This 18-Year-Old Falcons Fan Watching the Matt Ryan Tribute Video Will Bring a Tear to Your Eye

Damn, am I crying right now?

It is pretty crazy to think that for anybody younger than 21 or 22 years old, Matt Ryan is the only quarterback they ever remember playing for the Falcons. I'm just old enough to remember Michael Vick and the abomination that was the 2007 season of Joey Harrington and Chris Redman, but Ryan is obviously the guy I've seen for pretty much my entire life, too.

Everything happened so quickly earlier this week that I don't think I really had time to be sad, but obviously it's weird seeing someone who has been somewhere as long as Ryan has get shipped off and then that's that. For all the fanfare Freddie Freeman received when he left the Braves for Los Angeles, Ryan had been the Falcons' starter for three years when Freddie played his first full season in the big leagues. He's all an entire generation of Falcons fans have ever known.

Record-setting, MVP quarterbacks who are equally good leaders and people as they are players don't come around very often. It was a pleasure to have watched Ryan play in Atlanta for 14 seasons. I just wish we'd have found a way to get him a ring.

If you're a younger Falcons fan scared of what a franchise which has failed tremendously at every turn will look like without its leader of the past decade and a half, I wish I could give you some good news. But you probably should be.

Let's all be sad together.