ANDERSON, Ind. (AP) - A nine-hour drive isn’t that far to go to see a game when you’re an avid NFL fan.
But to have season tickets and make that trip routinely has been quite a commitment for Anderson resident David Sink.
He’s a fan of the Super Bowl-bound Atlanta Falcons.
“I used to go to seven or eight games a year and some of the road games when the Falcons were playing close to Indiana,” he said. “I made it to a couple of games this year, including the playoff game against Seattle.”
The Falcons will square off this Sunday against the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LI. The 6:30 p.m. game will be in Houston, Texas.
Many fans of the Indianapolis Colts have jumped on the bandwagon to support the Falcons in the Super Bowl - mostly due to their dislike for the Patriots. But Sink was a fan of the team from Georgia long before that.
Sink, 44, has been a Falcons fan since 1990 and a season ticket holder since 1995.
“I’m positive that I’m the only Falcons fan in Madison County,” Sink said with a smile. “I went to Squeeze Play and they were loaded down with merchandise for the Patriots, Steelers and Packers before the championship games. They had one Falcons travel cup.”
Sink is now in Houston for pre-Super Bowl activities but will probably watch the game in Atlanta or Anderson with friends.
He became a fan of the Falcons when the Colts traded offensive tackle Chris Hinton and wide receiver Andre Rison for the rights to sign quarterback Jeff George.
“At the time, the Falcons were the only team using the run-and-shoot offense,” Sink said.
His interest in the Falcons started to peak in 1991 when he went to a sprint car race at Lanier Speedway in Georgia and the team was training in the area.
Sink purchased a single season ticket in 1995 and has been buying one ever since, eventually getting a seat in the front row of an end zone.
“I was sitting next to a couple and they asked where I was from,” he recalled. “When I told them from Indiana it turned out that Janis Day was from Anderson.”
Sink said Janis and Doug Day buy the season tickets that he doesn’t use for the games in Atlanta. Sink now uses free weekends to visit his mother in Utah.
Before the NFL games were routinely broadcast, Sink would go to a friend’s house with a satellite dish to watch Falcons games.
“It’s one thing to be a fan, buying a season ticket takes it to another level,” Sink said.
Sink said he always wears Falcons gear but that most people didn’t realize it until the past week.
“There is an Indiana connection,” he said of the Falcons team.
Former Colts defensive end Dwight Freeney is a member of the Falcons, along with Indiana University running back Trevin Coleman and Purdue University safety Ricardo Allen.
It’s not a surprise that Sink expects the Falcons to defeat the Patriots, despite being three-point underdogs.
“They scored more than 40 points in the playoff games,” he noted.
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Source: The (Anderson) Herald-Bulletin, https://bit.ly/2jWsABg
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Information from: The Herald Bulletin, https://www.theheraldbulletin.com
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