The tornado that ripped the fabric of the Georgia Dome last month provided the perfect symbolic conclusion to a horrible 12 months for the stadium’s main tenant, the Atlanta Falcons.
The Falcons, who reached the playoffs twice from 2002 to 2004, crashed to 4-12 last year in the wake of a dogfighting scandal that resulted in a 23-month prison sentence for franchise quarterback Michael Vick. Coach Bobby Petrino didn’t even stick out the season, leaving for Arkansas in December after 11 months on the job.
Arthur Blank, who bought the Falcons in December 2001, responded to the debacle by relieving general manager Rich McKay of his football duties and replacing him with the New England Patriots’ college scouting director, Thomas Dimitroff. Blank replaced interim coach Emmitt Thomas with Jacksonville Jaguars defensive coordinator Mike Smith, a rookie coach.
Atlanta released veterans like Alge Crumpler and Warrick Dunn and traded malcontent cornerback DeAngelo Hall, counting on low-budget free agents (other than running back Michael Turner) and 11 draft picks (six in the first three rounds) to begin the renaissance.
“The past is the past,” Blank said in an exclusive interview with The Washington Times during this week’s NFL meetings in Palm Beach, Fla. “The beauty of the NFL is that you can rebound in fairly short order. The team’s going to be very competitive this year. We have a lot of talent from our draft last year when we had 11 picks, and we maintained a lot of talent from prior years. It just takes a while for a coaching staff to get completely in sync with the players and the players with them. You have to be patient.”
The Falcons, founded in 1966, have never had consecutive winning seasons. Blank, who’s on his fifth coach in six years, considers patience a virtue he needs to develop.
“To win in this league, the formula is not very difficult,” Blank said. “You have to have continuity with your coaching staff and your [front office]. You have to draft wisely and extend your players’ [contracts] early. Virtually all the teams that are winning continuously are following the same formula. It’s a formula that we need to follow.”
The Falcons captured Atlanta’s heart briefly during the Dirty Birds’ surprising 1998 NFC title run and became a hot ticket again during Vick’s ascendency. Now it will be tough to win back the fans even though the city isn’t exactly chock full of winners.
“Last year was very difficult for our fans,” Blank said. “To have us produce not only the record on the field but [with] the off-field issues, not only with Michael but with our head coach, was very difficult. We have to earn their trust again. We will. Everybody in the organization has to sell the Falcons.”
Dimitroff believes history can be repeated.
“People have [said] this is a daunting task,” he said. “That’s not the case. There will be challenges but not something overwhelming. If we make sound decisions and are not emotionally driven, we can [be] a very competitive team. [We need] Mike Smith to get the team to believe in themselves again. We want to bring in the right type of people. Ultimately, it’s the product you put on the field. If we win games, [the fan support] will take care of itself.”
That might be true, but contrary to Blank’s hopes, it usually takes a Kurt Warner or a Tom Brady to develop into a star quarterback for a team to rise from the ashes.
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