" due to Atlanta and Charlotte being only four hours apart on Interstate 85. The Falcons lead the series 37-25.

The Falcons share a less-intense divisional rivalry with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers since the NFL realignment in 2002. The two had been regional opponents but very little had linked any further animosity towards the two as the Buccaneers played in the former NFC Central before the realignment. The two teams would find themselves competing over staff and players alike, particularly during the 2000s after the Falcons had lured general manager Rich McKay after winning Super Bowl XXXVII the season prior. McKay's ties with Tampa extend into his family as his father John McKay was head coach of the Buccaneers for nine seasons.

Conference

The Eagles lead the Falcons 21–15–1, with a 3–1 lead in playoff games. The rivalry first emerged after the Falcons upset the Eagles 14–13 in the 1978 Wild Card Round, and only intensified further in the 2000s thanks to the rivalry between prominent dual-threat quarterbacks Donovan McNabb, and Michael Vick. Recently, the Falcons lost to the Eagles in the 2017 divisional round. The Falcons managed a win against Philly in week 2 en route to Philly's eventual Super Bowl LIX victory.

The Falcons have also shared a playoff rivalry with the Green Bay Packers as much of the connections between the two teams stems from Atlanta trading future hall-of-fame quarterback Brett Favre to the Green Bay on February 11, 1992, in exchange for a first-round pick. The two teams have met four times in the postseason, most recently during the 2016–17 NFC Championship as it would also be the final game played at the Georgia Dome. The Packers lead the all-time series 19–16, while both teams are tied in the postseason 2–2.

Statistics

Record vs. opponents

Includes postseason records

Source:

Note: W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties

Notes International Series

Single game records

Rushing: Michael Turner, 220 (September 7, 2008)

Passing: Kirk Cousins, 509 (October 3, 2024)

Passing touchdowns: Wade Wilson, 5 (December 13, 1992) and Matt Ryan, 5 (September 23, 2018)

Receptions: William Andrews, 15 (September 15, 1981)

Receiving yards: Julio Jones, 300 (October 2, 2016)

Interceptions: Several Falcons, 2, most recently Jessie Bates, 2 (September 10, 2023)

Field goals: Norm Johnson, 6 (November 13, 1994)

Total touchdowns: T. J. Duckett, 4 (December 12, 2004) and Michael Turner, 4 (November 23, 2008)

Points scored: T. J. Duckett, 24 (December 12, 2004) and Michael Turner, 24 (November 23, 2008)

Sacks: Adrian Clayborn, 6 (November 13, 2017)

Single season records

Passing attempts: 651 Matt Ryan (2013)

Passing completions: 439 Matt Ryan (2013)

Passing yards: 4,944 Matt Ryan (2016)

Passing touchdowns: 38 Matt Ryan (2016)

Passing interceptions: 25 Bobby Hebert (1996)

Completion percentage: 69.9 Matt Ryan (2016)

Passing rating: 117.1 Matt Ryan (2016)

Rushing attempts: 410 Jamal Anderson (1998)

Rushing yards: 1,846 Jamal Anderson (1998)

Rushing touchdowns: 17 Michael Turner (2008)

Receiving catches: 136 Julio Jones (2015)

Receiving yards: 1,871 Julio Jones (2015)

Receiving touchdowns: 15 Andre Rison (1993)

Quarterback sacks: 16.5 John Abraham (2008)

Pass interceptions: 10 Scott Case (1988)

Field goal attempts: 40 Jay Feely (2002)

Field goals made: 34 Matt Bryant (2016 and 2017)

Points: 158 Matt Bryant (2016)

Total touchdowns: 17 Michael Turner (2008)

Career records

Passing attempts: 6,817 Matt Ryan (2008–2021)

Passing completions: 4,460 Matt Ryan (2008–2021)

Passing yards: 51,186 Matt Ryan (2008–2021)

Passing touchdowns: 321 Matt Ryan (2008–2021)

Passing interceptions: 147 Matt Ryan (2008–2021)

Passing rating: 94.6 Matt Ryan (2008–2021)

Rushing attempts: 1,587 Gerald Riggs (1982–1988)

Rushing yards: 6,631 Gerald Riggs (1982–1988)

Rushing yards by a QB: 3,859 Michael Vick (2001–2006)

Rushing touchdowns: 60 Michael Turner (2008–2012)

Receiving catches: 808 Roddy White (2005–2015)

Receiving yards: 12,125 Julio Jones (2011–2020)

Receiving touchdowns: 63 Roddy White (2005–2015)

Quarterback sacks: 68.5 John Abraham (2006–2012)

Pass interceptions: 39 Rolland Lawrence (1973–1980)

Field goal attempts: 296 Matt Bryant (2009–2019)

Field goals made: 224 Matt Bryant (2009–2019)

Points: 1,163 Matt Bryant (2009–2019)

Total touchdowns: 63 Roddy White (2005–2015)

Players

Pro Football Hall of Famers

Humphrey is the only person in the Hall of Fame who spent the majority of his career with the Falcons.

Ring of Honor

Fourteen members are included in the Atlanta Falcons Ring of Honor.

Draft history

In the team's history, the Falcons have had the number one overall pick four times.

Coaching staff

Head coaches

In their history, the Atlanta Falcons have had 20 head coaches. Five coaches have served in interim roles The current head coach of the Falcons is Kevin Stefanski.

Radio and television

The Falcons' flagship radio station is WZGC 92-9 The Game. Wes Durham, son of longtime North Carolina Tar Heels voice Woody Durham, is the Falcons' play-by-play announcer, with former Atlanta Falcons quarterback and pro football veteran, Dave Archer serving as color commentator.

In 2014, The CW affiliate WUPA became the official television station of the Falcons, gaining rights to its preseason games, which are produced by CBS Sports.

In the regular season, the team's games are seen on Fox's O&O affiliate WAGA. When the Falcons challenge an AFC team, CBS O&O affiliate WUPA will air those games while Sunday night games are televised on WXIA, the local NBC affiliate.

Radio affiliates

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