When Vinny Dorsey walked away from the NFL’s lectern in Kansas City, Mo., on Saturday evening, he thought he was in trouble. When he got backstage, he was surprised to find he was a star.
Dorsey, a 46-year-old 911 dispatcher from Asheville, N.C., announced the Falcons’ selection of Alabama safety DeMarcco Hellams with pick No. 244 during last weekend’s NFL Draft. It was right after he made that announcement that he became famous.
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“I had no intentions for that ending,” Dorsey said. “I told myself I was just going to raise my belt, say ‘Rise Up,’ and go. That was my intention. Right when I got finished, I heard off to my right ‘28-3.’”
Dorsey has been a Falcons fan since 1990, a season ticket holder since 2011 and a full-blown superfan since 2017. The belt he mentioned is a wrestling-style championship belt that was draped over his shoulder. It read “ATL” in bright red letters. He has several. And he’s heard “28-3” just about enough since the Falcons blew that lead against Tom Brady and the Patriots in Super Bowl LI.
“We go to so many away games and even home games, we hear it all the time. It’s just ‘28-3’ all the time,” he said. “You kind of get numb to it, but then every once in a while you get aggravated. That’s usually my comeback, just something simple and keep walking. It just kind of clicked. I kind of forgot where I was. I was just thinking, ‘Oh, man, I shouldn’t have said that, the Falcons are going to be pissed.’”
Nope. Two hours later, Dorsey’s response — “Good one, we’ve heard that before” — was posted on the team’s Twitter page below the word “Icon.”
Icon#NFLDraft: NFLN, ABC & ESPN pic.twitter.com/4zuDzhTLGV
— Atlanta Falcons (@AtlantaFalcons) April 29, 2023
Dorsey seemed so at ease in his moment that it stands to reason he had plenty of time to prepare for his national television debut. Actually, when he traveled to Kansas City for the draft, he had no idea he would be announcing Atlanta’s pick.
The bright red suit covered in Falcons logos and the championship belt? Those were in the suitcase already.
“Yeah, that’s just me,” he said.
The red suit is Dorsey’s regular away-game attire “because it’s easy to pack,” he said. For home games, he attends under the name “DeFalconator” and wears a gladiator-style costume, spiked shoulder pads or, for the Christmas game, a full Grinch costume.
“For the kids,” he said.
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Dorsey traveled to the draft with friends thinking his only moment on camera might come from getting into the orchestra pit seating up front reserved for team superfans. Access is controlled by a representative for each team, and it was the Falcons rep on site who asked Dorsey if he wanted to announce the pick. That was Friday night after he had been told that the up-front seating was full. He said, “OK, thanks,” exchanged numbers with the representative and went to find another seat.
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“She texted me a couple minutes later and asked, ‘Would you be interested in making a pick Saturday?’ There may have been a cancellation or something. Not quite sure what the background story was,” he said. “I didn’t ask anybody ‘What time are we leaving? What are the plans?’ It was an immediate, ABSOLUTELY, all caps.”
Dorsey texted his wife, Susannah, and told his friends on site that he would be making the pick but didn’t tell anyone else. Then he woke up Saturday morning and his voice was gone. He drank water all day trying to calm his throat, but it didn’t work.
“Every time I thought it was good, I would be talking to people and it would go up and down, up and down,” Dorsey said. “I was like, ‘Oh, man, this is my moment.’ When I went out on stage I figured the best way was just to address the voice. I said, ‘If your voice isn’t sounding like mine, you’re not doing the draft right.’ That got everybody to yell and cheer and scream, and I think that’s what got Rich Eisen’s attention.”
Actually, what got Eisen’s attention was Dorsey’s suit, Eisen said on his radio show Monday. The NFL Network host asked the cameras to put Dorsey on the main screen just in time to catch his quip. All four hosts immediately cackled and spent the next minute of air time trying to collect themselves.
“Best moment of the draft,” Eisen said Monday on his show.
Shoutout to the @AtlantaFalcons superfan who made their Day 3 pick decked out in the team suit and championship belt but did he deserve to be trolled for 28-3??#NFL #NFLDraft #DirtyBirds pic.twitter.com/8oHM4Ekccl
— Rich Eisen Show (@RichEisenShow) May 1, 2023
Dorsey realized he hadn’t messed up when he got his phone back from NFL personnel shortly after getting backstage.
“It was blowing up,” he said. “I really didn’t know how far it was going to go until later that night.”
Susannah approved.
“She said I did great,” he said. “When I went, I had two rules. She said, ‘Don’t get arrested and don’t embarrass her.’”
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A member a Falcons fans group that Dorsey is a part of, The RISEUP TOUR, even designed a T-shirt with what is now Dorsey’s catchphrase. The group is selling the shirt on its website with the proceeds going toward treatment of the Dorseys’ 16-year-old son, Michael, who was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis in January.
All of this because a young Vinny Dorsey decided he was going to be a Falcons fan instead of a Commanders fan. When Dorsey moved to Asheville from New York at age 10 in 1986, he wasn’t a football fan. After taking up the sport in middle school, he looked for an NFL team to support. The Carolina Panthers were still 10 years from being born, so geography for a North Carolina kid suggested either Atlanta or Washington.
He went with the Falcons because they were “really flashy,” he said.
“Deion Sanders. Andre Rison. They were the young, hip team,” he said. “MC Hammer on the sideline. Evander Holyfield. I went with the pizzazz.”
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When he got a part-time job with Delta in Asheville, his fandom really picked up because he could fly for free and it was a 27-minute flight.
“I would go in the morning and I’d be home by 8,” he said. “I started really, really getting into it.”
That has come with ups and downs, none lower than Super Bowl LI, which of course someone mentioned at the draft.
“Yeah, (the Super Bowl) was definitely tough,” Dorsey said. “We just haven’t gotten it together since then completely, but you’ve got to stick with them, got to stay loyal.”
(Top photo: David Eulitt / Getty Images)
