Arthur Blank is as much to blame as any player or coach

The Atlanta Falcons falling to 1-7 means there is a lot of blame to a lot of places and the one person that seems to be getting a pass is Arthur Blank himself.

Arthur Blank owns two teams in the city of Atlanta – Atlanta Falcons and Atlanta United. One he is hands-on with and the other one he is leaves alone and allows those he hired to run the day-to-day. Which one already has a championship and is in line to win another?

You guessed it, the one he is hands-off with.

Arthur Blank has repeatedly broken the most important rule in being a pro sports owner – you are not to be friends with players and coaches. There has to be both respect and fear in regards to the owner. Players and coaches respect Arthur Blank, but they do not fear him.

Blank has been bitten several times becoming too close to players and coaches. The first time was Michael Vick, the relationship he established with Vick went well beyond the player/owner relationship and it came back to bite him in the ass.

The relationship Blank has established with Thomas Dimitroff has caused the Atlanta Falcons general manager to become really bad at most aspects of his job without fear of losing it. There is not a single person that can look at Dimitroff’s history as Falcons general manager and say he has been anything but terrible when looking at the entire 12 years.

The relationship that Arthur Blank established with all of his head coaches does not allow for him to fire coaches when they absolutely should be. There is not a single person in the organization, in football or among fans that think Dan Quinn will coach the Falcons beyond the season, however, Blank does not deviate from his good-guy persona and will allow this train wreck to continue.

Sure, when you look across the league, Tom Brady and Robert Kraft have a different relationship but Brady is arguably the best to ever play the game, is in his 20th year and has won six Super Bowls. Their relationship should be different.

No Atlanta Falcons player or coach has earned that type of relationship with Arthur Blank and yet most of them are afforded that opportunity.

Friends are loyal and loyalty in sports means comfortability. Comfortability does not win championships and until Arthur Blank realizes this, the Atlanta Falcons championship drought will continue.