(the Atlanta Falcons are a professional American football team based in Atlanta, Georgia)
The Falcons compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league’s National Football Conference (NFC) South division.
(the Falcons joined the NFL in 1965 as an ‘expansion team’, after the NFL offered then-owner Rankin Smith a franchise to keep him from joining the rival American Football League (AFL))
The AFL instead granted a franchise to Miami (the Miami Dolphins).
The Falcons are tied with the Dolphins (who also began play in 1966) for being the second-oldest NFL franchise in the Deep South, and are the second-oldest NFC team in that region, after the Dallas Cowboys.
In their 51 years of existence, the Falcons have compiled a record of 350–450–6 (341–437–6 in the regular season and 9–13 in the playoffs), winning division championships in 1980, 1998, 2004, 2010, 2012, and 2016.
With their win over the Green Bay Packers on January 22, 2017, the Falcons made their second Super Bowl appearance; the first being during the 1998 season in Super Bowl XXXIII, where they lost to the Denver Broncos 34–19, and the most recent being a defeat by the New England Patriots 34–28 in Super Bowl LI at NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas.
The Falcons played their home games at the Georgia Dome in downtown Atlanta from the 1992 to 2016 NFL seasons. Construction began on Mercedes-Benz Stadium in May 2014, with play projected to begin there during the 2017 season.
(their headquarters and practice facilities are located at a 50-acre site in Flowery Branch, ‘Georgia’)