Atlanta Falcons: Week 12 matchup means much more to Arthur Smith

Arthur Smith and his Atlanta Falcons will be on the road in week 12 in Washington D.C. hoping to pull off an upset win against a Commanders team that has won five of its last six games.

This game will mean much more to Arthur Smith as he will be taking on a team that gave him his first opportunity in the NFL, as well as a team that his family is very familiar with.

Atlanta Falcons HC Arthur Smith hoping to take down his father’s team

The Atlanta Falcons head coach, Arthur Smith, is not the first famous member in the family as his dad is a founder of one of the biggest companies in the world — FedEx.

His dad is extremely rich, obviously, and he even inserted himself into the NFL landscape years ago as he became a minority shareholder in Washington. He held a stake in the team from 2003 to 2021, before he and two others sold their share — which combined to be 40% — to majority owner Daniel Snyder. If you know who Snyder is, then you know why they all sold their share of the team.

Arthur Smith’s family has been involved with Washington for years now. It was likely his first exposure to the NFL world. His father bought the stake in the team prior to him even starting his coaching career.

Arthur became a graduate assistant at North Carolina in 2006 before he got his first taste as an employee in the NFL when he became the defensive quality control coach for Washington for two years. He would go on to be an intern for Ole Miss for a year before joining the Tennessee Titans where he remained until he took the Falcons’ head coaching job.

Now, here we are in 2022 when he has his team in contention as they travel to take on the team that his dad was a minority owner in and the team he joined for his first action in the NFL.