Arthur Blank is Peaking

When I originally got the idea for this article after the NFC Divisional Round, the title was going to be "Is Arthur Blank Peaking?" Then I decided to wait a week for the result of the Packers game. and its a good thing I did because the title changed to a declarative statement.

Arthur Blank is peaking. He's peaking at the exact moment the franchise and the city need him to. Blank has built momentum that most owners only dream of when moving into a new stadium. He's manufactured buzz in introducing a soccer brand. And lastly, he's gotten his largest investment in the biggest football game of the year.

You can see what this team's success means to Arthur, and you can tell he wants this city be as excited as he is in this achievement. Unlike most owners, he has a vested interest in the city. He actually lives here, he built Home Depot here and he's now a partner in making this city a football town.

When Arthur bought the Falcons in 2002, he inherited Michael Vick and rode his athleticism to the brink of championship football. He trusted the brand and invested the ability for the largest contract in NFL history at the time. He then moved a coach he believed would take them to the next level. Without going into too much detail, it all backfired...all of it.

Blank took the remains of what was left and put it in the hands of a young Belichick confidant, Thomas Dimitroff. In the most important coin flip in franchise history, he won the right to select before the Oakland Raiders and Kansas City Chiefs (both in need of a quarterback at the time) and selected Matt Ryan to be the first quarterback under first time head coach Mike Smith.

I had the pleasure of being in the Georgia Dome when Matt Ryan hit Michael Jenkins on the seam for a 62-yard touchdown pass and it certainly helped rebuild the Falcons image after getting demolished.

Say what you will about how the Mike Smith era ended, but the Falcons were back on the football map until the situation had come to a head. A change needed to be made, and Blank did what needed to be done before the bad situation got worse.

Blank has shown trustworthiness as the patriarch of this organization and it has worked out in his favor more often than not. His ability to make patient decisions instead of popular decisions have landed the Falcons where they are now.

This progression and success comes on the brink of Blank cutting the ribbon to his transcendent and towering new stadium.

The Mercedes-Benz Stadium will be the new "Jerry's World," with not only a championship caliber team moving in, but other events that will trigger excitement and incite sports fan to Atlanta as a destination for years to come.

Blank is also putting his new MLS team into the stadium, with buzz swirling around the players and potential for the expansion franchise. (more to follow on that next week)

The Chik-fil-a Kickoff Classic, SEC Championship and Peach Bowl will move next door for their yearly events, but the College Football National Championship next season will also get in on the college football action in the new digs.

The stadium will also host Super Bowl LIII, with the possibility of a Falcons Super Bowl LI banner hanging in the rafters, in 2019. The economics that a Super Bowl brings to a city is outstanding and a truly endeavored event by all football cities.

And it doesn't stop there, as March Madness will conclude in 2020 at the Benz with Atlanta's third Final Four in the last twenty years.

An array of big time games that will make Atlanta a hub for sports going forward, with other various entertainment activity sprinkled in between, and it could not have happened without an owner who cares about the city and cares about the brand that represents the city.

On top of being a fantastic figure head for the city and franchise, he's not on weekly radio shows talking about back-up quarterbacks and his brain's ability - instead he manages in the background to let the football minds do what they were hired to do.

He doesn't try to be anything more than he has to be, and he acts as the true CEO that this team needed for consistency and stability.