Ryan and Ryan? Suddenly, I'm Buyin'

The year was 1990.

My beloved Atlanta Falcons were in search of a new head coach. The franchise was coming off what we fans hoped would be its worst season (Michael Vick and Bobby Petrino were nearly two decades away). The record said 3-13, but it was much worse than that. Head coach Marion Campbell "retired" with four games left in the season and was replaced by interim coach Jim Hanifan, who not only went 0-4 the rest of the way, but proceeded to blow stuff up and get charged with a DUI shortly after the season ended. 

The season itself saw a game in San Francisco in which the kicker got hurt in pregame warmups, leaving quarterback Chris Miller as the only source of field goals and extra points. Lucky for the Falcons, extra points weren't necessary as Miller's hilariously awkward field goal (I tried to find a YouTube link) provided the only Falcons points in a 45-3 loss to the Joe Montana/Jerry Rice Juggernaut By the Bay.  More seriously, that season saw two players killed in tragic car accidents.  The season ended less than mercifully with a Christmas Eve loss to Barry Sanders and Detroit attended by a now-infamous franchise-few 7,792 fans at old Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium.

How big a Falcons fan am I? I sat in my parents' car in the parking lot of North DeKalb Mall (then Market Square Mall) while they last-minute Christmas shopped. I listened to the legendary Larry Munson call that game and tick away the final moments of that awful season.

But there were signs of better things to come. The Falcons drafted Deion Sanders in the first round of the previous year's draft, and he brought excitement not seen since the early days of Steve Bartkowski and William Andrews. Also, construction would soon begin on a new stadium to be called the Georgia Dome. All the team needed was the right coach to move the franchise forward.

That brings us back to 2015. Let's be clear, I can't underestimate how far removed this franchise is from the hopelessness following that 1989 campaign. That team was floundering with an ownership group still trying to find its way after a quarter century in charge and a roster seriously lacking in talent. It would take nine years, three coaches and I-forget-how-many quarterbacks to finally reach the Super Bowl after the 1998 season.

The current team has strong, determined ownership and plenty of talent on-hand including, most importantly, a franchise quarterback. This team is two years removed from hosting the NFC Championship Game. The 1989 team was two years removed from another 3-12 finish. In my humble opinion this team is a couple draft picks, free agents and the right head coach away from being right back in the NFC Championship game next season.

Yet there are comparisons in the searches for a new head coach. After that 1989 season the Falcons interviewed many candidates and settled on two finalists: Houston Oilers head coach Jerry Glanville and San Francisco 49ers offensive coordinator Mike Holmgren. Me? I was a fan of Holmgren. As the late, great Munson would say, he handed us our "whatchamacallit" enough times with the 49ers that I figured he must know what he was doing. Secondly, the Falcons were going to draft a quarterback out of Southern Miss the next year named Brett Favre.  That's right, Holmgren/Favre should have been a Falcons thing, not a Packers thing. That particular Lombardi trophy should reside on Northside Drive, not Lombardi Avenue.

Instead, the Falcons hired Glanville.  He wasn't a bad coach, and by all accounts he was a good guy. He had had some success in Houston and he translated that mild success to Atlanta. His flashy Man In Black style put rear ends in the seats his first year. His second season, the Falcons made it to the Divisional Round of the playoffs before losing to the eventual Super Bowl champion Washington Redskins. But that was it. The Falcons never tasted the postseason again under him and he was fired after the 1993 season with a record of 27-37 in Atlanta.

If you've made it this far you may be wondering what Jerry Glanville has to do with the current Falcons search. Well, maybe nothing.  Those were different times. However, even as a kid I remember believing the Falcons should go with substance over style. Initially, I found myself feeling the same way this time around. Maybe Adam Gase or Josh McDaniels or Todd Bowles is the next great head coach.  Maybe one of them is the next Mike Holmgren.

But the more I read, the more I like Rex Ryan. While he would certainly bring plenty of "style", I also believe he has substance to back it up. His defenses have always been top-tier, and defense has recently been the Falcons Achilles heel. He managed to take the New York Jets to the AFC Championship game TWICE with Mark Sanchez as his quarterback. Imagine what he could do with an actual offense and Matt Ryan? I would let him handle the defense and hire a top-notch offensive coordinator to lead Ryan, Julio and Co. to the promised land.

Look, I'm not sure he's the perfect fit. But I don't see a Mike Holmgren in the current group of assistants-who-want-to-be-head-coach. Josh McDaniels flamed out in Denver and, in my opinion, seems like a bit of a pill. Todd Bowles and Teryl Austin just saw their defenses ousted in round one of the playoffs. We've been there. We've done that. Gase? Quinn? They get a collective "meh" from me, and I won't even address Doug Marrone.

Sometimes it doesn't work out on your first stop in the NFL. Ask Bill Belichik, ask Pete Carroll, Tom Coughlin, Tony Dungy, Jon Gruden...the list goes on.

With Rex Ryan as coach and Matt Ryan at quarterback, the marketing practically writes itself.  Oh, and if the Falcons-Saints rivalry needed any more spark...how about Falcons head coach Rex going up against his twin brother, Saints defensive coordinator Rob?

Waste no more time, Arthur. Pull the trigger. Hire Rex Ryan.

Thank You, Stuart Scott

Full disclosure:  I was not a Stuart Scott fan.

His style was not my style. In fact, when I started my career in sports broadcasting I remember wanting to be the anti-Stuart Scott. No catch phrases, no yelling...just telling people what happened in sports that day.

A decade of TV work later I still feel that way.  And yet, I now realize Stuart Scott had a remarkable impact on my career that I didn't fully realize...until today.

I never had the pleasure of meeting Stuart. By all accounts he was a true gentleman in a business that lacks them.  The closest I ever came was when I was Sports Director at WJBF in 2004.  We were looking for a new weekend sports anchor and I hired a fresh-out-of-college woman named Tara Miller. In the interest of MORE full disclosure, I didn't have the authority to hire anyone...but I definitely picked her tape out of the pile and recommended her.  If my memory serves me, she was a bartender at the time, waiting on her big break in TV. But she had graduated from Michigan State with a journalism degree and done an internship at ESPN.  Her resume tape began with a "fake" SportsCenter segment of her anchoring alongside Stuart Scott.

I hated that part.

The rest of her tape showed great potential so I wanted to hire her, and we did. During one of her first nights on the job we decided to put her resume tape in and watch it.  The first thing I said to her was "It's cool you know Stuart Scott, but don't try to be the next Stuart Scott".  She replied, "He told me the exact same thing."

Today I've heard that sentiment echoed by various people who shared the desk with Stuart over the years. To the casual viewer he came off as brash, possibly even self-centered. But those who knew him would tell you he was anything but. He didn't want to create more Stuart Scotts.  He wanted to encourage everyone to be themselves, whether on TV or off.

In February of 2005, shortly after hiring Tara, WJBF management asked me if I would be comfortable taking on a new role by co-anchoring a new 10pm newscast.  My boss at the time, Mark Rosen, said he wanted me to bring my sports approach to news.  So I did. He paired me with one of our reporters, Kimberely Scott. He also encouraged her to be herself.  So she did.  I remember a sales guy telling me that our show would result in "slash marks" in the ratings.  We received countless e-mails complaining of how "unprofessional" we were and promising the always-popular "I'll never watch again."

But when the ratings came in the show started beating older, more established, newscasts. A few years later another boss, Kathy Wideman, gave us a second show at 5:30.  We received the same negative response...and the same positive numbers.

I know what you're thinking: "John, what does this have to do with Stuart Scott?"  Here's what.  Stuart Scott blazed a trail. There was a time when ESPN was uncomfortable with his approach and I'm sure he got his fair share of negative response. But management stuck with him instead of overreacting to every phone call and/or e-mail. Because of that he became an icon of sports broadcasting.

His success in being himself encouraged other broadcast managers to be more patient after making a change

. A decade later, I'm guessing it indirectly influenced a local news station to let a sports guy be himself on a local newscast...for better or for worse.

I was never a Stuart Scott fan. My greatest personal influences will always be my parents. My greatest professional influences will always be Skip Caray and Larry Munson. 

But today I realized I also owe a debt of gratitude to Stuart Scott. And a thank you. May you rest in peace.