Anthony Robinson, the Falcons’ director of college scouting, has had an interesting football journey.
He’s had stops at three colleges, slept on an air mattress for seven months and sold cars for a living before getting his first full-time scouting job in 2008.
Robinson, who interviewed for the vacant Falcons general manager position this offseason, and Falcons general manager Terry Fontenot participated in the Ozzie Newsome General Manager Forum, that was conducted virtually by the NFL and the Black College Hall of Fame on Monday.
Falcons quarterbacks coach Charles London participated in the QB Summit, which was held Tuesday and Wednesday. Falcons owner Arthur Blank was a speaker at the QB Summit on Tuesday.
The programs, which had 109 participants, were held for front-office personnel and coaches from the NFL and NCAA to experience professional development and networking opportunities with NFL club executives with the goal of helping to improve the league’s hiring practices.
There are only four Black general managers and three Black head coaches in a 32-team league where about 70% of the players are minorities. In the 2021 hiring season, two of seven head coaches hired were minority candidates. There are now five minority coaches of 32 (16%) in the league.
Fontenot became the Falcons’ first Black general manager, while Arthur Smith was named the head coach.
“I think we have a lot of progress to make in terms of minorities in the front office in the positions of general manager, assistant general manager and vice president roles,” Robinson said. “I think this is a good step in the right direction. Anytime that you can hear from Ozzie Newsome, who’s paved the way for a lot of young aspiring general managers, and he gives his insight and take on his experiences, I think that’s invaluable.”
The final GM session was a question-and-answer session of team executives moderated by Fritz Pollard Alliance executive director Rod Graves. Buffalo’s Kim Pegula, the Giants’ John Mara and Detroit’s Rod Wood fielded questions from an ownership perspective.
“Anytime, that you can get a peek inside the window, it’s great,” Robinson said. “Every job is different. Every owner is different. Every city, team is different. But when you can get peek inside the window and see some of the things that you’ll probably have to deal with to prepare, it’s a lot.”
The owners shared what they look for in the interview process and what the look for in candidates. They also discussed the special dynamics of the relationships between the head coach, general manager and ownership.
It was London’s second year participating in the QB Summit.
“It’s just a great way for us to exchange ideas and give presentations about maybe some best practices about maybe some things another quarterback coach is doing somewhere,” London said. “Maybe a drill he is doing or something that he’s working with his quarterbacks on. It’s just a great wealth of knowledge. A great networking event.”
Through the summit, London has struck up a professional relationship with DJ Williams, the Saints’ quarterback coach and son of Doug Williams, the first Black quarterback to win a Super Bowl and a Black College Football Hall of Fame co-founder. The group noted that London has moved from being a running backs coach to coaching quarterbacks, which is considered a pipeline position to offensive coordinator and potentially a head coaching position.
“I’m very impressed that he can come from the running backs (meeting) room to the quarterback room,” said James “Shack” Harris, who was 18-4 as a starting quarterback for the Los Angeles Rams in 1974-75 and a Black College Football Hall of Fame co-founder. “That shows a lot for him. I just think that those guys have to continue to work at their craft and continue to get better and be ready for this opportunity when it comes.”
After high school, Robinson turned down a partial scholarship from a small California school and walked-on at Morgan State in Baltimore. He played for former NFL player and Georgia native Stump Mitchell before a life-changing event led him to the workforce.
Robinson worked as a car salesman to help support his baby daughter, who’s now 23. But he wanted to get back into football in general and scouting in particular.
Robinson’s father had season tickets for Ravens games, and he regularly attended them.
“I kind of reached out to their personnel department,” Robinson said. “I looked at their whole staff, and at the time Eric DeCosta was the director of college scouting. So, I got the office number.”
Robinson would call a couple of times a day, maybe three times a week until finally, DeCosta called him back after about two weeks.
“He called me back and said, ‘Hello, Anthony, this is Eric,’“ Robinson said. “‘I understand you’re interested in scouting. Come on in, sit down and let’s talk.’”
Robinson, who was paid in the six figures to sell cars, treated the meeting as an interview.
DeCosta advised him to finish college, get around football and to stay in touch. DeCosta gave him his business card.
Robinson moved back to Tallahassee, Florida, and enrolled in a community college.
“I went to a community college for year and a half,” Robinson said. “While I was there, I coached high school football for a year for a high school called Leon High School in Tallahassee. I coached defensive backs for a year and then that following year I was able to transfer to Florida State.”
He promptly went to the football office and talked to Jeff Bowden, who was the offensive coordinator.
“I told him, Hey I just want the opportunity to come up there and work with the football team,” Robinson said. “I’ll volunteer, I’ll do whatever I have to do, I just want to get back around it.”
Robinson worked as a undergraduate assistant wide receivers coach for the Seminoles.
“I stayed in contact with Eric throughout my time at Florida State and Leon High, just the whole way,” Robinson said. “When it was time for me to graduate, he offered me an internship with the Ravens in 2006. That was my first real exposure to pro, NFL front office.”
As an intern, Robinson got a chance to see Newsome work up close.
“It’s one thing to hear Ozzie speak, but it’s another thing to actually see him operate and move in his own building and around his people,” Robinson said. “How he treats his own staff. So, I had that opportunity.”
Robinson landed another internship with the BLESTO scouting service in Jacksonville. For seven months, he slept on an air mattress in a friend’s one-bedroom apartment during the week. He went home to Tallahassee on the weekends.
Lionel Vital, who had been with the Ravens, recommended Robinson to then-new Falcons general manager Thomas Dimitroff, and he landed his first job with the Falcons as a scouting assistant in 2008. He moved up to Southeast Area scout after three seasons and then Eastern Regional scout covering half of the nation in 2015. He’s been in his current post since 2019 and has been credited with scouting Julio Jones, Keanu Neal and Calvin Ridley.
He interviewed for the general manager position Dec. 18. After not getting the post, he was retained and is set to work with Fontenot.
“He’s been great,” Robinson said. “The first thing I’ll say about him is that he’s a great human being. His leadership style, his work ethic, his ability to connect with people and listen (is excellent). He’s been great. He hit the ground running. He got us through free agency, got us through the draft.”
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