Arthur Blank reportedly is a big fan of Belichick
Bill Belichick and the Falcons not coming to terms on a pact might have been a mutual decision.
Atlanta interviewed Belichick twice after the future Pro Football Hall of Fame coach left the New England Patriots. But the Falcons ultimately hired Raheem Morris instead of Belichick, who probably is going to have to wait until 2025 for coaching consideration.
During Monday’s episode of “Boomer and Gio,” former NFL quarterback Boomer Esiason provided noteworthy new details about how the Belichick-Falcons flirtations fell apart.
“An NFL executive basically told me that they believe Arthur Blank offered Bill the job,” Esiason said. “Now, there may have been some caveats to that offer. You never know. It’s like, ‘OK, Bill. I want you. Here’s a five-year contract. You do whatever you want.’ I don’t think it was one of those. The way it was made to sound to me was, ‘OK, I understand your concerns, but you’re going to have to deal with some of this. We want you to come in. We want you to be the coach.’
“Maybe he thought better of it and just maybe said, ‘You know what? I don’t want to go right back in. I want a year away. I want to see what happens.’ Because we all know there will be about five or six job openings next year and there may be a better situation where an owner says, ‘You know what? I want to go down this path with you and I want you to take my building over and I want you to run it the way you ran it with the New England Patriots.'”
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Esiason’s report is similar to one recently made by Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer, who claimed Blank wanted to hire Belichick and was willing to pay up for him but feared the potential ripple effect throughout the organization if such a signing was made. Belichick’s “frosty relationship” with Falcons president Rich McKay reportedly was another “primary reason” why the former didn’t end up in Atlanta.
Time will tell if the Falcons made the right call when they replaced Arthur Smith. Regret could be on the horizon in Atlanta, as Belichick figures to be a hot commodity next offseason.