It's hard not to feel for the Atlanta Falcons, a team that suffered the worst Super Bowl defeat ever and now must live with the indignity of being reminded of it on a near daily basis.
At the heart of this trolling is "28-3". That, of course, was the lead the Falcons held over the Patriots in the final minutes of the third quarter in Super Bowl LI before New England mounted its epic comeback.
"28-3" has become the default putdown for any anti-Falcons faction. Like, the city of New Orleans. Or, motivational Pats fans. Or, um, followers of the calendar. There's no way to come back from it either -- it's just a devastating assault of the facts. The only way the Falcons as a franchise escape from this hell is if they pull off a similar comeback in a subsequent Super Bowl.
The obvious problem there: We'll never see a Super Bowl comeback like that ever again.
Which leads us to the latest example of Falcons indignity. It started with the type of innocent tit-and-tat we see all the time from team-managed Twitter accounts across the sports landscape.
The Falcons -- who, again, are just trying to freaking live, mannnn -- offered an extremely light-hearted retort that was less a dig of a division rival so much as it was a friendly, "Hey guys, wanna play?"
But things are different for the Falcons now. Everything is different now.
Did you catch that? Here, I'll help:
I don't usually endorse internet bullying of any kind, and Lord knows I feel for Falcons fans. But if you're going to be a jerk on the internet, at least do it well. For that, I commend the Bucs.
UPDATE: On Thursday, Buccaneers coach Dirk Koetter apologized for the shot at the Falcons.
