 1991 line of Falcons, California state champs. We had beaten every single team on the West Coast. We got all these guys down there and it's a free fall. Down in the corner padded, they fight. Touchdown! And they said, why did you take Darian Connor? And I said, because he's tougher than a Waffle House state. I've been sober, but I love that. Y'all had so much fun. Y'all did all the craziest things, but you still won games. Yeah. You still dominated teams. And one of the things that we want to look at now is how you dominated the State of California beating the 49ers twice. Whoa! California State Champions! Let's take a look at that. California State Champions! Don't be scared. 1991 line of Falcons, California state champs. We had beaten every single team on the West Coast. We beat San Francisco and San Francisco and the Falcons had never beat the Rams in LA. Beating them twice, beating the 49ers. I sure hope so, man. That'd be great. That'd be great. I don't know how long it's been since I've done that around here. There goes Tolliver. Along, high pass. Down in the corner padded, they fight. That was the catch. That was the first catch. That was fun times, man. Absolutely. Love you, man. You made it successful. It was a locker room like after that. Oh, man, we had beaten the 49ers, who had been dominating us for years. And we beat them twice in the same season. And that pretty much springed us into the playoffs. Because we won that game. We had to edge over them. So we both finished 10 and 6 that year. But we beat them twice. So we had to edge. So that springed us into the playoffs. Kicked them out of the playoffs. Got them out and got us in. And the locker room went crazy, man. If you saw what happened on the field, when we got back into the locker room, it was just like that. And they were like the standard of that era, right? Like the 80s and 90s. Lots of them. The team to beat. They won three Super Bowls in the 80s. And in the pregame, the pregame for both games, your locker room was going crazy. And their locker room was very stoic and silent, right? What was that like? It took on the persona of Bill Walsh. He was a genius. He was tactical. This man here was wide open and fun. And we were rolling beforehand. That's kind of how we played. We went to the league meetings. And all the head coaches there, you guys will love this because you know who I am. And Bill Walsh says, Jerry, I would like to have dinner with you and our wives. I think we should go out to dinner together. And I said, why is that, Bill? He said, you're at the zenith of all the football. I said, Bill, I don't talk like that. Should I hit you in the mouth or what? I didn't know if it was a compliment or what. I was at the zenith. I said, what the hell is that? So one thing I want to say, too, that I want to get overlooked. You see the trophy, right? Yeah. Who does that, man? Well, the other team would have a make a trophy and put California state champs. That was so cool. I was like, did that ever happen, right, Joe? It never happened, never happened since you were born. Nobody ever went and spanked the whole left court. That was the right we had. The Rams, the 49ers. San Diego, the Raiders. Seattle. Yeah, we played Seattle, sir. We got them all. We got them all. Everybody on that board. Raiders. And who else would think about doing it? Right. Man over there. I thought it was so cool. What stands out to you about those games from the Niners or the Rams or any of those teams in California? The biggest thing that stand out the most to me in the world, why were we in the NFC West? With the NFC South, right? OK, we're in the South, but you still had the Falcons in the same thing. You had the LA Rams in San Francisco. It didn't make any sense how they had those listed in the West for all those years. But it was a long flight every year. There were some great road trips. But there was some great road trips. That's where it was. And no team was strong, too. Back in the Nunnies, Rams or Stout, they was pretty strong, man. So it was a time for me to get focused. Well, the 49ers had the best team money could buy. Oh, yeah. There was no salary cap. And D Bartolo had all the money he wanted. So we couldn't outbid and get anybody. They could come get your players, because with no salary cap, you go with the money. You guys remember some of those plane flights coming home, too, after a big win? Oh, yeah. We're landing, no seatbelts on. We're standing like this, trying to surf the landings. That was the best time ever. And you imagine we fly back from the West Coast. We get back seven o'clock in the morning the next day, because of the time change. And you tell my fun on some flights. Can't tell you what happened on some flights. Didn't sleep much. Let's put it that way. We didn't sleep much. We watched our lineman, Mike Ken, play 17 years. And several of us, when we got back from those West Coast trips, we'd just go to his bar and kick it up the next day. Raptors. Raptors. Yeah. Play cards. Play dice. I'll practice. Mondays were off. Mondays were film days. If you go and watch some film, you'd be a little cloudy. Tuesdays were off. They would be good by Wednesday. So when y'all beat the 49ers that season twice, did y'all know, was that kind of a point where you realized that y'all might be on to something special, or was it a different point in the season? I would say it was before that. We started rolling as a team before that. I mean, we started a season off 0-2 that year. People don't remember that. Yeah. And then we won a game, and we lost another game. So we were at 3-3, and we finished the season at 10-6. So I mean, we started rolling, and we started winning games. So before that, yeah, exactly. We started expecting to win. And before you knew it, man, we were just rolling wins off. And like Robert said earlier, we were winning the games. We wasn't supposed to win. And also winning the games, we should have won. We had a new offense coordinator that you brought in June Jones in 1991. A difference, yeah. A year before we had Tom Rossi who went to Green Bay with Farve. And catching that Hail Mary that I see. What is that like, catching a Hail Mary in that? When did you know you had it? Here's the thing you don't hear. I got shut out the whole game. I'm the only kid. Oh, man. Yes, I'm the only kid. So I got that, huh? You got the best one. Absolutely. You got the only one in the bedroom. We had been going back and forth with the score. And we ended up kicking a field goal, and then they scored a touchdown. We were up 10-7, and Charles Haley buried me in the ground. I got cracked ribs, still got a lump up in there. We were up 10-7, so Billy Joe went in, hit a big time comeback on the sideline. Yeah, he hit a big, yeah. Launched the Hail Mary. He caught the big out. Yeah, that was the big out. I'm going to call it. I mean, I'm talking about Toe-Tet touching the ball out there. On a big third down, led to the Hail Mary. And that just got us close enough to throw the Hail Mary. But tell everyone that it wasn't luck though. Tell them what you guys are doing practice. Yeah, what did you do after? Well, we used to do this thing, they called it buckets. And the quarterbacks used to put, I don't know how far you guys. About 44 yards from my scrimmage. And their whole thing was to throw the ball into the buckets. Into the, it was a trash can. Did it after practice? And they did that all the time. Six yards from the sideline, 44 yards, six yards from the sideline. So we practiced that. And you were the bucket. He was the bucket after. At that time, yes. He became the bucket. It was one of those things. I mean, you got all these guys down there, and it's a free fall. You're just trying to go get the ball. And for y'all, Justin, you're right. What was it like game planning for that offense? For the 49, for 49ers? I'm out there right now, it's extremely tough. But you're playing against the West Coast offense that run multiple formations on a two-back set. And they had skilled athletes. And they had a great quarterback. And they always had Steve Young. Somebody every year. You got Steve Young. You got Jerry Rice. You got John Taylor. You got Roger Craig. You're talking about all the years. Well, Joe Montana was the thing. And Montana was the like, well, Montana left. I know what Montana left. Steve Young was like, hey, man, it is. You two are like this when they had them both. I had them both, yeah. And I would coach him. And I told the defense, if any of you knock Joe Montana out of the game, I'm cutting you. We don't want that Steve Young killing him. Because he could run. We wanted Joe Montana. So you knew? Oh, we all knew. We all knew. We all knew he'd be a superstar. But the biggest thing we'd do was that when Steve was in the game, 80% of their offense was going to the left. Yeah, yeah. Oh, because he's left handed. Boomer, you know what I mean? So that was one thing, but he was so athletic, you know? He could do it all. But you knew that most of the stuff was going to our right, his left, you know what I mean? But overall, the offense for me was they would put somebody in every part of the field. So he had a threat every so you had to be right. And I got caught the time between cheating. I mean, you mentioned you had to cover Jerry Rice and cover four. We ran a lot of cover four when we wasn't blitzing. We blitzed a lot. We ran the man to man a lot. But when you cover four, any time, you know, I knew I had three on the strong side whoever come in, but they knew it too. So they're brain Jerry and I run an option right off of me. Right. So you already, everybody knows where the ball's going. I know where the ball's going. My goal is can I stop Jerry Rice? No, can I tackle him? Yes, for eight yard game. So my biggest thing is just make the tackle. Make the tackle. Because when you're playing in superstars like that, you're not particularly at the backer. You're not going to defend the ball. You're not going to knock a ball down. Right. My goal was to knock him out as hard as I possibly could. That's me, right? Because he didn't even want to come up with it. That's right. That's the only thing we had to do, man. So I thought that was pretty cool, though. And y'all, I mean, at that game, you won off of Hail Mary. And I think you mentioned a lot today. And all y'all had mentioned, like, you won games that might not have been supposed to win. And one of those games came against Green Bay that year. That comeback win y'all had. Let's take a look at what happened in that game. You were at home, man. Yeah. Smell as sick as a dog. You had the flu or something? 103. The Falcons hadn't won three in a row since 86. They hadn't won eight games in a season since 1980. They're on a roll. They're playing lowly Green Bay. But if you know Atlanta, you know the Ringo Starr song. It don't come easy. Here it is. Billy Joe's up. There it is. Chris Miller will start. So Chris Miller coming on. So 103 degree temperature. Maybe he'll find this part of this off and save the year. Here goes a complete depiction for first down and more. Atlanta, Steve Grusson. And here is Charles Wilson-Thompeau. And Atlanta, no fist bump. Touchdown. Now it goes to Atlanta, Andre Ryzen. Chris Miller believes. Andre Ryzen believes. And as the theme song here, the Atlanta Falcons is too legit to quit. So are these Falcons. Can't say it no better than that, right? No. It's too legit to quit. But you got to get your head off that man right there. That's what I was going to say. Can you describe what was going on with you internally? Were you out there? Yeah, it was the most bizarre deal. Saturday night, I got sick as a dog. Came down with a flu big time during the night. And I was in my hotel room. And I couldn't drive. I had a Porsche 930 Turbo Porsche. And I was throwing up. Had a 103 degree temperature. So I wanted to go down the stadium, get down there. And so we had an assistant equipment guy come drive my car. And he couldn't drive a stick shift. And I got a $50,000 Porsche 930 Turbo. And I got a garbage can between my legs. And I'm like, just white as a ghost, 103 fever. Just feeling horrible. So I get down to the stadium. And they put me in a medical room, covered me up with a blanket. I'm sitting there shivering, sick as a dog lights out. And I remember Mike Ken walking in our 17-year left tackle coming and checking on me. Long and short of it, I didn't play the first half. I wasn't planning on playing. Jerry's sending two trainers at halftime. I think we were down 10 or 14 points or something like that. We're getting beat. And this was, we're on our playoff runs. We got to get this game, right? I think it was after the Hail Mary game. And anyway. I should take over here with the doctor. Yeah, go ahead. I'm on the sideline. We're getting beat. Let's get me the team doctor. The team doctor comes up and he goes, I want Miller suited up. I don't want him starting at quarterback. He goes, coach, he's got 103 degree temperature and he can't play. I says, then I'm getting me a new team doctor. I says, you're fired if he's not out. He says, I'll go take a look at him. Well, the rest, he went back in there, double IV bags. I'm laying there, double IV bags. I got two guys taping my ankles. I'm feeling like crap on the table. Go back out and I'm shivering. I got the chills because two IV bags are putting cold fluid in your system. So I'm going out on the field. I'm freezing. I think I went, what, 12 for 18 for 185 and three touchdowns. Before he goes out, he comes up to me and goes, I think I better watch this series. I've got the chills. I said, shake out there. He says, you're going in. And I hit Mike Pritchard on that. As our leader, our quarterback, I mean, he sparked the team. He just went out and it changed everything. His play, it just changed everything. And we ended up winning that game because he showed up. 35, 31, I appreciate it. Tell him how you were the next day after the game. I was sick, telephoned, I missed films, I missed team practices. Do you know how you got it? How you got sick? Nah, just flew bug, showed up. One of those random deals. The good news, we got to keep the team doctor. But the defense made a big, big turn over that. Oh, absolutely. That was huge. That was huge. Sheldon comes up, make a big hit, right? Yep. Tell us what happened there. Can you break down the situation and everything? Whoever remembers the situation? I was very memorable. It was on a punt. It was on a punt. We punted to them. Right. And we were down. The guy got the ball. I think we're down 31, 28. Joe Fishback scored. He was going to return it. Sheldon, Elba Shelly came up. He stripped the ball and Maracca bounced right into Joe Fishback's hand. He bring the ball into the end zone for the touchdown. Actually, I think that made it 31, 28. That made it 31, 28. Yeah, because then I hit Dre to make it 35, 31 there at the end. We got to tell you about Elba Shelly. Okay. He's all pro, special teams. All pro, yeah. Asked me how many days every week he practiced. Yeah. He had practice. Everybody say, he can't play if he can't practice. I say, shut up. How you feeling? He goes, I'll be okay. I think about three days. Take your time. He only did his cover kick. Elba Shelly was like a specimen. I mean, less than 2% body fat, but because he had low, his body fat was so low he would cramp all the time. So he would never practice. Never practice. But he would show up and play. He was a six-time pro bowler. It was like when Sunday came, you turn on the lights. Yeah. That was how he was. Exactly. And he hadn't played since last Sunday. Well, I said, that's okay. Was he one of the few guys like that that y'all remember from that? Were there other guys like that on the team? Our old team was like, man, who we don't talk about is Andre Showtime Rising. That dude, he was made for playing professional football. That dude, he'd turn it on. I'll tell you a story. He'd run the wrong routes and still score touchdowns. He'd laugh. That's the type of dude he was. And he would always say he was open. See, he got to throw me the balls all the way open. We'd watch the film, Dre, your double cover dude. I ain't throwing that thing. You got two cats around. He was always open. And he was the best off the line of scrimmage. Absolutely. The most explosive and the best in and out of a cut. Speed cut guy I've ever been around. He came off the field. We just scored. He came off the field and he was laughing. And I'd say, what's the damn funny, Chris? He goes, that was not the route. That's nothing but what we're supposed to do. We got a touch. Andre, Andre, he liked the nightlife back in the day. But he showed up to play. He showed up to play. Andre thought he was better than Jerry Rice. That was his motivating move. He always wanted to be better than Jerry Rice. He was mad at every team and passed them up and didn't draft them. So I would go, wherever we were playing, I'd say, they had a chance to get you and they didn't watch you. Oh, that's crazy. That was one of the best trades you ever made was getting Chris Hinton and Andre Rice. You talked about how can you get two all time players in the same day for a box of biscuits? We didn't give anything. In 1991 it was Chris Hinton. Andre Rice, myself and Dionne Sanders were the four Pro Bowl guys. And you got two of those guys for that year. He was dynamic, man. He helped me in my career because they shifted everything towards him and left me man to man. And I was the fastest dude on the field. It's too easy. I'll take it. Hey, while we're sitting here, I want to pay tribute to two guys we lost to our teammates, Ricky Bryan and Bill Freilich. Ricky Bryan and Bill Freilich. Two wonderful teammates, two great guys. I got to tell you about Ricky Bryan. Ricky Bryan. Tori Epps. Ricky Bryan playing with these guys on defense. Levin on the football. We're playing the Saints in New Orleans. He gets hit and he breaks his coccyx, breaks his tailbone. And we got the film and he crawls seven yards and get in on the play. He can't even get up and run. You remember what he was doing when you jogged off the field? My back! My back! But he was such a hard time for that. He'll always be known for that. Was he awesome? Just to get in on the tackle. I got a story about Ricky Bryan super quick. He would go noodling which is going for big catfish where you dive down deep under the water and you can't see anything. It's murky and muddy. He'd have his goggles on or whatever. And you stick your hand in a dark hole and you put it in the mouth of a catfish and you grab their insides and you yank them out. And he pulled catfish out that were like four feet, five feet, six feet. That's how crazy he was. He would do that by his choice. Is that a normal thing? Ricky was crazy. It was just a hobby. If you get a chance to YouTube, it's a thing. It's pretty cool. You got to talk about Scott Cates. Scott Cates was special. He was one of the few white corners in the NFL. Now Scott is not president of nothing else but he always would say, I'm going to never let a white receiver beat me. He would say that out of it. Just making fun. He was so talented and you would see him on the street probably a buck and 80. But he hit like he would. He would hit like he weighed 250 pounds. One of the toughest heart, nose, free safety that I ever played with and a great guy. Highly respected. He was one of the fun dudes that run through you. He didn't just come up to make a tackle. He'd run through you. He had guys like Ricky Bryant, Scott Cates, John Rady. Mike Gann. He was awesome. We were somewhere. He comes up next to me and tears are coming down his eyes. Tears like this. I said, John, you all right? He goes, no. I said, what's the deal? He goes, I blew both knees. He always had the bad left knee. I said, you blew the right knee too. I was like, it's damn though. Anything I can do for you? He goes, no. Special teams coach says, put team. He goes, I'll play guard. You'll get guys like that. I'll play guard. He's talking about a first-class guy and he used to be like the captain of the defense before. He was six foot. You're 5'11. He used to look at the small inside linebacker group, you know what I mean? But we caused a lot of problems on that football field. From Idaho, wasn't he? He played in Northern Arizona for a minute. The boys were very good. He went to Boise from play basketball. Always had a dip. And he started the fights on the second bus. He started the fights on the second bus. We had a rule. The game's over, we won. You want to ride out to the airplane. Nice quad, get on the first bus. If you're pissed off at somebody, all fights are dismissed on the team. They come to me and say, we get a bill. The bathrooms tore out. They broke the windows in the bus. That's the second bus. You ride on that boy. And I get on just to see who is the best man. And Jamie Dukes would be mad at somebody. Get on that second bus. I'll get you up the second bus. Our center was after somebody that played DB. We got to talk about that group too. Jamie Dukes, Mike Ken, Bill Freylet, Chris Hinton, Houston Hoover. Houston Hoover was underrated. He was better than everybody thought he was. Our whole line was something else, man. It's a great place. We reflect on people in the whole team. You forget, it takes a lot of people to make up a whole team. We've got star players, but so many guys that work so hard. Kenny Tipton, special team guy that played behind me. He was a stud to this. Darren Conner just about got me fired. Darren Conner just about got me fired. Uh-oh. I take him in the third round from Northeast Louisiana or something. And so I go over, remember the press conference? And they said, why did you take Darren Conner? And I said, because he's tougher than a Waffle House steak. Do you think anything of it? Well, the next morning I come in here. There's Rake and Smith and there's the president of Waffle House Rake. And they go fire me. And the only way I got out is he goes, we're on the front page of the USA having the toughest steak. Any publicity's better than no publicity. By the way, do you want to sponsor my drag story? Oh, yeah. Another button I want to mention is Mike Reed. He came in that year, but he was on injured reserve in 1991. He got injured, so he missed most of the season. He's doing great, man. Don't fight the guy, man. He's an expert. He's a martial artist. I was going to say, it's great to hear because you see a lot of the stars. The stars on this team were so big and brash. So you knew exactly who they were. So hearing these guys' names like Jamie Jukes and his name, it's important to know that these guys made the team go. You guys are on a winning streak. You got, I think, five straight wins. Then the last game at the Old Fulton County Stadium, you got the Seahawks. You won that. Let's take a look at that game. Oh, man. Video, we never lost to the Seahawks. Either place. He says, look at our team picture. He says, this is what it's all about. Not your normal team picture. Jerry Glanville wanted everybody in the team picture. We're going to use a family atmosphere here in Atlanta. It's not the Adams family, but these guys are getting pretty scary and they're starting to get everyone's attention around the NFL. Stopper in trouble. And we're going to get him in the end zone. We got him in the end zone. To go back to what Jerry Glanville told us yesterday, we don't call plays from the sideline. We make suggestions. We give them to Chris Miller and then it's up to him. He's going to throw a bomb to a man in the corner. Touchdown. Whips it across. Intercepted by Deion on the 38. Intercepted by Sanders. A lot of people aren't sure of the Falcons of Peruvian. When you keep pressure with that sort of thing and you play with that sort of confidence every week, good things happen. And the Falcons are in the playoff for the first time since Lehman Bennett, coaching with Bart Kowski at quarterback in 1982. Touchdown, Deion. Man, what an athlete. I wish I could dance like that. So I got the job and I switched Deion's, believe it or not, a safety and a punt returner and Scott Case is the corner. So I tell him downstairs that Deion comes and he goes, I don't want to be a corner. I guess it's not up for a vote. So I appreciate it. Which side? I'll let you pick which side. You want right or left. He goes, they run left. I'll be the right corner. And then Scott Case comes up and he goes, I'm a double. I'm a corner. You're not a corner anymore, son. You're a safety. He goes, well, they told me he had an open door policy. I said, dude, the door is open. Get the hell out. He came the best safety. That's what those guys were. You watch how they play. They made me look like a whole lot better coach than I was because they loved it and they knew how to play. Robert, you all have the CO2 points in that game. You said that was the fastest touchdown. Can you describe the emotions of that game? You know, the way Deion played, man, he was so fast. You know, and you saw he took, we always practice when we ladder the ball. In the section, we always lateral. We want to keep the game going. Go put pressure on them. You saw he took the pitch from the car and he started up the field, man. I was rushing the quarterback at the other end. So he's down, what was it, about the 30 down here? I'm down to about the 25 at the other end. And before you knew it, he was like, boom. And before I could react, get a second react to try to get a block, he went right by my butt and was going into the end zone and hit me and I talked about it in there. I said, damn, that's the fastest touchdown in my career right there. That's how fast that dude was. And that's how we play. We do that today. Today we teach the same thing. You all still teach that now? Pitching the ball. Really? In fact, June Jones is all part of these people. We ended up with that laugh and ended up at Hawaii, coaching Hawaii. We're pretty good. I think we're going to beat the league produce, going to win the Big Ten that year. They're the number one team, Big Ten. And we're going to beat them. And they got one way. I go to the linebacker, go to the curl, sit in the curl, throw the ball. There's 40 seconds left. And I says, that's the game taking knee. And here's my old play. What did you say Jerry? I said, oh, you go, I said, we did that New Orleans want to be in the playoff. Exactly. All you have to do is fall down, games over, we kneel it down, games around. We're pitching that sucker around. Joe Phish back in it. These scores, but I think the last pitch, whether Deon who pitched it forward. That was fun. That was our personality. What do you remember about that stadium? I'll tell you whatever it is. I didn't like playing there in early fall. I never liked playing there because of the baseball. We shared it with the Braves. And we had a dirt infield. And then when you make a tackle. Lay down the dirt. You make a tackle and sand is in your helmet. Scratching the forehead. And the fans sat too far back. It was a baseball stadium, you know what I mean? And so they had to put the football field right in the middle of it. So it's tough in Atlanta. You know, at that time we wasn't winning. We were so in a place out. Not many times. In years past when the Braves wasn't doing so well. When they finished before October they put patches of grass over there. But this year, 1991, they played well into the playoffs that year. So we had to share the field well into the season. And so the dirt was still out there. I used to stand on the mound. Because the mound was on our sideline. And I'd stand on the center of the mound because I can look over everybody else. The problem with it was I was so glad that the following year we were going into the dome. So that last game, the Seattle game it was the last game in Fulton County stadium because we were prepared to go into the dome for next year. But what I liked about Fulton County and I learned this the hard way we sold tickets by twos and fours. We came to the Georgia Dome they sold them the corporations. So the guys were buying them 100 tickets, 50 tickets. Well then they invite you in and now you're a guest of 100 tickets and you're like this. The people in Fulton County that bought their tickets they were true fans. And they may not have been sober but I love them. See that's what it was like for me. It was an environment to where they wanted to party. You know what I'm saying? When we played the Saints their crowd would come they were drunker than our crowd and there was no stadium like that. That's what I remember about it. The raiders coming down they think they're going to do this or that. Seattle. We won some games there. That's what I remember for me. You think the environment caused other teams to come in and party the night before you? Hello. This is ATL man. This is ATL you know what I mean? Mars day up until four. It's just a few spots to come in. And the atmosphere is just right. I used to get excited to walk in there before the game. For me it was special. Coming out of Houston House of Pay now and that was a special joint too. But it was a difference coming here to Fulton County. It was something special for me. I think it was special because we changed it from the late 80's 90's it started building when you got here but 91. We looked forward to it. It was so electric in there. You could see how much fun people were having in there. They would identify you by your car when you rolled into the players hall. You'd pull into the players parking lot and there would be barbecues going and they'd offer you beers before the game. We drank shit. We're walking through there and they're just loving you up. It was cool. You felt invested with the fans. Then you'd get in that state and we'd start playing. We didn't care about our lock. We didn't care you walked down through a dugout to get up to the field. We didn't care about the dirt. Our fans are here. Let's go ball. Let's put on a show. That environment was a great environment to play in. It brings the best out of you. I enjoyed it. 35. Touchdown Michael Haynes.