Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium hosted two close football matches this weekend. A field goal attempt in overtime made the difference between the games.
On Saturday night at Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl, Ohio State University kicker Noah Ruggles made a game-winning field-goal attempt wide left just before midnight New Year’s Day. This allowed the Georgia Bulldogs victory and a trip into the national championship game.
Younghoe Koo, Atlanta Falcons’ kicker, kicked a last second field goal on Sunday to win the Falcons victory over the Arizona Cardinals.
The Falcons tweeted a celebration of the win, which the team later deleted.
It’s quite tacky.
As a University of Georgia alumnus, and a Bulldogs fan for a lifetime, Ruggles’ missed field goal made my heart giddy. But that doesn’t make me feel any less sorry for the kid. Although I wouldn’t laugh at him, that didn’t stop me from supporting the Falcons.
There is also some “missing context” that fact-checkers refer too. Ruggles attempted a 50 yard field goal while Koo’s was only 21 yards. Ruggles attempted something far more difficult than Koo’s.
Then there is the matter of the brag involved in the now-deleted Tweet. Ruggles attempted to score the Buckeyes’ ticket into the National Championship game, a close game against the number one team in the country. Ohio State lost to an undefeated team.
The Falcons, on the other hand, won only their sixth game with Koo’s win-winner and defeated a team that had only four wins. This was what Marty Smith of ESPN called a “weird Flex.”
Others on Twitter referred to the tweet “bad form” or “truly disgusting”, while another user stated that the tweet caused the team’s “sink lower”. John Kincade, a former Atlanta sports radio personality, said that the tweet showed systemic problems within the Falcons organization.
The Falcons had to remove the tweet due to backlash. This was probably the right thing. It is not a smart idea to dance during a moment that a college kicker will probably never forget.
