The Dirty Birds: Jamal, Terance, Chris, Chuck, and the 1998 Atlanta Falcons

As a 12-year-old kid growing up in Russellville, AL, I was disheartened at the number of people who were pledging allegiance to the new Tennessee Titans. After all, to the best of my knowledge, there were not that many Houston Oiler fans in the greater northwestern portion of Alabama, and this was all the Titans were...the Oilers with a worse logo and color scheme.

When the Titans became one of the most successful franchises in the NFL from 1999-2008, the bandwagon fandom became sickening.

However, in 1998, that was but a distant dream for me. You see, my team, the Atlanta Falcons, had given me the season of a lifetime, and nothing, not even last year's run to the playoffs after being left for dead in the wake of the Michael Vick dogfighting scandal, will ever top it.

The Falcons had finished 7-9 in 1997, but had won six of their last eight games to finish the season, so there was optimism for the Falcons.

The undisputed star of the 1998 Falcons was to be running back Jamal Anderson, the seventh round draft pick from Utah in the 1994 Draft. After backing up the late Craig "Iron Head" Heyward, Anderson rushed for 1,000 yards in both 1996 and 1997.

With noted conservative head coach Dan Reeves running the show, Anderson would get his touches and then some.

He, along with tight end O.J. Santiago, would also be responsible for the dance that put America—OK, Jones Street in Russellville, AL—into a tizzy, the Dirty Bird. In quarterback Chris Chandler, Reeves also had the perfect quarterback for his system.

Chandler was decent in 1997, only throwing seven picks while completing 59% of his passes for 2,602 yards. Chandler's knack for protecting the football would be invaluable to the 1998 Falcons.

On the other side of the ball, an underrated defense, led by veterans Cornelius Bennett, Jessie Tuggle, Chuck Smith, Ray Buchanan, and Eugene Robinson, along with rookie Keith Brooking helped the Falcons finish fourth in the NFL in scoring defense and eighth in total defense.

Most observers predicted the San Francisco 49ers, who had won the West five of the previous six seasons (the one they didn't win, they shared—in 1996 with the Carolina Panthers, who won the division on a tiebreaker) to win the West again, with the tandem of Steve Young and Jerry Rice, as well as a young receiver from the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga named Terrell Owens.

After beating the Panthers 19-14 and Eagles 17-12 to open the season, the Falcons travelled to 3Com Park to face the 49ers in week four of the season (the Falcons had a bye week 3). The game went about as expected...the Niners dominated from start to finish in a 31-20 game that was nowhere near as close as the final score indicated.

However, the Falcons rebounded to demolish the Panthers 51-23 the next week, and followed that up with wins over the Giants and Saints to run their record to 5-1.

A 28-3 loss to a resurgent Jets squad under second-year head coach Bill Parcells had quieted some of the enthusiasm, but two weeks later, the Falcons faced Parcells' old team, the New England Patriots, in Foxborough. 

The game was supposed to be a litmus test for where the Falcons actually stood, after all, the Pats had been the Super Bowl two years earlier and would indeed make the playoffs in 1998.

The Falcons, behind Jamal Anderson's 32 carry, 104 yard day and a defense that forced five turnovers, including a 71-yard return for a touchdown by Chuck Smith, destroyed the Patriots 41-10. The next week saw the 49ers come to town in what emerged as a showdown between the two front-runners in the NFC West.

The Falcons jumped to an early lead, and even led 24-6 in the fourth quarter. However, Young hooked up with Rice on a 65-yard touchdown pass to cut the Falcon lead to 24-19 late in the game. However, Chandler responded with a 78-yard TD pass of his own—to Terance Mathis—to clinch the Falcons' 31-19 win.

The Falcons finished the season with nine straight wins, including a 38-16 pasting of the Dolphins who had upset defending Super Bowl champ Denver the week before on Monday Night Football. With the 14-2 record, the Falcons clinched the No. 2 seed and a first round bye, their first since the star-crossed 1980 season.

After the sixth-seeded Arizona Cardinals upset the third-seed Dallas Cowboys at Texas Stadium on the opening day of Wild Card weekend, the Falcons knew they would face the winner of the Packers-49ers game in San Francisco the next week at the Georgia Dome.

Green Bay had eliminated the 49ers from the playoffs the previous three seasons, and with a 27-23 lead late in the game, the Packers were packing up for Atlanta.

However, an inexplicably bad call allowed San Francisco to maintain possession after an obvious fumble by Jerry Rice, and with three seconds left, Young hit Owens to give San Francisco a 30-27 win and a Divisional Round game against the Falcons.

The Falcons jumped out to an early 14-0 lead against San Francisco, who saw their star running back Garrison Hearst leave the game with a gruesome leg injury in the first quarter.

Backup Terry Kirby fumbled a pitch and Chuck Smith returned it for what looked to be the coup de grace, but the play was ruled dead because Kirby had gained possession while on the ground, and was touched by Henri Crockett (as a kid, I thought this was an awful call.

When I saw it later, the refs got it absolutely right). The 49ers cut the lead to 14-10, and looked to take the lead, but Robinson saved the day, picking off a Young pass and returning 77 yards to set up a Morton Andersen field goal. Andersen added another, and it proved to be the difference in a 20-18 win.

The Falcons had advanced to their first NFC Championship Game, but everybody except the most die-hard Falcons fans—and not all of them were in disagreement with the status quo, like me for instance—felt the next week would end what had been a magical season.

At 15-1, the Minnesota Vikings had pummeled the entire NFC that year, including a 37-24 humiliation of two-time defending NFC Champion Green Bay at Lambeau Field.

With their "dome-field advantage" at the Metrodome, most (including I would guess 99.5 percent of the student body at Russellville Middle School) felt the Falcons would have no chance against the Vikes' high powered offense of Randall Cunningham, Robert Smith, Cris Carter, and rookie Randy Moss.

The Falcons jumped out quickly, taking an early 7-0 lead on a five-yard Chandler pass to Anderson. However, the Vikings got their offense rolling, and scored 20 unanswered points to take a 20-7 lead. After forcing a Falcon punt late in the first half, most observers felt the Vikes would be content to take their lead to halftime.

However, offensive coordinator Brian Billick felt that this would be the best time to deliver the knockout blow to what had been a resilient Falcon club. The move backfired.

Chuck Smith forced a Cunningham fumble on a sack, and Travis Hall recovered on the Vikings' 14. On the next play, Chandler hit Mathis to cut the lead to six. The Falcons cut the lead to 3 on a 27-yard Andersen field goal.

The Vikes stretched the lead on a Cunningham-to-Matthew Hatchette TD pass, but Andersen responded with another field goal to cut the lead to seven.

Then came the play that still makes Minnesota sports fans' blood boil. With 2:07 left, the Vikings' Gary Anderson—who was a perfect 39 of 39 on the year, including the postseason prior to this attempt—was summoned to kick a 39-yard field goal and effectively defeat the Falcons.

However, his kick sailed wide left, and the Falcons took over, desperate to tie the game. Chandler went 4-6 on that desperate drive, culminating it with a 16-yard pass to Mathis to tie the score at 27.

The Vikings won the toss, but instead punted. Of course, the Falcons got the ball—and went three-and-out. The Vikes got the ball back, but stalled before Mitch Burger nailed a punt that rolled dead on the Falcon nine-yard-line.

However, Chandler, hobbling from an earlier injury, hit tight end O.J. Santiago for 15 yards to the 24, and then two plays later, for 26 yards to the Viking 48. Anderson took care of the rest, moving the ball to the Viking 22 to set up Morten Andersen for the game-winning field goal. Unlike Gary Anderson's kick earlier, this one left no doubt.

It sailed straight through the uprights to give the Falcons a 30-27 win and a berth in the Super Bowl against the Denver Broncos.

Unfortunately for Falcon fans like me, that game was pretty well over the night before, when Eugene Robinson—who had just been awarded the Bart Starr award for greatness on AND off the field—was arrested for soliciting an undercover policewoman.

Reeves allowed him to play, and it was Robinson that was burned by Rod Smith on the pivotal play of the game, an 80-yard touchdown pass from retiring Denver legend John Elway after a rare Andersen miss that gave the Broncos a 17-3 lead.

The Broncos defense shut down Jamal Anderson and the rest of the Dirty Birds, holding the Falcons offense to two field goals and a late touchdown, with the game well out of reach. The 34-19 loss, however, did nothing to quell the joy with which the Falcons had given their fans—including a 12-year-old from Russellville, AL—that glorious season