 It's Friday night in the A and you know what that means. Kelly Price and Troy McElhady coming at you on Rise Up Tonight, presented by AT&T. It's a great time for a new year and an even better time for a new year show. The Falcons have been officially eliminated from playoff contention, but it is time for a new slate. A new year! And I think that like our fits, maybe the Falcons future is pretty bright. You know what? I agree and it also doesn't hurt that the Falcons have quite a bit of money to play around with this offseason, which we will get into later in the show. Now, as the Dust and the Confetti settles here, we look back at the last couple weeks with the Falcons, only winning once since week nine and now securing their fifth straight losing season, but let's huddle up about what's next in these final two games. Grady Jarrett really said it best and he said it actually a handful of times after that loss in Baltimore. Same stuff, different day. And this season was yet another example of just not good enough for the Falcons, but I do think the growing pains they're going through right now are necessary. And as we look ahead on the eve of 2023 tonight, you hope that they can take the next step into contention as an organization next year. Do you think that signs kind of point right now to a brighter new year, Tori? I really do and look, if you understood the situation Terry Fontano and Arthur Smith inherited when they took over in Atlanta, you knew this was going to be a process that spanned years. This 2022 team was pieced together with players on the early days of their rookie contracts and veteran free agents on short term deals. Plus you tack on over $80 million in money you just cannot use this year. Tough. But all of that changes when the new year arrives because for as much money as the Falcons weren't able to use in 2022, that's how much they're projected to have in 2023. That's an already to play draft class won't hurt either. That certainly helped them this year. Another overarching theme this season was kind of a tale of two sides of the ball on critical downs the Falcons defense tended to tighten up breaking bending and not breaking rather while in similar situations the offense folded. This was especially true in Baltimore where Atlanta was five of 14 on third downs one for four on fourth down and 0 for four in the red zone. And offensively let's be clear this isn't unique to Desmond Redder. I'm sure I don't have to remind anyone that the turnovers at Marcus Marriota incurred in critical situations before the quarterback switch were similar. Drake London would be the first to point out at himself in those situations as well. So how do they kind of fix this problem of executing in these most critical situations or is that a new year's resolution for next season? Yeah, so I'm going to kind of sound like Arthur Smith here for a second. But the issue the Falcons have had in the red zone isn't a one size fits all situation. I can't sit here and say, oh, if they fix this, they'll be successful inside the 20 because honestly at this point the Falcons should just have a find a way mentality. Do what you got to do to punch it in. I know that's not very specific, but the answer to executing in the red area isn't necessarily a specific one to it's not a specific issue that they have. Well, Desmond Redder put it well when we talked to him this week. There are some guys who at this point around the league with nothing to seemingly play for would be booking their offseason vacations and I feel that I really do. But the reality is the Falcons do have two more games to play in. Redder said this entire team is on the same page about finishing the season strong regardless of what got them to this point. So Tori, I want to ask you, what do you think matters most in these final two contests? Two words for you, evaluations and pride. Playing for pride obviously speaks for itself, so let's stick on evaluations for a little bit. Because of the changes coming for the Falcons in the new year, a vast majority of the players on this team, whether they are rookies or veterans, are still playing for opportunities. If you're a rookie, you want to make sure your spot is secured on the game day roster next year. You need to show that you are valuable to what the Falcons are trying to build. If you're a vet, you want to make sure you have productive tape to show potential teams if you were to hit the open market as a free agent, which we know is going to happen to a lot of these players. So even though there is not much left for the team to play for per se, there's actually quite a lot for the individuals to play for. That makes sense. What was literally freezing in Baltimore on Christmas Eve, and it was so cold back here at home that I'm sure you guys saw all those videos of pipes all around Atlanta bursting and so many of the guys dressed cosily and accordingly this week. So we are walking in presented by Wells Fargo. The only thing better than sweater weather is leather weather. And Corderole Patterson knows this more than anyone. He balances out the black leather fit with a fuzzy white and black parka with this really cool like black and white graphic pattern. CP, we know you're a man of the people. So don't get gatekeep. Drop the link because I want this jacket. Yeah, same. The leather, the fluff. It just all works. And look at that even the carry on matches the fit. We love a good fluff. Now QB1 with the number one comfy vibes. I feel like the Falcons really need to start a like to know it page. If you don't know what that is, look it up because I want this hoodie. Also Desmond Ritter. I am also really digging the neutral pairing with the beige coat on top. And is it just me or has Ritter really like stepped up the fits as starter? Here's the thing. I like to think so. The fits have been solid for Des all year, the last two weeks. He's really giving the I'm the captain now type of vibe. I like that. Next up, Grady Jarrett looking fresh as always. Another jacket I'm here for. And you know what? The puffier, the better. We love it. And black and green as accent colors. Love that. Here's the thing. If you take away the puffer jacket, you're like, oh yeah, cool. A sweater with jeans. But with the puffer jacket, this fit is elevated to an 11. Immediately. That is innovation that excites. Finally, we have confirmed Arnold Abiketti is a Swifty. I'm up. I'm the problem is on his jacket sleeve. Tori, I know this has to be a big development for you. Yo, A.K. Will I see you at the bins in April supporting our girl Taylor? Because if so, wear the jacket. I'm a big fan. Hopefully he got tickets. But also I love the pastel colors he's playing within the south. It makes you forget that, you know, it's freezing outside. I mean, seriously, you, you, you can't all go wrong with the sky blue that he's got going on here. You really can't. Well, perhaps you have wild New Year's Eve plans to ring in the New Year or maybe you're just ready to bust a move. If Georgia takes home a Peach Bowl win. I know you're excited for that one. Well, this week we wanted to ask who's the worst dancer in the Falcons locker room in our question of the week. Probably Avery. Avery Williams. Yeah, he's terrible. Just doesn't have the rhythm. Does he hit a move that you're just like, why are you trying this? All of them. Pretty much any time he steps onto any type of dance floor. I'm going to go Avery. I'm going to go Avery. Avery is just kind of real goofy with it. I've never really seen him like actually do a routine. He's just kind of, kind of wild with it. He's a funny guy. Avery Williams. Everyone says Avery. Literally everyone has said that. It's bad. Are you guys conspiring? No, it's bad. You got to see him what he does. It's very comical, very funny. And yeah, he's bad. I like the end where he's just like, no, he's like really bad. I mean, for all of them to say Avery, like it really has to be bad. Yeah, because some of those were taped a while ago. And he has made such an impression that months later, he's still the worst dancer in the locker room. They're putting that man on the last. Honestly, congrats, Avery. So still to come here. Mercedes-Benz Stadium executive chef joins me later in the show to talk about meal prepping for 75,000 people and what goes into transitioning the world's best venue from a college football playoff game on Saturday night and NFL kickoff less than 17 hours later. Plus the Falcons and Santa Claus himself teamed up to give back this holiday season. More on that is coming up next on Rise Up Tonight. The Atlanta Falcons continue to make an impact in our city now more than ever around the holidays. Let's Rise Up for Atlanta brought to you by Truist. Last week, a few Falcons players took a visit to Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, and they were even joined by Santa Claus before he got so busy on Christmas Eve. Traveling room to room to spread Christmas cheer to all the patients there. That's really cool. In your post-game notebook in Baltimore, you really wrote about how that loss put on full blast the deficiencies that the Falcons have and what they maybe should prioritize this off season. It was a nice look forward. Everyone check it out on AtlantaFalcons.com. So what do you think is the most important for this organization really focused on going forward? Yeah, so basically what I wrote about is that the Falcons need to prioritize finding players this off season that strike fear into the hearts of opposing coordinators. And I'm talking mainly school guys on offense, players who can take the heat off of Drake London and Kyle Pitts, particularly if the Falcons find themselves in another position where one of those guys is just not available. And for this defense, you already know the Falcons have to find past rushers and take note that that doesn't just mean edge rushers. The Falcons need a significant push along the defensive interior too. The Falcons need more players that coordinators have to worry about, and that should be a priority. Absolutely. So what's next for the Falcons? Well, we've got some thoughts, and you know we're going to let you know about them in our hot take segment to end the show. Plus, the culinary creator behind your favorite, Bend concession food, Stop Spy, Rise Up Tonight. That's coming up next. Rise Up Tonight is presented by AT&T and brought to you by Georgia Lottery. Today could be the day. By Home Depot, how doers get more done? By Mercedes-Benz, the best of nothing, and by Truist, committed to a better future. Welcome back to Rise Up Tonight. Let's head in the nest with Kelly Tory and this week's special guest, brought to you by Mercedes-Benz. Well, the holiday season can be busy for all of us, but Mercedes-Benz Stadium really has no busy season. They're bustling all the time, and nobody knows that more than tonight's in the nest guest, Matt Cooper, who is the executive chef for the stadium. He shares some scenes from behind the scenes of that side of the stadium, the best stadium in the world in my opinion, to his 20,000 Instagram followers at Stadium Chef. How do you kind of get into this job and this industry? Yeah, well, first thanks for having me, Kelly. I still, I mean, we opened back in 2017, and it's almost five years now, sitting here with you right now. I'm doing what I'm doing, so it started out actually just cooking, like any other job, and graduated high school. Didn't really know what I wanted to do, and got into sports and entertainment with the Braves, and that's one that really opened up my eyes to sports stadiums, arenas in the food industry, so from then on, I set out to make a career out of it and put my head down. Had a lot of good teachers and chefs that kind of took me under their wing for four seasons, four years, and traveled all around the country to different stadiums and arenas and convention centers, and that's when I really kind of took everything that I learned from all those travels and got confident enough to be able to take on something like Mercedes-Benz Stadium and have been there ever since. So you're from the Atlanta area, you've obviously been in a couple different areas gaining experience, but what brought you back to Atlanta and why did you want to, you know, why is it so kind of special to you? Yeah, so Atlanta's home. I grew up in California and moved here when I was probably about 10, 11 years old, so pretty much half my life I've been in Atlanta and I just love just everything about it, the culture and the fast-paced environment and the people and of course family, all my family's here so wanted to come back home, so after being down in Tampa for four years that's when me and my wife said, hey, let's get back home, and I think it was a trip back from Thanksgiving weekend we traveled back up to Atlanta every weekend or every holiday and that's when we looked and I saw Mercedes-Benz Stadium getting built, reached out to the food people that were providing food for the stadium and was able to get in front of them and interview and take on a beast of Mercedes-Benz Stadium. What's that process kind of like you mentioned getting in front of those people but I'm assuming you don't just submit a job application, how does that kind of happen? Yeah, so I mean the old adage it's not what you know, it's who you know that's a big piece so I mean you know as I was in Turner Field with the Braves in Tampa for the Buccaneers that was really kind of proving yourself in making relationships was the biggest piece so I happened to know the vice president of the food and beverage company provider that was building the stadium so he already kind of knew me, that the company already knew me in my style and what I was doing so when I talked with them they had already known about me but obviously that's not enough, you have to prove yourself so really talking to what it takes to open a stadium and Mercedes-Benz is one of the nicest stadiums in the world if not the nicest so to really be confident and talk about all the different departments, I mean you have concessions, you have suites, catering, clubs, restaurants having knowledge in all those departments is really I think what made me stand out and be able to take on the stadium. You mentioned all those different departments, what's something about your job that you know a normal person who hears your job title might not know about something that you have to deal with that's a big part of your job. Yes so I mean really the biggest things for my job my position and really any executive chef position is logistics, timing and organization, those are kind of the three key things that I talk about all the time I mean those three are the most important to be able to feed 70,000 people every time you open up the doors you really have to you know have an eye for really putting all the puzzle pieces together and making it work. Those are the four areas that we feed and there's differences in each of those areas so really having that knowledge base and that experience to know you know menus that you write for suites or clubs are completely different than you know concessions operations which is what most people think of when they think of stadiums is the chicken tender, the hot dogs, the burgers, you know all the high volume stuff that we do thousands of but it goes a lot deeper than that we have over 200 executive suites which gets a pretty extensive menu, we have clubs and restaurants, I think seven different clubs and restaurants, all inclusive all the way up to you know eight, nine hundred people in each of those, catering, our catering department at our stadium, the team that we put together does an amazing job just to give you a quick glimpse out of the 365 days of this last year we only had the kitchen closed 19 days out of the entire year so yeah a lot of people think it's you know football games and the Atlanta United soccer games but it goes a lot deeper than that, we have catering department we'll do 3,000 person plated events on the field which takes an army and again the team that we put together and built does it every single time and we do an amazing job at knocking out a 3,000 person plated event on the field where you have 15 minutes to really get plates out and you know these aren't just you know small plates, this is a full course meal, three, four courses so it's fun, absolutely love it and again I can't say enough about the team, we have really built an amazing team there to be able to execute at such a high level. It's crazy to think that it's been five years since Mercedes-Benz stadium has been open I mean it's still one of the premier venues in the entire world as far as I'm concerned you know when you think back to those five years what's maybe a favorite memory you've had there so far, what's something you're most proud of? Yeah so it's crazy it's been five years but I think the biggest one for myself is Super Bowl that was a fun time, it really is I mean we spent I'd say probably about a year planning that just from having the Super Bowl committee come to the stadium and walk all the areas and talk about menus and how we're going to execute that was about two weeks long of events just every single day back to back to back that kind of it flew by really quick but there was a lot of logistics and planning which is my favorite part of the job so to look back at it and know that we had you know all the support from our company we had probably I think it was like 10 or 12 years that flew in and again it takes about 250 cooks to open up the stadium so to have all the support we had and the planning that went into it and looking back at it that was probably the most memorable time that we've had there at the stadium for myself. Yeah that's a big one you know you talk about the hot dogs and the different events that you guys have all the different kinds of food that you guys create I don't know how much of that you're kind of you know putting your time and energy into making those recipes and stuff but what's really a favorite dish that you've created or a favorite thing that the stadium has? Yeah so it's more of the concept so there's a concept that I created it's called the Molly B's featured item of the game so it's a really fun one you know looking at stadiums and arenas we spend a lot of time during the off season writing menus and creating concepts and those go throughout the entire season it's really hard to change those in the middle of the season so one thing that I came up with was to have a different featured item every single game and that gives us the ability to not only be creative but bring something fresh and something different that you don't see at a stadium so it's named after Arthur's mom Molly Blank and there's two parts to Molly B's there's a club that's all inclusive on one side and then on the other side it's a concession stand so what we do is all look to different chefs, different cooks even different managers that aren't necessarily chefs and we collaborate and come up with some really fun and exciting items Well anyone who wants to catch full conversation go to Fox5Atlanta.com tons of really cool interesting stuff there thank you so much for joining us giving us insight on this kind of team behind the team that you know we've all had hot dogs we've all had sodas and beers at the stadium but we don't always know all the work that goes into it and it is a lot as you guys just heard we'll be right back on Rise Up Tonight well the narrative that the fans are pushing right now is tank for the draft pick but like can we all just chill out on all that for a second the Falcons being eliminated for playoff contention is really a blessing in disguise when you think about it now you have a pure evaluation period in front of you fans just relax and enjoy these two games strictly as that a time to figure out what you've got what you've got what you've got what you've got a time to figure out what you've got what you need like we talked about and what the future looks like and I happen to think the future is pretty bright for the Falcons I like it now taking that a step further Arthur Smith said after the loss in Baltimore that he wants to see this team progress and get some wins in the final two games but let's be honest outside of Desmond Ritter we know what this team is so progress for this Falcons team at this point could simply look like execution it's executing what they've been asked to do all season but at a higher clip progress isn't necessarily anything more than that sometimes yeah execution we've been saying that for weeks you guys gotta listen to us well thanks for staying up late with us here on Rise Up Tonight next Friday night can you believe it is our season finale so sad oh my gosh can't believe the season has gone by but happy new year everyone good night