The official adult-sized Atlanta Falcons jerseys, the ones that sell for $100 apiece, have been sold out for several days now at the Sports Stop apparel store in Hamilton Place mall. The kids jerseys that go for a bargain-basement $70 all similarly have found permanent homes.
"It's been crazy," store manager Christian Parker said Tuesday afternoon. "A couple of weeks ago we had 15 to 20 in both groups. Now we've got none. We're trying to find some more at our other stores before the weekend, but we can't promise anything."
Welcome to Falcons Fever. Whether it's spirit flags flying from car windows, or men, women and children wearing all matter of Falcons garb and gear wherever you go, or a group of fans in one of Atlanta's MARTA stations shouting over and over in unison, "Rise Up! Rise Up!" Falcons fans appear more than ready to face New England in Super Bowl LI when it kicks off around 6:30 Sunday evening on Fox TV.
Nor do these fans appear to fear the Patriots' Brilliant B's - coach Bill Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady - the way most teams do this time of year.
"The majority of Falcons fans calling our show have sounded pretty confident," SportTalk 102.3 WGOW-FM co-host Scott "Quake" McMahen said Tuesday night. "I think it's because of their potential for an offensive explosion. Nobody's really stopped them all year."
Over at "Press Row" on ESPN Radio 105.1 FM, our newspaper's David Paschall has seen a slightly less confident Falcons fan base overall, "but we've got one guy who thinks the Falcons are going to wear them out. There are a lot of cautious Falcons fans, too, though."
You can understand such trepidation. Brady and Belichick have won four of their previous six Super Bowls. And the soap opera surrounding Deflategate and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell possibly being forced to hand the Vince Lombardi Trophy to the Patriots has only heightened the belief that there's no way the Brilliant B's let this one get away.
But there's also a sense that this isn't so much a great Patriots team as a supremely inspired one, and that motivated though they are, they haven't seen any offense the likes of the Falcons within the AFC all season. Beyond that, this is also a superbly focused Atlanta squad.
Or as Julio Jones said earlier this week, "There aren't any distractions for me. I'm here to work."
It can all change in an instant, chemistry turned to chaos, and it's certainly happened before to the Falcons. Or don't you remember their first Super Bowl appearance at the close of the 1998 season, and defensive back Eugene Robinson getting arrested for soliciting a prostitute the night before the game, which the Falcons ultimately lost to Denver when Robinson got beaten on a long pass for one score and missed a tackle that set up another score?
To add insult to injury, earlier that Saturday Robinson had received the Athletes in Action/Bart Starr Award, which is given annually to a player who best exemplifies outstanding character and leadership in the home, on the field and in the community. At least Robinson voluntarily returned the award after the arrest.
But just like that, a focused Falcons team became a fractured one that's taken 18 years to repair well enough to return to the Super Bowl.
To briefly visit with radio hosts Paschall or McMahen is to sense that the enthusiasm for that return seems somewhat muted, or at least uncertain, as if Falcons Nation is waiting for the next Eugene Robinson moment to surface.
And in a sense, if only for 20 minutes or so, it already has. As he wrapped up his media obligations Monday night, Falcons offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan - who will become the new San Francisco 49ers coach a day or two after the Super Bowl ends - realized he'd lost his backpack, which also contained the team's offensive game plan for the Patriots.
Thankfully, it had fallen into the hands of Art Spander, the legendary sports columnist for the San Francisco Examiner who is covering his 40th Super Bowl. Spander had mistaken his backpack for Shanahan's and quickly returned it when he realized his mistake. But just imagine the paranoia if it hadn't been returned or if a Boston-area reporter had stumbled on it.
Ah, Backpack-gate. Glad we won't come to know you.
And without that, what could turn out to be the most memorable season in Falcons history continues to roll along, with or without those $100 jerseys at Sports Stop. Parker says Sports Stop still has plenty of $30 Falcons Super Bowl T-shirts, though they're also "flying off the racks."
Two of those flew into the shopping bag of Charlene Rowenhorst of Rocky Face, Ga., on Tuesday.
"I've lived in Georgia my whole life," she said. "I'm usually in here to buy Georgia (Bulldogs) stuff, but with the Falcons in the Super Bowl and my husband and I going to a Super Bowl party I decided I needed a Falcons T-shirt, too."
So is her husband Steve as excited as she is?
"No, he's a Green Bay fan," she said of the team the Falcons beat to reach the big game. "But on Sunday he's going to wear a Falcons shirt."
The guess from here is he'll have plenty of company in this neck of the woods.
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.