Butler by the numbers, Alford by my heart.

This is the exact kind of number that forces us to ask what we value and what we consider impactful. Bobby, from what I can tell (I wasn’t there) was a pretty average player who played for the falcons for 12 years. That longevity is an important contribution, but he also wasn’t making a huge impact on a down to down basis. Today, you’d hardly know he was here, in part because most of his years were in the forgotten era of the basement falcons in the 80s.

Alford was only around for about half as long, and he fell off a cliff in those later years. But he also got a pick six in the super bowl, a play so perfect that I used to just rewatch it over and over because it felt like he teleported in front of the ball. It’s one of the most iconic falcons plays of the past decade and that picture of Brady on the ground while he skipped into the end zone would have been on the front page of every news site in America had we won.

This is about the biggest impact on the franchise, so I’m going to say Bobby, because that kind of consistent longevity is invaluable to a struggling franchise. But to fans today Alford has absolutely left the bigger mark

Alford