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Speaker 1: You are listening to falcons Able Podcasts presented by AT

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Speaker 1: and T. I am Matt Tapeka Atlanta Falcons dot com.

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Speaker 1: And joining me today is Rich McKay, President and CEO

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Speaker 1: of the Atlanta Falcons. Rich, thanks so much, Matt. I'm

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Speaker 1: happy to be here. It's kickoff weekend. I'm looking forward

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Speaker 1: to it. Yes, it is finally after a long summer. Rich.

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Speaker 1: So we're talking today basically about I want to get

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Speaker 1: right into it, the Hall of Fame, specifically mister Falcon

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Speaker 1: Tommy Nobis. I know you feel really strongly. A lot

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Speaker 1: of people feel strongly. NFL circles, Falcon circles, fans, a

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Speaker 1: lot of people remember his career still. But it's of

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Speaker 1: particular interest right now because you have a letter that's

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Speaker 1: going to come out on Atlanta Falcons dot com and

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Speaker 1: you can tell us a little bit more about that.

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Speaker 1: But also, the Pro Football Hall of Fame is going

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Speaker 1: to include twenty inductees in its twenty twenty centennial class,

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Speaker 1: including ten seniors, five modern players, three contributors, and two coaches. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: So for me, Matt, as I came to see you

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Speaker 1: probably six weeks ago, I told you that to me

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Speaker 1: to me, I've waited too long to take a stance

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Speaker 1: on Tommy. Um, we've tried to politic from behind, which means,

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Speaker 1: you know, you call the people that are going to

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Speaker 1: go in the room, you talk to the presenters, you

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Speaker 1: do all those things. But really we have not moved

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Speaker 1: the needle enough to get Tommy into the hall. And

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Speaker 1: this is the opportunity, This is the year with an

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Speaker 1: opening up and the amount of seniors that can get

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Speaker 1: in it. Just to me, Tommy is the first pick

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Speaker 1: in the franchise. He earned the moniker of mister Falcon.

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Speaker 1: You don't they don't give you that. That's not something

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Speaker 1: he's just given. He earned it hearing it by his play.

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Speaker 1: He earned it by his locker room. He earned it

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Speaker 1: by playing through some incredible injuries. He had injuries in

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Speaker 1: his career. He just kept playing. He was an incredibly

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Speaker 1: tough dude. When I got to the Falcons in oh

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Speaker 1: three four, Tommy worked here, and you know he was

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Speaker 1: still here and still a contributor and still played a

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Speaker 1: part in we're sitting in Flowery Branch today. Tommy Nobis

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Speaker 1: did the deal to bring the Falcons to Flowery Branch.

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Speaker 1: So Tommy was it, Yes, he was a franchise player

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Speaker 1: from beginning to end. And when you look at his

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Speaker 1: play and you look at who he was, and you

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Speaker 1: think about the fact that there was a year where

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Speaker 1: he was Rookie of the Year. So he's a first

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Speaker 1: pick in the draft and then Rookie of the Year.

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Speaker 1: It's not easy to do. I think some crazy stat

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Speaker 1: like he averaged like twenty or twenty two tackles a game,

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Speaker 1: So that's just an incredible feat. And then he plays

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Speaker 1: eleven years on a team that really wasn't competitive too,

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Speaker 1: winning seasons, still goes to Pro Bowl five times. And

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Speaker 1: I can just tell you from my own experience with

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Speaker 1: my dad having coach an expansion team, that is not easy.

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Speaker 1: The Falcons won fifty games in his eleven seasons. That's

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Speaker 1: not a lot. And you know, the first question that

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Speaker 1: people say, even in the building here today, it's like,

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Speaker 1: you know, they we mentioned Tommy Nobis, and the first

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Speaker 1: thing people say is why isn't he in the Hall

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Speaker 1: of Fame? What happened? Yeah, I don't know. He really

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Speaker 1: legitimately should be, because I think I went through it

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Speaker 1: myself in Tampa when I was working in Tampa and

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Speaker 1: Leroy Selman first came up. It was really was not

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Speaker 1: hard to get him in. He was the first pick

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Speaker 1: in the franchise's history in Tampa. He had been the

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Speaker 1: legitimate carrier of the water. Those were better teams. Three

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Speaker 1: out of those teams of his nine years he went

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Speaker 1: to the playoffs. But but but Leroy played nine years and

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Speaker 1: so he got in and got in pretty easily. And

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Speaker 1: to me, nobody carried that water for Tommy in that room,

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Speaker 1: because his play certainly did. And I just think now

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Speaker 1: we need to just heighten the awareness and say, listen,

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Speaker 1: for respect for our franchise, for respect for our franchise player,

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Speaker 1: for respect for the guy that truly gave everything he

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Speaker 1: had to the game of football. Tommy deserves a nod

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Speaker 1: in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. You had made

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Speaker 1: some points in your letter that's going to come out,

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Speaker 1: and you brought up Leroy Salmon. Did that little bit

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Speaker 1: of TV exposure those playoff games for Leroy Salmon. Granted

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Speaker 1: the bucks, they you know, they had some success, but

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Speaker 1: he was on TV. I think it's I think Matt,

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Speaker 1: I think part of it. It's ten years later. I

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Speaker 1: think the fact that pro football in sixty six, college

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Speaker 1: football was probably bigger than pro football in sixty six.

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Speaker 1: By seventy six, pro football was bigger than college football

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Speaker 1: and growing and much more dominant on television. I mean,

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Speaker 1: just much more dominant on television. And therefore Lee Leroy

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Speaker 1: had a bigger platform. Yes, he played an NFC championship game,

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Speaker 1: he played on some better teams, but I think also

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Speaker 1: that he came at a better time Tommy. And then

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Speaker 1: I think Tommy's perception, and we write it in the

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Speaker 1: article Tommy's perception was a little bit of it. Well,

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Speaker 1: he was a great college player and not that great

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Speaker 1: a pro. He was a great pro. He was a

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Speaker 1: great college player. I mean, there's nobody in the history

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Speaker 1: of the game that was voted the best offensive lineman

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Speaker 1: in college football and in the same year voted the

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Speaker 1: best all around player because he played on defense. And

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Speaker 1: that is that gets you on the cover of Sports Illustrated.

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Speaker 1: And he just was a wonderful football player. I think

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Speaker 1: that's important to bring up and just kind of reinforce people.

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Speaker 1: There was no Internet, no social media, there wasn't TV.

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Speaker 1: Not everybody had TV's in their houses back then, and

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Speaker 1: here the big thing was was newspapers and magazines and

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Speaker 1: if you had a TV and radio, but the biggest

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Speaker 1: magazines in the land, Life Magazine, Sports Illustrated Magazine. He

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Speaker 1: was on the cover as the best player, and he

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Speaker 1: was the best player on arguably, like you said, the

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Speaker 1: best team in the land and they were knocking off

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Speaker 1: you know, Roger Stauback's Navy teams, Joe name is Alabama teams.

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Speaker 1: The other thing I said about Tommy, and I've said

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Speaker 1: it too when I came to see you originally, is

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Speaker 1: it he's one of the few guys that could get

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Speaker 1: in and multiple categories because the other thing he did

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Speaker 1: is he contributed to football today, to football. The reason

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Speaker 1: football is where it is is guys like Tommy played

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Speaker 1: the game the way they played the game, whether they

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Speaker 1: played it to Texas or where they played it for

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Speaker 1: the Atlanta Falcons, and they made it what it was

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Speaker 1: a national sport. It's not a local sport, it's not

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Speaker 1: a small sport. It is a national sport. Guys like

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Speaker 1: Tommy help that come about. So what's it gonna take.

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Speaker 1: What's it gonna take to get people's attention. I know

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Speaker 1: we got this letter, you're doing this podcast. We're gonna

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Speaker 1: we're gonna put it out there, um, you know, I know,

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Speaker 1: you know, we'll all our little politicking. I've always done

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Speaker 1: the little politicking in this world. But I think in

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Speaker 1: the end it's it's going to take some people at

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Speaker 1: the top of the chain that are in that Pro

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Speaker 1: Football Writers group to help carry that water. They've got

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Speaker 1: to be one to give credibility to it. This will

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Speaker 1: be a very unusual year to have this many people

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Speaker 1: get in ten seniors. It will be very unusual in

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Speaker 1: how they vote and how this transpires. This will not

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Speaker 1: be a two hour meeting, so it'll be interesting. We'll

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Speaker 1: definitely look into it and figure out how we can

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Speaker 1: influence it if we can. But to me, I don't

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Speaker 1: think we need to influence it. I think his record

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Speaker 1: speaks for itself. Well, you mentioned influencer. In twenty fifteen,

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Speaker 1: Peter King named you number ten out of the one

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Speaker 1: hundred most influential people in the NFL. Yeah, lucky, probably

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Speaker 1: because of some rule change that year that he was Oh, actually,

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Speaker 1: you know what the year was. He was happy about

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Speaker 1: we moved the extra point. Okay, But I you know,

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Speaker 1: to me, I've been in the league a long time.

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Speaker 1: I've known I know a lot of people in this League.

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Speaker 1: And I think when you look historically and you look

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Speaker 1: at franchise and you say, okay, who's their seminal player. Right,

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Speaker 1: when you looked at the Seattle Seahawks, you said Steve Largin.

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Speaker 1: When you looked at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, you said

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Speaker 1: Leroy Summon. Those were franchise players on expansion teams and

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Speaker 1: expansion teams in the sixties and seventies. Here's what they

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Speaker 1: were given. Okay, they were given If they were playing

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Speaker 1: poker and you were in ChIL you got five cards.

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Speaker 1: The expansion teams were given one card to play poker

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Speaker 1: against the other people that had five cards. Just realize

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Speaker 1: it's kind of an unfair match. That's what they were given.

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Speaker 1: But these seminal players like Tommy, like Leroy, like Steve Largent,

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Speaker 1: they overcame it and they performed at the highest level. Yes,

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Speaker 1: they don't have to win loss record to show because

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Speaker 1: that's not the franchise they were in. They should not

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Speaker 1: be punished for that. They should be rewarded for what

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Speaker 1: they did, which is to continue to play at a high,

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Speaker 1: high level on teams that many times weren't as competitive

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Speaker 1: as you'd like. That's such a huge important point too,

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Speaker 1: because it has changed now when the you know, the

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Speaker 1: NFL hasn't had an expansion team in quite some time,

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Speaker 1: but they want those teams now to succeed immediately. Well,

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Speaker 1: free agency changed it. Match, So ninety two free agency

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Speaker 1: comes in, ninety free agency comes in, and then ninety

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Speaker 1: five is expansion year of Jacksonville and Carolina, And the

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Speaker 1: rules were modified at that point. And there was a

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Speaker 1: lot of us that sat in that room and said, hey,

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Speaker 1: we need to modify these in a way where these

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Speaker 1: teams can win and win fast. Why because here you've

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Speaker 1: got a new community that's invested a lot of money,

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Speaker 1: a lot of emotional capital, They've got a new brand,

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Speaker 1: they want to get behind it. Why are we going

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Speaker 1: to give them the rules from the sixties when New

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Speaker 1: Orleans and Tampa came in, or seventies when Seattle and

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Speaker 1: Tampa came in with no chance to win. Why would

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Speaker 1: we do that? So I think it's much for the better.

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Speaker 1: A lot of interviews after Carolina and Jacksonville both went

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Speaker 1: to the championship game in their second year or saying,

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Speaker 1: you know, don't you feel bad that Tampa? No, I

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Speaker 1: don't feel bad because I was part of what went

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Speaker 1: on in Tampa. I've seen since I've been here in Atlanta.

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Speaker 1: What went on Atlanta at the start just wasn't fair.

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Speaker 1: Speaking at Tampa, your first pick Warren sapp ended up

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Speaker 1: pretty good. Your dad's first pick, Leroy Selmon's feel pretty

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Speaker 1: crazy that we have. They're both in the Hall of Fame,

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Speaker 1: which is Leroy Sealman. You know, you gave me the

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Speaker 1: thing that coach Van Brocklin said about Tommy Novis, which

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Speaker 1: was he pointed to him in a locker and said,

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Speaker 1: you know there's where the team dresses. You know, that's

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Speaker 1: a pretty cool thing. I would just say that in

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Speaker 1: my dad's days, he used to say about Leroy that

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Speaker 1: when he thought about the team after the first couple

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Speaker 1: of years, because we lost twenty six in a row,

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Speaker 1: he said that there was absolutely nothing positive to think about,

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Speaker 1: except when Leroy Salmon popped in your mind, you smile

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Speaker 1: because you knew how he played, you knew who he was.

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Speaker 1: The beautiful thing about both those men is I think

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Speaker 1: it was Tommy's done off the field. Think of what

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Speaker 1: he did with the Novas Foundation, Think of the fact

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Speaker 1: that he started for nothing for kids. That did you

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Speaker 1: know kids would have many, many challenges, and now it's

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Speaker 1: crazy he's impacted something like twenty five thousand lives. He's

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Speaker 1: done all this the Novas Foundation. I was driving in

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Speaker 1: this morning. Coach Reeves was doing an ad for the

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Speaker 1: Novas Foundation on Coach Dan Reeves on the radio shows,

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Speaker 1: and it was like, you know, there is Tommy's legacy

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Speaker 1: sitting there today, you know, on the radio in Atlanta

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Speaker 1: where he was the first pick in nineteen sixty six.

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Speaker 1: It's interesting you bring up Dan Reeves. You know, he

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Speaker 1: played for those early Dallas Cowboy teams. He played with

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Speaker 1: mister Cowboy, Bob Lilly. There's a quote. I don't have

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Speaker 1: the quote rich, but he you know, he ended up

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Speaker 1: being coach here. But he's played with some great players.

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Speaker 1: And he said that he thought Novas was definitely worthy

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Speaker 1: of the Hall of Fame. But back to the Novus.

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Speaker 1: Tommy Novas Center founded in nineteen seventy and I think

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Speaker 1: they had like three people initially working there. Now it

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Speaker 1: spans over twenty four states. They help people across twenty

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Speaker 1: four states, basically influencing and helping twenty five thousand people. Basically,

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Speaker 1: it's helping people with disabilities get find meaningful work, which

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Speaker 1: is just incredible. Great a great player, great human being. Um,

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Speaker 1: and you know, I wanted to bring up your past

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Speaker 1: with your dad too, because you guys know defensive players.

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Speaker 1: You're the architect of that Super Bowl thirty seven team

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Speaker 1: in Tampa. You know, I think I don't know who

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Speaker 1: you got to talk to, but I'm I'm I feel

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Speaker 1: pretty confident that you're gonna you're gonna know the right people. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: I think what you know, what we said in you

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Speaker 1: and I when we talked about it, is it's just time.

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Speaker 1: It's time for Tommy. It's time to acknowledge the franchise.

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Speaker 1: It's time to acknowledge the franchise's seminal player, you know,

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Speaker 1: and mister Falcon if you will, and Tommy who had

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Speaker 1: an impact from the day he got here to today.

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Speaker 1: And that's along, that's a long time. I think that's

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Speaker 1: a perfect way to wrap this up and just plug

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Speaker 1: the fact that your letter will be out on Atlanta

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Speaker 1: Falcons dot com Thursday morning, along with this podcast, along

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Speaker 1: with a bunch of other stuff about Tommy knows. But

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Speaker 1: I appreciate you guys doing it. Matt. We got to

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Speaker 1: keep pushing it. Yeah, for sure, and look forward to

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Speaker 1: you at some point this season happened back on the podcast, Everybody,

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Speaker 1: We'll talk to you all right, Thanks Rich, thank you,