Are we starting yet.
Sure?
Yeah, Oh, I'm sorry, my bat, but we got a bunch of young guys that are fired up running around you know. Today obviously had to get modified a little bit going indoors.
But I am excited. I'm really excited. Man.
A young team, a young, fun team, young coaches, a bunch of guys.
Just you gotta get that staff. Oh.
You know, putting that staff together was a lot of fun, you know. I we delayed the press conference a little bit and I was out in LA and I was able to do that and get that done before my opening press conference. But that was really beneficial for all of us, getting the time together working with Terry. So by the time I talked to the masses coming back here in Atlanta, I had already established this really cool relationship with Terry.
I had already established who was going to.
Be coaching where, who's gonna be doing what, Getting back Jimmy Lake, having a chance to get Zach with Zack Robinson and get that secured, and do some interviews with some guys on Zoom, some of the guys that would hear some of the guys I was able to keep, you know, it was.
It was a good. It was helping you to keep.
These guys like in like in your phone or something on a staff you want to.
Hire rolodex when you kind of just hold that you got business cards of theirs.
So you never you never like keep them as just like rollerdecks, you know.
Like what happens is when you get the opportunities to interview for some of these jobs, you keep that list, and as you work with people over the years, you start to add people to that list and also take people off, you know, like and most of the time you add those guys, it's this this great wishless and the opportunity to get them, and then you got to try to fit those guys into the best scenario where you're going or wherever you're going, you know, like and
I was lucky enough to be able to bring a few people from LA being able to communicate that with Lesson Sean, I thought was great. Being able to communicate that with all the guys Steve and you met my chief of staff today, Steve Scarneki, and me to communicate that with him, put those lists, give off with my agent, Brian Levy, and really coming back here talking to all my Atlanta people and it was fun to bring people back.
Yeah, man, your back.
When you when you get the call and you're going to be the head coach of the Atlanta Falcons. Who was your first call to assemble this coaching staff of yours? Like most excited to call, Like, oh, I gotta like hey, we're going yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, you give.
Them, you give them.
Hey, remember that thing we talked about that bar, that time when we were hammered, So now now is the time.
You know. You know what's funny is.
It probably was Zach Robinson because they were all out playing golf, I believe, and he was so sought after, like people were all calling him and he had a couple of coordinator interviews and I'm like, bro, hold on, you know, I think this is gonna happen. And once I got the job, I kind of called him to let him know his wife was pregnant and I wanted to catch him before anything happened.
He gonna have a baby and me has a baby, And I'm.
Like, so I probably called him first, and I don't know if it was more of excitement or to put some ease in his mind. And then I was able to call a few other people and let them know. You know, Jimmy Lake was one of those people. And to get those guys ready to go so like that was that was a great time.
You know, who's someone that might have felt surprised or most excited thinking like, okay, they might be they might be in the wing waiting.
Uh, probably Lance Shelters, Probably Barrett Rude. Yeah, Barrett was in, Barrett was out.
I didn't know what I was going to be at a high Barrett ass right, because they had some really good coaches here and I had put some thoughts in it about potentially being able to keep a guy like Frank Bush. And you got to know how great Frank Bush is. He got a chance to go to Tennessee be one of his better friends. But and then I was able to make Barret Ruth the linebacker coach. So being able to get him to come in was another call that
was outstanding. And to be able to let him know, Hey, I want an interview to be my linebacker coach, and then a coach a coach, I said, And then he interviewed. And when Frank got the job or took the job, because I was waiting for him a couple of days, the excitement of calling Barret Rude was outstanding?
The best man?
Is he?
Here?
Is your favorite white linebacker you've ever coached?
It's hard to say, Man, I've got a plethorugh of him. Now. I got four guys here right now, or maybe three.
And a half. I don't know.
You know, but uh, coaching.
Year and a half when you said half would the half be on the all white team or the all black kid, you.
Know we're going to going ls. They'll let him make that decision.
The freedom of choose, freedom shoose. When so you're making all these exciting phone calls, you obviously make so many relationships as you're like coming up the ranks.
Hey, total on, I want to discredit Troy Reader. Man, I don't want to miss all my my white line. There'll be a bunch of people calling me after this. Be a little upset. I don't say that's sorry with your.
Question, No, no worries. I'm glad we got that out of the way. We just dodged a huge bullet. Yeah, if you're like making all these phone calls, you're excited about these phone calls, it's a huge opportunity. What about when those phone calls come in that you know, like hey man, this, hey brother, hey, are you gonna let me get a job? I'm I gonna be able to do this or that. Don't kind of have to navigate those situations.
So those are always tough, But I think you just kind of attack it with brutal honesty when you can, because you don't always know right away if you can make it work. And a lot of the people that you hope you can give jobs, so you can't always give it to them at those times. So like those are always tough, you just how to navigate it with brutal honesty. And it's never gonna go the right way. It's never gonna be a good time to tell somebody
you can't have them on your staff right now. But you know, I've been doing this long enough where it comes full circle and some of the people that you weren't able to hire right now you better get at another time or there'll be another placement or another situation for you to get them, because ultimately they fit your ethos. And all those guys that will call you with enough moxie to say that no, they fit your ethos and you have a chance to work with some of those guys.
There is a bunch of good coaches that I could have brought in, or if I had the opportunity of more people or more spots and things of that nature, or it was a better fit at that perfect world you can bring in. But those are always hard ones as well, because there's always a million people that you want to get the coach with you. I tried to get this guy to coach before he came to the Superstar. But now he's a big tam you want him to coach. I wanted him to, you know when when he was
when he was playing man, I looked at him. You always look at those guys on their plane and say, that guy's going to be a coach one day.
You know who knew he's gonna be the Superstar.
I still because he never know. I still talk about it. I'm like, you never know what. I just want to get the old itch. But everybody who does coach, you're like, hey, Colm, don't fucking do it. Keep your keep the gig you got going on.
You got a great gig you do and you got you got you gotta you gotta face. Now you're beautiful, brand new chicklets.
I mean you look good man. I'm proud of you.
I appreciate that you were mentioning ethos. What is yours or what do you look for.
When you know I eat those man, It's really about our falcon fit, our culture, and when we get those guys, the characterations of the guys that being teachers, being confidence. We talk about bringing those people into our building. That's the kind of coaches I want to have. I want guys that that are there for the total experience. You know, we buy good coaches, We've had bad coaches.
Don't say any names.
I don't want to hear your opinions, but I do think like it is a part of having re establishing relationship with you guys in order to get those guys give you max effort, Like you played harder for me because of our relationship on and off the fields, in the lunch room, walking through, the vibe, the energy, all the things that we created. I think was really specially
when we spent our time at Washington. You know, commanders and we were not commanders, but it was definitely in Washington we had a we had a good experience, a great experience in DC.
You come from a I mean that staff we were kind of Yeah, it feels like it's you know, you talk about like the Kiff fans, the you know, John Grude and the guys before your wave, and I do feel like Washington in those couple of years where you know, when Shannan was the head coach and there were the younger coaches and then even coach Jay grew when he
came in and had the younger coaches. Still like, it feels like those are that's been the foundation of all the branching out with all the new head coaches and everything.
Yeah, you know, it really hasn't.
And John Gruden doesn't get enough credit for some stuff they were ready to do, Like him and Mike Shanahan had the systems you know, well I shouldn't say started it, but John Grumen was running the West Coast offtin and having a lot of success, and he was in Oakland, and he had Mike Shanahan running his own scheme West Coast offense type of stuff, and everybody we were we were intertwined in this whole world of trying to learn
everybody's stuff. And I remember Kyle Shanahan it came to Tampa and when he got there as a young quality ConTroll coach coming from UCLA, I think at the time, and he taught us the Denver system, the zone scheme.
He taught us to keep her game, and he taught us I was things we taught him Tampa too, and he learned that from us and Mike Tomlin and myself sitting down in meeting rooms talking about it, and we would sit with legendary coaches like Richard Mayn and we would go into room and listened to him, coach Keishawn Johnson and some of those guys in the back of room,
Keeny McCargo. We're able to sit in the back and listen to those type of things with those people, and being around that type of coaching family and tree and the comfort of sharing information was different. And it went from Tampa to d C with the same type of same type of role, same type of thing.
And then he picked up Sean McVay, and he picked up.
The energy of Mike McDaniel's and the energy of all those guys, Chris Forster, and there were so many people willing to share, and there were so many people willing to steal it, you know, both offense and defense. Because I learned the Pittsburgh scheme from Jim Haslett. You know, let's not kid ourselves and going there and learn that system and being to put my spin on the back end and try to make us the best version of ourself. I thought was awesome and I thought it gave us
a routine and the rhythm. I bought that discipline of the Tampa two system to the Pittsburgh system with Jim Haslet had installed and been a part of along with Slowick. Right, we were with Slow It's daddy. Everybody knows the sun right now.
He was the I'll tell the boys all the time like he was the assistant linebacker coach at all Room. That was my rookie year when his dad was our position exactly our position coach. And he's coaching Kerrigan and a rack po on setting the edge two yards deep. And you know, it's not like a disrespect thing to him, but it wasn't like he's seen the way he is now.
Don't think we all look at this disrespect. I think everybody know the younger coaches, No, nobody wants to be called the quality control coach.
Right.
I was a proud quality control coach and Slok was too, and Slowik was the outside linebacker coach, quality control coach, and he was breaking it down and showed his ability to be smart and versatile. Back then, he started as a video guy right right, and then he rose up and he did that stuff with us, got fired a couple of years and ended up going back to offense.
So like he's had a lot of the similar experience that I had being on offense, being on defense, being on different parts of the organization, and you can't you can't miss those ops and you can't miss those opportunities to be great.
And that's what he's done. I think he's taking full advantage of it.
When do you look at that that coaching tree and how everybody's had so much success when back then looking at did you guys know, hey, we're the next generation? You know, it's truly insane. Or you look at that Redskins, that Redskins coaching staff. It's here, everybody's at now.
Till I said, I would say Mike Tomlin phrased it the best around us all. When we get a chance to get together, whether it's owners meetings, whether it's been the combine, whatevers been, we're all sitting in the same room, he goes he recognized the unapologetic swagger and unapologetic arrogance that we all had, you know when it came to football, and he loved it and he fell off it because he said he recognized from what we had in Tampa, and that was with a great staff with Joe Barry,
Mike Tomlin, Rod Mary Nelly, Minnie Kiffin, right myself, Joe Woods, and you can go on and on even before us with Hern Edwards and Lovey Smith and things of that nature. But when we got to d C, it was a bunch of young guys at the time. There were some older veterans in place that just kind of looked at us and shook their heads.
But I was like in the middle ground. I was like the middle child.
I'm like Jay Cole, right and I was like right in between the older guys becoming this vet. Yeah and right right right right, just got right finished up with jaying the young guy, you know, so London Fletcher, you know, like his how about his presence in our room and going to see him, especially after coming from like Derek Brooks, right, just yeah, being a b a a Brown, those those those type of linebackers at the time.
Remember the meeting when it was the it was the twenty thirteen year. I think we went what like three and thirteen or something like that, and they were kind of upset with Fletch, like hey, we need not upset with Fletch, but like, hey, we.
Need you to say something. And he had he had a team meeting.
He's like, I don't care if you got to draw that motherfucker's face if you're not taking notes, like do something, and he just went, you know, he went off on the score.
So he was the ultimate pro.
And I don't know if you're ever upset at Fletch, but I'm sure he took it that way right. And it was like trying to get everything out of that team that year because you know, you weren't there. But the year before we didn't start off so great. And I remember Mike Sanahan got up in the room and he called that a couple of people and Kirk Cousin was just talking about this recently and he had he
didn't have any these words. It was different colors and it was the haves, the have nots, the roles of different people and what you want to do and what he knew about people. He knew you were going to be great, and he expected you to be great. Sorry the microphone thing, and then he had people that he that he thought, you know, you're in the cuss people he didn't know. And right if he came and did that team meeting, I really believe that termed that team around.
And that was the playoff run. We had Robert Griffin and we went to play the Seattle and lost that game. But that three and thirteen season, I think they were trying to get that same type of energy, that same type.
Of feel out of London.
And when London got up in that team meeting, I never forget how special that was with him talking and how quiet that room was, and how much attention he brought in the presence that he brought when he told you don't got to you don't care what's going on, what you got to do, how much detail he put into his work, he tried to pour it out into us in the crowd.
Yeah, man, it was special. How in the hell did you get into coaching? I was doing a little research with pe degree from allstra How do you get a strong degree?
Yeah?
Strong man, listen man, you don't know how hard pottery was so don't don't.
Give me ceramics.
It is tough.
You got to sit there. You gotta hold the gentle wheel. You gotta hold the wheel. You gotta spin it with the right foot. Certain you have no idea, bro.
I'm taken a class. You know I have an I don't. I was a general studies major everything.
So taking getting that that degree from Hostra I was. I was fortunate enough to be around Joe Guardy and his son. He's rest in peace, but his son was was Dave Guardi at law school and now just got finish with the League office and now with the Washington Commanders. But he was the guy that really drove me to coaching, along with Greg Gigantino, you know Sarah's dad, who used to work here, into coaching because they recognized something me.
They recognize a potential to First of all, I wasn't good enough to play in the league like you guys. And next that I was a really good communicator with the guys in our room and had the ability to
do those things. So they sent me away to Cornell for a year and I went with Gigantino up there and really got to what it was called restricted earners because I was definitely not smart enough to go to school at Cornell University and it was like clorified GA and being up there for a year, I was around Pete Mangearion, who doesn't get enough credit for my career either, probably because I had to fire him as an old
line coach at one point. But he was really great to me because he had come from the league, he had done so many good things and as far as bringing the league like mentality to the IVY League as much you can, as far as breakdown and working with this guy named Randy who was his computer genius that taught me how to break down games and do different
things that way. So that gave me a real piqued my interest in a whole nother light of being a quality control coach and being a guy that can break it down because we all got a little bit of natural on the field coaching to us, but when you get the behind the scenes stuff, that's what separates you.
And that helped me go back to Hostra and really coach the DB's there, and then after that that opened up some airways to internship with the Jets because we were on the same campus that opened up internships moving forward and then going down to Tampa open ultimately get me in a National Football League and.
Stand there winning the Super Bowl the first year, won a super Bowl a first year, which is a blur.
Yeah, we have two of them boys.
One another one in LA and that was a great feeling.
And that's also what intrigues you about coming back to Atlanta, you know, going out and get Kirk Cousins set you up to go try to win one another one.
But talk about talk about you being in Atlanta and then being the intern head coach, and then they're like, all right, we're gonna go with Arthur Smith. And you ended up going to LA and then getting the call and coming back here.
You know, I think it's like it's it's It's really funny because you can to take it two ways. You can get to get bitter and you can go away and be angry at people that you just worked with for the last six years and not use it as a tool of advancement. I think when I went away,
I had it as a learning experience. I had as another like a check mark on the block of Okay, you you you've grown a lot since the last time you were head coach, You've had to deal You had to go through some adversity that we took from that point that was right during COVID, and you had to come up with these rules right on the spot, calling Mike Grave but Tennessee, because you guys had had the first breakout, and Mike was one of the few guys nice enough to give me a call and drop me
a note and asked if I need any help, And I definitely called him and he didn't call me back, but.
He did reach out.
And you had to come up with some thoughts and some ideas on different ways to practice and different ways to do things during that time. And I was really proud of those moments how we navigated through that stuff with Rich McKay and Rust and Webster, along with our coaching staff at the time that we all had. Jeff Albrick was here and like I hasked some real strong people that was able to hold that thing together and get us a couple wins down the stretch, right, obviously not enough to win it.
So I didn't leave bitter.
I left with another experience, and I left with it a dip that helped me really when I went out to La with Sean, because then that was that enabled me to be able to be more helpful for him as just as hopefully just as helpful as he was to me.
I don't know if Vrabel would have told you in the conversation, since you guys didn't talk, but we ended up playing the Bills without practicing for like eleven days and beat the shit out of them, you know, so you don't have to practice.
You don't have practice.
I knew about that, and that's why I called back.
So like we actually had some of the similar experiences of off on the Wednesday, put it combined the Thursday Friday, and then go play a game and win. And then it got to the point we had won two games and everybody's like, every time we take a day off, we win.
Yeah, you know, but and it.
Was started generating the loss of the healthiest team wins.
You were so nut us. We're on zoom, We're talking about the Steelers, and then like a day later they're like, all right, we're going Bills. We're going to go the Bills now. And then showed up for a walk through on a Saturday and then played a night Tuesday game.
And Bridge just gives it any time any plays does.
Yeah, and you literally you're walking onto the game and the mind frame is we're either going to get the shit kicked out of us or somehow we're to keep it close. We had we got nothing to lose, You got nothing to lose. The boys are flying around.
I don't know, we might be. I don't know what day you played on, but we might. I think we played on a Wednesday in LA, and we played Arizona when they delayed, and and we had people clearing protocol.
The morning of the game, and craziest that's when we're in La.
That that was it was. It was some crazy stuff going on in La.
Had a little extra. Yeah, they were keeping they were making sure everything was you.
Know, by the time I got to l A, you know, towards the Endico was it was starting to be. It was right upped. It was the best time you can go to LA because they had just opened up outdoor eating. And if you ever go to LA and you gettle out there eating, whether you're at Mastros and you're eating in that parking lot and you're look into those waves crashing the wall.
All right, Actually like Mastros better with COVID, you.
Know it was it was I like that, that's a good dish.
And we had we had a bunch of different restaurants with the outdoor eating, so it was pretty cool going to a little Jacket gets the outdoor food.
Yeah.
I kind of enjoyed that part of la being there when it was COVID.
When you were at the Rams and you get the call and I don't know who called you, Maybe it was Arthur, whoever it was, and you're like, you're gonna have the job for the Atlanta Falcons. Was it kind of wild? Were you surprised at that phone call coming in after literally four years prior being there.
I wasn't surprised.
I was more surprised when they when they asked me to do the interview, I'm like, man, you know this this, this is this is really interesting, you know, like I'm fired up. So I was really intrigued about doing the ZOOM. I was really intrigued about meeting Terry, you know. And then when I got on, I see Kyle Smith and and some of those guys and we had a you know,
Atlanta tried to intimidate me. You know, they didn't put Arthur blank on the screen, you know, probably one of the only ones he won on was in the background. The first time I came, I met with Arthur. The second time I came Man, but it was Rich McKay, it was Kyle Smith, it was Terry Fonto. Who else was on the scaid at the time, I can't think of, maybe Dean Stimulos, but a couple of people that I knew, And I thought it was cool because it was really formal.
It was it was information gathering, and I did a good enough job in that to get me to the second interview until I came back coming here to finally go to Arthur's house and sit down to be able to talk to him about some of our common beliefs, some of our theories, what I've learned, how far I've grown, what I want to see next. And the boys were there and Max and Josh. No Josh wasn't there, but
it was Max. And then I met with another group that had some people here, Tamika Risch and Fernando who I didn't know at the time, and Dean stim Mils was a productor so well, and Brett Jukes and some of the guys that I had new from when I
was here before across the building. Because what Arthur does best is he gets opinions from different people and he has a way of hiring people in the process, and he went through that whole process with me, and I was really appreciative of style in the way did it.
You were talking a little bit when we were on the hallway by your relationship with Arthur and how long, like how much history you guys do have. Taylor was asking about it a little bit before we started, but can you talk about can you talk about how that's developed and when it started?
It's so funny. I start right from the beginning. It was a Ronde barber who asked me to go out to a ranch in Montana with him. And I'm thinking, what do I want to go to ranch in Montana for? But it was Ronde right, and took the family out a beautiful place, beautiful place, beautiful place, and we had a ball and where I learned to ride a horse, and where I was able to let my kids run around this ranch in Montana and have a bunch of fun.
And they provided this five star.
Meal at the end of the night with your family and then at the end of the night, your kids all came and it was this family fun environment and it was different in any place that I had been or taking my kids, and I thought, this is really well done. And it just so happened that Arthur Blank was the owner of the ranch and he would pick a spots and he eat different with different groups every single night. And I didn't work for him, so I
had no care in the world. I just was myself, good time, having a great time.
I'm thinking, you're to Lanta owner.
I worked with Dampa, who cares right, yes, and we got a chance to know each other in those first couple of years. And then I got lucky enough, fortunate enough to come down here with dan Quinn and worked for him, and I was still going to the ranch, so it didn't change our dynamic that way.
It just helped us grow a little bit e bit more.
Get a chance to know you on the personal level. Then he got a chance to know me as a worker. Then I got a chance to do a trial run as the interim head coach, and then I can a
chance to go away and then come back. And really he's almost a father figure at this point because he's seen full development and full growth, you know, and having a chance to come back and them and knowing the core values, how to be innovative, how to be people first, how to do some of those things that we talk about all the time when it comes to our culture.
That it was a really cool environment to come back to and really cool to see how he had even grown even further and how he'd done some different things. When I left it was amb and come back as amb se right, the whole sports entertainment and is everything about of that. And it's like it's become even more family or intended come even more that way, and that's what he wants and that's what we all want. And I think that's become bigger part of his buildings. So
like our relationship is different. That doesn't mean he's not gonna fire me the same way. We don't have the results right, right, but.
It definitely makes you want to work harder for him.
Yeah, he does have that like kind of mob boss kind of vibe. Well, you said, I said I was able to sit down with him during a like one of those Top thirty visits.
I didn't I say that, Arthur, that was Taylor.
You You got like he's got a vibe about it I saw went to I was in, uh, what's that nice area?
Buckheat, Buckhead?
I was in Buckhead. There's like this really nice house and I went and there end up being his office and there's like really nice woods and a nice painting and he sits down, his hair, sleep back, mustache out, and we're just kind of the whole time. I'm fearing for my.
Life a little bit. He always looks great.
He looks yeah, he's gonna air, and if he's not, he's gonna get somebody to make sure he's The next time.
You might say otherwise, though, I mean, yeah, you could be.
Behind right now.
He treats you when he when he's treated the way he looks, he looks like a mob boss, and he treated that way.
When he walks in the room, things are are tightening up. You're tightied up. When he's not around. I can tell him that they're tidied up.
It's just it's more people moving when he's in the presence, when he's ready to get there.
Yeah.
How do you feel like you've developed? And obviously it's been you know, quite a bit since your head coaching run in Tampa, Sure, but what do you feel like you've learned the most, or the learning curve when you look back think of the things that you might have done wrong.
It was a it was a bunch you can talk about wrong. We don't have enough time in this segment to talk about what you've done wrong. But the things that you learned the most was the collaboration of the general manager and the head coach, because that just goes throughout the building like no of it. And the best example that I saw was was Lesson and Sean McVay.
And then you start think about some of your outside sources and what it was with Mike Tomlin and his general manager at the time, you know, the yes general manager not new one, but watching those guys work together because I was able to be close enough to that Pittsburgh system and watch them win and work together for a long time. But it was really good to see that and be around it every single day, how they went about their business to be able to bring that back.
So like that collaboration was great, and me and Mark Dominic we had a great relationship, but I don't know if that the all out trust and collaboration was there like it needs to be in order to win at the highest level, Like we still had things that we hit from each other. And I'm not going to sit here and blame him for anything, but it was some parts that we can learn, like we talked about and do better that we want to do better together. And I still keep it with market and we're great friends.
But we could have done a better job of formul our relationship first before trying to coach our football team.
You're known as such like a a player's coach, which is like I feel like loosely said these days, and you are known as like an A plus relationships guy being a young coach coming up understanding that you can, like I've you're like, you're one of my favorite coaches that I never that never coached me because you see how good you are with everybody in the room and everything else. How does that? How do you balance that shift sitting in the head coaching chair versus being like a position coach.
You know, I pride myself even because as you know, as having a relationship with trying to have a relationship with everybody in the room. You know, whatever that relationship was, right, whatever it is, whatever you can make it. Like for us, it was technique, it was some of the things that can help with your drop. It was individual things I send on your movement, things of that nature. So I was able to communicate that to you at hopefully a
high level. And I try to form a different set of relationship with everybody within the defense, and then if you really dive deep, it was really starting to settle in with people on the offense, and it was other coaches and being able to invite people into your home and do different things with different people. And I think I pride myself on creating these relationships that help you just grow and develop to a person that sussed that out in the people.
You hire and like foster that culture and then you.
Make that culture just kind of develop into everyone where you want to be grown that way, And like right now with Terry, I pride myself on giving them more information. I pride myself on our communication. I pride myself on being authentic listener. Listening is a skill and it's hard to do, particularly when you're young and you got all the answers.
And you're like, I'm aout thirty to your head coach, what are you gonna tell me?
Right?
But now you know, fast forward to these years and it's like, you know, I love being able to listen to Terry talk about his experiences in New Orleans and how he grew throughout the system and the people that he were with, and what he's seeing with Drew Brees and how he's going about this movement and the people that he listened to. And I love sitting around listening before I actually talk. And that's a battle I still fight clearly, right but I'd love to keep developing that skill.
And that's how I kind of do it right now, pride yourself and listening to more people in your staff, Hi to people that can build those relationships and phone those relationships. But then once you get them, find a way to listen to them.
Yeah, when are you having that open line of communication? How do you not get to a point where like there's too many chefs in the kitchen, where like you have so many opinions coming your way you might lose what your first opinion was. And kind of there's so many roads you can take in any given decision, finding that way of making the best one.
I think the last one ultimately the decision makes kick in. You know, there's a reason there's a coordinated title on people's name. There's a reason you have assistant general managers. There's a reason you have a director of personnel and a director of college. You know, ultimately the decision maker's got to collaborate at the end of the day and come up with that result what you want and then come out that room what we're doing. You know, you
appreciate you listen. You're able to gather information from all their personnels and all of the so to speak, ideas, but at the end of the day is our job to put them together and go get what we need to get done.
You obviously, you've rattled off so many coaches that you've been around with the Grudens and Shanahan's and mcveigh's and coach Quinn and I know that they've all had a hand in your career, But is there a coach that you feel like has influenced you more than the others?
Ah Man, You know, Mike Tomlin would obviously get the most credit in the professional level. Watching them right now two thousand and two Super Bowl team room him do those things and control that defensive back room and watching him navigate himself to being this great defensive coach, and he also played offensive ball when he was at William and Mary, So he was one of the first people to spike my interest of offense and really intrigued me about how he taught through an offensive lens. So I
wanted to be more like that. And he would take definitely the professional developing the career movements of that. And then the other one with the relationship was definitely Joe Gardy. You know it was it was nobody at like my college coach that taught me what nepotism was and building relationship with people.
I remember he would come down the hall and say, hey, Raheem, I'm going to Connecticut to get a slice of pizza. You want to come? You know, I'm like, sure, pal off the Connecticut. We went. Off the Connecticut we went.
And then, like you know, any even think back, you go back to even your high school coaches with Donnie Somo and I will never forget. And I thought about it last week when we draft Panics and everybody went crazy in the world, and I remember the first I remember the first thing he said to talk about that, I mean the first thing he said to me. Shock him got T shirts that my dad still hath Yeah, they said, shock him and and and that was Donnie Somma.
And I was seventeen years old right when he told me that Chet Parlavecchia before that as a junior, and the toughness that he displayed within practice. When you had this Italian coach with his nose bleeding through his face mask telling you what to do, it was like, Okay, this dude is different.
He looks at you different. So I got it.
Throughout the walks of life, you've stolen different things from people, and it's like you formulate your own identity.
Yeah. I love that. We're getting shout outs back all the way to the high school day.
Yeah, you brought up Pennix. Yes, you guys are sitting there at eight. Everyone's saying Atlanta since Jonathan Abraham, they've needed a rush guy for the longest time since him. They're going to take get this guy, thether Hick Dallas Turner out of Alabama, no question about it. Kirk, Yeah, another web not a weapon for Kirk. He's edge rusher, but.
Kirk Cousins another weapon. He was giving me. You are right there, follow along your fault.
I was like, that guy is yeah, or a weapon for Kirks no question, and then obviously that's turned in in the whole place, all of the National Football League goes crazy in the situation. What what was the thought process there?
So you know, we talked about decision makers, right, and
you're exactly right. Nobody's wrong in their thinking, you know, like nobody's wrong and what they're saying, like, you know, whether you needed a pass rusher, you needed a cover guy, potentially getting another weapon for Kirk, like we talked about, you know, but you address these things as you go without the process and free agency with just Kirt right out a number one need for the right now quarterback position to play what we wanted to do, went out
and got Mooney, went and got Ray Ray McLeod. You know, we traded and went and got a guy from Purdue and what he's able to do in Ron Dell right and do some of those differences you already had, you know, Pits on the team. You got you know, b John Robinson with Tyler Agier. You have these different weapons around people all across but Drake London at the other side of the wide out and on defense. When we got here and washed the tape, Jimmy Lake and I you
see some really impressive players. We just talked about Ellis, We talked about Nate Lamon right, so many people up fronting the Grady Jarretts and talking about having do O here from New Llan, some of those type of things and all these weapons across the board.
A J.
Terrell's an uprising star in my opinion. And then you went last year and you got Jesse Base and you put that to the roster and our jobs. You could say whatever you want to say is to have short term and long term thoughts. And we went through a hard time without Matt Ryan. This organization I'm talking about, and personally, you know, I love Matt Ryan and what
he brought to the city. And if we were sitting there and we had drafted Curtain twenty twelve and he came here and he just finished his career and he was thirty six years old, we'd be in positioned to look for a quarterback. Luckily enough, we have an owner of that season the same way as us. You know, you just play a guy one hundred million dollars guaranteed, a hundred and eighty million dollars contract, and he says, let's finish. We got an answer for a short term.
No matter what that short term is, right, it could be the extent of his contract, it's still short term. But if you believe in the guy and he's high enough for that point when you get to him and you can get a long term asked that quarterback and Michael Pennisul's we do why not take that shot?
Right? Why not take the shot?
And you know it's gonna be criticized, And it's fine because I do love people's vani I do, and I don't think anybody's wrong for happenings.
The communication that night when it does go down, and you guys, the relationship with Kirk, Like, how is that unfolding and going down? Because I'm sure if Kirk it goes down as a surprise as well.
Heck yeah.
The hardest part is keeping an information and being as transparent as you possibly can without having the uproar that you get from those things. Right, So you can't potentially tell Kurt that the night before or while the draft's going on. You have to tell them when you're on a clock when the decision is made, because what if it doesn't happen.
Right, and if it doesn't happen you're still thinking of the conversation. They just said, like, man, are they going to be thinking?
Or if you do it beforehand and now that those a monkey rich in the planet, someone jumps you and they take potentially a guy that you want. So because something gets out from whatever source right at it's a lot of moving parts and it's no right way of doing it, zero control until your so whatever lens you look through, you can find some fault. So the first thing I'd say with Kurt was, I apologize for not being able to communicate how you want to. You know,
I don't apologize for the pickup I can. I apologize for not being to communicate how you would like to. But this changes nothing within your situation because Kirk comes out and we went the next two Super Bowls.
Guy Kurt is the quarterback. He's the he's the guy. Yeah.
And even even in kirk situation when he came to Washington, he was drafting the same classes is large.
What are you laughing at?
Yeah? Oh yeah, I know.
Yeah, and then well knows, he's like, I gotta say something. I know he's staring through me the soul. I mean, you know, Appix is a stud. He is one of those guys that I think Will was sitting there saying you wanted the Raiders to get him.
Yeah. Yeah, I'm sitting there like everybody else.
Oh ship, that's us.
And you know you always try to compare things to different years, you know, like you know, why not at why not later? I don't predict that, you know, like these we had six quarterbacks going the top twelve picks, you.
Know, like hotcakes. They were going like over and over. You have no idea when Penis was there.
Every every year is different.
You know, you compared to Jordan Love because they took a quarterback, not because they went number they took him back. You know where Aaron Rodgers was in this career. That's not what you're doing. You talking about the young guy with the older guy.
Right, But it's worked out for the Packers for last like it seems like thirty years. I say, Brett Favre, Aaron Rodgers and then Jordan Love. What you say about.
Matt Lafor is pretty happy?
He gotta be happy.
Yeah, yeah, he's pretty happy. It's cool, he says. And he's cool.
So you you pick Panix, and then after you pick Panics, you call Kirk and you're like, hey, listen, we couldn't control when we called you.
I had to call Kirk.
Yeah, that's just that, this is how this game goes. What Kirk's knows. He's been in the game for a long time.
And as you guys know, your competitors right right, and the quarterback is always different. It's always different. And you know, I'm not expecting him to be happy, go lucky, but I did expect him to be a man, and he was more than you know. He called Penix, he texted me, asked for the number, he called and me reached out. And you know that the beauty of it was two men it called him. He talked to the media the next day. He didn't extant it. He didn't he didn't
talk about what they spoke about. I still don't know what they talked about. But you know what, the grown men goes all the way back to what we talked about the beginning to show what to eat those means when you talking about being the falcon and both of those guys character.
Fitted how excit level, how excited were you and Terry to go out for the for the press conference. Uh, it was funny because knowing they are.
About going out there. That sounds like a David Bacity problem.
Uh, And you know, like I'm not really shy when it comes to media.
But it was like it was more of this.
It was more of we were so busy the rest of that time, I can tell you now trying to trade back in that it didn't really come up until it was time to go downstairs and talk when we couldn't get back in up.
I can't tell you.
That, but it's already happened.
I'm not going to tell you a snipe in.
How about where at what?
Like?
At what number were you guys.
Trying to trade into everywhere? I mean, it was all over place that we liked, all across the board. Ye wasn't.
It wasn't like a particular person at one spot. There was different spots of people that you wanted in different layers. So you know that that staff does a great job. So it was like, you know, wasn't able to get done. You go downstairs, you talk about the press conference, and you understand that there are people involved in this business and you got to have an excitement general excitement to get Michael Pennix. And then there's also a empathy for Kirk Cousins and and that's our job.
Deliver hard news.
Deliver hard news.
Keep it.
We have two minutes left, right okay, oh two minutes. Two minutes, so we got to rattle a couple off I have. I'm gonna give you two questions in a row. First one is this team needs a locker room guy. They need a guy that's gonna come in and band boys together and make sure to give you the next step to make the playoffs and win the NFC South. What are the chances that William Earl Compton the third can get a work out with the Atlanta Falcons.
Uh None?
Right now, that's crazy.
That is You gotta appreciate him being directed. Appreciate it.
He is transmitter. He's so deliver hard information. Right now. Will has not been training for what we do. What are you talking?
He looks great.
It's not about the look. Will can go in to beach right now and we're going to a beach and I got to take a guy because Will he's gonna look good.
No, the way this guy's dropped. You know we're talking.
You guys have a better relationship, a chemistry here, both of us with our shirts on to get over Will.
He'll make me look better. I'm taking him for that, but I the football team.
Just give me eight weeks, eight weeks, eight weeks.
Team.
You didn't say, you didn't say trained, you said.
Now right, eight weeks.
Yeah, No, you're you're eight weeks from now.
I would take Will at any level if he thought he can still do it, y'all.
Love rob Man back we are, We're back. No, ro we were talking about before, and I'll sudden you this before he came in. He's a guy that you were telling the story. But a core memory of mine, like one of my like I guess, like welcome to the NFL type because coming from polining staff, if you like missed the tackle or missed the play, you basically want
to you know, you want to kill yourself. And so I had missed a tackle in the preseason game, I think our first preseason game in Tennessee, and I remember just being on the bench just like that's it. I'm gonna get cut, uh, Kimbra A couple guys on that. Keen Robinson goes down Day one, I go from like the last spot. Now I'm working with the three. So you get a few rips Jeremy Kimbro tears his hamstring.
He's out, So now I get to play with the twos in preseasons, somethinking this is my shot and I miss his tackle and I just remember thinking like it's over. It's over. And Row comes over and he's not my position coach at the time. He's like, cop, why are you hang.
Your Why are you hanging your head? Like, who gives a shit?
You miss a tackle. You're in cover three. If you're gonna miss miss on the inside and make them go outside of your play, you're good. Who cares? And I'm thinking in my head like not that, Oh, you can miss tackles in the league. But I'm thinking that that is exactly what I needed to hear that, Like get out of my own head because I'm thinking, like, man, this is this is gonna go bad. Because if a player, you remember that, if.
A player tells you that, you're like whatever, You're like, oh my god.
I have a player say you're like okay, yeah, good for you, Bro, you're a start.
It was the I don't know which game. I don't know the game.
I don't know who we're playing, because you know preseasons, it's I'm out there really watching us and evaluating and just looking at players.
You're trying to get Philip Thomas in the car rambow ready to go.
Yeah, I'm trying to get us already. Yeah. I was always been greedy. I've always wanted.
Us to play well right, and you missed a tack on I believe my safety made the tack. I'm not sure which one it was. And I thought, what a great miss. You shot your gun. You play fast, physical and free Jimmy Lake, and you turned it over to us. We got him on the ground, we got off the grass, and I'm looking at a kid who just came from Nebraska, who just fought us way up. This free agent that is going up to our twos that I know that I were going to counter at one point, And I say, love, bro,
that was a good job. You know, I like you to make it too, But like that was part of me building relationships with you because I knew you had a chance.
Hey, that was so beautiful. Was the cool thing about that story is is when we first got here, Will told me that story, which I've heard before, and then well, you we were grabbing coffee, you started telling that you guys both had the same recall that story, which is really cool, which means it meant a lot to both of you a moment and.
I got so many memories of him because he was the linebacker, right, so he probably didn't even know, but like he had this crazy recall and we would talk about things and looks to own and things that you would say and I would always say it to com mm hmm. And con was the backup. But when you tell the backup, he reinforces it to the starters, right. And he was that type of guy. That's why I thought he would be a coach. But he's a reinforcer, man,
He's a sounding board. And when he got a chance to play, there was not a bigger fan from wherever I was at watching them play back in DC and watching them play throughout his career after that point.
I appreciate that man. That was awesome.
I know, we gotta let you go. I'm and ask you one more question. And this is a very important question because I have one too, So okay, we're gonna ask you two more questions are both very important questions.
Hey, you are my guys bass right now. It is cringing back days on when you like, yeah, yeah, he.
Can come on in. And when you when you gave him my number and we got on the phone and chopped it up, He's like, oh, playoff, Willie.
I was like, oh yeah, hell yah that fires me up.
And he was like, we got on the phone. He goes, we'll get raw right off the top, right out of practice, and he starts naming a couple of players. He's like, you know, we'll get a couple of players for you guys, and he names a couple of them. None of them were Kirk. So I'm thinking in my head like, okay, I know how this is gonna go. I'm just gonna need I'm gonna need a text Kirk on my own and lock it in before they can be like no, no Kirk.
No Kirk.
So anyway, that was my story.
Is that the question too?
No? My question is this have you been seeing have you been seeing Austin Rivers the Austin Rivers clip about the NFL players and NBA players?
I have not.
Okay, so my first question is who has the better athletes NFL or the NBA soccer That's not the question.
Sorry, we can move on from that. That was a tough try.
No, I want to hear athletes.
I mean, the NBA game changed so much, Like okay, we're talking about the nineties basketball with Kobe and Iverson and then Michael Jordan. They'd have a fight right now. Is changed to a skill game. The the top four m vps don't have any athletes.
The MVP.
It's the worst athlete in the world, can't jump off a curve, but its a baller because of a skill set. Like his skill set is unbelievable. Touch around the basket. He's able to play Luka doncs like. I can't see him tackling Bijeon right now. So when you're talking about just those two sports and athleticism, I'm giving us the skill set.
We got no chance against those dudes.
I agree with you wholeheartedly.
We got They had a better argument back in the nineties.
Feel good to get a nice little compliment.
But their white guys run around the court.
I wouldn't say white guys.
That was his words again, Yeah, those are my words. I definitely speak from the international game.
The international game has changed basketball a little bit. Who comes to that.
It's more of a skill Steph Curry, you know, like he's changed basketball, Like you better be able to shoot or you can't play.
Yeah, that's what we needed.
Ye my last question, Okay, I mean are you running a segment?
Look, Lebron is is just a dog. Like he's one of the best athletes in the world. And I'm not like this like crazy Lebron fan because I'm in then argument and I'm on the other side. But I got so much respectfulim. He's the most dominant player we've probably ever seen him in shack. You know when you talk about the most dominant players, that that's the category of Lebron's in in my opinion, and then also the category of Lebron's in is like created the most hype in
the world and like surpassed it. You know, like we knew about Lebron like way before we should have known, and he surpassed that. So like, I don't ever want to dispect his greatness on camera. Now we get to those when we get to our arguments of the goat, you know, I may go the other way a little bit, but little animated. Yeah, I gotta give a couple you gotta get a couple of negative points to that.
Yeah, got to there's always gotta be a devil's advocate. So this is my last question and I will land this plane. You gotta stick with me. In the spring of twenty nineteen, a head coach for the Tennessee Titan sat on the bus and we asked him if he would cut his dick off for a Super Bowl, to which he answered the question saying yes, I would been married for thirty years why not? But I don't use it anyway. Now. That team started out two and four and ended up going to the AFC Championship to play
the Kansas City Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium. Before that game, the press asked them, you said you cut your dig off for a Super Bowl? Would you still do that, to which Mike Rabel replied, Nah, No, I wouldn't do that.
I was just joking with them.
I was just joking around with them. We're up ten zero in the first quarter against the Patton Mahomes Sity Chiefs ends up losing and the Chiefs go to the Super Bowl. So Mike Rabel lost the Tennessee Titans the Super Bowl, is what I'm saying. My question to you is what are you willing to do for the Atlanta Falcons to win a Super Bowl.
I mean, you gotta do some drastic.
Would cut it off, You've got to do some drastic but like to get a Super Bowl ring.
Here's what I'll say.
Go ahead, King, do your thing.
Two thousand and two, twenty twenty one. The people, the relationships that you build, there's nothing in the world like it. And you would do almost anything the windows in a fair and equitable state. So there might be a few limbs lost in order to get that feeling with these group of guys.
You take a limb off for the Super Bowl.
I mean to win that thing, and think about this, to bring a super Bowl championship to this city with this owner Arthur Blank, with these guys that have established this relationships and this bonding and this building and being around Pitts and and Bejeon for just such a short time in Draft London.
It is like, you know, like.
That's that's that's tough, bro, Like the twenty eight three thing, you know, like that that is hard.
That's Brady. But I'm that's football. But that's Brady. That's football. Like, think about doing that with these cats. That is like worth it.
That's why I run it in a half.
Look at that guy of course I'm running.
Look at his traps, Lily Pop classic T shirt.
I'm out of here. You guys are going graphics.
You take a limb off, I'm taking it off.
I'm not gonna get with the limb, but I take a limb.
Off the Hey, coach Roth, thank you so much.
Appreciate you awesome. Appreciate