HOUSTON — Thomas Dimitroff held a cup of coffee and listened as his coach was peppered with questions for the fourth straight day at Super Bowl LI. Dressed in blue jeans with a sweater and collared shirt, he doesn’t 50.
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Neither is he the young genius who took over as the Altlanta Falcons general manager in 2008.
With a goatee and bearing a slight resemblance to Ethan Hawke, he finds time for everybody. On Thursday, Dimitroff granted a half-hour to Sports Illustrated, shot a "How the Falcons were built" video for the Atlanta Constitution-Journal and entertained questions from other reporters on his way to a TV interview.
Dimitroff was the Patriots director of college scouting from 2003-07. His relationship with Bill Belichick goes back further. Back to his days as a groundskeeper and scout in Cleveland when The Hoody was Browns head coach.
Maybe it’s serendipitous or just plain bad luck that when Dimitroff finally constructed a Falcons team good enough to reach the Super Bowl, New England is the opponent.
A follower of The Patriots way is now in the Patriots way.
So every interview with Dimitroff invariably begins with his feelings about facing Belichick, or about his team going against Tom Brady.
You finally make it to the big dance and Usher shows up.
"This is kind of a dream game that way, to be able to go against the Patriots and against one of my mentors in this league," Dimitroff said.
Maybe it was bound to happen anyway. This is Belichick’s 10th Super Bowl as an NFL assistant or head coach. He’s been in 19 percent of the 51 Super Bowls.
At least he’s not going through it alone. Dimitroff hired Scott Pioli as assistant general manager in 2014. Pioli was Belichick’s right hand man, running the Patriots personnel department from 2001-08. Like many executives who leave New England, the bloom came off during a failed stint as the Chiefs general manager.
Dimitroff seemed bulletproof when the Falcons had five winning seasons in a row and reached the playoffs four times under Mike Smith. But injuries contributed to a 4-12 record in 2013 and they followed that up with 6-10 the next year.
Falcons owner Arthur Blank stripped Dimitroff of his authority over the draft and free agency and gave head coach Dan Quinn the power when he hired him two years ago.
"You have to put all that noise aside because there can be a lot of critics," Dimitroff said.
But he found a partner in Quinn, who was greatly influenced by Pete Carroll’s team bonding methods in Seattle. Two years ago, Quinn was the Seahawks defensive coordinator when Patriots cornerback Malcolm Buter clinched Super Bowl 49 by intercepting Russell Wilson on second-and-confetti at the goal line.
Dimitroff stills seeks Belichick’s advice and doesn’t always take it. In 2011, he traded five picks, including two first-rounders, to move up 21 spots and draft receiver Julio Jones.
"Our conversation about that had much more to do with, ‘this is something that you better be very sure of, and whether you are or aren’t, it’s going to be with you for the rest of your career,’ " Dimitroff said.
"I thought Bill was fantastic in that he would take all that Scott Pioli and the scouting staff had given him and would put him in a place to be as successful as possible. He wouldn’t force feed a guy into a spot because just because this was the scheme.
"I also used Bill Polian’s approach in what he did in surrounding Peyton (Manning) with really good athletic players."
Defensively, Quinn was willing to play 12 first-or second-year players who can all run and hit. He instituted a "toughness," grade for players. Ping-pong tables went up in the locker room. The music at practice got louder and more upbeat.
Dimitroff loves what he learned from the Patriots and he didn’t set fire to the lifeboats. But The Falcons Way is now entirely their own.
"There’s definitely a northeastern stamp on it in certain ways, and yet we’ve really evolved into something that is very much the Falcons and not — obviously — the Patriots," Dimitroff said.
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