 So how'd you arrive at the decision to go back to retire? To talk to my wife. We had a lot of long discussions, kind of made a list. Reasons to keep going, reasons to not keep going, and just kind of really hashed it out and really talked about it for a while and just came to the decision. I thought it was the right time. What did you share with the team and the defensive unit this morning and the meeting? Well, I told, first of all, I thanked all the guys on the team for allowing me to be here and coach, which leads me to, I want to thank Mr. Blank, Rich McKay, Terry Fontenot, obviously Coach Smith for those guys all giving me the opportunity. It's a first class organization. I really didn't know much about the Falcons. I knew, I told you I came here a long time ago, or when I first got here because of Coach Smith, but didn't know really a lot about the Falcons. Absolutely a first class organization. And I've been blessed that every organization I've worked with has been that way. England, Baltimore, Tennessee, and here. I'm just very blessed and privileged to have worked for all four of them. And I can't say enough good things about all of them. Head coaches, front office, everybody, but especially here. And I'm very grateful I got the opportunity to come here. I told, I shared with the team the reasons why I'm not coming back and then I am going to retire. But first of all, I told them the hardest decision was not seeing them and being around the team. I love this defense. Where they've come from the beginning of this year to where they are now, I've never had a defense do that. In this last nine games, we've given up an average of 314 yards a game and 19.7 points a game, which would be fifth in the NFL right now. Unfortunately, it's not the way it is because we played the first eight games, and we weren't that way. But to know that a team can improve that much and has improved that much and was bought in that much is just really tremendous. I just can't say enough good things about them. We went from 28th in the league in red zone to 14th. If you look, I think the final product was one of the things that I heard so much about at Atlanta defense when I came here was not finishing games. That was always the big push. We ended this year in second half points, second in the league. Behind Buffalo, by 1 tenth of a point. And so I'd say that's a pretty good tribute to those young men. And so like I say, that's the first thing I started out with. Second thing was, like I said, it was my reasons. And number one was the fact that there comes a point in time. I've been in this thing so long and been around so many players that extended their careers just a hair too long. Guys that have had incredible careers and at the end, maybe they've lost a little bit and they started to drift or lost speed or whatever it is physically and then maybe end up with not as good an ending. And that's what kind of people think about them and it's tragic to me because they had such great careers. Right now, my ego and my heart tell me to stay. But my mind and my body told me it's time. And that meaning that there are some things this year. I caught a cold in Los Angeles, which is what the second game of the season. I got over December 20th. I mean, my body just doesn't go like it used to. A lot less sleep. All those things were a factor. And I think I still maintained an OK attitude and good job with the game plan and stuff like that and working hard and all that stuff. But the hours, when you get to a certain age, it's hard to put in 85 hours a week. It is. And so I don't want to be. And I think this thing is trending in such a great direction. I don't want to be a deterrent if something does start to. If I start to fade, I don't want to be a deterrent to this defense or to this team. And so, like I say, I've seen it enough times where everybody goes, I'll just go one more year. I have another year on my contract. This isn't like somebody said, oh, you had a two-year deal. Was this your plan all along? No, because I got three years on my contract. I got another year if I wanted it. So that's not even close to being the case. So it's just that I thought of that. That was one of the biggest reasons. The second one is, because of those things, also I owe it to my wife and my family to give them time. And you never know at this age how much longer you have. And I just really weighed on me that my family has sacrificed so much. My wife has sacrificed so much for my career. And I know she'd like to travel. We wanted to travel after the Tennessee thing and COVID hit. And so we didn't have that opportunity. The other thing is, I've lost a couple of coaching friends this last year that had retired. That bothered me a little. At what point in time do you not try to fulfill some things that you want to do with your family? I got a bunch of grandsons that are all playing football now and stuff and other sports. And I want to watch them. Sometimes I didn't get to see my own kids play very much because of this professional. At least now, I'd like to have the opportunity to see my grandkids play and to be a bigger part of their life. But my wife has sacrificed so much. And she will do and she has done whatever I wanted to do. This was our decision, but it was still my decision. She would never, ever tell me that she once made a retire. She won't disagree with wanting me to retire, but she would never tell me that. And obviously, that's true because I went back out of retirement twice and she approved of it. So I just, those were the two biggest reasons. I just feel like I do not want to be a detriment. I don't think I am, but I don't want to be. And I, like I say, I've seen it enough that I don't want to be that guy. And so I'm not going to be. It's plain and simple. And I want to spend some time with my wife and spend some more time with my family. But that lasted pretty much the entire season. At what point did you start thinking, OK, this might be the last year? Not till the end. Not till the very end. It wasn't like, it's just at some point in time, you just got to kind of sit down and say, OK, I told you, I really usually reassess everything at the end of the season. And that's what I did. It was the end of the season. I told you last week when you guys asked me, I didn't lie to you. I told you, I'd assess it after the season. But the other part of that was that I think I also, I also know how this coaching carousel goes. And I don't know how many jobs we got open today, like five head coaching jobs, a couple coordinator jobs, all this kind of stuff. I also don't think it's fair to Coach Smith that I would hang on and say, OK, well, I'm going to take some time and think about this after the season. That's not fair. Make a decision so that he can make a decision. And that's the way it should work. If you're a head coach and you're going to let somebody go, you ought to let them go right after the season so they can go out and find another job. Well, it's the same thing if you're an assistant coach. You ought to tell the head coach if you're not coming back right away. So I felt like after the game, I didn't want, I wanted to have an opportunity, too, to address the players. And if all of a sudden, everybody's out of the building after today, I'd have to do it through text or email. I want to actually tell them physically. I don't like texting. I don't like telling people over the phone. I want to tell you in person what I think and how I feel. And to me, that's the most genuine way to do it. And I've been that way with thousands of players that I've coached. I want to tell them in person. I don't want to tell them by text or email or something else. So Mel and I just kind of decided over the weekend, right before the game, that let's make a decision we did. When you look back at five decades, what stands out? People, players, that's why you do it. I sure didn't make any money early on as a high school coach or even as a college coach back in the day. I certainly wasn't about the money. It's all about people. It's about players. It's about coaches and so should I. I have so many friends and so many people. I'm getting so many texts from guys all the way back to high school. Guys played for me in high school. It's really just that's the memories. And you know what, it's not, you know, it's always everybody puts up there, the accolades, the awards, the Super Bowls, that stuff. It's really not that. And I know everybody's the way it's easy for you to say, no, because those things are important. Those things are, you like those. You work hard to try to achieve those things. But the biggest achievements have been some of the things that guys that never played professional football played for me in college or even in high schools that have gone on to achieve things. And maybe they didn't have a dad or they didn't have, you know, they had a tough life at home and you made things better for them. And they appreciate that. Those are the guys that you hear from that just makes it all worthwhile. All worthwhile. And we talked a lot about the players that you've worked with. But what about those coaches who you've worked with and influenced and have now? Well, I hope I've been influenced. I know I've worked with them, but you'd have to ask them if I actually influenced them. But it is kind of neat to look around and see, I don't know, there's like eight or nine coordinators here in the league that all worked for me at some point in time, a couple of head coaches. It's great to see them. It's great to see them have success. And I wish them the best. And I keep watching them all the time and always keep track of them. We talk a lot unless we're going to play each other. And it's just been the camaraderie of this profession. And it's kind of crazy because you always see, you guys probably all see coaches standing out talking to each other before the game. Now, we want to whoop them when it goes. You know, I mean, it's like yesterday I was talking to Tom before the game. Well, I have a great feeling for Tom. About six years, coaching with him, I've played against him 10, now 11 times. And five and six, unfortunately. So, but I'm probably not alone in that category, I would guess. But the point of it is, is that I have a great feeling for him, but also he wanted to whip me and I wanted to whip him. And so that, but you never know when you're going to be on one staff and pretty soon you're going to be coaching with that guy that you just out there were trying to beat the heck out of and be on the other staff. That's why you just, to me, it's a fraternity. Like the players have a fraternity, the coaches kind of have a fraternity. We all understand that their sacrifice and their families are sacrificing the same thing your sacrifice and in the hours that you're putting in. But I'm very, it also tells you, I think, a little bit by those guys all being coordinators and those guys that we hired some pretty good people. I mean, we were talking about it the other day. I think I went through five secondary coaches when I was at Baltimore as a coordinator and all five of them left to become coordinators. All left for good reasons. Nobody getting fired. Everybody left to be the next step up. That's a great thing. That's a great thing. And the next guy we hired was there one year and he was a coordinator. So those are all positives about this profession. Coach, you talked earlier about how this defense improved down the stretch this season. When you first got here to now, how would you say the culture of this defense change from your arrival? I think incredible. I attribute that to the coaches. Coach Smith's starting at the top, but especially the defensive coaches too. Everybody bought in, but the players also bought in. Because you gotta get them, it was a different system than what they had. And so you gotta get them to buy in. And that first year, they all bought in. I just don't think we had, we couldn't do a lot of the stuff that we really wanted to do, because you gotta learn it. It's not an easy system. It's just not. It takes a while to learn it. And so, but then this last year at the beginning of the season, we just did some crazy things. They were much more in tune. I told you that during training camp. I told you that someday I want this defense to be talked about like the other defenses that I've been around. And now I think they are that. I mean, I really believe one of the things I wanted to achieve personal goal was that every place I've been, I've had a top 10 defense. And I wanted to have a top 10 defense here. And now I think there is a top 10 defense. They were the second half of the year. This was a top 10 defense. And so I feel good about that. And I just, the progress that they've made, I mean, every week I go back into that room, even if we lost a tough one, because we lost a bunch of tough ones here down the stretch, all by three points, four points, whatever. And it takes a toll on you. You just get tired of watching that score up there. And there's the three point difference and you had a chance to maybe win the game on one player or the other. And that takes a toll. But these guys come back in there on Wednesday and when I talk to them or have a signal callers meeting, here we go again. And bought right into what we wanted to do. And it just really paid off. And like I say, I just, I couldn't be prouder of that group of men. Retired, you stayed in the game, kind of in doing the radio show? Radio. I was never a media guy though. I was never, I was never, I was never part of the media. Let it go. Do you want to stay in football right now or is this a clean break for you? I think it's a very clean break. Although I will always say never. My wife says, yeah, sure. And so some other people have too, but yeah, sure, you're retired. But it won't be as a coach. And I'll say that I'm done coaching. And I don't want, I don't want to do anything that's going to require. I told you the main reason I want to spend time with my family and my wife and do those things. And so I'm not going to do anything that requires time like that. And so I just, I mean, some high school coach wanted me to come over and talk to the team or come over something. Yeah, I might do that or something. I don't know, but I, because I don't want to say I'd never do that, but I'm not coaching. I'm done. I'm done. And really, I'm not cut out for really the radio show or what you guys do because I just, I probably, they wouldn't like what I had to say. So. As the season went it down, a lot of the guys started talking about the camaraderie, the defense, right? Even someone in locker room said, like compared it to a college locker room, what was it about this squad you said you loved them? What was it about the squad that just made them so special? I think because we tried to make it fun. You know, sometimes it's kind of, everybody says, why do you do so much? You know, there is a couple of reasons. And one of them everybody thinks was because you want to be so different for the offense that you're playing and stuff. You know, there's another part of it is, I don't want to be bored. I don't want to be bored. I thought up stuff every week just because I wanted to think stuff up. It kept me mentally sharp, you know, of just, okay, how can I do this? We ran a package yesterday that we had not run all year and there were five calls out of it on the last game of the season against Tom Brady. And it was all pressure. I don't know if you watched yesterday, we pressured 32 times out of 55 plays. And it was a whole new look that nobody had ever seen. Why do it on the 17th game, especially if you think you're retiring and what makes a difference? Because I want it to be fresh. And you know what, those guys had fun with it all week because it's not boring. It's got, you got to learn something new and you're always learning and you're always keeping it fresh. And it's not like, okay, well we're going to go out there and play Tampa 2 today. Great. Oh, that's a lot of fun. No, you want to come out there. And part of that is that is it was similar calls but out of a whole different front. And those guys think, oh, yeah, this will be great. And they were coming off the sideline, talking about it. Oh yeah, I was free. I was free. Asking these guys, okay, who blocked you on that? And they're so into it because that's what makes defense fun is just going and having fun and doing new things. And I think that's why we tried doing it all pretty much all year. And we've always kind of tried to do it. But the first part of it is you got to lay a foundation so they actually know what you're talking about. Then you can start changing things up. And the last half of the season, we changed things up. We'd go in and a half time and come up and change things up. And obviously they work. But these guys then started believing that like one of the things yesterday they go, we'll shut them out second half. They ain't scoring a second half. Well, they didn't. And so they start believing that stuff in it. That just makes it much, much more fun. And there isn't any, I mean, if you guys watch, there ain't a lot of hooting and hollering. I ain't not ripping anybody on the sideline. Coaches aren't ripping anybody on the sideline even if they make a mistake. Here's how we'll fix it. And so to me, it was coaching positive. And coaches, all of our coaches coached positive. And I think those guys loved that and had fun with it. At least I hope they did. Talking on Friday about you and you was saying that you've had a tremendous impact on the game and on the people that you've worked with. Do you think about your legacy in that way in terms of impact on the game? I asked about coaches before, but just like generally what you've been able to achieve and the impact that you've had? No, I really don't. The best example of that was a year ago, I asked Dick LeBeau for his autograph. And he goes, why are you asking me? I said, well, you've done this. What do you think you've done? And that meant a lot to me. But I don't see myself in that light at all. Tried to do my job, tried to do it honestly, tried to be loyal to all the guys that I've worked for. I've told you guys in the past, I think one of the reasons I've never been fired is I've never looked for a job. I got a job, that's the job I gotta do. I'm happy with it, I'm happy where I am. I'm not trying to all of a sudden jump the wagon and go see, think grass is green or somewhere else. I've not applied for jobs. Didn't apply for this one, didn't apply for Tennessee, didn't apply for Baltimore, didn't apply for New England. Those were all jobs that somebody, they called me and asked me if I'd be interested. Absolutely, I'd be interested and it worked out. But I think also the head coaches appreciated the fact that I wasn't out ever looking for another job. I was asked at Baltimore about a head coaching job once, not interested, don't wanna have any interest in it, don't wanna be a head coach, happy doing what I'm doing. Been out of the 50 years I've been coaching, I've been a coordinator, signal caller, 44 of them. And so happy doing that to me, that was the head coaching gig I was made out to, or I was head coaching college, wasn't always cracked up to be. And I could all of a sudden, you're not the same person, you can't deal with the players on the same personal relationship, you have to make hard decisions, I don't have to make a hard decision, I don't cut anybody, I don't talk about contracts with anybody, I don't talk to anybody about anything other than football and players. And so to me, that's, hopefully that's the influence that I've had because I tried to be honest and upfront with everybody. I know you always talked a lot about timeline a little bit. Dude, what happened this year in New Orleans and anything for you? No, not really, no, no. It was funny yesterday, I'll tell you a quick story. It can be yesterday, I always tell you a quick story. What, one of the Tampa Bay coaches that I know I won't mention the name come up to me, says, you okay, you all right from that hit? I mean, I haven't seen him, I hadn't talked to him. I said, yeah, I'm pretty good, it's not, it didn't really affect me too much. He goes, he goes, you're such a, you know what? Let's have some fun with it. No, I just tell all the old guys out there, I can still take a hit. So that's all matters.