Lunch With Legends
Jessie Tuggle speaks at Tuesday's Lunch with Legends event. On Tuesday around 90 Atlanta Falcons fans were provided a rare treat: an opportunity to listen to three former Falcons greats share stories and candidly answer their questions.The first annual Falcon Nation Charity Organization (FNCO) Lunch with Legends event featured former Falcons Jessie Tuggle, Jeff Van Note, and Buddy Curry and proceeds from the $40 ticket went to Curry's non-profit organization, Kids & Pros.
Curry's organization to date has touched the lives of over 4,500 kids, holding football camps run by former NFL players to teach 7- to 13-year-old children football skills and character lessons.
Curry, the 1980 NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year, runs the camps with another former Falcon, Bobby Butler, and they believe they're providing the pre-high school-age children the same lessons given to them on their way to the NFL.
"We want to coach kids the correct fundamentals of the game, but also teach them life lessons," said Curry on Tuesday. "Each of us will say any time that what makes us successful today and who we are are the things we learned from playing football. A lot of that comes from coaches growing up to our actual football experience."
Kids & Pros scholarships about 40% of the kids each year that attend their camp and proceeds from the Lunch with Legends event will help meet that goal. In 2009 the camp conducted seven clinics with over 1,000 kids. In 2010 they hope to achieve that same percentage while coaching 2,000 kids at 10 camps in five states.
Fans in attendance witnessed Curry, a two-time All Pro, Tuggle, a five-time Pro Bowl linebacker and member of the Falcons Ring of Honor, and Van Note, a five-time All Pro and Falcon Ring of Honor member share stories of their playing days and speak about the franchise's current success.
For Curry, it was a unique opportunity to witness three generations of Falcons players sharing their love of football and the Falcons franchise with the team's current fans.
"The neat thing about Falcons fans, many of them have researched the past," said Curry following the event. "The past is a part of the future. Being able to connect with that, I think that's what happened today. It also happened for a great cause. When you have NFL players who are passionate about helping kids and giving back to their communities and you have fans that are willing to support those charities as well as cheer for their current team, I think it's a win-win."
The three former Falcons had the opportunity to entertain questions from the fans on a wide-range of topics from the evolution of the game to their funniest moments as a player.
In many of their comments they reminded fans of one key component of football that has always been the same. "The eye in the sky," as Tuggle deemed game film, doesn't miss anything and it never lies.
It caught Van Note's most embarrassing moment.
As a young player, the center was assigned to cover kicks on special teams. During his era cut blocks and dirty play was much more common and on one occasion Van Note's efforts to avoid a cut block as he ran up the field on his assignment resulted in a moment he'd never forget.
"I was leaping in the air from a cut block and a defender grabbed the back of my pants and pulled them down," explained Van Note. "We didn't wear many pads back then. So they came down below my cheeks for just a brief moment. As I fell to the ground I scrambled to pull my pants up, but the film caught it. When they ran the film back in special teams meetings they had a field day with it."
For Tuggle, game film often served to remind him of how great some of his competitors were.
Tuggle, whose No. 58 is retired by the franchise, believes he had the opportunity during his career to face the best running back ever to play football. Facing Barry Sanders always made him look foolish when the film was rewound.
"To this day we think the guy was double-jointed in his ankles," said Tuggle. "He made moves that I've never seen anybody in the country make. You hear about guys that are almost like Barry Sanders. There's nobody like Barry Sanders."
The three not only shared stories of their personal playing days, but also took moments to use the other as the punch line of one of their tales.
Van Note, the elder statesman of the group, reminded Curry of his first Falcons practice.
Given the task of blocking the rookie, the owner of the second-most starts in franchise history aggressively went after the young linebacker. As Van Note blocked Curry, he yelled for the center to stop holding him.
Once the play was over, Van Note held Curry's facemask to his and reminded him of where he was.
"Welcome to the NFL," Van Note said.
Tuesday's event at the Cheyenne Grill was also about reflection, reliving moments that the players will never forget, moments that are enshrined in the memories of Falcons fans as well.
