For today’s roundtable topic, I thought I’d throw out there a subject that we don’t discuss much here in the Bulldogs blogosphere: who’s your favorite pro team…and why?
I admittedly grew up with a host of red and black in my wardrobe, chiefly Georgia gear, but I’d also wear Falcons apparel as I was a young and naive soul that believed the Falcons were a pro team that rooted for the best college football team in the state (I’m 50, so my little self believes Herschel and the Junkyard Dawgs were the center of the sports universe when I was in elementary school).
Based on draft decisions and rosters, man was I ever wrong, especially lately. Still, as a youngster I had a rooting interest in Bartkowski and Billy “White Shoes” Johnson, and it still flickers within me to this day. If we thought 40 years from 1980 to 2021 was a long time, being a Falcons fans is an exercise in woeful futility.
I am a Braves fan, and I loved the Hawks in the 80s, when I personally believe basketball peaked and was a game where it was often a boxing match that featured intermittent spurts of actual basketball. I loved the matchups with the Pistons and Celtics in those days, and who didn’t love Tree Rollins, Dominique, and Spud Webb. For a while, I loved going to the semi-pro Atlanta Knights hockey games, which was not unlike 1980s basketball.
Still, I find myself painfully still tuning in to Falcons games, and I think somewhere deep inside me they’re still my favorite pro team. Call me a sucker for punishment.
So how about you…who’s your favorite pro team, and why?
I’ve only cried after two football games I watched, both when I was a kid: the Sugar Bowl loss to Penn St, and the Falcons’ loss to the Cowboys in the 1980 wild card game.
I learned, like most of us, to deal with heartbreak early.
(My eyes did get leaky at the Rose Bowl, but that was different)
I had the same tantrum watching Georgia lose to Pitt, too. F*ck Dan Marino and Todd Blackledge. I can still remember they were playing “We Are the Champions” in the background as I was crying my eyes out, and to make it worse, having to see those two on broadcasts and games for years after didn’t help.
My only other time I can really remember being heartbroken was the Alabama loss in the National Championship in 2017, but it was less crying and more just completely sitting in stunned silence for about three hours after. The 2023 loss was more outrage and confusion than sadness.
The only time I shed a tear since was after the Notre Dame loss this year, and it was mainly because after a year of blogging and engagement with fellow Refugees from this side, it felt sad to see a weird but very engaging/intriguing year come to an end. It was almost like watching the family pet pass away…it meant that it had come to an end, and would be a while before we all had it back again. Even my wife said “what are you even crying about?” and I said at the time I didn’t know. I think I know now.
I’m probably half the Falcons fan I am a Dawgs fan these days, but they are my favorite pro team and I still believe they can get their sh!t together one day and make Atlanta a Super Bowl champion. I don’t think the current roster will get it done however and I wish they would take more UGA players or even good SEC players. At the very least it would be fun to watch players I’ve heard of. Thank you for letting me express that!
I struggle to watch any NFL games anymore. The Falcons are nothing but a tease on the best of days. I’ll watch the Braves if they make the playoffs, mostly because there are too many games but also because they’re never televised in the Carolinas. The NBA could disappear tomorrow and I’d never know.
But having lived in the Raleigh area for 25 years, I’d say my favorite pro team is the Hurricanes. NHL is so much fun and they’re a well run franchise with a bright future.
I adopted the Canes as well.
I used to go see Coach Boom Boom Geoffrion and the “Catlanta Flame” (as he pronounced it with his Canuck accent) in the Omni. Fun times.
I have a photo with him on the beach at Hilton Head in either the late ’70’s or early ’80’s. He was walking down the beach with a savage tan and hoisted me on his shoulder for the picture. I loved the Flames as a kid. Ray Bouchard, Willie Plett, Tom Lysiak, and Bill Clement!
I knew Boom Boom’s son ‘Boomer’. If there was a seat at the bar he wanted and someone was already sitting there, his opening line would be “you’re leaving, right?”. Sorry if this offends anyone, but Southern rednecks are nothing compared to Quebec rednecks.
Braves easily for me. They are well run and have built a fun roster to cheer for each year. I’m worried about starting pitching depth this year though.
I can’t do the Falcons. The franchise is so poorly run I can’t get invested in them. I’m definitely a fair weather fan of theirs. I was a fan as a kid when Bartkowski, William Andrews, Alfred Jenkins, and crew were on the field, but they wore me down with ineptness.
I’m still a Falcons fan because I grew up with them, although I rarely watch now. My dad would take me to Fulton County Stadium a few times a year in the 70s and 80’s. The players would come to the Macon Mall and sign autographs. Alfred Jenkins, Alfred Jackson, Van Note, White Shoes, etc. I am convinced that their ownership hates their fans. I’m a glutton for punishment as well.
Favorite pro team now is easily the Braves. They don’t continually break my heart anymore, although they did in my childhood.
I’m a Georgia boy so yeah I pull for the Falcons. Don’t watch them much anymore unless I’m bored and have nothing else to do. Just not an NFL fan. I do try and keep up with the Ga. players however. Along with some of you, my grip is draft choices. Especially the last 4 or 5 years. It’s like it’s taboo to draft a Ga. player.
I’ll watch the Braves also, but it’s not like it was when I was younger. Hell, this old man is going to bed about the time they throw the first pitches now.
The garbage arse devil worshippin’ Falcons losing a 28-3 lead to Tommie (a literal and figurative patriot) Brady in the Super Bowl is peak NFL for me. The Falcons and their poverty fan base can get lost. Every Dawg in the league could have been on their roster but no. Seeing Rankin Smif’s damn name on campus pisses me off, too. I admit – I enjoyed the Too Legit To Quit nonsense for a couple of seasons but surprise they won absolutely nothing. I’ll watch the NFL just to see what Bulldogs flash but sadly the NFL is just an experiment in what’s the bare minimum teams can do not to lose a game and then blame the kicker if he misses.
At least a certain 7-5 capable team we know of puts Sixty Burgers up on teams when it matters…
The Falcons put a permanent curse on themselves when Rankin Smith impulsively fired Leeman Bennett because he felt the team had ‘plateaued’. That was a real SMH moment.
You’re spot on Hogbody. And after a 12-2 season. Watched my last Falcons game when they blew that lead to the Patriots. That wound me up. I wouldn’t walk outside to watch if they were playing in my front yard. FTMF’S
I’d call the sheriff.
I’m not a pro sports fan any more. I do like the Carolina Hurricanes and will watch parts of games on a random Wednesday night if they are on and I’m channel surfing. The Braves probably are my favorite pro sports team … I enjoy going to Truist but would never be a season ticket holder. Most of that are the memories of watching them on TBS when we first got cable in South Georgia and the games I would go to when we would drive to Atlanta to go to a game and Six Flags and then when the franchise turned the corner in 1991.
I swore off the Falcons when they selected Vic Beasley and then used film of him sacking Aaron Murray from 2 seasons before on their social media. Then TG3 gets selected by the Rams right after (damn knee). I got sucked in for the Super Bowl run and then thought “classic Falcons” when they blew a 25 point lead. I wonder how long Dan Quinn laid awake at night after that game thinking “Why did I let Kyle Shanahan blow it?”
I loved the Hawks in the 80s. Having a Georgia player in Dominique Magnifique as the centerpiece of the franchise had something to do with that. That game 7 4th quarter in Boston Garden against Bird and the Celtics is still the best quarter of basketball I’ve ever seen.
Now I watch a good bit of the PGA Tour (although the painfully slow play is starting to turn me off) and I still love Wimbledon (although I don’t watch as much as I used to but it’s still on my sports bucket list along with attending an Open Championship to complete my personal Grand Slam).
I hate that ‘Nique was past his prime when the original Dream Team was assembled. He deserved a shot at a gold medal.
The Georgia Bulldogs are my favorite pro team.
My first sports love was the Braves. Went to a game with a church group in 1981 and have been a fan ever since. I became a Dawg fan in 1985, after watching the opening game vs Bama on local tv (Aiken, SC but Augusta is the market for us.) That was heartbreaking but we beat Baylor the next week and I was hooked. Didn’t come around to the Falcons until 1991, but I’m in and i’m not getting out. They frustrate the ever living hell out of me on a weekly basis, make shitty coaching and personnel decisions, and haven’t really drafted well. But I’m in, I can’t pull for anyone else. I don’t think they should draft Dawgs just for the sake of doing it, but they really screwed up on a few recently. No reason not to grab Nakobe Dean when he dropped to the third round, that one still bugs me. The Jalen Carter pick I can’t gripe too much about because they picked Penix and he’s been good so far, you need a QB in the NFL first and foremost. I’m sure there are more examples, I’m too lazy to go back and look. But the front office there would do well to pay more attention to the scholl up the road, and I don’t mean tech.
Growing up in the 70’s/80’s, you had to be a fan of the “Falcons and…” if you actually wanted to pull for a pro team with a chance of winning. Back then, the 2 big NFL teams were the Cowboys and the Steelers. I picked the Steelers for no other reasons than I liked their uniforms better and they had a player with a name close to mine.
Nowadays, I guess it’s the Braves, even though I rarely watch. The NFL just kind of happens between golf and yardwork on Sundays. I really pull for Dawgs in the NFL, so maybe the LA Staffords, Philly Dawgs and Cleveland Chubbs. The NBA surely is more popular than the WNBA, but I couldn’t tell ya…
My favorite pro tam is Atlanta United. While last year was a down year they made moves that significantly improve the team, It makes one wonder why the same owner cannot get it right with the Falcons.
It’s because the idiots that have sat in the GM’s office during the last 60 years.
In order of growing up…70s Cowboys, Reds Bengals and Stingers! (IYKYK). 80s Cowboys, Falcons, Bengals, Braves. 90s…Cowboys (Peaked!), Braves (Finally!), Bengals. 00s to present…Cowboys, Falcons, Braves, Bengals…major ups and downs. Georgia football always and forever (?) #1, lost interest in college basketball long ago and never liked the NBA. PGA was great with Tiger, now terrible since the split with LIV. Hockey only good in person…love the Olympics and when they play as countries but don’t follow otherwise. Getting into F1, NASCAR only on super speedways and Indy cars coming back. Majors in tennis.
So it’s really college football or nothing to hold my full attention and they are destroying it so quickly I’ve taken up Bridge.
I’m glad Philly won the Super Bowl … not sure I watched a moment of it. Their fans are still trash.
The Thrashers were the only pro team in Atlanta I would ever really consider myself a fan of. If I lived on the 85 North side of town, I might be a bigger fan of the Hockey team in Athens.
As a kid I hated baseball. The Hawks were fighting to be pretty good in the 80s with Spud Webb and Nique being a UGA guy helped my Hawks leanings. I kind of pulled for them but never took the time to watch the game. The Redskins were the team the I would most call myself a fan of. I don’t watch the NFL now, no idea how many teams aare doing.
Family moved to Georgia for work from NC when I was 13, about 30 minutes outside of Athens. Immediately became a UGA fan following every sport as best as you could in the pre-internet era of the early 90’s. Even got to know a lot of the former football players through dad’s work, which in hindsight also showed the chew them up and spit ’em out meat-market side of the sport and why I’ve long believed in a way to better support the athletes (but not in the manner it’s being done now).
Braves– all day long a fan, but don’t watch as much as I used to. God bless Ted Turner and the ol’ TBS days. We moved to Georgia the same time the program turned around after trading Dale Murphy, a childhood hero. Had access to some season tix to watch TP, Bream, et. al up close. What a time to be a kid at Fulton County Stadium.
Atlanta Knights– Loved it live, but when the NHL moved in, the sport got too rich for my teenage/college budget.
Strangely I never got to be a huge fan of the Falcons, but basically pulled for them since I lived there. So don’t be mad when I tell you what happened when I moved closer to New Orleans for a grad school program. First weekend in town, turn on the tv to watch the Falcons to remind me of home, and whaaa? The Saints are the team they show here? Whyyyy? However, over a few years, I got sucked into the Saints. Not just a fan, but it’s more of a culture down here. The fan base is rabid through the thick and thin. I’ve been to pre-season camps and follow every move and transaction. Passionately hate the Falcons now. Lol. 😉 I might have cried a little when Gleason blocked that punt against you-know-who in their return to the Superdome. I never thought I would be one of those people.
I’ve been on a more winding road than most GTPRers. I’m originally from Kansas City and the Royals were my first love. It was easy when I was growing up in the 1970s and 1980s. They were consistently good back then. It’s been a generally hard slog since. I sometimes ask friends in Atlanta who follow the Falcons why they’re wasting their time and immediately realize I’m hardly one to talk.
We moved to Tallahassee in 1976 and thanks to WTCG/WTBS, I became a Braves fan. We moved to Marietta in 1981 and being able to see them in person (other than the odd exhibition game against FSU) cemented my fandom. I became a big Dawgs fan not long thereafter, when they beat Texas 10-9 in the Cotton Bowl. Going to school in Athens created a strong personal connection I’ll always have with them.
As a kid the only sports team I ever saw was the Braves. My dad would take us once a year, plus we would stay up late and listen on the radio when my mom had bingo night with her friends. I stayed a Braves fan through the 80’s when I was at college. In a weird way, I liked them more when they were hapless than I do now. Maybe it’s just that pro sports have changed.
As for football, for some reason I started liking the Raiders in the 70’s. Those guys were my favorite team for years. I started following the Dogs on radio in South Georgia in the 80’s. Now I don’t really have a favorite team in pro football, but I do like to follow the dogs in the pros, and I tend to have certain players I really like.
Steelers run in the 70’s was great to see as a kid. I was addicted to cfb and pro football as a kid, and I still watch a lot of games. I’d always been an avid reader of the sports pages.
Went to many a Falcons game thru the 80’s but eventually got worn down by a truly lousy organization. Many people older than me at the time predicted I’d eventually give up, and now I pass that same sentiment along to young folks who attend Falcon games.
Even though they lost A LOT during the 80’s, I enjoyed watching the Braves on the superstation. Skip, Randy Johnson, etc. were entertaining. All I can say about the 90’s and Bobby Cox is that it takes a special kind of fuckup to only get one championship with all that talent! Lack of games on TV makes today’s Braves harder to follow, but we still get to games once in a while. When we travel during the summer, I like going to minor league ball parks occaisonally.
Even though the Hawks didn’t win a championship in the 80’s, I liked watching Nique, Spud, Willis, Rivers, etc. I was in awe of Wilkins ever since my big brother took me to see him at the Steg. Don’t have much interest in the NBA these days, though I’m cool with people who still enjoy it. Always liked college basketball.
I took a lot of dates to games over the years, but maybe the best was when I was set up on a blind date for a Knights hockey game. I had no idea of the intense following hockey had, even in ATL. The OMNI was rockin. Like the Knights, she was fun. But my interest in her and hockey didn’t go any further.
This is not meant to disparage anyone here, but seeing all these shifting loyalties between pro teams just highlights why I prefer college over pros.
College sports are (were?) regional but you carried that passion and loyalty with you all over the country. I couldn’t imagine moving to Oregon for work and suddenly becoming a Ducks fan.
Chicago Bears because of Walter Peyton.
Atlanta Braves Because as a child my Mother knew all their name and we would watch them in TBS. Old habits are hard to change.
Atlanta Braves
I dropped the Falcons the day they hired Jerry Glanville and started running the run and shoot offense. A clown and his gimmick circus show.
Haven’t been back since. Glad I wasn’t engaged when Shanahan lost his mind vs. the Patriots. I would not have taken that well.
All they had to do was run the ball three times and try a fg. Didn’t even need to make it and it was over.
Golf and NASCAR. I can’t do the NBA, MLB, or NFL anymore. They just inject to much politics into it for my liking.
Braves by a mile, although I did attend the Falcons Super Bowl in Houston, and have regretted it since. Always loved the characters on the roster in the 80s, loved the bounce back in 91 and all the fun that followed. Trying to be patient with these cheap owners, but enjoying the relative success and fun young talent.
My least favorite pro team was 2010 Auburn.
TBH, the Falcons were the first sports team I watched regular on TV with my Dad as a kid. He got me hooked the day Billy White Shoes caught that crazy game winner by falling on the goal line. He called me in to see the replay and I was hooked. The weekend the Falcons beat the Vikings to get to the Super Bowl we were watching at my house at Seymour Johnson AFB in NC, and my daughter was just a couple of days old. My parents had made the trip from Georgia and my Dad and I got to watch that together. Good times.
For those missing the never-ending frustration and disappointment of UGA football in the 1990s, may I introduce you to Tottenham Hotspur FC of the English Premier League. I got into English soccer when they began widely broadcasting in the US around 15 years ago. Cool sport with fantastic rivalries and super passionate fans. Also, the promotion/relegation model is a nice twist.