Twenty-eight to three. I do not have to tell a Falcons fan when. Super Bowl LI, February 2017, third quarter, Atlanta up twenty-five points on the Patriots. I texted my dad one word. Done. He texted back a single word too, because he had watched leads die before and did not trust this one. He was right not to.

Two trips, two of the hardest losses there are

Atlanta has reached the Super Bowl twice and lost both. The first was Super Bowl XXXIII in January 1999, beaten 34-19 by John Elway’s Broncos in his farewell. Painful, but ordinary. The second was not ordinary. New England scored thirty-one unanswered, won 34-28 in the first overtime in Super Bowl history, and turned a number into a wound. Julio Jones made a sideline catch on the toes that should have iced it. It did not.

I do not laugh at it

People made it a punchline. I never could. I have sat in the rubble of a lead I was promised and I know there is no joke in there, only the replay you cannot turn off. Falcons fans, you do not owe anyone a smile about it. Some leads do not come back to you. You go again.