Mora Speaks: Former Coach Opens Up to Atlanta

It's no secret the Atlanta Falcons have had a troubled history. The events of the last 15 years reads like the Adam Jones rap sheet:

*Losing Deion Sanders to free-agency

*Signing Jeff George

*The Jeff George/June Jones Sunday-night-fight

*Eugene Robinson's arrest for soliciting an undercover police officer on the eve of the Super Bowl in 1999

*Vick's broken leg and season down the tubes in 2003

*The firing of Dan Reeves

* Various ill-fated free agent signings and draft choices

*The hiring and middle-of-the-season abandonment of Bobby Petrino

*The Michael Vick dog-fighting case

The list goes on and on. Fans have found few bright spots over the years. Just when things look to be turning around for this franchise, an injury ends a season or a comment is made to disengage the fans.

The bad luck is no more evident than in the Falcons' most dubious claim to fame: There has never been back-to-back winning seasons in franchise history.

What has been overlooked, and understandably so in light of the past 15 months, in the Falcons most recent history is the reign of former head coach Jim Mora.

Mora was hired in 2004, virtually out of nowhere, with unrivaled enthusiasm and energy and a plan for the effective use of Vick.

Jim Mora's term began with a bang, engineering the team to an 11-5 record and one win shy of the Super Bowl. His time with the Falcons was often inspiring and at other times disgraceful.

His last season, 2006, began with high hopes on the heels of what was called a disappointing 2005 season, finishing 8-8. Hope spiraled downward as the season progressed and things completely fell apart in the last quarter of that season.

QB Michael Vick upset the fan base when he made an inappropriate gesture to the home fans following a loss to New Orleans in November. What followed was to that point, one of the most disappointing moments in franchise history.

On December 14, 2006, while speaking to a Seattle radio station Jim Mora shared comments that would eventually serve to seal his fate as the Falcons head coach.

Mora, an alumnus of Washington, about the University of Washington head coach position, "if that job's open, you'll find me at the head of the line with my resume in hand ready to take that job."

He continued, "It doesn't matter if I'm available...I don't care if we're in the middle of a playoff run (which the Falcons were at that time). I'm packing my stuff and coming back to Seattle."

By the following day all of Atlanta, stuck in Friday traffic, was listening to the head coach of their team make these comments. A rage unlike anything Mora could have expected followed.

Owner Arthur Blank began immediate damage control expressing his disappointment in the young head coach and Mora began appearing all over the airwaves with a spin stating that he was joking and he was regretful that his comments sounded otherwise.

The writing was on the wall at that point and the team spun further out of control, inciting comments from players regarding a lost team and the fans spoke out, clearly wanting Mora run out of town.

On the first day of 2007 Mora was fired and a new chapter in Atlanta's disgruntled history began. But that's another story.

This past Monday Mora returned to the Atlanta airwaves on 790 The Zone's Mayhem In the A.M. sports-radio show to promote the Jim Mora Count On Me Family Foundation's fundraiser on October 19 (his family is still highly involved in the city's charity circuit) in Atlanta and spoke candidly about the past, his mistakes, and the Atlanta Falcons organization.

Mora began by expressing his remorse for the city's football team's fortunes last season saying, "you never wish that on anybody...I still pull for those people." He also, speaking with the passion he was known for, shared how badly he felt for the Atlanta players. A glimpse was given into just how bad the situation really was inside the locker room when he shared that Petrino was "lucky he didn't run into Lawyer Milloy."

The stark contrast of the two former coaches, Mora and Petrino, is evident when the conversation turned to Mora's notorious relationships with his players. Mora was always available to the media following the games, though not always in good spirits, but always direct about his and his team's performance.

Unlike Petrino, who often seemed mysterious to the players and never seemed to learn how to coach paid athletes, Mora was opposite almost to a fault—often criticized for being too close to the players. Mora shared how much he cared for his players, then and now, saying that he felt the business of coaching was ultimately about the people.

"We didn't have discipline problems with that team. For some reason I got a bad rap because I got in a Lamborghini with DeAngelo...DeAngelo is a different sort of guy and he looked at me as a little bit of a father figure in his life. I had multiple meetings with DeAngelo and Michael Vick about their behavior and how they were going about their business. Many tears were shed in my office...DeAngelo would come into my office in tears, with a frustration, not knowing how to deal with the things that were happening in his life."

He said if caring about his players made him soft, then so be it, but he felt it was critical in his role to not only care about his team as players, but as humans as well.

The subject briefly turned towards Vick, a topic which most fans in Atlanta are clearly ready to move away from. The embattled quarterback found a lot of success under Mora and his staff, but some of the bad began to show through as well.

Mora felt surprised by the actions of Vick in regards to the dog-fighting accusations and never felt anything was happening in Vick's life that was "of that magnitude.

I don't think anybody ever saw this part of him, or realized this was happening. Mike was a good kid, on time for things and a hard worker...the people of the Falcons have not abandoned him."

He sounded sincere when it seemed as if he wished to speak directly to the Atlanta Falcons fan base sharing with them his regret about the way things turned out during his tenure as the head coach.

He said his worst day as the head coach of the Falcons was when he had to walk into the Dome on the Saturday night game versus the Cowboys following his comments the previous Thursday. He saw all the signs and he felt the negative energy of the people there and he wished he could have spoken to each fan individually to share with them his commitment to the city and to the team.

He takes full responsibility for the way things ended saying that it was "nobody's fault but my own...a lesson learned. It won't happen again, I can promise you that.

Of all the mistakes I've made, that was the dumbest...it's ironic that I end up in Seattle...I did something that was really, really not very smart...I just reacted. That was not the right forum to act that way. I have only myself to blame."

Mora, even as the head coach, always shared appreciation to Arthur Blank for giving him his first opportunity as a head coach and now as an assistant in Seattle, he is in-line to take over for Mike Holmgren next season. The lessons learned in Atlanta and from watching Holmgren each day surely will assist him in his second opportunity.

"I'm always changing and evolving, learning from past mistakes, past failures, and past success. I made a lot of mistakes in Atlanta...ones that were public and ones that were private...but I had three good years.

Hopefully, I'll be smart enough to take those lessons learned and apply them next time."

He shared his excitement for the current state of the Falcons,"Coach Smith is doing a great job...I'm happy for them...I wish we (Seattle) could get it going."

Mora, always quick to talk about his relationships, continued, "We're all in this fraternity...you try to beat each other's brains in on Sunday, but you still cheer for each other. I'm certainly still a Falcons fan...when you've been in a place, poured your heart into it, made those relationships, you don't just all of a sudden turn on them, especially when you feel, like I do, that your actions played a large part in your getting fired."

As the conversation wound to a close, Mora's honesty became less subtle in a moment when he seemed to truly wish he could do what he mentioned before, speak to every individual fan. He shared his love for being the head coach in Atlanta, his regret for the way things ended, and the pain he felt in having to leave the city that gave him his first opportunity. 

In a moment that seemed more suited to be shared among friends at dinner, showing why Mora was popular with his players and during the team's success, popular with the fans, he shared his favorite moments as the head coach of the Falcons.

"I enjoyed every day really...I really did, but beating the Rams to go to the NFC Championship game in our first year there...my dad never won a playoff game...it almost seemed, for me, vindication for him. It was a win for us, not only the Falcons, but it was a win for my dad. We went over to my house after the game, my best friends were there, we just sat and watched the highlights. It was one of the great moments with dad...that was a fun time."

When Atlanta fans hear Mora speak about these moments they are reminded of his passion and love for the game of football, the city of Atlanta, and the Atlanta Falcons. And in this, Mora hopes the fans can honor his last request and remember that he made a mistake saying something that he still contends that he never meant. In his words, "he was an alright guy. He was doing some good things."

A return to a city that fired you Jim, to do some good things with a foundation that you allowed to continue does remind us of those good things you did.

Atlanta is in rebuilding and healing mode. Part of healing is forgiving and Mora sounded like a man seeking forgiveness.

It's time to let it go Atlanta.

Jim Mora: We appreciate what you brought to this team and we do forgive you.