Nov 10th 2008 8:30AM by Ryan Wilson (author feed)
Filed under: Colts, Falcons, Steelers, NFL FansA year ago, the Falcons were 2-6, Joey Harrington was the starting quarterback, DeAngelo Hall was in the secondary giving up big plays (and occasionally getting fined hundreds of thousands of dollars for it), and Bobby Petrino was still four weeks away from high-tailing it to Arkansas.

Michael Vick, the supposed face of the franchise, had yet to be convicted of puppy murder, but the organization was already in a full-on death spiral. But in the time it took the club to hire Thomas Dimitroff and Mike Smith, and anoint Matt Ryan the face of the franchise, everything changed. Or that’s how it seemed, anyway. I suspect it took many hours of “the inmates actually don’t run the asylum” detox, subliminal messages and hypnoses to change the culture of losing that had pervaded Flowery Branch.

Whatever, it worked.Continue Reading