It has not been sudden or earth moving, but the sports scene in Atlanta has shifted in the last few years.
It occurred to me this past weekend, with two fairly impressive performances by a pair of Atlanta pro sports teams.
The Atlanta Thrashers went on the road and beat the previously unbeaten Buffalo Sabres on Saturday night. Buffalo had reeled off 10 straight wins to start the year, tying an NHL record for the best start ever.
Then on Sunday, the Atlanta Falcons — also playing on the road — notched an impressive 29-27 win over the defending AFC North division champion Cincinnati Bengals.
Michael Vick — you know, the running quarterback who can’t pass — tossed three touchdown passes, giving him 523 yards and seven TD passes in his last two games.
(What we may be seeing this season, folks, is the development of Vick’s passing game that all the analysts have been harping on for the last couple of years. Remember, this is just Vick’s fourth season as a starter, and he just turned 26 years old this summer.)
The Falcons are now 5-2 on the year, with their only two losses to the first-place Giants and first-place Saints. The Thrashers, meanwhile, were 8-1-3 going into Monday’s game in Toronto, and they lead their division by seven points.
So you think this is not news, huh? Well, think back if you can to about 15 years ago.
What was the biggest sports story in Atlanta — perhaps even around the nation — in 1991?
It was the unexpected rise of the Atlanta Braves, who went from worst-to-first and lost an epic World Series to Minnesota.
The second-best pro team in Atlanta during the late 1980s and early 1990s was probably the Atlanta Hawks.
Remember them? The Hawks, led by Dominique Wilkins, Kevin Willis, Doc Rivers, Cliff Levingston, Jon Koncak, John Battle, Spud Webb and Antoine Carr were one of the most dynamic, exciting teams in the NBA.
For a few years, it was a four-team battle in the Eastern Conference, with Atlanta, Detroit, Boston and Chicago fighting for supremacy.
And yes, while Atlanta never reached the NBA Finals and won titles like those other three cities, they were in contention for several years, and even as late as the mid-1990s, the Hawks were the top seed in the Eastern Conference before falling in the second round of the playoffs to Michael Jordan and the Bulls.
But in the last few years, the Hawks have floundered. They have not been to the playoffs since 1999, but after some poor personnel decisions in recent seasons, the team finally looks like it is moving in the right direction.
Now back to the Braves. Fans in Atlanta have been used to division-winning, playoff-chopping good times all through the 1990s, but the machine that is the Braves finally showed signs of aging in 2006.
Atlanta failed to make the playoffs after a run of 14 straight division titles, a run that also included five National League pennants and a World Series title.
It looks as if the rest of baseball has caught up to Atlanta, and while the Braves may very well start another run of success (with a large contingent of former Rome Braves as their nucleus), for now, Atlanta is a middle-of-the-pack Major League team.
And there it is — without a lot of fanfare, the Falcons and Thrashers are now the best franchises in Atlanta.
For many years, the Falcons struggled with bad coaches, bad talent and bad losses, but in the last four years, Atlanta has made two playoff appearances and just missed a third last year.
And the Thrashers had their first-ever winning season last year, also just missing the playoffs, and having a veteran like Bob Hartley as coach seems to be paying off.
As a kid growing up in Atlanta in the 1980s, I loved watching the Hawks, and in college in the early 1990s, the Braves were quite the phenomenon.
Now as an adult, I’m having a blast watching the Falcons win big games over good teams, and the Thrashers — well, going to a Thrashers game in Atlanta is an amazing experience, and if you haven’t done it, you are missing out.
Who knows how things will pan out in a few months? The Hawks might be good, the Braves might sign some great free agents, and the Falcons and Thrashers may both miss the playoffs.
But for now, football and hockey are the talk of the town around Atlanta, and the success of the Braves and Hawks is now relegated to conversations that begin with “Well, back in the day….”
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