FanHouse ArthurBlank

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank has made it clear that Michael Vick won't play for the Falcons again. But he said on his way out of the NFL owners' meetings this morning that he has no problem with Vick returning to the league with some other team. Blank also gave some indication of what might constitute the "genuine remorse" that Vick supposedly has to show before commissioner Roger Goodell reinstates him.

"It goes beyond whether he's paid his debt to society," Blank said. "From a legal standpoint, and financially, he has. But it goes beyond words. It goes to how he's going to live, personally and in the community with others. The people that Michael spent time with and the influence they had on him were a big part of what happened. His ability to separate from those people is going to be critical for Michael."

Last offseason, Falcons owner Arthur Blank stripped Rich McKay of his general manager duties, although he retained the title of team president. Thomas Dimitroff took over as GM, had a lot to do with bringing Matt Ryan to Atlanta, and some eight months later, the Falcons are headed to the postseason. Along with the Dolphins and Lions, it's easily one of the most amazing stories of 2008.

Despite McKay having no say in personnel matters this season, he was Atlanta's general manager from 2003-2007, and earned a Super Bowl ring during his nine-year stint with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in that same role.

And now, the newly GM-less Browns are interested in talking to McKay. According to FOXSports.com's Jay Glazer, however, McKay is quite content with his current set-up.

... [D]espite reports that the Cleveland Browns will interview ... McKay, FOXSports.com has learned that McKay has rebuffed Cleveland's overture. McKay is slated to fly to Phoenix with the Falcons and not New York to meet with Browns owner Randy Lerner.

There were talks between the two sides, but McKay informed them he is happy where he is and did not want to interview for the job or consider it until after the rest of the candidates had run their course in Cleveland.

After surviving (figuratively, not in the dog-fighting sense) the Michael Vick melodrama, I'm guessing McKay wants to enjoy Atlanta's resurgence. Whatever the reason, this is good news for Patriots vice president Scott Pioli.

Atlanta Falcons wide receiver Michael Jenkins made a great catch at the sideline in the final seconds of Sunday's game against the Bears, setting up the game-winning field goal on the next play. But if you look closely to Jenkins' right in this video, you'll notice something strange:

Falcons owner Arthur Blank was standing on the sidelines and he made the "incomplete" signal with his arms. What on earth he was thinking I can't imagine -- he does know it's the team in red he owns, right? -- but the officials correctly ruled it a catch.

Via PFT.

We're nearing the end of Day 1: Life After Millen, and by most accounts, it's been a joyous occasion. Now begins the arduous process of rebuilding the Lions, no easy task given what hell Matt Millen hath wrought on this franchise in just eight years.

During tonight's NFL Total Access, Rich Eisen got current NFL Network analyst and former Lions head coach Steve Mariucci on the horn to talk about what it meant to work for the worst general manager in the history of sports. (Click Millen's handsome mug for the moving pictures.)

Some highlights after the jump.

Jimmy Williams has come a long way since the Falcons selected him in the second-round of the 2006 draft. And by "a long way" I mean "man, he really hit rock bottom in a hurry."

Considered a first-round talent by many evaluators, Williams' lackadaisical approach to practice and attitude concerns saw him drop on draft day. Once Bobby Petrino bolted back to college, new head coach Mike Smith had time to evaluate the roster, and Williams showed up to minicamp in all his chub-tastic glory, his fate was basically sealed.

The Falcons released him on June 17, and he has yet to catch on with another club. And the likelihood of that happening just decreased (if that's possible).

Jimmy Williams, a free agent, has been suspended by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell for the first five games of the season, Williams' agent, Ethan Lock confirmed Monday. When asked about Williams' future, Lock said he had no further comment.

So there you have it: Goodell has slapped Williams with a five-game ban for unspecified reasons. Seems sorta like overkill to suspend a guy currently unemployed, but assuming another team takes a flier on Williams, he'll still have to sit out five games, even if he's not signed until Week 10 of the regular season.

Remember when Falcons owner Arthur Blank hoped to build the team around a core group of Virginia Tech players? Good times.

For all the things that went wrong with the Atlanta Falcons in 2007, the biggest stunner may have been the way head coach Bobby Petrino simply walked out the door one Tuesday morning and was doing the famous "pig sooey" cheer at the Arkansas head coach by Tuesday night.

Petrino never seemed to feel the least bit bothered by leaving the Falcons in the lurch in the middle of the season, and owner Arthur Blank says to this day, Petrino hasn't said a thing to him about it, no apology, no explanation, nothing. And how does that make him feel? He tells Peter King:

"I'm not surprised. But I am disappointed.''

I completely understand why Blank is disappointed, but the lack of surprise is a reminder that Blank really should have seen this coming. Everyone who knows anything about the football coaching business knows that Petrino will leave any job at any time if he thinks there's a better job out there for him. That Blank hired Petrino despite that well-earned reputation is his own fault. Just as it will be Arkansas' own fault if Petrino bolts, which he unquestionably will do if a better program comes calling.

When Arthur Blank says he's taking a hands-off approach to any aspect of the Falcons, it's hard to completely believe him. But he's saying it again.

Blank told Terrence Moore of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he's going out of his way to make sure he's not the man making the call on the No. 3 pick.

"I would say this. Who I want [in the draft] is not a factor in this. I mean, it really isn't a factor," said Blank, leaning forward in his chair. "What I want is Mike Smith and Thomas (Dimitroff). It's the coach and the general manager. It's their decision now to make the football decisions. I've made the decision to hire what I think are the two outstanding people to run the football side of business for us."

The conventional wisdom is that a Blank-led pick would lead the Falcons to take Matt Ryan, while Thomas Dimitroff would be more inclined to take Glenn Dorsey or another lineman--less sexy, less ticket sales, but a more logical pick for a team with plenty of holes to fill.

I don't know if that's true or not--it's hard to see how draft Ryan would sell a lot of tickets for the Falcons this offseason anyway. But it is a good sign that Blank is starting to understand that this team will work better if he backs off--Blank may know how to build a business, but he hasn't shown he knows how to make decisions with the Falcons.

But then Moore says that Blank went to scout quarterbacks with Dimitoff and Smith last month, and that he's spent three hours this week going over the draft board with his new GM. Hopefully that's just a case of keeping Blank in the loop, but considering his past history, it's a reason to be concerned.

Michael Vick may be in federal prison, but that doesn't mean he's still not a part of Arthur Blank's life.

The Falcons owner, who may be most famous for wheeling a wheelchair-bound Vick around the sidelines during one game, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he keeps in touch with Vick through the mail while Vick whiles away his days in prison.

Michael has written a couple times. I've written him back. We have that kind of relationship. Despite the mixture of frustration, anger and disappointment in him, I believe in second chances and redemption. I would love to see Michael pay his debt to society and come out and play again in the NFL. I think he could also be a big help to ... speak to people about some of his choices.

Blank wouldn't say one way or another whether Vick would ever play for the Falcons again. The good money has always been on the Falcons dumping Vick as soon as they could. But whether it's to give Vick hope or just to keep his options open, Blank wouldn't go nearly that far.

I would not say yes. I would not say no. At this point, Michael is in a federal penitentiary [on a dogfighting conviction] and is suspended from football. We have to move forward. We are moving forward. We have to assume he's not coming back. I do wish him well. I'd love to see him play again. It would be good for the NFL

It's still hard to believe that No. 7 could ever wear a Falcons jersey again, but I guess anything's possible.

This has become an annual question in Atlanta: should the front office blow up the roster and start over, or are there pieces in place to get the Falcons back to playing something other than what we've been subjected to the last two seasons?

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Steve Wyche thinks that with $23 million in salary-cap space, the front office should "semi-gut" the roster.

[New general manager Thomas] Dimitroff and [head coach Mike] Smith have to be sure they find the right replacements, though because if they're going to make wholesale changes, they better not miss on the players they bring in. Not to say immediate results would be demanded by Blank but if things stagnate or get even worse over the next few years...

Yeah, I'd say it's probably pretty important to just not sign the biggest name in free agency, but to actually find some players that help improve the team. The former strategy didn't work out all that well when Redskins owner Dan Snyder tried it with Deion Sanders and Bruce Smith back in the late 1990s.

Wyche also writes that losing assistant general manager Billy Devaney weakens the personnel department, which is kind of a big deal for a Falcons team that lacks depth up and down the roster.

Of course, Atlanta wouldn't be in this situation if owner Arthur Blank wasn't in such a hurry to fire Jim Mora, or before him, Dan Reeves. I'll admit to thinking that Mora let the inmates run the asylum during his stint with the Falcons, but in retrospect, he might as well have been Tom Landry relative to all that's happened in the past 12 months.

One of the things you can look forward to when you run a franchise into the ground is that everybody has an opinion on how to fix things. You don't hear much about Bob Kraft, Bob Irsay or Dan Rooney getting unsolicited advice since, you know, their teams are annually competitive.

Falcons owner Arthur Blank has no such problem. Georgia resident and loquacious CBS NFL analyst Shannon Sharpe now has the floor:

"Mr. Blank needs to understand that you hired [general manager] Tom Dimitroff and [head coach] Mike Smith to do a job. Let them do their job," said Sharpe ... "Mr. Blank, you don't need to be the face of the Falcons, because everybody knows you own the Falcons. We don't need to see your face to confirm that.

"I know who owns the Steelers. I don't see Dan Rooney. I know who owns the Giants. I don't need to see his face. I know who owns the Patriots. We don't need to see you to confirm how much money and how much authority you have."

Whatever your thoughts on Sharpe (I actually like the guy), he makes a lot of sense here. You get the impression that some people get in the "owning my own football team" business to play Madden on a much larger scale. Blank isn't a meddlesome busybody like the Redskins' Dan Snyder, but he's done plenty to put the Falcons in their current predicament.

We'll see if Blank has learned anything from firing Dan Reeves and Jim Mora, or coddling Michael Vick. I have my doubts, but, hey, maybe this is the year he finally gets it.