The dance hasn’t been named, probably because it was more of a series of spontaneous, non-choreographed, flailing arm and leg movements by a 74-year-old man in a three-piece suit who, yeah, pretty much made the whole thing up on the spot.
Where did Arthur Blank learn those … dance moves?
"Probably from my mother," he said Wednesday when asked about his postgame attitude dancing last week that morphed into Instagram and YouTube gold. "But it helps for me to be in the right mood to unleash that part of me."
Blank's spasmodic celebration took place amid a cheering crowd of Falcons players after a 36-20 divisional playoff win over Seattle, launching the team into the NFC title game.
This was the first time Blank could recall dancing after a game. The closest he came to accepting another kind of celebration challenge came in 2012. That was the last season his team ascended to the heights of a conference championship.
“Todd McClure used to have a mohawk,” Blank said, referencing the Falcons’ former center. “He challenged me in 2012: If we won the championship game and went to the Super Bowl, I promised I would get a mohawk like him. He had challenged me three or four weeks before, so I was like, ‘OK, sure. I’d be happy to get a mohawk.’ But I was thinking, ‘What were the chances of that?’”
The Falcons wound up playing for the conference championship. But they lost to San Francisco 28-24 after having a drive fizzle at the 49ers’ 10-yard line.
“I almost ended up going to the Super Bowl with a mohawk,” Blank said.
Pause.
“That would’ve been a sight. I think I would’ve preferred dancing.”
He is still waltzing in his head.
Blank is as emotionally invested as any owner in pro sports history. It’s not a common trait, particularly in an era of cold, corporate sports ownership. For a team to have that face of a franchise at the top is often embraced by anybody who works for the franchise, lives in the city and follow the team plays.
But there can be a downside to that as well. Because Blank is driven, he demands success from anybody on his payroll and, because he’s so emotionally connected, his moods fluctuate with every win or loss.
“Obviously I’ve learned — there’s no guarantees in this league.”
But it’s worth noting: This will be only the fourth NFC title game in the franchise’s 51-year history. One came in the Super Bowl season of 1998. The other three have come since Blank took ownership: 2004, 2012, 2016. That can’t be a coincidence.
It doesn’t mean he hasn’t made mistakes, but the good has far outweighed the bad.
The last three seasons have not been easy on Blank. After coming so close to a Super Bowl appearance in 2012, and with expectations meteoric going into the following season, the Falcons plummeted with records of 4-12 and 6-10 the next two seasons. Blank was forced to make the difficult decision of firing Mike Smith, the best coach in franchise history, and re-evaluate the job being done by Thomas Dimitroff, the best general manager the team ever had.
Then came the angst of last season: All that new coach Dan Quinn touched turn to gold one minute (6-1) but mush the next (2-7).
“I said this to Dan at the end of the year: It would’ve been easier on me if we won one, lost one, won one, lost one and ended up with an 8-8 record,” Blank said. “But we improved on balance. And I do think there’s a transition, no matter who the head coach is in the first year, especially when it’s a first-time head coach. There’s a lot of absorption the players have to go through, and in many cases the head coach has a lot to learn with the coaches on his staff, some of whom he hasn’t worked with before. The coaching staff got better, the communication got better and the players understood them more clearly and were able to respond.”
Blank has a greater comfort level about the stability and direction of his organization now than he has ever had, even during some of the extreme highs of the Michael Vick era and under Smith.
One reason is something Seattle coach Pete Carroll told him before Quinn was hired: “Pete told me that of all the coaches he worked with, Dan had an exceptional talent for player evaluation.”
We have confirmation.
The Quinn-Dimitroff duo has done an excellent job of overhauling the roster, particularly in the areas of adding speed and youth to the defense. The Matt Ryan/Julio Jones/Kyle Shanahan-led offense has dominated the attention, but for the first time in memory the Falcons have a young, fast and aggressive defense that is expected to grow in the coming seasons, led by Vic Beasley, Deion Jones, Keanu Neal, Desmond Trufant (injured), Robert Alford and others.
There will always be an obsessive nature to Blank’s ownership — that’s the way of self-made billionaires. But he feels a peace now he hasn’t had before.
“I look at our skill positions on both sides of the ball, and I see a young team that will continue to be strong,” Blank said. “It doesn’t mean we’re going to be in this position every year but I think we’ve got a chance. There’s a tremendous amount of linkage between Thomas and Dan. Dan is very precise about what he wants and doesn’t want, and Thomas is a good listener, and he and Scott (Pioli) and the whole personnel department have responded to the prescriptions that they’ve been asked to fill.”
So Blank has more time to impress players with his dance moves.
“Killer,” center Alex Mack mused.
“He has some awesome moves,” said Alford, whose smart phone recording of Blank went viral.
“He’s got more rhythm than I thought,” defensive back Brian Poole said. “You could see how much that means to him. Just as a player, to know your owner is that involved and it means that much to him, it makes us feel good.”
What would Poole call the dance?
“The Arthur Blank Challenge,” he said.
Better than a mohawk.
Subscribe to the, “We Never Played The Game” podcast with Jeff Schultz and WSB’s Zach Klein on iTunes. All episodes also can be downloaded and heard on iTunes or via WSBRadio.com. Two new episodes every week.
About the Author
