Why is a "Hickory Stick" so offensive? In context ... just good fun...

[MagnusXXIII 1,266]

Are we going to start handing out daisies?

The Hickory Stick was the perfect award vehicle ... done in good fun ... and stylistically appropriate for a SMASH MOUTH football team.

Next thing you know we will stop playing AC/DC as bumper music at games ... because its too violent.

This is supposed to be a SMASH MOUTH team ... I don't care if we wear pink shoes ... good cause ... fine by me ... as long as we still get to smack people in the mouth.

[crankdatfalcon 1,163]

did you just say smack people in the mouth????Thats not allowed on these boards anymore. You could get banned for stuff like that. Its too violent. They are trying to change the culture around here -_-

[Herr Beast 1,822]

This is a virus that has infected the whole NFL, from the ridiculous fines on legit hits to pink gloves and just everything that is supposed to be oh so "family friendly". I came to watch football 18 years ago because I was tired of men acting like little girls rolling over the soccer playing field. It´s a ******* disgrace that football is run by a bunch of lawyers who want 12 year old girls as new customers.

[muskokas finest © 7,580]

This is the culture that decided the Texas vs Oklahoma game could no longer be called the Red River Shootout, but had to be renamed the milder Red River Rivalry.

[Theyhateme : ) 2,883]

I thought Hick'ry Stick was appropriate because we are a Southern team and we take people out back to the shed and stuff....LOL!!!

[crankdatfalcon 1,163]

I thought Hick'ry Stick was appropriate because we are a Southern team and we take people out back to the shed and stuff....LOL!!!

lol

take em out back and put that thang on em..

[Nono 2,385]

Are we going to start handing out daisies?

The Hickory Stick was the perfect award vehicle ... done in good fun ... and stylistically appropriate for a SMASH MOUTH football team.

Next thing you know we will stop playing AC/DC as bumper music at games ... because its too violent.

This is supposed to be a SMASH MOUTH team ... I don't care if we where pink shoes ... good cause ... fine by me ... as long as we still get to smack people in the mouth.

Couldn't agree more---no more F'ing pink, chick reporters, or causes---JUST PLAY SMASHMOUTH FOOTBALL +1

[Theyhateme : ) 2,883]

lol

take em out back and put that thang on em..

LOLOLOLOL

[MagnusXXIII 1,266]

This is a virus that has infected the whole NFL, from the ridiculous fines on legit hits to pink gloves and just everything that is supposed to be oh so "family friendly". I came to watch football 18 years ago because I was tired of men acting like little girls rolling over the soccer playing field. It´s a ******* disgrace that football is run by a bunch of lawyers who want 12 year old girls as new customers.

I bet the Eagles, Ravens, and Steelers organizations would have no problem with it.

Am I the only one that doesn't really care for the "Rise Up" campaign?

I liked the production value and the investment made by the CMO but Rise Up implies you have been smacked down.

And the whole church choir thing - too wholesome and antiseptic ...

Football is something between a War and a Controlled Street Fight ...

I would like to see something at least a little edgy from our marketing department.

[Theyhateme : ) 2,883]

I bet the Eagles, Ravens, and Steelers organizations would have no problem with it.

Am I the only one that doesn't really care for the "Rise Up" campaign?

I liked the production value and the investment made by the CMO but Rise Up implies you have been smacked down.

And the whole church choir thing - too wholesome and antiseptic ...

Football is something between a War and a Controlled Street Fight ...

I would like to see something at least a little edgy from our marketing department.

The choir...I haven't quite figured that one out other than, we are in the south...LOL!

Rise up? Atlanta rising up from the ashes when Sherman burned the city to the ground? Just a thought....

[crankdatfalcon 1,163]

I bet the Eagles, Ravens, and Steelers organizations would have no problem with it.

Am I the only one that doesn't really care for the "Rise Up" campaign?

I liked the production value and the investment made by the CMO but Rise Up implies you have been smacked down.

And the whole church choir thing - too wholesome and antiseptic ...

Football is something between a War and a Controlled Street Fight ...

I would like to see something at least a little edgy from our marketing department.

i get where u coming from and starting to feel like you now..in the beginning, the whole sam jackson thing was great, loved seeing the commercial and it really ignited a fire under me about this team when i seen it, now, not the same feeling. It looks very weird for a fan to be rocking back and forth in his or her seat like bobby cox repeating "rise up", rise up, rise up, rise up....Can you just imagine that????

[freebird310 9,549]

i get where u coming from and starting to feel like you now..in the beginning, the whole sam jackson thing was great, loved seeing the commercial and it really ignited a fire under me about this team when i seen it, now, not the same feeling. It looks very weird for a fan to be rocking back and forth in his or her seat like bobby cox repeating "rise up", rise up, rise up, rise up....Can you just imagine that????

You know whats really dumb ? ....Falco is too violent they say, but what about the Aints commercial where the old guy is sticking the pins in the Falcon fan voodoo doll, and the Falcon fan doubles over in pain ...guess that is OK , but god forbid we have a cartoon charachter with a stick ......go figure eh ? ....... :wacko:

[conrad77 (Bucs Fan) 3]

As a Bucs fan working with your board on the weekly picks challenge, I have actually grown to like the cartoons. They are well done and tasteful in my opinion. I wish we had something like them. I have never been offended by anything I have seen thus far, and the here kitty kitty....priceless. If there is ever a petition to get your cartoon back, I'm on board. The current trend of censorship and removal of violence in the NFL has become a rediculous witch hunt. If we other fans are not offended, then let FALCO live for Pete's sake. Good luck with it.

[russ7000 745]

yeah !! u tell'm magnus

[falcons faithful 199]

Are we going to start handing out daisies?

The Hickory Stick was the perfect award vehicle ... done in good fun ... and stylistically appropriate for a SMASH MOUTH football team.

Next thing you know we will stop playing AC/DC as bumper music at games ... because its too violent.

This is supposed to be a SMASH MOUTH team ... I don't care if we where pink shoes ... good cause ... fine by me ... as long as we still get to smack people in the mouth.

If you read Mr. Dan's thread you know by now that things here are one way the Falcons way. They have Freddie attack other mascots at half time why is that OK.Face it you are but $$$$$ sign to them and nothing more.

[=abrahamburger= 2,566]

I like the Rise Up motto. It's better than the squawking commercials where our players are supposed to look like hunting birds or something.

Samuel L Jackson yelling so loud that he shut off the lights in the dome. Yeah, I like that.

[Herr Beast 1,822]

As a Bucs fan working with your board on the weekly picks challenge, I have actually grown to like the cartoons. They are well done and tasteful in my opinion. I wish we had something like them. I have never been offended by anything I have seen thus far, and the here kitty kitty....priceless. If there is ever a petition to get your cartoon back, I'm on board. The current trend of censorship and removal of violence in the NFL has become a rediculous witch hunt. If we other fans are not offended, then let FALCO live for Pete's sake. Good luck with it.

I would love to see fans from all teams unite and stand up against the madness that came when Roger Goodell took over the NFL. I wish the NFL would once again make decision that are best for the game and its loyal fans instead of listening to some marketing guy that claims to see a potential 2% increase with some demographic group. The NFL, the game and just everything was fine before those clowns took over.

[Roddyrod 778]

Are we going to start handing out daisies?

The Hickory Stick was the perfect award vehicle ... done in good fun ... and stylistically appropriate for a SMASH MOUTH football team.

Next thing you know we will stop playing AC/DC as bumper music at games ... because its too violent.

This is supposed to be a SMASH MOUTH team ... I don't care if we where WEAR pink shoes ... good cause ... fine by me ... as long as we still get to smack people in the mouth.

fixed...

Edited October 28, 2010 by Vick-Nation

[Humphrey 11]

With the new revised rules for defensive contact,

and the NFL's change to "not keeping score", all

teams are now winners.....and a coin flip determines

if the Patriots or the Cowboys are the SuperBowl Champs.

[Pacific_Falcon 4,570]

It´s a ******* disgrace that football is run by a bunch of lawyers who want 12 year old girls as new customers.

It's the lawyers representing the overweight white women married to spineless sap husbands that sue everybody over everything and think it's the entire universe's responsibility to think and feel like they do, that you should be worried about. That's where stupid terms like 'family environment' and stupid BS like that come from. I honestly don't know why anybody pays to go to live sporting events anymore because if you cheer too loud or otherwise act in a way that displeases somebody else, you get told to shutup, keep it down, etc. Pretty soon they'll just have a sign outside of arenas that read "golf clapping only. cheering and having fun not allowed."

Bottom line: sports aren't about entertaining sports fans now. It's about appeasing women and kids who might find loud cheering or cursing as offensive, 99% of who are just there for the fun of it and aren't real fans anyway.

Hooray irony!

Edited October 29, 2010 by Desert_Falcon

[MagnusXXIII 1,266]

With a dominating Football Culture the Falcons will be more successful and make more money .... Our only two loses are confidence related ... As Mark Bradley correctly points out ...

The bye week arrives at a propitious time. The Falcons are 5-2, owners of the NFC’s best record. (The Giants would likewise be 5-2 if they beat Dallas tonight.) They’ve done good work. They’re capable of better.

The bye week brings time to refocus and recalibrate. Everything the Falcons believed about themselves when they reported to training camp has been borne out: They are indeed a massively gifted team. We saw as much Sunday when the Bengals brought a bunch of brand-name players — Carson Palmer, Cedric Benson, Chad Ochocinco, Terrell Owens, Adam “Pacman” Jones — to the Dome. The Falcons built a three-touchdown lead, tossed it away and then surged backed ahead by two touchdowns.

And therein we bore witness to both the Falcons’ inherent potential and their one liability. They’re good enough to beat anybody, but sometimes they don’t seem to grasp how good they can be. Oh, they talk about it. They pay lip service. But I’m not yet sure that there pulses within this team the rock-solid belief — as opposed to the suspicion — that its manifest destiny is the Super Bowl.

New England bears that belief. Pittsburgh, too. But those teams have been there and won it all, and the Falcons have graced the game with the Roman numerals only once, and that was four coaches ago. The Falcons are 25-14 under Mike Smith but haven’t yet won a playoff game, losing at Phoenix in January 2009 as a road favorite. And for all the fine players imported by Thomas Dimitroff — Michael Turner, Tony Gonzalez, Mike Peterson, Dunta Robinson — not one of them wears a Super Bowl ring.

And that’s really the only flaw I see. This offense is capable of great things. This defense is getting better as it goes. (Yeah, Palmer threw for 412 yards Sunday, but that can happen when a team gets that far behind.) My issue with the Falcons isn’t what they can do but in how often they do it. They played wall-to-wall in the signature overtime victory in New Orleans. They got away with a half-effort against San Francisco. They didn’t get away with it in Philadelphia.

To me, the game that still resonates was the opener in Pittsburgh. The Steelers were without Ben Roethlisberger and still carried themselves as if they expected to invent some way to win, which they did in overtime. The Falcons messed around and managed not to score a touchdown. Yes, the Steelers can play some D, but still … no TDs for the offense of Turner and Gonzalez and Roddy White and Matt Ryan? Seriously?

What needs to happen over the bye week is that these Falcons look both without and within. Check around the NFC and they won’t find one team with more talent. Those touted most in preseason — Dallas, Minnesota, Green Bay and New Orleans — have all wobbled. The Falcons have climbed to 5-2 and have already played their most difficult road games. They’re not just playing to win the NFC South; they’re playing for the No. 1 seed.

And that’s the reason for the look within. The Falcons have to say, “We’re doing this.” Not: “We can do this.” They already know, or at least have reason to suspect, they can. The test now is simply to do. No more slack Sundays. No more sluggish starts with a blocked punt thrown in. Only big-time professional football from here on, the kind the Steelers and the Patriots play as a matter of course.

This doesn’t mean the Falcons can’t lose another game. They probably will. (Baltimore at the Dome on Thursday night — tough duty.) What it means is that the belief/expectation needs to grow within the complex at 4400 Falcon Parkway that this is now the home office of a fully expectant champion.

Mike Smith has a Super Bowl ring from his days as a Baltimore assistant. He should pass it around and let his men assess its size and importance. Because these Falcons could all be wearing such a ring very soon. Their sin would be in waiting too long to grasp what’s at stake. This team is good enough to be playing in Arlington, Texas, on Feb. 6, 2011. It absolutely is.