Barbershopper Bill Schreiner is the Atlanta Falcons' secret weapon: the team is 20-5 when he sings the national anthem before games.
As the Atlanta Journal-Constituion reports:
He recalls that he became a season-ticket holder in 1966 when “a group of four or five guys that worked at Lockheed said, ‘The NFL is coming to Atlanta. Let’s get tickets.’” He still has two mezzanine-level corner season tickets, attends all of the games with his son and has signed up for seats in Mercedes-Benz Stadium, the Falcons’ new home slated to open in 2017.“I’ve seen some pretty bad football, but we’re still fans,” Schreiner said. Through the decades, he has performed the national anthem at 25 Falcons games — solo four times and in groups the other times — and has enjoyed keeping track of the team’s improbably good record in those games.His first sang at a December 1969 game, which he recalls being dubbed the “Mud Bath” for the weather conditions, that the Falcons won 10-3 over the Vikings. He was paged from the stands to sing before a 1977 victory over the Saints when the scheduled anthem singer didn’t show up. He sang at last year’s game against Arizona, another win, but doesn’t know if he’ll be called upon this season. via Falcons, like Braves, plan celebration of 50th season | www.myajc.com.