It has, goodness knows, been hard to take the Falcons seriously. They’ve been to two Super Bowls and messed up both. They’ve hired coaches who were gimmick guys (Jerry Glanville) and slogan guys (Dan Quinn). They often act as if they know everything, but somehow they don’t know the rule about onside kicks. Over the breadth of their history, they’ve been an easy punchline. That just changed.
They now have Terry Fontenot as their general manager. He’s a star. He’s the sort of person who’d have succeeded at whatever he tried – twice Tuesday he invoked the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Street Sweeper Speech, saying, “How you do anything is how you do everything” – and he’ll succeed here. This correspondent feels more optimistic about the Falcons today than in 37 years of tracking them, and it’s not because they have a new coach. (Although Arthur Smith is a solid choice.) It’s because they have Fontenot.
I know, I know. The NFL is a results-oriented business wherein fortunes and fates can turn on a doinked field goal. Lots of smart people have been made to look silly by the vagaries of sport. But with some folks – not many, but some – you just know. Fontenot is 40. He has served an 18-year apprenticeship with the Saints, who for a long time were as clownish as the Falcons but who finally figured things out. He’s among the reasons they did.
The Braves were an organization wandering in the wilderness until they hired John Schuerholz as GM. They proceeded to finish first in their division over the next 14 completed seasons. That can’t happen in the NFL, where a hard salary cap ensures some measure of parity. But leadership in sports, like leadership in any endeavor, cannot be taken lightly. Fontenot will make the brick building at 4400 Falcon Parkway a better place by walking through the door.
Tuesday marked his introduction to the Atlanta media. He was ready. He wore a red tie, about which more in a bit. He knew the initial question at every Falcons’ briefing always falls to the AJC’s D. Orlando Ledbetter and was disappointed when this livestreamed edition featured another first questioner. Calling D-Led “Darryl” – which is his given first name – Fontenot said, “I’ve watched a million Falcons press conferences and you always have the first question. I’m disappointed you didn’t have one for me.”
Actually, D-Led did. He just wasn’t called on this time. But the thing to note here is that Fontenot is a guy who notes everything. “I watch every press conference,” he said, “because I want to know what (coaches and GMs) think of their team.”
He’d read Arthur Blank’s latest book. (So had Smith. Hiring new help can do wonders for book sales.) When Fontenot learned the Falcons interviewed Smith after interviewing him, he called the coaching candidate to introduce himself and talk football. Everybody says, “We want to be a process-driven organization,” but when Fontenot said it, you know he means it. His is a process-driven life.
He started with the Saints as a marketing intern out of Tulane and left as a vice president/assistant GM. He choked up Tuesday when speaking of Mickey Loomis, the longtime Saints GM. He said Loomis told him, way back when, that “if you put your head down and work hard, you’re going to have opportunities to be successful.” Fontenot did and has, and his definition of succeeding isn’t to win big once.
“We aimed for sustained success,” he said. “We aren’t going to be prisoners of the moment. We’re going to think big-picture and do it the right way.”
With the Saints, he was part of two roster turnarounds. The first came around the time of Hurricane Katrina, when the organization redid itself by hiring Sean Payton and signing Drew Brees. The second was after three consecutive 7-9 seasons – from 2014 through 2016 – when the Saints responded by firing neither Payton nor Loomis but by drafting smarter and building a better roster. Fontenot inherits a team in a similar rut. “There are some talented players on the roster,” he said, “but we understand where we are with the salary cap.”
That was as close as he would come to tipping his hand re: the thorny issue of whether to reload or reset. Regarding the draft, in which the Falcons hold the No. 4 pick, he said, “We’re not going to be in a position where we say, ‘We’re good there.’” (Meaning, perhaps, at quarterback.) Then: “It’s all part of the process – not focusing on the moment but on the big picture.”
Maybe that’s not what you wanted to hear, but it was music to these ears. So was this: “My goal wasn’t to be a general manager. My goal is to be part of an organization I can feel good about.”
It will, he conceded, be an adjustment, the guy who grew up in Lake Charles and who has spent more than half his life in NOLA taking charge of the Saints’ ancient enemy. A box of Falcons apparel arrived at Fontenot’s house – surely via FedEx, Smith’s dad having founded that company – in time for his children to be wearing the appropriate gear Tuesday. He pulled three of them, all suitably dressed for their new audience, into the webcam frame. His son was asked who his favorite receiver was. “Julio Jones,” was the reply.
Fontenot: “I’ve bled black and gold since I was born. Now I bleed red and black.”
Which brings us to the tie. He admitted to owning a red tie. He couldn’t find it Tuesday. He asked his wife to go buy one. He hated her choice. He raced to Dillard’s at Lakeside in Metairie to find a suitable one. He put it on in the store and was reminded of how, on the way to his first interview with the Saints 18 years ago, he’d stopped to buy a tie because he didn’t own one. He recalled the saleslady knotting it for him. “The same Dillard’s,” he said. “I got chills.”
After 10 minutes of listening to this man, I’m prepared to follow him anywhere. He said everything I’d ever wanted to hear from a Falcons GM – heck, from any GM of any team in any sport – and nothing, thank heaven, sounded like a slogan. It all sounded real.
Terry Fontenot is ready for this. He was born ready. He’ll take the Falcons to a Super Bowl. This time they’ll win.
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