SaintsBro |
01-08-2012 09:53 PM |
I expect that you are going to see the media and pundits and power ranking types, putting down the crack pipe and backing away from the Falcons and the "Matt Ryan is elite" type talk after today. ESPECIALLY now that Tebow is a story.
See the thing is, the hype associated with Atlanta and Ryan was always a product of the "Rise Up" advertising campaign and not about what happened on the field. And that advertising campaign is OVER now, the money has been spent and the media no longer has the obligation to be nice to them. "Rise Up" was a big PR campaign by Arthur Blank, to try and counter the Falcons always being second fiddle to Sean Payton and the Saints, and to sell the myth that the team were winners or an up-and-coming franchise.
The "Rise Up" slogan literally meant to "rise up" from perennial #2 second place in the division to #1, and implied that the Falcaons were going to replace the Super Bowl-winning Saints as the dominant team of the NFC South and as a major star attraction in the eyes of the media. Ad dollars were spent, PR was being spun, and so the media gave the Falcons the benefit of the doubt and hyped up Matt Ryan as "elite," according to what the Falcons told them to say. Like talking points.
Now, after what's happened to them in the playoffs 3 times in a row, reality is sinking in and media pundits are starting to realize they have been played. Even borderline that they've been made fools of. So I think you will see analysts and pundits starting to keep their distance from from Atlanta and Ryan from here on out, backpedalling or walking back on things they said earlier about him and the team. Or just flat out ignoring them.
In fact, I'm even hopeful that this is going to be a definitive moment, like the Vikings in the NFC Championship game, that it will break their spirit, and that the Falcons will just be another team receding in our rear view mirror, from this point on.
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