Over the last week, we’ve repeatedly suggested that it made no sense for Arthur Blank’s decision to retain or fire Dan Quinn and Thomas Dimitroff to hinge on the Buccaneers game. Blank must have agreed—or at least didn’t want to be seen as making a decision after a pretty meaningless game that would either leave the team 6-10 or 7-9—because they blitzed fans and media with videos interviews, breakdowns, and justifications for why Quinn and Dimitroff were returning.
I now feel I know pretty well why the Falcons made this decision. All that slick marketing and public relations work was intended to get out ahead of the inevitable fan backlash—the team’s brass aren’t stupid and they certainly knew it was coming—but it also served to illuminate Arthur Blank and Rich McKay’s thinking.