By: TJ Hartnett

TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services

It’s a funny thing about sports; most seasons end with heartbreak. After all, there’s only one champion when it’s all said and done. Only one team takes home the Stanley Cup. Only one team wins the World Series. Only one team can be the CFB National Champion (or two, if you count UCF). And only one team can win the Super Bowl.

Atlanta knows that all too well after last year. All but one group of fans stands triumphant after the dust settles, the rest go home empty-handed regardless if they go 0-16 during the regular season or if they get knocked out in the big game itself.  They’ve lost.

But, being a sports fan is also eternally optimistic. After all, the seasons keep turning over, resetting everyone’s records at 0-0 and bringing the hope of improvement.

There was a cloud of misery over Atlanta the week after the Super Bowl in 2017. But, as winter turned to spring and spring to summer, Falcons fans began to look ahead to the season yet to come, wondering what the chip on their team’s shoulder would motivate them to do.

The season came and, at best, brought mixed results. Good stretches, bad stretches, blown leads (that without fail brought up that damn Super Bowl again), all manner of praise and criticism. They battled into the playoffs and even past the Wild Card game.

Then they lost again. They lead the Eagles after the first two quarters and saw the game slip away in the second half with a pair of unanswered field goals.

It’s not a collapse that compares to inarguably the worst day in Georgia sports history (still true, UGA fans – sorry), but it was another winnable game that wasn’t won. This one featured a game-winning drive that didn’t deliver the win after the Falcons failed to cross the goal line from the six-yard line.

It really does beg the question: will the Falcons ever be able to win a Super Bowl?

I’ll admit, this is the kind of stupid, broadly nonsensical question that is a great example of sensationally dumb sports writing. I can’t make an actual argument for or against this because this team will consist of entirely different people in ten years.

But I do fear that the Matt Ryan and Julio Jones window is closing.

It shouldn’t be. This team has talent, and lots of it. They weren’t going to live up to 2016’s offensive output in any situation, but they were a mess all year long in 2017.

I’ve already seen people calling for OC Steve Sarkisian’s job. Maybe he should get fired.

Maybe that’s overly reactionary and having yet another OC come in and mix things up so soon would be a terrible idea. I don’t know. But I know that the Falcons have had leads in their last game of the season for two years in a row now and haven’t been able to close the door.

I don’t know if Atlanta has a curse of some kind. Those tend to be more well-publicized in baseball, where Atlanta actually has a championship. But, the Falcons have put good teams on the field several times for Matt Ryan. They put good teams on the field for Michael Vick, too.

For Falcons fans, it can seem like Atlanta is the only team in the world and when they lose, that’s the biggest loss of the year.

But 31 teams don’t win the Super Bowl every year. Only one does.

That may not be much of a comfort, but take some consolation in knowing that you’ve got lots of company, every time this happens.

And remember that while 31 teams don’t win the Super Bowl every year, one team does. And winter will be spring before you know it.