 It's Friday night in the A, and you know what that means. Kelly Price and Tori McElhady coming at you on Rise Up Tonight, presented by AT&T. You guys, the Falcons are fun again. We are having fun. This is fun. And I don't think I've ever felt this way about this team in the three years that I've covered it. I honestly would agree. And who would have thought that this team that's compromised of rookies and veterans on short-term contracts with a cap hit, dead cap hit of over 77 million would be fun. But gosh darn it, they are. They are fun. So now the Falcons have a very intriguing matchup against another fun team this Sunday with the reigning AFC champion, Cincinnati Bengals and Joe Burrow, who are three and three. Let's huddle up about it, y'all. Let's huddle up with Kelly and Tori on the world of Falcons football. And we got to start with the NFC offensive player of the week, Marcus Mariota. A story so good, neither of us could have even written it three years ago. Last week, Mariota was benched in Tennessee. Then on Sunday, he balled out. The guy had only one in completion. And oh yeah, sprinkle in 50 yards and two touchdowns on the ground against one of the most formidable defenses the NFL has to offer. What do you think stood out most about that performance? Honestly, so much stood out to me, but nothing as much as his overall confidence and command of this offense. Look, this is a guy who didn't play for over two years. This was, of course, going to be moments in a season where he is knocking off for us. But I think we're seeing a more confident Marcus Mariota than we've seen in over three years. Sunday's game, the stats, the production was a manifestation of that. Yeah, and three years is a long time. Do not forget that. One of the most interesting quotes from this week's post-game press conference was Mariota saying, essentially, when you lose a guy like Cordero Patterson, you can't exactly replace him with just one guy because CP does so much for this offense. And yet Atlanta's ground game is top three in the league. Good teams run on opponents, even when those opponents know it's coming. And they've been doing just that with a former practice squad player and a true rookie, which honestly has been so fun to watch, right? Honestly, I love a good story and I gravitate towards this one. And what I'll add is that the Falcons' roots as an offense is in the run game. When was the last time that we could say that about an offense in Atlanta a decade ago? Right. And get this, they're winning because of it. In games where Marcus Mariota has had to throw the ball over 20 times, the Falcons are 0-3. When he's not having to throw the ball that much, they're 3-0. That to me is all the proof I need to know the Falcons are at their best when their offensive success is supplemented by the run. It's literally a difference in the season, 3-3. In the secondary, the Falcons lose a veteran presence in Casey Hayward, who injured his shoulder in Sunday's second half. He's now been put on IR. Darren Hall will slot in for Hayward, which I know I'm really excited to see. He played in relief of AJ Terrell on Sunday. He performed really well, even breaking up two pretty big passes. Hall has one of the most infectious personalities and energy on this team. He had a great training camp. Do you think he's ready for more of an opportunity this week against a talented Bengals receiver core? I do. And honestly, talk about a trial by fire. You know, the Falcons secondary will have its work cut out for it against Jamar Chase, T Higgins, Tyler Boyd. Oh, and don't forget former Falcons Hayden Hurst too. Don't forget him. So no, it's not going to be easy, but the good news for Darren Hall is that Dean Pease has done a good job of getting him some live reps throughout the first six games of the season in relief. It's because of these reps and the performance of Hall in them that I'm actually not too worried about him on Sunday. In fact, I'm kind of with you. I'm excited to see him because when we have seen him this year, he's done some good things. Another solid week of Falcons fits as the guys started gearing up for the abrupt sweater weather attempts we experienced just like out of nowhere. So-called time for walking in presented by West Bargo. Let's start with Kyle Pitts because he was prepared for this week's flash freeze. We stay on a fuzzy flannel, especially a flannel with fringe. Kyle, please tell me where you got this because I actually really need it. I love the fringe and it's a nice touch and one I've been told by people who are a lot trendier than me that it is very on trend to have the fringe. So I wish I was as trendy as KT. Like I really want this jacket. All right, Arnold Ebecady also with a awesome jacket. He impressed us with his bars on Tombstone back in training camp. You guys remember that one? Now he is impressing with this varsity jacket. Look, the boxy shades, Air Jordan's to match. I just love the red and black color combo. Knowing A.K., he was probably feeling some FOMO with us having Lorenzo Carter on here so much. So he really pulled out all the stops with this fit. And gosh, I feel like I say this every week, but I love a cool jacket moment. The competition is key and he is stepping up to make it into Falcons fits this week. Next up, Quentin Bell with the Spidey swag. This footy is giving Halloween spookiness and I am here for it. Subtle Spidey swag is something I never thought that we would have the opportunity to say on this show, but nonetheless, I love it too. Timing is everything in all things. So I like that this fit has timed up quite perfectly with Spooky season. Spidey swag, cheetah girls, we're just, we're just bringing it all for you guys. All right, last but definitely not least because he is doing the most, Keith Smith. This is just a lot, sir. I do not hate the pieces individually. The pants are actually amazing as a connoisseur of fun pants myself. Just together, the paisley print and the pledges and a salt on my eyes. This is a choice. I'm not a big pattern gal, but I can respect the effort here because to get this mini patterns in one singular fit that had to take quite a bit of effort, you know? Yeah, and a choice, like you said. Well, with the Hawks tipping off their season this week, we heard from the guys about what their favorite sports are to watch besides football. Lots of hoop fans out in Dought and Flurry Branch. Time now for our question of the week. Actually, it's tennis. I love to watch tennis. Yeah, Rafa, that's my guy. What's your favorite major to watch? The US Open or French Open. Did you get to go to the US Open when you were in New York? I went to the US Open in New York. Yeah, that was awesome. It was crazy. I saw Serena, actually. I would say basketball in the finals and golf. And I, mm, yeah, I guess. Probably basketball. Definitely my favorite sport. I grew up playing it, but, you know, kind of getting some way to play football, you know what I mean? Basketball. Basketball is definitely, yeah, definitely. College pro? I'd say pro. College, if I would have gone to college, the only time I really like watching is probably maybe New York, Carolina, the Tories. I like them. They should like them more a lot. So many basketball fans on this team. I think, just think about Drake London. He played at the highest level with USC, playing football there as well. Arnold Abacadie, a Hooper until he discovered football later in his life as well. Yeah, so it's funny because AK actually has like a whole huddle reel of him dunking, and it's fantastic. Oh, and for those that don't know, AK officially challenged Drake London to one-on-one in the off-season on our Falcons in Focus podcast two weeks ago. He said when the off-season gets here, it's on. I would love to see the pickup basketball games that these players have. They're probably super competitive. Well, still to come here on Rise of Tonight, we welcome a legend in the world of activism in Atlanta and civil rights everywhere. Dr. Brady's King drops by later in the show. Plus, it's extreme home makeover, a Lameday Zacchaeus edition. Coming up next, the Falcons wide receiver gives back to a local family in a big way. Rise of Tonight is presented by AT&T and brought to you by Georgia Lottery. Today could be the day. By Home Depot, how doers get more done? By Mercedes Benz, the best of nothing, and by Truist, committed to a better future. Anyone who's ever bought a house knows it's a whole thing to get it to be your space, right? You have to buy furniture, pick out decorations that fit your style, so on. We've been updating our older homes since we bought it back in March and just like they say in football, you gotta trust the process. Well, one falcon wanted to help a local family with that process. Time to Rise Up for Atlanta brought to you by Truist. I'm here to give Miss Nicola a new and improved home courtesy of Rooms2Go. You know, I'm excited for this. Hopefully she enjoys what we've done with the house. OZ, the Atlanta Falcons and Rooms2Go partnered to provide this family of six with two bedrooms of furniture, including two awesome new bunk beds for the kids, a nice bed for mom, dressers, decor, and of course some falcons swag signed by Zaccheus himself. Man, I love a good home makeover reveal. Some good stuff there. Well, wins all count the same in the record books last time I checked. I love what you wrote in your notebook this week. I really don't want to hear it. We're talking about the take that the Falcons win over San Francisco wasn't that big because the Niners were beat up. Don't be that toxic fan, you guys. A win is a win. And look, I get it. The 49ers are significantly beat up right now, but I'm sorry, that's the reality of the league. You hate it, but we're in week seven. Injuries are going to pile up like they do every year and every team has to account for set injuries at some point or another. And yes, I get it. It does change the way that they operate, but and this is a very big but the other reality is that the Falcons played well on Sunday. They played as a complete game as we have seen them play this year. Just because the 49ers were without Nick Bosa doesn't change that factor. Take it away at the end of the year. No one puts an asterisk beside a win or a loss to signify starters were out. That's not how this machine runs. Death taxes and injuries in the NFL. All the constants you can rely on. Well, you can also rely on our hot takes every week. You come for our commentaries, such as I really don't want to hear it from you guys, but you stay for those hot takes. You know the drill. We're getting spicy to wrap it up later on. And lawyer, minister, peace advocate and thought leader, Dr. Bernice King joins us to talk non-violence, equity, justice, and of course the Falcons. That's next on Rise Up Tonight. Rise Up Tonight is presented by AT&T and brought to you by Georgia Lottery. Today could be the day. By Home Depot, how doers get more done? By Mercedes Benz, the best of nothing, and by truants committed to a better future. Welcome back to Rise Up Tonight. Let's head in the nest with Kelly Torey and this week's special guest brought to you by Mercedes Benz. Joining us tonight in the nest is Dr. Bernice A. King. What an honor to speak with you today. You're of course continuing your parents' legacy with the King Center and you guys have an immersive online experience, non-violence 365. I was reading a little bit about it. It's a super interesting initiative. Tell us about that and what you've kind of been doing to get that work there. You know, back in 1964, when my father received a Nobel Peace Prize, he gave a lecture as well. And in that lecture, he stated that I suggest that the philosophy and strategy of non-violence immediately become a subject of study and serious experimentation in every field of human conflict by no means excluding conflict or relationships between nations. And so with that in mind, it has been our intention to ensure that that comes to pass, that it becomes a subject of study and serious experimentation by people in all fields of human endeavor. And so we set out to create what we did or what we do in person online so that anybody across the world can have access to how non-violence influenced Dr. King and how it was utilized to bring about social change in our society. Absolutely. I mean, that is just such an important tool. I love how you're talking about it in more ways than maybe just what people think this is. And so for you kind of talking about the King Center and the impact that it's had, not just on you, but with the Atlanta community, I think as a whole too, what does it mean to you to continue to pour into the King Center? Well, it means a great deal, first of all. Number one, because it is the official Living Memorial to the Life, Work and Legacy of my father. But more importantly, it's the institution that my mother poured her life into, that she felt was important to establish so that future generations would really understand and study Dr. King, his leadership and his non-violence. And, you know, and so for me, it's been about continuing her legacy more than anything else. I tell people all the time, you know, when my father was assassinated, he was one of the most hated persons in America. And now today, he's one of the most loved persons in the world, but why is that? I mean, you can say because when people die away, they're not as much of a threat, and I've heard that before. But the reality is it's because my mother spent an enormous amount of time pouring her life into making sure the work that they did during the movement continues to live and be somewhat institutionalized in our society. Well, so obviously it's election season. Atlanta, obviously a huge, you know, kind of battleground state here in Georgia. How busy are you in the King Center right now during this season? Well, let me just say this. For us, it's about being proactive year round. You know, citizenship education and civic education is so desperately needed in our society today. And so we're always trying to keep people aware of what's going on. In fact, before we got to the actual time period, you know, of these different elections, we were talking about the Voting Rights Act through our beloved community talks. You know, obviously we do a lot through social media, but we partner with several organizations because it's not our direct work. So we partner with organizations who are doing kind of the on-the-ground work, community organizing around voting and voter awareness. We have an individual that works, excuse me, with those organizations. So most of our work is through those networks, as well as the work that we do via social media. But also, as I said, making sure that people understand it's more than just this election. It's more to it than voting. Voting is one aspect of our citizenship engagement. You know, we have to understand what's going on, you know, in terms of laws and policies. We have to ask, because we are a football show, we are a Falcons football show, please tell us a little bit, maybe about one of your favorite memories as a Falcons fan or just kind of consuming Falcons football over the years. Now, you know, I'm going to get this wrong if y'all are going to shoot me later. But anyway, that's fine, y'all are going to get me later. But when I was able to pull the, come on, y'all hear me. The horn. Oh, the train horn. The train horn, the train horn. Oh, it was such energy and excitement in the stadium. And so that was one of the best days that year. I think that was last year, I want to say, year before last, right when the pandemic hit. And so, yeah, that was probably my most favorite memory. Love it. Yeah, I mean, that would be everyone's favorite memory. That is awesome. That's so cool, I love to do that, I love it. But let me tell you something, let me tell you what superseded that, but it's not a Falcons thing. And that's why I didn't say it, but I'm going to say it here. It's when I was in the stadium, the stadium where the Falcons played their home field, when I was on that field and I flipped the coin at the beginning of the Super Bowl, that was my most favorite moment. That is pretty cool too, wow. In my hometown, yes. That is amazing, I didn't know you did that for this Super Bowl. I did. That is so incredible. Wow. Back when I was like 2018? Yeah, yeah. Well, I have nothing to top that. I have nothing to top that. Awesome. Well, thank you so much for sharing those memories with us. We really appreciate it. Anyone who wants to catch the full conversation, lots of really good stuff in there with Dr. King, go to fox5atlanta.com. We'll have the full thing posted on there. Thank you so much for the time. What an honor. Thank you. Getting to speak with you. Thanks for the time. And we'll be right back on Rise Up Tonight. Hey Atlanta, this is Eggrack talking and you watching Rise Up Tonight. It's presented by AT&T. It's like I don't get caught up in whatever narrative is after four weeks of the daily narratives. You can almost write some of these narratives and live and die every week by the narratives because it sets up bad narratives. You can frame the narrative. You can write narratives. Those are easy narratives. So we're like one and a half on our takes from last week. Kyle Pitts finally found the end zone as you predicted. And as I wanted to say, special teams was good. Maybe not great, but they were good. But you know what was great? What happened after the game between Arthur Smith and his kindred spirits on that offensive line? I see more beer in the Dirty Birds future. Not sure if their agreement was going to be passed last week, but the reason they had this viral beer celebration in the Mercedes-Benz club was twofold. One, they won the game. And two, the Falcons rushed for more than 100 yards. I honestly see them doing that again this Sunday. A major key in this game is firing first on offense. And we know Atlanta will lean on its ground game to find that success. Cincinnati's front has some key injuries and throughout the season so far, they are giving up almost five yards per carry towards the bottom of the league. Feeding Tyler Algier and Caleb Huntley and feeding those Lyman some buds, that's my hot take. I love it. I'm down for it. Now I'm actually gonna bring back an old hot take that we've had at a different time. Can we do that? Can we recycle hot take? Maybe it's mild, maybe it's not hot. Mild take, recycling is good. Anyways, my hot take is that Tequan Graham is going to get his first stack of the season on Sunday. Joe Burrow has been sacked 21 times this season. He was just sacked three times against New Orleans. If there's ever a time for this hot take to take, to become true for TQ, it's this weekend. I agree. Something Dean P said last week that I really liked was the phrase aggressive rookie mistakes. I think that's really interesting to think about with this young team as they learn to play at this level. They're really athletic. They're gonna fly around on defense and they will make mistakes. But like he said, hey, if they're gonna make them go on a hundred miles an hour, I am okay with that. It's gonna make them better in the long run. I love it. And it goes back to something Arthur Smith has said too, which is as a coach, I would much rather have to reel someone in and push them forward. And he took it a step further when I asked about him this, about this mindset this week. He said that, you know, he's seen them make up for small mistakes because they're playing so hard right now. And he continued by saying, going, if you're gonna be wrong, do it one thousand miles per hour to make up for it. Hey, I love to watch it. We'll see what happens this weekend in Cincinnati. We'll be back here next Friday night to talk about it. Thanks for joining us and have a great night.