PORT NECHES — Atlanta holds a special place in Stephanie Roberts’ heart.

The city, not the Falcons.

“I had asked [my son] Elandon, are we going back to Atlanta?” she said. “Because I want to go back to Atlanta. He said, ‘OK, Mama, we’re going back to Atlanta.’”

Atlanta is where Elandon Roberts played his final collegiate game three winters ago. Elandon helped coach Tom Herman’s University of Houston Cougars beat Jimbo Fisher’s Florida State Seminoles 38-24.

“We drove up there, then, and enjoyed the drive,” said Eli Roberts, Stephanie’s husband and Elandon’s father.

That’s how he decided to drive back to Atlanta for Super Bowl 53 — Elandon’s third straight world championship game.

“Plus, we want to avoid some delays in the airport because of the government shutdown and stuff,” Eli said. “We don’t want to run into any of that and have problems when we get over there to try to rent a vehicle to get around in.”

The replica of the Vince Lombardi Trophy that sits in the Roberts’ Port Neches home is a daily reminder of the success their son, one of four children, has replicated in each of his NFL seasons with the New England Patriots. The trophy represents the Patriots’ stunning comeback from 28-3 down to beat the Atlanta Falcons two years ago at Houston’s NRG Stadium.

The next year, the Roberts clan flew to Minneapolis for Super Bowl 52, and the Philadelphia Eagles dethroned the Patriots.

Still, the family is getting used to getting inside the most popular single-day sporting event in America.

REDEMPTION AHEAD?

Philadelphia’s 41-33 win last February shocked New England and its faithful. The Patriots, Eli said, felt they were better than the team that made its first Super Bowl since the 2004 season but didn’t play their best game.

“From that point, Elandon came in and did a lot of work to try to get better,” Eli said. “I think it was like that with the whole team. They bonded and got together and said, ‘We’re going to go back.’”

If it meant enduring overtime to win a championship, just as the Patriots did over the Falcons, they were well versed.

New England went 75 yards in 13 plays in the only overtime possession Sunday against the Kansas City Chiefs. Rex Burkhead carried the last three plays, punching in the winning score from 2 yards out in a play that emanated memories of James White’s touchdown run over the Falcons.

The Roberts family was not at Kansas City’s Arrowhead Stadium. The temperature reached 24 degrees with a low of 11.

“When I was in Foxborough [the Massachusetts town where the Patriots’ Gillette Stadium stands], when we played the [Los Angeles] Chargers, we were inside the clubhouse,” Eli said. “Going to Kansas City, I was going to have to stay outside in the stadium. It was just too cold. Elandon told me after the game, ‘Dad, that’s the coldest game I ever played in.’”

Elandon Roberts, a middle linebacker, had three tackles while having to read Kansas City quarterback Patrick Mahomes, himself an East Texan, throughout the game. It’s a duty Roberts has embraced well in his career, eyeing the likes of Phillip Rivers, Nick Foles and Deshaun Watson.

The past two games have been Eli’s favorite moments of the season. He’s seen a team deal with so many injuries at key positions return to football’s biggest game, turning the accomplishment into an annual ritual each of the past three seasons. (The Patriots will make their 11th Super Bowl visit and fourth since the 2014 season.)

“They got the [wild card] bye and they got healthy,” Eli said. “These two playoff games, they played like the Patriots play. They played good offense and good offense.”

GETTING PEACHY

Atlanta, just 10 hours or so from Port Arthur, is reachable by vehicle. It’s a jaunt down a stretch of Interstate 10 through Louisiana and Mississippi and into Mobile, Alabama, where the path will take the Roberts through Montgomery and into “The Big Peach”. The Roberts group will make the trip next Thursday to join Elandon, his teammates and their families for team-planned activities.

“I like the scenery and the restaurants,” Stephanie said of Atlanta. “It’s a lot to do. It’s full of excitement.”

More importantly, she and her family will see Elandon each day leading to the game.

“It’s not like the player will be hidden away until after the Super Bowl,” Eli said.

Elondria Roberts, one of Elandon’s two sisters, was hoping New Orleans Saints fans would follow the path northeast. Instead, Port Neches-Groves graduate Wade Phillips will lead the Los Angeles Rams’ defense into a place where he was interim head coach 15 seasons earlier.

“Louisiana would have been all in Atlanta,” Elondria said, her 14-month-old daughter Kyleigh Williams momentarily talking over her.

Said Stephanie: “It would have been exciting to see the Saints play. It really would.”

The venue isn’t the same as the December 2015 Peach Bowl. The Georgia Dome, which hosted the Dallas Cowboys’ Super Bowl victory in January 1994 and the Rams’ only SB title in January 2000 (when the team was based in St. Louis), was demolished in November 2017 in favor of the Mercedes-Benz Stadium, not to be confused with the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans.

It’s reported Saints fans are smarting from Sunday’s controversial NFC championship loss to the Rams so much that New Orleans bars will show the Saints’ February 2010 Super Bowl win over the Indianapolis Colts instead of the one that’ll unfold live from Atlanta on Feb. 3.

It’s one hot ticket the Roberts family won’t trade, now that Elandon has made good on the prediction he gave his mother.

“It’s all we expect,” Eli said. “It’s like, OK, we’re going back. It blows your mind. You’ve got some guys who go their whole career and not even come close. [Elandon is] just starting his. He’s still in his [four-year] rookie contract. It’s been three years.”

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I.C. Murrell: 721-2435. Twitter: @ICMurrellPANews