Already a Departure From Norm for Falcons

There were 23 television cameras to document the moment--the Falcons actually showing up for Super Bowl XXXIII--rolling as quarterback Chris Chandler walked off the plane and down a flight of stairs and buttoned his sports coat at the same time without getting hurt.

A relieved Chandler placed his arm around teammate Eugene Robinson after reaching the ground. It took a strong man not to cry.

The Denver Broncos would arrive later at a different airport, of course, because of the Dan Reeves-John Elway and Pat Bowlen and Mike Shanahan feud. There just weren’t enough metal detectors at the Miami International Airport.

Despite all precautions, the Falcons’ arrival was racked by controversy. When Atlanta looks back on its Super Bowl loss next Sunday, this will be the defining moment: Before they ever got off the plane in Miami.

“I was upset when we landed and I will tell you why,” said Terance Mathis, Falcon wide receiver, and he was serious. “They came on the intercom system and said they wanted all Pro Bowlers and 10-year veterans to deplane first and everyone else wait.

“That made me mad,” said Mathis, and club officials were alerted to a potential pillow fight at the Miami Airport Hilton on Sunday night.

None of the Falcons had to file paperwork for lost baggage or try to find a common language with a taxi driver, but there was no consoling Mathis after being slighted.

“If you noticed, they came off the front and everyone else had to come off the back of the plane,” Mathis said. “I feel this way: We got here as a team, let’s keep it as a team. I know there were a couple of other guys upset, too. Those guys are going to get all the exposure next week [at the Pro Bowl] once this game is over with. Let’s depart as a team.”

Just hours earlier the Falcons had gathered as a team at their training facility, boarding four buses and two limos, bonding for the ride to the airport and detouring through Olympic Park to be greeted by thousands of adoring fans.

That had to be something special, especially for long-suffering Falcon players like Mathis.

“Well, I don’t know,” said Mathis, a.k.a Mr. Team Spirit. “My thing was, well, I didn’t see it. I got in my car at home and just went straight to the airport.”

Yes, Super Bowl week is all about choices: Do you take the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to schmooze with WCW heavyweight champion Bill Goldberg or do you listen to “Mr. Pinstripe Suit” so you’re better prepared to interview Big Bad Voodoo Daddy about this year’s halftime show?

Not everyone makes the right choice: One reporter asked Atlanta Falcon linebacker Cornelius Bennett, “What advice would you give your teammates about playing in the Super Bowl?”

Now why would anyone ask for advice from a guy who has already lost four Super Bowls?

But that’s Super Bowl week, and this week will probably be dedicated to the Falcons, since Shanahan, Reeves and everyone else capable of throwing dirt at each other vowed upon arrival to keep it clean and boring the rest of the week.

That only leaves the underdog angle.

“You mean the lowly Falcons,” said Robinson, a safety who played in the previous two Super Bowls with Green Bay. “The tight end from Carolina, Wesley Walls, said it best the first time we beat them: ‘I can’t believe we lost to those lowly Falcons.’

“I kept that up on the board and told everyone, ‘See, that’s what they think about you; you got to eradicate that thinking.’ And the only way you can eradicate that thinking is punch the other guy in the mouth and get your respect as a football team. If you don’t, they are going to be talking about you like that all the time.”

It would probably be too much to ask for Robinson or any other Falcon to punch someone in the mouth for calling them the lowly Falcons. If only Shanahan would just whisper that to Reeves. But there’s still hope of irritating Mathis and getting something going this week.

“I’m not in a very good mood,” he said.

Welcome to the Super Bowl, it’s only the one game every player dreams of playing in, and then someone makes you get off the back of the plane.