There are moments in everyone's life when they are so overcome with emotion and feeling that the only reaction is a scream, a yell, an exclamation that unleashes those feelings that have nowhere to go but out.
Atlanta Falcons fans know this feeling well. All season they've found themselves on their feet, pleading their Falcons to come through in the clutch. The majority of the time, their calls were answered as they witnessed the Falcons playing their way to a 7-1 record at home in the Georgia Dome this season.
That passion, that desire to be as loud as possible, is the genesis of Project 115.
On Saturday against the Green Bay Packers, the Falcons are asking their fans to raise their voices in unison, greater than ever to reach new decibel highs inside the Dome as their team rises to new heights, as well.
This season's peak noise level measured 111.4 decibels during the Week 10 victory over the Baltimore Ravens. The average level inside the Dome this season was 101.1. The highest level recorded in the Dome in the past three years since the organization began tracking decibels was a 117.9 mark at the end of the comeback win in the final seconds over the Chicago Bears in 2008.
Project 115 is about getting the fans to eclipse the 115 decibel mark for just the second time in three years. It's about a collective voice from the sidelines to the rafters that spells victory for the Falcons. It's about making this game the loudest in franchise history.
It's about a home-field advantage that is unstoppable.
In the same way, the Falcons players feed off the noise of the fans and the fans feed off the exhilaration of a moment whose volume has never been experienced, the opposite reaction can occur for the opposition.
The intensity of such moments can create feelings similar to that of hypertension. Feelings of exhaustion and short-term memory loss, fear and panic.
That is the role the fans play in the game and that is what Project 115 is about.
The efforts of the fans are not lost on the players on the field. After a season of noise that propelled them to new heights, many of the Falcons chose to acknowledge the fans in their post-game comments following the Week 17 victory that gave them their thirteenth win and the NFC's No. 1 seed.
"We have great support," quarterback Matt Ryan said. "Our fans have been unbelievable, specifically this year. They have been loud and they have been into it. They have been passionate and that helps, it really does. Our team feels that."
Each week, fans of the Falcons pound the pavement of social media channels like Facebook and Twitter, encouraging their fellow fans to come to the Dome and make noise that is unforgettable.
On Saturday, the Falcons are asking their fans personally, to come and be loud in legendary ways. Breaking the 115 barrier will mean producing a sustained wall of sound that rivals jets and thunder, a sound louder than many will have the opportunity to experience.
It could also mean helping in a win that few will ever forget.
