Entering the 1978 NFL season, Atlanta Falcons quarterback Steve Bartkowski was benched, and was looking like a bust. However, after winning his starting job back, in a game against the New York Giants, he was able to save his career, right the ship, and eventually become one of the greatest players in the history of the Falcons. This is the story behind the game that saved Steve Bartkowski’s career
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History of the Atlanta Falcons
History of the Falcons
Members of the 1978 Falcons:
Fred Steinfort
Tim Mazzetti
John James
Steve Bartkowski
June Jones
Jim Stienke
Rolland Lawrence
Haskel Stanback
Ray Strong
Mike Esposito
Tom Pridemore
Frank Reed
Ernie Jackson
Ray Easterling
Ricky Patton
Bob Glazebrook
Rick Byas
George Franklin
Bubba Bean
Tom Moriarty
Greg Brezina
Dewey McClain
Paul Ryczek
Fulton Kuykendall
Ralph Ortega
Garth Ten Napel
Ron McCartney
Jeff Van Note
Steve Stewart
Robert Pennywell
Warren Bryant
RC Thielemann
Mike Lewis
Dave Scott
Marv Montgomery
Jim Bailey
Phil McKinnely
Wilson Faumuina
Jeff Merrow
Edgar Fields
Mike Kenn
Jeff Yeates
Dennis Pearson
Billy Ryckman
James Wright
Alfred Jenkins
Alfred Jackson
Jim Mitchell
Claude Humphrey
Ken Moore
Lewis Gilbert
Wallace Francis
Leeman Bennett (head coach)
39 Comments
What a wholesome powerful story
The Philadelphia kicker missed a key field goal in 1978 playoff game.I remember watching it
Funny Vikings Bobby Bryant hit by team mate going down field with a pic at 3:04. And team mate is pissed.
Nowadays since around mid to late 2000s, players like Bart and Bradshaw would have been given up on after couple of years as busts as QBs are now being expected to be instant hits or bust. I mean there are idiots who thinks Peyton's rookie season was among the all time worse…
by the way in 78 playoffs Falcons almost beat the Cowboys in Dallas. Staubach was knocked out. Danny White lead them back.
Isnt June Jones supposed to be some kind of offensive guru?
11 knee operations ? Holy shit
As a saints fan he would torch us pretty good lol. They need to bring back the red uniforms. Or make the falcon red on the black helmet. Once Drew came here he torched them on a regular basis so we got our revenge who dat
At 1:37 Ed too tall Jones getting off the ball at incredible speed for a big guy dam
Shoud the Flacons retire Deion Sanders number 21
A better context would be- back in the 70's QB's were brought along slowly. Most didn't start right away. It took awhile for rookie QB's to learn the offense. In many ways when the Bengals drafted Carson Palmer #1 overall and just sat him his rookie year, it was going against the grain!
My dad had season tickets from 1975-1980. I was 8 years old when we started.. How I remember going to those games, and loved them.. I remember the people talking about who should start as QB. Jones or Bart. I was always for Bart…awesome times for me.. Thanks for the memories ..Great work keep it up..
Thank goodness he didn't have his revival here in Tampa the week before!
I would spike the ball on every play
Nothing to do with the video but those are my favorite Falcons uniforms.
Born & raised in Atlanta, I was a huge Bartkowski fan as a kid. I was only 8 years old, but I remember watching that playoff game against the Eagles on Christmas Eve in '78. I was too young to understand it at the time, but that was a huge win for the franchise, and everybody at my house was going crazy. It didn't matter how how good or bad he played through his career, Steve Bartkowski was my favorite player.
I enjoyed watching Bartkowski play in the 1980s. The real story of his "rebirth" – the "change of heart and mind" was Bartkowski putting the Lord first. He said he realized he shouldn't be number one and he should put Christ first. Sounds like he turned his life over to Jesus – and that would make all the difference in the world for him, whether he played well or started or played poorly or threw interceptions, etc. Amazing. Thank you for mentioning this.
Bartkowski was awful until 1980. Love how this game is pointed to as the game that saved his career, yet the very next week he went back to his awful self. 17/33 188 yards 1 TD 2 INTs sacked 5 times. The only reason the Falcons went back to Bartkowski was because June Jones was even worse. Even still Bartkowski was benched later in the 1978 season and the team went back to June Jones anyway.
Steve Bartkowski was better than Matt Ryan; John Madden has said if he could build a team around anyone it would be William Andrews – imagine his career if he doesn’t injure his knee; Jessie Tuggle, Jeff Van Note, and Mike Kenn should be in the Hall of Fame – and, Tommy Nobis should have been in decades ago. Nice video.
If you can beat the Saints at their place in dramatic fashion, the Falcons fans will love you forever.
Mike Kenn’s number isn’t retired? Wow!
Steve Barkowski was a very good QB on some mediocre Atlanta Falcons teams. But when the Falcons were good offensively, Bart played very well and put up some excellent numbers and even winning games in Atlanta.
I want to give a shoutout to my man at 2:38 trying to make a TD-saving tackle. 10000% effort.
@JaguarGator9, I bet you could put together a good story about Atlanta's Mick Luckhurst, a kicker from Cal who kicked in the Garden State Bowl with sweatpants on. He also scored the only touchdown of his career, on a fake field goal in a playoff game. When he was of college age, He came to the U.S. from England as a rugby and soccer player who had never kicked a football. How he got from there to the NFL is a good story!
I absolutely love your videos….🤟😷
I never could understand why stupidass fans turn on a dime on their heroes when they stop winning. I mean, it's not like the guy is doing it on purpose. Give him a break.
Should have included the game with the Saints later that year. The Big Ben Right game play that gave the Falcons a miracle win at the last minute.
Personally, I like the NBC primitive graphics of the Falcons logo from the early 80’s: red helmet with red logo.
Bart was a class act. I got to meet him one time and he was so sincere. Its good to see one of the good guys have success for a change. He made the Falcons serious contenders in the late 70s and early 80s.
One football game didn't change his career, Spiritual growth changed his career.
Do a video on the argument between Jeff George and June Jones during week 3 in 1996
OT Mike Kenn played 17 years in ATL with four pro bowls and two all pro selections. Definitley a borderline HOFer, so surely good enough for Falcons ring of honor.
Nice To see William Andrews honored. He was a blend of Walter Payton and Earl.Campbell.
If not for injury he, along with Rickey Bell, and Billy Sims all might have had HOF careers as all time talents.
Mike Vick was the falcons greatest quarterback.
The Giants game was the day I became a falcons fan for life. I was in the Navy and they showed the game on close circuit TV. Good times
I literally just won a Bart autograph Falcon jersey on Pristine Auction.
Boy, did those red Falcons jerseys look good, especially with the red helmets.
During the Bill Walsh years, in 1983, against the 49ers in Atlanta, Bartkowski threw one of the greatest Hail Mary passes to Billy 'White shoes" Johnson to defeat the 49ers on the last play of the game. It was a great moment in NFL history and one of the greatest shots captured by an NFL cameraman.
With two seconds left in the game, from the endzone, the cameraman captured Bartkowski cranking up from 50 yards away, as the ball entered the stadium lights, because the sun had set on this game which started late in the day, The cameraman perfectly tracked the ball, the ball becoming obliterated to sight by the lights, and followed it as it was caught by Johnson on the 5-yard line with at least 5 or 6 49er defenders in front of him and ahead of the goal line. Somehow, impossibly Johnson made it into the endzone for the Falcon victory.
There was not a dry eye in Atlanta that night, either due to elation or misery.
A Bartkowski moment and one of the greatest ever in NFL history. See it here: https://www.atlantafalcons.com/video/nfl-100-greatest-no-87-bartkowski-s-hail-mary-stuns-the-49ers
Bart along with guys like Bradshaw and Fouts wouldn't have made it in the current NFL as they rush guys out too soon and give up on them too soon.
I grew up a Steelers and Dolphins fan, who quietly also admired Bum Phillip's Oilers.
So I was a kid football fan, but before the days of cable and ESPN, Bartkowski was one of those players I just never appreciated.
Now, I can see he had a tremendous arm like boyhood hero Dan Pastorini, and similarly got pounded behind an unfinished offensive line.
I'm glad Steve is finally getting respect.
Like Plunkett, Manning and Pastorini, he had to work so much harder because of the team around him.
Same for Bradshaw until his Steelers team came together quickly in 1972.