 Welcome to Cool Atlanta. It's great to see you all. First thing, as Brett reminded me, this is the first time we've been on campus in two years. So welcome back to football. Welcome back to actually live football. So we're thrilled to be here today, first day of camp. And we're excited about the season coming up, excited about all the changes we made during the off season, excited about our new coach, general manager. Every reason for our fans to be enthused and look forward to seeing them in the stadium before we know it. So with that, let me just open up the questions. And D.L. Yeah, after the new beginning, what were you most excited about to come out here and look at practice today as the team starts off in a new journey here? Well, I think the thing I'm excited about is something to do with today, but probably a lot to do with what's happened since we've hired Coach Smith and Terry Fontenot. And I think all the things that we had anticipated in terms of their attention to detail, you know, the intellect in which they're approaching the work, their ability to analyze our existing roster, look forward to the roster coming up. I think Terry, both of them, Terry and Arthur, both done a very good job, I think, in understanding because of the salary cap situation this year, we have a lot of opportunities with vets that ordinarily might not come our way and have fully taken advantage of that, I think, in a variety of positions. So, and I think Terry's shown that, you know, 18 years in New Orleans, one of the things I think he did particularly well on the pro side. And, you know, Coach Smith is, you know, he's got a great mind and we're seeing that. So we're excited about first day of practice, we're excited about beginning of the season and we'll take it from there, but do we feel as good as we can right now? Your expectations for Lutri Piede and Kyle Pitts? Yeah, they're high, like all of us. And I think, you know, there are a lot of things you have to like about Kyle Pitts, is that, you know, beyond his athletic ability and what he's done, you know, over the years and proven himself, is that, you know, he's got a lot of humility. He's a very good listener, a very good learner. Be asking a lot of questions and a lot of people that are experienced that are here. I think he's gonna be a great team leader and I think he's gonna perform very well on the field. The fact that we can use him in multiple ways, I think very much fits Coach Smith's offensive play design. So I'm not sure where you'll find him, probably won't find him a quarterback, that may be the only position he won't be playing, but looking forward to seeing Kyle on the field and playing. And he is as well, too, for sure. Michael, at what point did you realize that you were gonna move to Lio? Move to, take it. Move to Lio, that you're gonna trade with Lio. What point did you realize that, like what were those conversations like with Terry? Well, I mean, we did not realize it at the end of this last season and didn't realize it going into this season. I think, you know, Julio made it clear that he, he had certain aspirations and wanted to do it someplace else. That was not our original intent. We have tremendous regard for the player and for the human being as well. And he's given us 10 great years and that's about half of my ownership and said all kinds of records. But, you know, I think this time was right for him to move on and I think that the coach did what he could and general manager did what they could to try to have him stay here, but, you know, he was ready to move and ready to move. So one thing about football is that you want, you know, you want a locker room with everybody who does want to be here. You don't want players, any of the players, whether it's number one or number 53, you feel like they want to be someplace else. So I think it'll work out for us well and it'll work out for, you know, hopefully for him well, too. He said he was going to be a doctor for a lecture today. Right. Thank God. What was that like for you on a personal level to see him, A, want to get traded and then to actually see that? Well, I think the father just bothered me personally was the fact that he expressed that he wanted to be traded. I mean, you know, we had a 10-year relationship and it was a good relationship. It was certainly productive. He's a football fan player. And so I was, you know, I was disappointed he felt that way. For whatever reasons, I'm not sure. I was unable to speak with him myself, although I tried to. But, you know, he felt the way he felt and therefore it's ready to make a change. So we have 90 guys out here that are all committed. They're ready to be here. They're excited to be here. They want to lead. They want to make a difference for the Falcons. So I think they will. So had you spoken to him at any point? No, I have not. Yeah. Well, you know, I think, you know, you can go back to the comment or the question this gentleman asked about Julio. I think he, you know, he feels he wants players that want to be here. He doesn't want to have to coach players that he's never had him managed before and Julio was not one of them. And so, you know, he did the best he could and the organization did. And after the decision was made, he was ready to move on. And, you know, I think his attitude is exactly correct. So the standard is high. It should be high. This is the NFL. It's the top of the heap in American football. So, you know, and we want to, we want to get where we need to be. We've made a lot of commitments over the years to have a competitive team. That was been our goal since I bought the team in 2001. And, you know, we've had a long run of a very, very strong successful run last three years, not so much. So we think we have a great combination with Coach Smith and the general manager, Terry Fontenau. Jeff, I would say one of the things that impressed me during the interview process, which was a long process. He went through first, second, third round interviews and eventually in person, et cetera. He's very smart. And also I think he's a very good listener. I think he's got a sense of confidence about himself, but also a pretty good sense of humility too. And so he doesn't assume he has all the answers. He knows what he wants the team to look like and play like. He knows exactly the kind of moves he's gonna have to make to get there. And he has a clear sense of direction. I mean, he was, you know, one of the top offensive coordinators in the NFL the last couple of years, not in terms of, you know, kicking field goals or actually scoring touchdowns 75% in the red zone, which is one of the areas that, you know, in the NFL, you're gonna win some games by field goals, but you gotta be able to score seven points. And I think he's smart, really smart. But he's not smart cause he tells you smart. He's just smart because when you listen to him, you realize he's thought through, you know, all the implications of going this way versus this way versus this way. Thought there was options, thinking down the road a little bit, which is nice from a head coach. Sometimes head coaches will, you know, tend to focus Sunday to Sunday, which I understand. But I think he's got the ability to focus both Sunday to Sunday as well as thinking along the term. And then a follow-up. You've got there's a few times that you coach per state for anything. Yeah. If you were the other way, what have you learned from the first time you did this to keep doing it? Well, I think you learn that you don't win games. You don't win the first day of training camp. I mean, but I think it's a building process and you have to understand that. I remember years ago when Bobby Bethel was here and I was upset when we didn't win a pre-season game. Bobby sat me down and said, let me tell you son. He said, you know, I was in Washington 12 years, four years, we went to the Sioux Bowl, we won three of them. The years we won, we never won, we never won a pre-season game. So you learn to keep things in perspective. And I think you understand as a process that you're building towards, you want to get to the starting line, you want to be healthy, you want to have a clear definition of what the team should look like. And I think the coach and Terry both have that. So, and yes ma'am. Going off of that, how would you define a successful training camp for this season? I think you've defined it. If you look at a process, you know, you start with, you know, start with the off-season, you know, start with free agency draft, et cetera, et cetera. And you work on, you know, free agency. Again, you know, players now become available side to tackle the other day, et cetera. So, I mean, I think you look at the long-term process and you're moving in that direction. You had a defined process and you're following more or less that line. You feel good about where you are in terms of, you know, making those changes. And I feel good about where we are. I think they both have a great relationship. One of the things I liked about their connection with each other is that it wasn't kind of predetermined. So, Terry actually didn't know off there. When we first interviewed him, interviewed, talked to Terry by the second or third time, we asked him, well, have you spent time with Coach Smith? He said, I haven't, I don't know. I mean, so I called him because I knew he was a candidate. So, I think that, you know, the commitment is really to the coaches, to the players based on standards and performance as opposed to based on, you know, long history with this guy, which is good in some cases. In some cases, not so good. So, I feel like, you know, in the offensive side, we got a great play caller on the defensive side. I think we were very fortunate to get Dean Pease and have him come back out of retirement. And that's a tribute to Coach Smith. I mean, that's the reason he's here. Hopefully for Atlanta, but he's the reason he's here because of Coach Smith. So, you know, he's got, you know, he's got a lot of history, a lot of great experience, a lot of very successful experience. They'll probably have guys, you know, starting to rush when they get off the bus. You don't know where they're gonna be coming from, but that's the way he, you know, he calls defenses. So, we're excited about having him and the whole coaching staff. Very experienced, very knowledgeable. Yes, sir. I'm sorry. How would you describe this just past year between, you know, the other, you know, multiple coaching hires for both teams that you own? What's it just been like for you? Yeah. You know, for a guy, it doesn't have a lot of patience. It's been a very difficult year. And I said, I don't have patience. I don't have patience, really. It's not about me, about myself. It's for our fans, whether it be the Falcon fans, the Atlanta United fans. In either case, it's, you know, I feel their pain. I feel their anxiety or depression when they have it. It's been a hard year on America. It's been a hard year in the world. And so, I think, you know, we have to do our part this year to cheer people up. And I think we will. I mean, I think there's not a lot of press about us, which is okay. I'm happy flying beneath the radar. And I think our team is as well, but I think we're gonna be very successful and I'm not sure I really do, you know. Yeah. So that question, Arthur. Yeah. What do you think your level of patience will be now due to disease and a mid-nil mentality for everybody in that cell? And what do you hope, what are our patient levels? You know, you have to have, I mean, I'm not a patient person by nature. And that, you know, that's good for the fans. That's good for our franchise. That's good for all of our businesses. You know, good as the enemy of great to me. And so, you know, I'm always trying to find a way to get better. And sometimes that's not easy. Our staff will tell you sometimes, oh boy, he's, you know, not very high standards. And I do. So I think, you know, we will, we have aspirations. We understand the NFL. You can't necessarily, you know, it's a long season, 17 games this year, single game elimination, you get to the playoffs. That's our first goal. Our first goal is to win our division, et cetera. And then you take it from there. And, but as long as you're doing everything we can do, that's all you can ask people to do. But you want creative thinking. You want people that are going to, you know, push the envelope. You want people that have the same standards that you do. You want people that don't sleep at night sometimes because we're not where we should be and trying to figure out how do I get a better, you know, a better performance from the team. So I think we have all that. But, you know, I mean, time will tell, but I have full confidence in this group. I truly do. So, yes. Mr. Blaine sort of bouncing off of Alice's question. How would you assess the state of the franchise and party in the United given everything that's happened last night? How would the state of, I'm sorry. The franchise regarding the United given everything that's happened last night? Yeah, well, you know, you're not happy when you have to turn over coaches the way we've had to. And there's a lot of reasons for it. But at the end of the day, you know, you point finger with somebody three point back at you. So you've got to start out with like, what could we have done better? I think in this last coach, there's some things in terms of cultural aspirations and the way he was treating our players, et cetera, et cetera. I think we probably could have done a little better job upfront in the homework on that. Certainly, you know, but technical standpoint is very well qualified. So, you know, you learn from those lessons and you move on. And so I have, you know, I think we have the nucleus of a really good, a really good squad. And I want to, you know, you have to show appreciation, true appreciation for our fans who have been incredible on the AU side and the Falcon side as well. We got a tremendous amount of support from Falcon season ticket holders this year and AU can, you know, we'll ask Mastery of 67,000 people in the building. So, you know, I love our fans. I love the energy. I love their commitment or passion or all the things they give us. We want to give them back a product that's equally important to them. Well, I think, you know, the best you can do is put your arm around them. And, you know, it's not a matter of personal opinion. I mean, my personal opinion is that, you know, everybody in the United States should have a vaccine that can be of age. But that's, you know, that's their choice. I think it's up to us to share with them, not what we think, but what the science says and what the doctor says, what the medical professional says. And if they have, you know, issues or questions they want to talk about, make sure that talking to, you know, not necessarily their buddies, but talking to people actually have the knowledge to do that. We have a very high vaccination rate to the Falcons and just a couple of players left and, you know, they're taking the right steps now as well. So we're dealing again with the resurgence with this new variant. And the people who have not had vaccinations are getting sick. And even some have vaccinations are getting sick, but that's a very small percentage, basically the ones that are not vaccinated are getting sick. Now it happens to be even more contagious, probably six times more so than ever before. And so I think, you know, the vaccine isn't going to be a cure-all, but it's going to keep you out of the hospital. It's going to keep you, you know, you know, in a situation where you don't fear for your life, if you will. So I think I would just encourage people strongly, as strongly as I can as an individual, as somebody that cares about community and life with everybody, that they ought to get vaccinated. You know, truly should. And, you know, today we have plenty of product available in America. So you can get a vaccine really almost any day. I would encourage everybody to do it strongly.