Atlanta owner Arthur Blank recounts his team’s hiring process, and why he thinks the 71-year-old Patriots legend will be back coaching soon enough.Two-hundred-and-eighty-five games up. Two-hundred-and-eighty-games down. The offseason is almost here and so are the Super Bowl LVIII takeaways …

I had an interesting conversation with Arthur Blank about Bill Belichick—and it could open up more opportunity for the former New England Patriots coach in 2025. And I say that because the Atlanta Falconsowner’s words, after being the only owner to formally interview Belichick in January, fly in the face of the way a lot of teams viewed the 71-year-old as a candidate.I simply asked Blank why Belichick was the wrong fit for Atlanta.

He responded by going narrative hunting.

“It wasn’t that he was the wrong fit,” Blank says. “We had 14 candidates. We always wanted him. All the issues and questions about Bill relative to power structure were completely unfounded and untrue and based on nothing. All of my discussions with him, he was nothing but collaborative, inclusive, anxious to work with personnel and scouting alongside him. He did his referencing on our organization and felt very comfortable working with them. It really had nothing to do with any of that.