One NFL owner is reportedly going against the preference of his front office by pursuing ex-New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick.
The 71-year-old Belichick, who left the Patriots two weeks ago following 24 years at the helm, has completed two interviews with the Atlanta Falcons for their head coaching vacancy. The Falcons fired head coach Arthur Smith following a third straight 7-10 season under his watch.
On his podcast (h/t Matt Ehalt of the New York Post), The Ringer’s Bill Simmons reports that Falcons owner Arthur Blank is the one driving the Belichick pursue…against the wishes of his front office:
“The Atlanta thing, there’s a lot of buzz going around right now about the Atlanta job, that the executives are there are trying — and I’ve heard this, I’m telling you from so many different people — basically Arthur Blank wants to hire Bill Belichick, and all the front office people in Atlanta don’t want to hire Belichick because it’s like any big company — sport franchises are like microcosms of all big companies.
The people that run the franchise, they just want to keep their jobs, they’re in job preservation mode, so they’re like ‘Maybe we hire Raheem Morris.’ Yeah, you hire Raheem Morris, he’s young, you’ll have your job for five more years.”
Interestingly, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported on Monday’s edition of “The Pat McAfee Show”, that the Falcons are the lone club to have “engaged in heavy conversations with” the six-time Super Bowl-winning head coach.
It rarely ends well when an owner gets way too involved in front office decision-making, as you can see with Dan Snyder and the Washington Commanders for 24 years, Jerry Jones over the last 28 years with the Dallas Cowboys and the entire David Tepper era thus far with the Carolina Panthers.
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But Belichick is the greatest head coach in NFL history, and he turned a longtime losing franchise into the league’s model organization for two decades. The Falcons certainly aren’t devoid of talent, and a tactical genius like Belichick could help this team get over its never-ending run of mediocrity.
