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It is no secret that Saints fans around the country were actively cheering for the Falcons to lose Super Bowl LI and were absolutely elated at the crumbling of what seemed to be a guaranteed victory for Atlanta.
With victory almost certainly in-hand, the Falcons eventually Falconed away a 25-point lead to Tom Brady and the New England Patriots. Where credit or blame belongs can be debated, but one thing is for sure: Saints fans sure are grateful for the Patriots.
When the Falcons got up 28-3, it looked like the Falcons would finally bet getting their franchise’s first Super Bowl.
All our dirty bathtub jokes, empty trophy case jokes, choke jokes, all of what makes us happy...gone...forever.
— JuBeaux (@JudyBoggan) February 6, 2017
But it wasn’t to be. Atlanta still has that empty trophy case. They still get to be the butt of our choke jokes, and it’s all thanks to the Patriots.
But the Falcons weren’t the only NFC South team on the No-Super-Bowl List. Thirteen teams still have never won the big game:
Buffalo Bills, Cincinnati Bengals, Cleveland Browns, Houston Texans, Jacksonville Jaguars, Tennessee Titans, Arizona Cardinals, Atlanta Falcons, Carolina Panthers, Detroit Lions, Minnesota Vikings, and Philadelphia Eagles
In that list, you will notice two NFC South teams - the Atlanta Falcons and Carolina Panthers.
The Panthers and Falcons have each made two Super Bowl appearances, but neither came away with a win. We all remember last year’s Super Bowl where Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos put a trouncing on the Panthers to the tune of 24-10, and the game never seemed all that close. Rewind, though, to Super Bowl XXXVIII, the first time the Panthers made it to the Super Bowl, and it was another nail-biter like Super Bowl LI.
Carolina lost Super Bowl XXXVIII in 2004 by only 3 points. Guess who beat them, to keep them on the list of No-Super-Bowls? That’s right. Tom Brady and the New England Patriots.
An honorable mention of gratitude goes to the Denver Broncos (the team that coincidentally kept both the Panthers and Falcons from winning their other respective Super Bowl appearances), but those Broncos teams were led by different QBs: Peyton Manning and John Elway. Here, it is the same Tom Brady team that has helped give our NFC South rivals so much heartache.
This isn’t even going into the humbling Tom Brady gave to Saints’ good friend Roger Goodell by winning the Super Bowl the same year the Deflategate suspension came down.
Should we like, send them a card?