The problem isn’t the travel. The problem often isn’t even the opponent or the stakes. The problem is the week, which is unlike any week, in any sport, on any planet, and I’m including Neptune, which I’m pretty sure is where most Super Bowl weeks actually play out.
Coaches say, “We’re going to keep it normal.”
Players say, “We’re going to keep it normal.”
And then abnormalcy hits you in the head.
When the week starts with a mutant “media” onslaught that includes a guy dressed as a superhero, complete with a cape and mask, taking selfies with the left tackle … when a young woman in spandex and heels and straight off the Chick-a-Boom-Boom body parts assembly line asks questions like, “How do football players get such big muscles?” … when some poor misguided fool asks, “Is this a must-win game?” (because, yeah, that happened) … good luck keeping it normal.
“It’s like going from being a person who has no money to becoming Oprah Winfrey overnight,” said Chuck Smith, the former Falcons defensive end who played in the title game in the 1998 season.
“You can’t prepare for it. You can’t account for the pressure and the family tugging at you and the hoopla. Your friends will want you to come hang out. Your parents will be in the lobby. Your auntie will want a picture with Julio Jones. Hey, leave Julio alone.”
Owner Arthur Blank is bringing about 500 employees to the Super Bowl. He should also manufacture about 1,000 hats that say that: “Leave Julio alone.”
The Falcons face New England next Sunday in Houston. Let me type these words now: The Falcons are a better team. They’re better on offense, better on defense. If the Patriots have the better quarterback, and that’s a legitimate debate this season, the difference between Tom Brady and Matt Ryan is minimal.
This postseason has seen the Falcons drill two former Super Bowl winners (Seattle, Green Bay) while the Patriots struggled to beat Brock Osweiler and the Houston Texans, who somehow made the playoffs despite being outscored 328-279 this season.
But this week is different. That’s why all of the analytics in the world can mean bupkis.
Brady and coach Bill Belichick have been on this stage six times. They’ve won four Super Bowls.
The Falcons have been on this stage once. They fell off.
What happened at the end of the 1998 season goes beyond Eugene Robinson looking for love in all the wrong places on a Miami street corner the night before the game. There also was Ray Buchanan wearing a dog collar to media day and getting into a verbal sparring match with Denver's Shannon Sharpe.
“You can’t give the other team any kind of incentive,” former Falcons coach Dan Reeves said. “Definitely that was something I didn’t appreciate.”
Reeves doesn’t believe poor preparation or distractions during Super Bowl week was a problem for the rest of the Falcons players, attributing the 34-19 loss more to a couple of key injuries and that Denver was a defending Super Bowl champion that simply played much better. But some would disagree, including Smith.
“We had too many guys on the team who went ‘Hollywood,’” Smith said, not specifying players. “The offensive guys at the end of the day, those were the guys who were distracted by the bright lights.
“I wish as a leader back then I would’ve ripped their butts down to the white meat.”
Smith believes it also hurt the Falcons that the team stayed in Miami, party central, while the Broncos were out in relatively sleepy Fort Lauderdale.
“This game isn’t about parties or wearing dog collars,” he said. “It’s about winning a game.
“The best thing that the Falcons can do is listen to people like Dan Quinn and Rich McKay and Thomas Dimitroff, who’ve been there and follow their plan. Because trust me: The highs are high, but the lows are lower. And look, I’m not blaming Eugene or anybody for us losing. We all played a role. Everybody talks about the touchdown pass Eugene got beat on, but I got blocked on that play. That’s on me.”
Dwight Freeney played in two Super Bowls in Indianapolis. The team’s most title experience is off the field: coach Dan Quinn (Seattle), general manager Thomas Dimitroff (New England) and team president Rich McKay (Tampa Bay) all have won rings.
More than 70 percent of the Falcons' roster had never even been in a playoff game before two weeks ago. The defense starts four rookies and eight players in their first or second season (if you include rookie defensive back Brian Poole, who plays in nickel). How will they respond to the week and on Sunday against arguably the greatest quarterback in NFL history?
Freeney said he has attempted to prepare his younger teammates, but acknowledges, “It’s nothing like actually experiencing it. Running through that tunnel, hearing your team name, seeing the crowd, seeing the flashes on kickoff, those are the things you can’t really explain enough for them to understand it. You get goosebumps. To be part of those things in the pregame is absolutely mind-blowing.”
Quinn has been preaching normalcy all week. He said Friday he was pleased with how practices in the bye week went, but knows the real test begins Monday night for the goofiness of “Opening Night” (formerly “Media Day”), followed by three days of news conferences.
It’s enough to make a Valdosta State kid’s head spin.
“Don’t voice your opinion on something political or some crazy question,” offensive tackle Ryan Schraeder said.
Yeah. I want to be there when he tells the latest Latin television Barbie, “No comment.”
This is Quinn’s third Super Bowl in the past four years — a feat even Belichick can’t claim. So he won’t be fazed. But when asked if he was concerned about his players, he said, “We’ll have a real watchful eye on a lot of guys. If we feel anybody deviating from (the plan), we’ll give them the three keys to fall back on.”
He mentioned players being responsible to each other. He mentioned staying in the moment. He said, “Celebrating is for postgames, not before.”
If the Falcons can do that, they might be hugging a trophy at the end of the night.
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