The Front Row with MARK NELKE Jan. 20, 2013

There was a time when us fans of the San Francisco 49ers hated the Atlanta Falcons.

With good reason.

From 1970-2001, the Falcons were also in the NFC West, which made sense only in the sense that SOMEBODY ELSE besides the Rams and the 49ers had to be in the NFC West in those days.

In addition, the Falcons have handed the 49ers some of their more excruiating losses over the years.

I REMEMBER a Sunday night game in the 1970s - this was during our Stretch of Ineptitude, the five or so years after John Brodie and before Bill Walsh and Joe Montana - when Atlanta came out to Candlestick Park and beat us like 10-0. I don't think their defense let us cross midfield that night, and we probably still wouldn't have crossed midfield had we still been playing today.

Then there was the Hail Mary touchdown to Billy "White Shoes" Johnson that really wasn't. That was in 1983, at the old Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium, and gave the Falcons a 28-24 victory.

The long pass was batted around and wound up in his hands at the 5-yard line. He curled around some defenders, started to get tackled around the 2, but reached the ball out of the goal line as he landed. Replays these days would have probably marked him short, but it wouldn't have made for as good a story. Plus, I'm guessing the officials were more interested in getting to The Varsity for dinner than sending the Falcon fans home angry.

And, before I read Sports Illustrated last week, I'd forgotten about Hail Mary from Billy Joe Tolliver to Michael Haynes that beat us in 1991 in Atlanta. That was their last season at their old outdoor stadium/house of horrors for the 49ers. They've played in the Georgia Dome since 1992.

Remember Renaldo Nehemiah? He was the Olympic hurdler that the 49ers thought they could turn into a receiver in the early 1980s.

He showed some promise, until he got clobbered while running a slant pattern in — you guessed it — Atlanta by Kenny Johnson in 1983. The same game as the “White Shoes” travesty. That hit signalled the beginning of the end of Nehemiah’s brief football career.

We did exact some revenge in Atlanta in 1990, when Montana threw six touchdown passes — five to The Great Jerry Rice — in a 45-35 victory.

These days, the rivalry has gotten a bit more tame, mostly because the teams don’t face each other that often.

They’ve only met once in the playoffs, and that was in January 1999 — the week after Steve Young hit Terrell Owens for a touchdown in the final seconds to beat the Packers. The Falcons were real good that year — they would go on to their only Super Bowl appearance. But, even though the 49ers lost running back Garrison Hearst to a broken ankle on the game’s first play, they hung in and made it a game before losing 20-18.

AS FOR today?

You would think the Falcons would be favored, playing at home as the No. 1 seed in the NFC, but they’re not.

But everybody’s on the 49ers bandwagon these days, after Colin Kaepernick’s monster game vs. the Packers last week.

Problem is, that kind of game seldom happens two weeks in a row. Plus, Kaep is on the cover of Sports Illustrated this week.

After the 49ers won last week, I was asked, do you want to stay at home and play Seattle in the NFC title game, or travel to Atlanta?

I remembered the old saying — “be careful what you wish for” — and decided to just let it play out.

On the one hand, you’re home, but playing perhaps the hottest team in the league. On the other hand, you have to hit the road and deal with what all that entails.

Atlanta finally got the playoff monkey off its back in the “Matty Ice” era. Had the Falcons failed again, they might have gotten that retractible roof stadium they are looking for, because upset Atlanta fans might have dismantled the Georgia Dome and taken it home with them, piece by piece.

After the Seahawks were unable to finish off the Falcons, one of the Seattle radio mouths tried to put a positive spin on the loss, spewing that the 49ers “wanted no part of” the Seahawks anyway.

After hearing that nonsense, maybe a visit from the Seahawks today would have been just fine as well.

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached by phone at 664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via email at mnelke@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter at CdAPressSports.