Arthur Blank: Bill was never offered the Falcons job.

[lancerman]

I'm guessing Blank isn't outright lying but I do wonder why he felt the need to go on record like that? It's not like Bill is running around calling out ATL. Seems petty. Wether there was an official offer or not there were two interviews and a lot of interest from both sides and now only one feels the need to deny things.

The owner doth protest too much, methinks.

Because it makes the current coach that they are having run the team look like the nerdy girl they settled on when the prom queen rejected them and makes their organization look like crap. He had every incentive to come out and do what he did. Give as many details about the process as possible to the point where anyone refuting him would have to ver deliberately provide receipts instead of a commentator making a vague statment that makes his org look bad.

It's a bad look for him to have his coach and fanbase thinking it's possible the current HC was a consolation prize and that the team got left at the alter. But honestly the fact that he didn't just release a statement and went out in the media on video to discuss the whole process does give him more credibility than Boomer's "I heard around the grapevine".

 

[lancerman]

This required a new thread when there’s a 40 page thread right next door?

Yay, the BB haters can continue celebrating.

BB and Rich McKay don’t get along, if Blank made it clear from the start McKay was entrenched then it was a nonstarter… nothing else needed to be said.

BB will be back next season, and the numbnuts celebrating Bill taking a short vacation will be nowhere to be found.

Rich McKay got moved out of football operations very publically this cycle. So if that was the sticking point, Bill ultimately got what he wanted. So there has to be a different reason besides some sort of line in the sand on that. It just sounds like Blank wanted Bill, other people didn't, he took a step back and listened to them and considered other candidates and decided he liked someone else.

I have a hard time believing Bill won't get another job. One or more of the teams that passed on him will flop and it will swing the pendulum more in his favor. The question will be whether that place is a good fit.

 

[lancerman]

Whatever anyone believes, Blank has put out something of a definitive word on this and staked his spot with Morris. If Morris doesn't deliver, the mystique of BB will haunt him because he's saying he had a chance to hire him and went with a guy who didn't help them get out of the mire.

Who knows if BB could have done wonders with the Falcons or not? The perception is that BB has "been there, done that" in ways the Falcons and their fans know all too well and has a higher probability of coaching the Falcons to success, especially if he's not "buying the groceries". If Morris fails, which is a reasonable probability, it will actually somehow make Belichick look better.

I work with clients in Atlanta quite a bit, and there was excitement about Belichick. The feeling I hear from them now is one of resignation..."the Falcons are doing Falcon things...FML"

Blank would have been better served to keep quiet on this one.

This is true. But there's also the possibility Bill goes somewhere else and it doesn't work either and then that gives Blank the cover.

 

[Wozzy]

Rich McKay got moved out of football operations very publically this cycle. So if that was the sticking point, Bill ultimately got what he wanted. So there has to be a different reason besides some sort of line in the sand on that. It just sounds like Blank wanted Bill, other people didn't, he took a step back and listened to them and considered other candidates and decided he liked someone else.

I have a hard time believing Bill won't get another job. One or more of the teams that passed on him will flop and it will swing the pendulum more in his favor. The question will be whether that place is a good fit.

McKay has no real title, he faces no consequences if the team sucks. He’s got a great job. He was just hired by a new naive owner who needed an “NFL insider” to show him the ropes.

The dopes here who need not one but two threads to celebrate will pretend this never happened when BB gets hired for a new job. You know who they are, they use terms like “team Bill.” But if they didn’t start threads like this nobody would talking about this except in passing.

BB lives rent free in their heads and there is a lot of room up there… it’s empty.

 

[UGAPatsfan]

These are things some fans can't accept. The mystique that Bill is some sort of miracle worker that gives every team a chance at the Super Bowl died over the last 4-5 years. We don't even need to get into the Brady argument. He had 3 losing seasons and the one season he made a wildcard spot his team got humiliated and never forced the opposing team to punt.

That's the first question Bill has to answer for when other teams consider him. The last time he got asked it, he basically said "look at the last 20 years". Well that doesn't fly for teams looking forward and prepping for the next 5 years. That's before you get into the Matt Patricia hire, the draft picks, the offensive performance in general, why the special teams tanked this year.

Ironically, the place where Bill's past held the most weight in him being employed.... was here. This was the franchise where ownership had a reason to be indebted to Bill and a reason to believe he had the infrastructure and culture in place to turn the clock back. This was also the place where you would have a portion of the fanbase that would go to bat for him no matter what happened. Bill has a bad season somewhere else and the fans are going to just turn on him and call him a fraud who was carried by Brady. Bill has to build and get buy in for his culture somewhere else. That doesn't happen overnight. And nobody in another front office is going to care about 6 Super Bowls he won with another team. So the fact that it ultimately didn't work out here was a bad omen to begin with.

I will always believe Bill badly misread the situation, and should have proactively approached Kraft to say “I’ll just coach, someone else can pick the players and we can bring in some more coaches”.

Would have been his best shot at Shula.

But…pride and dare I even say arrogance is s real thing.

Bill can still coach, but needs good players like anyone, and has to realize QB/offense matters.

Adapt or die.

Not sure he gets another job honestly.

 

[UGAPatsfan]

Rich McKay got moved out of football operations very publically this cycle. So if that was the sticking point, Bill ultimately got what he wanted. So there has to be a different reason besides some sort of line in the sand on that. It just sounds like Blank wanted Bill, other people didn't, he took a step back and listened to them and considered other candidates and decided he liked someone else.

I have a hard time believing Bill won't get another job. One or more of the teams that passed on him will flop and it will swing the pendulum more in his favor. The question will be whether that place is a good fit.

I don’t know man…between his age (serious factor), and reputation as…not a fun guy to work with, his time may just be over.

Heck, even Lord Saban realized that current times just weren’t something he wanted to deal with anymore.

Difference is it seems others are realizing FOR Bill that his style might just be a relic of the past.

 

[venecol]

McKay has no real title, he faces no consequences if the team sucks. He’s got a great job. He was just hired by a new naive owner who needed an “NFL insider” to show him the ropes.

McKay was President/CEO of Falcons from 2008-22. He's now just the CEO. Those are pretty big titles, lol. He just got demoted outside of football operations. Don't you get tired of being wrong all the time? You realize everyone here notices right?

BB lives rent free in their heads and there is a lot of room up there… it’s empty.

I remember when you swore you weren't Team Bill because you criticized Bill once or twice. Lol

 

[venecol]

This is very interesting from Blank:

"He's got his history, he has a way of doing things, etc., which were very, very successful. You can debate if that's true the last four years or so, might be a different picture, but there's a lot of stories, learned a lot of things. I think it was a very good series of interviews with him. Our folks were impressed with him. I was impressed with him, as well as a number of candidates. And we just felt — all things considered, for a variety of reasons — that Raheem Morris was clearly the best choice for us."

I listened to the video but after reading the bolded portion, I wonder if Blank is referring to "a lot of stories, learned a lot of things" specifically about the last four years. The statement is in the same sentence as "you can debate if that's true the last four years or so." I would say yes. Blank is saying he heard a lot of stories and learned a lot of things about Bill the last four years that causes him to believe that despite his past success, his recent history paints a different picture.

What are those stories and what did he learn about Bill in the last four years? Who did he hear this from? Was it from Foxboro in checking out his references? Was this a way of sending a cryptic message to Bill?

I wonder if Bill is thinking (like Malcolm expressed) - "those mfers."

Falcons owner Arthur Blank denies Bill Belichick requested de facto general manager powers

The Falcons went with Raheem Morris in their head-coaching search.

sports.yahoo.com

 

[PP2]

The first problem is that both those teams are actually good so the coach isn't likely to get fired unless a big freak dissapointment happens. The Cowboys sort of had one, but they stuck with McCarthy.

Tbh I think the Cowboys job is horrible for Bill for a variety of reasons.

1. Jerry Jones WANTS the team control. That's sort of this thing. Tbf, he's also been one of the most successful GM's in the league for the better part of the last decade. The Cowboys always have a talented squad. So there isn't much incentive to hire Bill if it's anything beyond "you are the coach and do the x's and o's"

2. Jerry had friction with Jimmy Johnson who is a very similar style coach to Bill Belichick AND they are friends. Jerry respects Bill, but if that didn't work I see problems anyways.

3. Jerry Jones takes a **** ton of pride in how Dallas players are treated. He rolls out the red carpet for them and they are treated like royalty from top to bottom in that organization. It's a very "players first" organization. They are very pampered. You could argue it leads to mental weakness come playoff time. Regardless, Bill is the complete opposite of that. He rides players hard and he treats players harshly to try to push them more. That's going to be a significant culture shock and some players are going to push back if that happens and if he has to having growing pains and weed out some bad apples to implement his culture, I really don't see Jerry Jones giving Bill that sort of time and leeway longterm.

One of the most successful GM's in the league? No, no, just no. Jerruh has had many a battle with the front office and especially his son, Stephen, who is president.

Stephen has done well to shield Will McClay from being interferred with. McClay, VP of player personnel, has been in charge of the draft since '14.

Stephen literally had to confront Jones and tell him NOT to pick Johnny Manziel. Everyone wanted Zack Martin who turned out to be all-pro. One story has it that Stephen ran up to his father and ripped the draft card out of his hand, and they nearly came to blows. I find this overtly dramatic, but the tension is there and always has been there.

The franchise has managed to slowly pushed Jones out of orbit.

And on top of that, despite the talent they have drafted over the years, they have not been to the NFCC in 29 years.

 

[SVN]

inspite of what blank says kraft said, i think there has some subconscious black balling of BB. Any owner who asked kraft, i think he might have given some not so good feedback off the record as well

 

[signbabybrady]

This is very interesting from Blank:

"He's got his history, he has a way of doing things, etc., which were very, very successful. You can debate if that's true the last four years or so, might be a different picture, but there's a lot of stories, learned a lot of things. I think it was a very good series of interviews with him. Our folks were impressed with him. I was impressed with him, as well as a number of candidates. And we just felt — all things considered, for a variety of reasons — that Raheem Morris was clearly the best choice for us."

I listened to the video but after reading the bolded portion, I wonder if Blank is referring to "a lot of stories, learned a lot of things" specifically about the last four years. The statement is in the same sentence as "you can debate if that's true the last four years or so." I would say yes. Blank is saying he heard a lot of stories and learned a lot of things about Bill the last four years that causes him to believe that despite his past success, his recent history paints a different picture.

What are those stories and what did he learn about Bill in the last four years? Who did he hear this from? Was it from Foxboro in checking out his references? Was this a way of sending a cryptic message to Bill?

I wonder if Bill is thinking (like Malcolm expressed) - "those mfers."

Falcons owner Arthur Blank denies Bill Belichick requested de facto general manager powers

The Falcons went with Raheem Morris in their head-coaching search.

sports.yahoo.com

Your putting your own opinion behind those words. That reads as he got stories and learned things directly from Bill in his two interviews.

And he's saying you guys as in the media can debate the last 4 years.

 

[Triumph]

Considering only one of ****ied out of a bet and made a bunch of sore loser excuses, this is rich.

Cheating too.

 

[lancerman]

Cheating too.

Considering your side couldn’t produce any evidence, it’s just more proof of your lack of integrity and maturity to accept loss. You are simply a child trying to hang with men.

We appreciate you as our predecessors appreciated the court jesters

 

[lancerman]

I don’t know man…between his age (serious factor), and reputation as…not a fun guy to work with, his time may just be over.

Heck, even Lord Saban realized that current times just weren’t something he wanted to deal with anymore.

Difference is it seems others are realizing FOR Bill that his style might just be a relic of the past.

It might, but there's always teams that suck and are desperate and I can't imagine someone is going to be be anxious enough to sell themselves on a 6 time Super Bowl winner even if his time probably passed and he's chasing a record.

 

[venecol]

inspite of what blank says kraft said, i think there has some subconscious black balling of BB. Any owner who asked kraft, i think he might have given some not so good feedback off the record as well

OK, so this confirms he spoke with the Krafts about Bill "several" times. That's where he heard the stories and a lot of things about the last four years, when things fell apart. Notice how long it takes for him to describe what happened at the end, searching for the right words. "Amoeba" is not a sterling word though. Blank is obviously not going to throw his colleague under the bus.

I think it would be best for Bill to find a job with a network or maybe a college program to re-invent his image, if that's even possible for a 72 yo coach.

Your putting your own opinion behind those words. That reads as he got stories and learned things directly from Bill in his two interviews.

And he's saying you guys as in the media can debate the last 4 years.

Wrong. See above and previous post.

 

[sb1]

inspite of what blank says kraft said, i think there has some subconscious black balling of BB. Any owner who asked kraft, i think he might have given some not so good feedback off the record as well

Or maybe he also spoke to Jonathan whose opinion of Bill isn’t as high?

 

[sb1]

OK, so this confirms he spoke with the Krafts about Bill "several" times. That's where he heard the stories and a lot of things about the last four years, when things fell apart. Notice how long it takes for him to describe what happened at the end, searching for the right words. "Amoeba" is not a sterling word though. Blank is obviously not going to throw his colleague under the bus.

I think it would be best for Bill to find a job with a network or maybe a college program to re-invent his image, if that's even possible for a 72 yo coach.

Wrong. See above and previous post.

I think Bill after a year off will probably realize he really doesn’t mind not having to work 24x7 365 days a year and decides that’s it. Who can blame him? The Shula record is lost sure but it’s not like Shula is here anymore to see it fall. He’s got nothing left to prove.

 

[venecol]

Unlike the rest of us, where when looking for a job, we have 100s of openings across the entire country; Bill is looking at only 5 or so openings out of a max. of 32. The people hiring for those openings aren't calling the Patriots HR dept. either. The Owner of the hiring team is calling the Owner of the previous team of employment. These owners meet several times a year and some are friends. This may have happened to Vrabel as well, given the comments from the TEN owner.

Something really bad must've happened between the Krafts and Bill. Bills' arrogance, ignoring Robert when walking past him in the hallway, and his "purported" sabotaging of the team, may have caused Jonathan to shiv Bills' future prospects in the league. This also ensures that Kraft will never have to worry about being accused of making a mistake if Bill ever was successful post-Patriots. Damn, those two small rich dudes are nasty.

 

[Wozzy]

McKay was President/CEO of Falcons from 2008-22. He's now just the CEO. Those are pretty big titles, lol. He just got demoted outside of football operations. Don't you get tired of being wrong all the time? You realize everyone here notices right?

I remember when you swore you weren't Team Bill because you criticized Bill once or twice. Lol

Hey Venereal... Bill is gone, time to move on with your life.

"Team Bill" was "Team Patriots," now it's "Team Mayo/Wolf"... time for you to redirect your anger and grow up.

 

[signbabybrady]

Unlike the rest of us, where when looking for a job, we have 100s of openings across the entire country; Bill is looking at only 5 or so openings out of a max. of 32. The people hiring for those openings aren't calling the Patriots HR dept. either. The Owner of the hiring team is calling the Owner of the previous team of employment. These owners meet several times a year and some are friends. This may have happened to Vrabel as well, given the comments from the TEN owner.

Something really bad must've happened between the Krafts and Bill. Bills' arrogance, ignoring Robert when walking past him in the hallway, and his "purported" sabotaging of the team, may have caused Jonathan to shiv Bills' future prospects in the league. This also ensures that Kraft will never have to worry about being accused of making a mistake if Bill ever was successful post-Patriots. Damn, those two small rich dudes are nasty.

What the hell? The stuff you just make up is baffling.