Super Bowl meeting with Patriots brings Falcons GM Thomas Dimitroff full circle
HOUSTON — It might be some form of NFL karma dictating that the first time Thomas Dimitroff is in the Super Bowl with his Atlanta Falcons, Bill Belichick and Co. stand in the way.
Dimitroff, 50, left the New England Patriots in 2008 to become Atlanta's general manager. Look at him now — the most successful branch from the Belichick tree. Time to show his former boss just how well he’s progressed on the NFL’s biggest stage.
Funny thing, this specific Super Bowl matchup was always part of Dimitroff’s plan.
“I’ve imagined that every year that I’ve been the general manager,” he told USA TODAY Sports on Monday as he toured the downtown area that is the hub for Super Bowl LI activity. “I envisioned it as the dream game, to be able to play the team that has meant so much to my development.”
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Dimitroff isn’t too proud to admit, even this week, that the Patriots are “my second-favorite NFL team.”
If anybody can relate, it’s Scott Pioli, who was once Dimitroff’s boss with the Patriots and now works for him as assistant general manager. He also happens to be one of Dimitroff's closest friends.
Pioli, 51, formerly the Patriots personnel director, left New England a year after Dimitroff to become GM of the Kansas City Chiefs. It didn’t pan out. Pioli was fired after the 2012 season.
Yet they converged again. Pioli and Dimitroff were with the Patriots when they won back-to-back Super Bowls following the 2003 and 2004 seasons and for the near-perfect campaign in 2007, when a 16-0 regular season was followed by a Super Bowl loss. Pioli goes back to the beginning of Belichick’s tenure with the Patriots, following him to New England from the New York Jets after previously working for him with the Cleveland Browns.
Dimitroff still talks to Belichick “randomly,” he says, and not merely for routine NFL business. He picks Belichick’s brains for perspective on league matters and opinions on assorted topics.
“I always learn something from our interactions,” he said.
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That is an extension of the foundation he received from the Patriots for his role with Atlanta — which years ago was one of the elements that piqued Falcons owner Arthur Blank’s interest.
“For me, it was taking a lot of the philosophies in New England that Bill and Scott put in place and meshing that with what was congruent to my personality,” Dimitroff said.
But after a pair of disappointing seasons following an NFC Championship Game loss in 2012, the Falcons altered their arrangement in 2015, hiring head coach Dan Quinn and giving him final authority over personnel decisions. Such power for a first-time coach is rare, and from the outside it could be viewed as a basis for dissent. But Dimitroff echoes Quinn in maintaining that the authority for roster moves has not been an issue.
“This is a partnership,” Dimitroff said.
He insists major roster decisions have been made with collective brainstorming, adding: “If it gets to the point where you say, ‘I have final say,’ you’re in dire straits."
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Time will tell whether the authority issue evolves into a point of friction, which has occurred many times across the NFL. Dimitroff believes he and Quinn are a philosophical match because the types of players the coach wants — speedy and explosive ones — is consistent with Dimitroff's ideals.
When Quinn expounded on his beliefs during the interview process, Dimitroff says, “It was music to my ears.”
And Quinn is fortunate to have the type of resources presented with a Dimitroff-Pioli bond that spans decades. Go back to 1993, when Pioli was a pro personnel assistant for Belichick's Browns. Dimitroff, whose father, Tom Sr., worked as a scout for Cleveland, took a job on the grounds crew while angling to get his scouting career on track. He recalls routinely dropping into Pioli’s office — grungy, wearing rain gear and “smelling like I had just spent a few weeks in Europe,” he said.
“He’d look at me and shake his head,” Dimitroff recalled of those old film sessions with Pioli. “I’m like, ‘This is what my life is going to be?’ ”
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In subsequent years, their bond would be strengthened by work and friendship. Pioli was in Dimitroff’s wedding party and a pallbearer at his father’s funeral. In 2015, with Pioli working in broadcasting, Dimitroff lured him to Atlanta.
They’ve talked about what it would be like to face the Patriots in a Super Bowl. Now they’ll find out — and whether it will be even more special to win a championship at New England's expense.
“Any time you’re playing a team that you learned so much from,” Dimitroff said, “it would be very special to show our best on the field.”
Spoken like a true (ex-) Patriot.
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Follow NFL columnist Jarrett Bell on Twitter @JarrettBell
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