The Falcons devotee Tiauna Crooms gushed about the rookie quarterback Matt Ryan from her seat at the Georgia Dome.
“I’m excited about him,” she said.
She was so excited that she was wearing a red Falcons jersey bearing Ryan’s name and No. 2. Amid a human garden suddenly sprouting No. 2s, Crooms was conspicuous for one reason: she is African-American.
In this resurgent season for the Falcons (7-4), the uniform of choice for the team’s substantial black following is that of a player inactive since 2006, never again to work his football hocus-pocus for Atlanta, and confined to a federal prison.
Michael Vick, No. 7 in the old program, retains iconic status in a city where more than half the population is black, despite his guilty plea for involvement in a dogfighting ring.
He is serving 23-month sentence, which runs into next July, in Leavenworth, Kan. But he was back home in Virginia where he appeared Tuesday at Surry County Circuit Court to plead guilty to state dogfighting charges and received a three-year suspended sentence.
A few hundred fans, nearly all African-American, still wear their support on their backs at games. It is a fashion statement — that Vick, if gone, is not forgotten. While the team’s legion of black rooters offer a hearty thumbs-up to Ryan, few have turned the page to the extent of Crooms, herself a Vick backer.
Vick had reached the mountaintop for black athletes in team sports and become a starting N.F.L. quarterback, a position long denied black players. In Atlanta, with a population 56 percent black in the city limits and 31 percent metrowide, his ascendancy was reason to celebrate.
The Vick love affair advanced because of his eye-pleasing, heart-pounding style of play, an unfettered jazz musician in contrast to the rigid pop star who portrays the typical quarterback.
“We miss Vick,” said Timothy Chambers, a tailgater before the Nov. 16 home game against the Denver Broncos, shouting over the sounds of the Atlanta hip-hop group Goodie Mob blasting from parking-lot speakers. “It’s not the same as it was.”
Chambers said his circle of season-ticket holder friends contracted from about 30 to 18 last season, partly explaining their diminished enthusiasm on Vick’s absence.
“There’s more white people in the crowd now. When Vick was in there, it was almost totally black,” Chambers said, exaggerating to illustrate his point.
Still, he is giving his wayward pals a hard sell on the new Falcons, a case centered around Ryan, an Irish kid from Boston College.
“I love him,” Chambers said. “We’re behind him. I’m telling them, ‘You don’t know what you’re missing.’ ”
Jessie Tuggle delivered a similar pitch to his skeptical older brother, whose fellow tailgaters were part of the civic embrace of Vick. A 14-year Falcon and five-time Pro Bowler, Tuggle, a linebacker-turned-fan, had watched up close how Vick became a magnet for black Atlantans.
Once Vick was gone, Tuggle said, “It took awhile for African-Americans to want to come back to a Falcons game. You’ve got to understand, this is a city with a high African-American fan base.”
But Tuggle said the fans were “slowing coming around.”
Why? “Matt Ryan,” he said. “He’s winning them over.”
Tuggle acknowledged that, had Ryan been a bust or a bench-sitter, residual resentment concerning Vick might linger.
“I think they’d be like We want Michael Vick back,” Tuggle said. “They still support Mike.”
Dozens of interviews with black ticket-holders, huddled over fiery grills in parking lots or hunched into chairs in the dome, revealed a universally positive vibe for Ryan.
“Matt is off the chain,” Alfred Berry said.
“Doing a great job,” Jerick Eberhart said.
“Amazing for a first-year guy,” Larry Pennington said.
“He’s made me a believer,” Jasper Williams said. “He’s a winner.”
“I’m proud of him,” Donald Thomas said.
No Vick disciple absolved the fallen player of blame for criminal activity, but there was widespread sentiment that he was treated harshly, whether by the Falcons, the courts or the ill-defined “system.” Some suggested that their loyalty to the team was tested. Some said acquaintances who tracked the Falcons more casually cited Vick’s departure for having driven them away.
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