... Some teammates believe it was a wild turkey, but regardless, they all gathered around Barton's locker and engaged in fits of laughter. The dead animal was ... the wow factor," said left guard Alan Faneca, whose locker is next to Barton's. "I've never had a dead animal brought into ... pulling such a prank to provide a little levity in the Atlanta Falcons locker room? I suppose not, as his actions had wow ...

... through. "We were driving to eat," McClure said a few days later, sitting at his locker after practice, "and I told my wife, 'I still don't believe we won that game.' It hasn't set in yet." Of course, the Falcons' turnaround goes beyond three people. Michael Turner signed as a free agent after spending four years backing up LaDainian ...

... thought it was going to take considerably longer for this team to gel because they were getting to know each other," Falcons first-year general manager Thomas Dimitroff ... LaDainian Tomlinson's former understudy made an immediate impact in his Falcons debut, pounding the Detroit Lions for 220 ... Smith tries to keep his finger on the locker room's pulse by meeting semi-regularly with the 11 Falcons players ...

... -a-score (stay with me now...) came with under 2 minutes left in the half. On third-and-four from about the Falcons 20, Rodgers was sacked, setting up a 43-yard field goal ... about before kickoff.Coach McCarthy will have some choice words to say to his players in the locker room during halftime. Whether that will be enough to turn this game around or not, we'll have to see.The Packers will receive the ...

... :#0400;} The Panthers logged a solid victory over the Falcons for their 100th franchise victory on Sunday. The game ... Smith getting their first TD's of the season as the Panthers shut down the Falcons NFL leading rushing attack. Panther ... half Sunday as "a little sprained ankle."  "It's getting better," he said in the locker room after the game. "I'll just ice it and get it ready for next Sunday ...

... in our language. As long as you trust your visual acuity, you should believe most everything you see. And everyone in the Bears' locker room saw how their 22-20 loss to the Atlanta Falcons went down. I saw it, too. But in this case, it really is hard to believe how much happened in the game's final 11 seconds to make that defeat a reality. "It ...