Arthur Blank

He's playing for a second contract.

I think the Falcons, they've only been relevant – under Arthur Blank twice, when Michael Vick was in his prime and with Matt Ryan.

And I don't think any of the quarterbacks close to that caliber is on the roster.

So I think this is a great year for quarterbacks.

The power structure and influence has largely been the same for the last 20 years, but I will argue the power center and the influential roles of the league will change more in the next five years than it has in a very long time.

Now, 10 years ago, if we were doing the Buzzcast and we talked about the power structure in the NFL, it would've been with Robert Kraft, Jerry Jones, Dan Rooney, uh, John Mara, uh, Jerry Richardson, Arthur Blank.

Those would be the names that I would've said back then had the most influence within the league.

Today, one could argue, of course, it's still Robert Kraft and Jerry Jones, but it's also Clark Hunt, um, the Browns' Jimmy Haslam, the Broncos', uh, Greg Penner, uh, Stan Kroenke of course, Josh Harris at the Commanders, and Jeffrey Lurie at the Eagles.

That all is going to carry over into 2027 at least.

Austin, speaking of the NFL, Arthur Blank and many of his top executives flew up to Charlotte this week, spent some time with us at the Sports Business Journal headquarters here.

And one of those executives is Greg Beatles, who you caught up with this week on the pod.

We have with us Greg Beatles, president and CEO of the Atlanta Falcons.

I mean, it's exactly what happened today, and we talked a little bit about it at the beginning of the show today.

The idea of moving money and pushing it back by Arthur Blank gets a lot of credit here, Matt.

Because the idea of adding a void year to Chris Lindstrom's salary and creating, giving him money, $14.7 million and saying, "Hey, we're gonna give you this money today." So Chris Lindstrom got a, a transaction, and I had to ask one time how this thing works.

You get a immediate transaction sent to you-

So what this new organization has done, and I'm calling it the new Falcons, 'cause they are the new Falcons.

They are taking a trick of the void years and the money, and what they've said is, "We're giving Chris Lindstrom the money up front.

It saves us, it, it then..." But Arthur Blank had to stroke that check, and I had to go back and look.

Arthur doesn't do, hasn't done this a lot.

And we talked a little bit about it at the beginning of the show today.

The idea of moving money and pushing it back by Arthur Blank gets a lot of credit here, Matt.

Because the idea of adding a voyage year to Chris Lindstrom's salary and creating, giving him money, $14.7 million and saying, hey, we're going to give you this money today.

So Chris Lindstrom got a transaction.

And what they've said is, we're giving Chris Lindstrom the money up front.

It saves us then.

But Arthur Blank had to stroke that check.

And I had to go back and look.

We'll tell you when he's gonna be on the field." Because him being cleared and being ready to play in his mind are two different things, and that drives people nuts.

'Cause, 'cause that was the season where Arthur Blank was trying to get Jim, uh, trying to get Dan Reeves fired

firedHe wanted Dan Reeves out.

Dan Reeves wasn't going to sit there and yes man to, to Arthur Blank.

And the Michael Vick injury, I think, gave Arthur Blank the perfect opportunity to hire his guy-

Yeah

... which ended up being Jim Mora.

I don't see him sitting.

He's going to be sitting next to Arthur Blank and Ian Cunningham.

You see him sitting? During the game? What's he going to pace? I see Matt

standing.

I don't see Matt being the type of temperament.

I think Matt's a sitter.

Sitting next to Arthur Blank? I think so.

Hell no. You're