Atlanta Falcons
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Atlanta Falcons, American professional football team based in Atlanta that plays in the National Football Conference (NFC) of the NFL. The Falcons have won two NFC championships (1999 and 2017).
(Read Walter Camp’s 1903 Britannica essay on inventing American football.)
The Falcons began play in 1966 as an expansion team (wholly new franchise), losing at least 11 of their 14 games in each of their first three seasons. The team slowly improved through the late 1960s and early ’70s to post a 9–5 record in 1973 behind a defense led by linebacker Tommy Nobis and defensive end Claude Humphrey, but narrowly missing out on a playoff spot in the process.
Atlanta returned to the bottom of its division in 1974, and the team used the first pick of the 1975 NFL draft to select quarterback Steve Bartkowski, who would go on to set franchise records in virtually every major passing category. Bartkowski led the Falcons to their first postseason berth in 1978, and in 1980 he teamed with running back William Andrews to form a high-powered offense that propelled Atlanta to its first division title. However, the Falcons lost in the first round of each of these postseasons (as well as during a third playoff appearance in the strike-shortened 1982 season), and the franchise’s play soon fell off; the team finished with double-digit losses in six of the seven seasons between 1984 and 1990.
A Falcons team featuring flashy personalities, such as cornerback Deion Sanders, wide receiver Andre Rison, and flamboyant head coach Jerry Glanville, won 10 games in 1991 but was again met with disappointment in the postseason.
In 1998 the Falcons posted a club-best 14–2 record with a balanced team starring quarterback Chris Chandler and running back Jamal Anderson on offense and linebacker Jessie Tuggle on defense. The Falcons upset a 15–1 Minnesota Vikings team in the NFC championship game to earn their first Super Bowl berth, a loss to the Denver Broncos. The season after their Super Bowl appearance, however, the Falcons plummeted to a 5–11 record.
With quarterback Michael Vick at the helm, Atlanta had a few successful seasons, which included the Falcons’ handing the storied Green Bay Packers their first home playoff loss (in 2003) and the team’s advancing to a second NFC championship game in 2005 (a loss to the Philadelphia Eagles). In 2008, led by first-year head coach Mike Smith, rookie quarterback Matt Ryan, and newly acquired running back Michael Turner, the Falcons qualified for the playoffs by adding seven wins to the previous year’s total to compile an 11–5 record.
Two years later Atlanta earned the NFC’s top postseason seed, but the team was upset by the Green Bay Packers in its first playoff game. The team again was the top seed in the NFC in the playoffs following the 2012 season, and Ryan and superstar tight end Tony Gonzalez (who had joined the Falcons in 2009) both earned their first career postseason wins, in a thrilling opening contest against the Seattle Seahawks. However, Atlanta lost the NFC championship game to the San Francisco 49ers. The following year the Falcons, beset by injuries and poor performances, finished the season with a disappointing 4–12 record.
The team bounced back in 2016, as a potent Atlanta offense piled up 540 points during the season, the seventh highest total in NFL history. The Falcons captured a division title and breezed through the playoffs en route to the franchise’s second Super Bowl appearance. There the Falcons gave up the largest lead in Super Bowl history (25 points) and lost in overtime to the New England Patriots. Atlanta returned to the playoffs the following season, losing in the team’s second postseason contest. A preseason Super Bowl favorite heading into the 2018 season, the Falcons were decimated by injuries on the defensive side of the ball, and the team finished with a 7–9 record, missing the playoffs entirely.
The Falcons continued to struggle in subsequent years. Amid several head coaching changes, they never won more than seven games per season between 2019 and 2023.