FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. — When Arthur Smith opened Atlanta Falcons training camp sporting a mustache of Ned Flanders-level lushness, he said, “It’s a lifestyle change. It’s not for everybody.”

He may turn out to be wrong. It seems like everyone in Atlanta’s camp is growing one now, as the newly optimistic Falcons are feeling themselves a little bit through the first two weeks of practice and many are feeling a little fur on their upper lip as a symbol of that swagger.

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“The mustache sent a message,” wide receiver Frank Darby said. “You look around and see everybody getting it now and think, ‘Should I?’”

Defensive coordinator Ryan Nielsen shaved the full beard he had this offseason, leaving just a mustache. Assistant general manager Kyle Smith is usually clean-shaven but was spotted this week with a mustache. Even left guard Chris Lindstrom, whose baby face belies a game that earned him a $100 million contract this offseason, gave it a shot.

“I’ve had this for like a week and a half, and it took a week and a half for anyone to notice,” Lindstrom said. “Nowhere near as good as those guys.”

The mustache has been featured on two segments of NFL Network’s “Good Morning Football,” and co-host Kyle Brandt has said he won’t shave his upper lip until the Falcons lose this season.

“If they are the story of the season and start 10-0, I’ll have a 10-week mustache,” Brandt said. “I will not shave it until they lose. Arthur Smith, I respect what you’re doing. You’re an original. If he starts the season with it, so will I.”

While we admire 12 of the best mustaches across the league's history, @KyleBrandt makes a follicular pledge 👨@AtlantaFalcons as long as you're winning, KB will be sporting the stache

— Good Morning Football (@gmfb) August 3, 2023

It sparked a thread on the Falcons Reddit community page that included one poster saying, “It’s a look that challenges people. It says, ‘I look like this, and I don’t even care.’ Good for him, man.”

The lone dissenting voice on the mustache so far has been wide receiver Drake London.

“Shhh, you don’t want to ask me that,” London said.

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Right tackle Kaleb McGary fell into the neutral category.

“I think the ’80s are alive and well,” McGary said.

McGary has long sported a wispy mustache/goatee/beard combo but said his mustache can’t go toe-to-toe with the coach’s.

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“I obviously don’t have exceptional facial hair,” McGary said. “My mustache is OK at best. I have a pretty solid goatee and some pretty fugly sideburns.”

When questioners defended McGary’s look, he said, “I have a mirror. It’s OK.”

Everyone else is all the way on board with Smith.

“I can’t say what I want to say, but I f—ing love it,” running back Cordarrelle Patterson said. “I hope he brings that every year.”

“Smooth, crisp I would say,” running back Tyler Allgeier said.

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Smith hinted the mustache was coming in June when he made a USO trip to Europe with Nielsen, kicker Younghoe Koo, tight end Feleipe Franks and outside linebacker Lorenzo Carter, Koo said.

“He asked me to grow one out, but I couldn’t,” Koo said. “I think it looks good, jealous of it a little bit.”

Nielsen still had his full beard on that trip.

“The beard had its time,” Nielsen said when he opened training camp in the mustache club. “It’s time for the ’stache.”

Linebacker Troy Andersen, a Montana native who grew up on a cattle farm, added his own local flavor with a horseshoe-style mustache that extends from lip to chin.

Smith was noncommittal when asked how long he would keep the mustachioed look. For now, though, it seems to have served its purpose — giving the team something silly to bond over through the doldrums of training camp. There’s no question through the first two weeks of practice that the Falcons are having a good time. Smith said Wednesday it’s the most fun he’s had coaching.

“It’s the people,” he said. “It’s everybody around the building. That’s what you feel. If you want to be really blunt, going into Year 3, it feels like a real team in Flowery Branch in every single department. Everybody is going the same direction.”

Smith set that tone from his first team meeting on July 25, Darby said.

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“The way Coach Art came in with the mustache, it was just different,” Darby said. “My first year, he was just teaching me logistics. Then my second year he was telling me about development. Then my third year he walked in like, ‘We’re going to Vegas.’ I’m just like, ‘We ready. Let’s go.’ The energy is just different.”

Super Bowl LVIII is in Las Vegas on Feb. 11, 2024.

 (Photo: Alex Slitz / Associated Press)

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