My 7-year-old son has been wearing his Matt Ryan Falcons jersey since the day he got it for Christmas. Every single day.

He puts in on as soon as he walks in the door from school, and with school being out the past five days because of Atlanta’s ice storm, he’s practically lived in it. When I threw it in the wash yesterday afternoon, he followed me around asking every 10 minutes, “Is it washed yet? Is it dried yet?”

So, it was a bitter pill to swallow watching our sports heroes, the Atlanta Falcons, lose 48-21 last night to the Green Bay Packers in the Super Bowl playoffs. We came so close, yet lost out due to a couple of intercepted passes. Quarterback Matt Ryan had a bad night, while Green Bay’s quarterback Aaron Rodgers was on fire.

Oh well. Like many fans, we didn’t stick around to watch the end of the game. It didn’t start until 8:15 pm, and by 10:30 we had lights out around our house.

Still, we’re proud of the Falcons’ great winning season. Last night, I picked up a football themed cake at Wal-Mart, asking the bakery girl to write “GO FALCONS” in red and black icing. We held our own little pre-game party here, and today we’ll enjoy the sweet leftovers.

My son will keep tossing his Falcons football all over the house, but with the ice finally melting, he’ll be back outside, scoring touchdowns in our front yard, dreaming he’s in the Georgia Dome.

And Matt Ryan, wherever you are: we’re still proud to wear your #2 jersey. You gave us all a great ride.

See ya next year.