The Atlanta Falcons are still shaking off the sting of a brutal 34-28 loss to the Patriots in Super Bowl LI. And some folks are taking it harder than others, including former Falcons wide receiver Roddy White.
In a podcast interview with Zach Klein/Jeff Schultz that appears on WSB-TV in Atlanta, White went off on former Falcons coordinator Kyle Shanahan -- now the 49ers head coach and replaced in Atlanta by Steve Sarkisian -- saying that he “destroyed a dream” for the city of Atlanta and adding he would have “fought” Shanahan if he was on the team at the time.
“I’m glad I wasn’t a part of that team because I probably literally would’ve fought him,” White said.
Shanahan caught a heap of blame after the game, including on this very site, with colleague Pete Prisco pointing out that Shanahan got greedy passing late. It’s easy to look at the Falcons approach late in Super Bowl LI and determine they got too conservative when they should have been aggressive, and too aggressive when they should have been conservative.
Up 28-3 in the third quarter of the Super Bowl, the game was over. The city of Atlanta was planning parades and getting ready to pop champagne bottles to celebrate the end of the city’s title drought since the Braves won the World Series in 1995.
White was right there too.
“I was like, ‘That’s it. Game’s over. We’re going to have a parade. I’m going to fly back to Georgia. We’re going to have fun,” White said.
White thinks Shanahan “destroyed a dream for a city.”
“You destroyed a dream for a city,” White said. “It’s bigger than me. The city of Atlanta needed that championship and you had it. Arthur Blank needed that championship and he deserved to win that game, with everything he’s been through. It was finally our time to win and it just hurt me that we didn’t get it done.”
Maybe that’s a little more blame than Shanahan deserves. He didn’t set the city on fire. He didn’t cause the defense to give up 25 points. The Falcons defense was gassed in the second half after playing well.
But it was incumbent on the offense to limit the exposure on the defense.
It’s also possible that White was so upset because he was taking a huge L in the financial column. The former wide receiver told Klein and Schultz that he had already lost $60,000 while playing blackjack at a casino and he had $40,000 riding on the Falcons to win the game (or cover?).
So when Atlanta didn’t win and didn’t even cover, it was a huge swing for White. No wonder he’s so mad.
