Column: Another grim chapter for Atlanta's sports history

ATLANTA (AP) — As the ball spun slowly along the turf at Jerry’s World, the black-clad players backing away like it was a live grenade, Atlanta’s grim sports history flooded the consciousness.

It was an unstoppable wave of misery, disgust and gagging at the most inopportune times, all wrapped up in an almost laughable inevitability.

There was never any doubt a Dallas player would fall on the onside kick before the Falcons did. There was never any doubt the Cowboys would complete a pass to get into field-goal range. There was never any doubt the game-winning kick would almost perfectly split the uprights, handing a team from Atlanta an almost unfathomable defeat.

That’s the way we roll in the A-T-L.

I’m not a native Atlantan, but pretty much the closest thing to it, having been born about 80 miles away and moving to the rapidly sprawling suburbs between third and fourth grades. Growing up in the metro meant learning to deal with sporting disappointment from a very early age, and accepting the realization that it would come over and over and over again.

For those rare shining moments — Hank Aaron’s 715th homer stands above all else from my childhood — there was a seemingly endless succession of overmatched players, dimwitted coaches and bumbling front offices.

Even when something seemingly went right, like the Falcons earning their first division title in 1980, any joy would inevitably be snatched away, as it was on a frigid January afternoon when, at age 17, I sat in the corner of the end zone at cookie-cutter Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium with my parents and brother for an NFC divisional playoff game, watching the Birds squander a 24-10 lead to the Dallas Cowboys in the fourth quarter.

I thought of Danny White delivering the game-winning pass to Drew...

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