ESPN: Falcons coach just an everyday man

[HMFFL]

There is nothing compelling about an ordinary man's office. A couple of leather chairs here, some blank walls, an impeccably neat desk. Mike Smith won't dazzle his visitors with plaques or fading photos of championships gone by. He is prematurely gray and unfamiliar with hair dye because that, of course, is not real. He hunches over a tiny refrigerator in the corner and grabs a Coke Zero. "Caffeine," he says. It is Wednesday afternoon, and in about 24 hours, his Atlanta Falcons will hop on a cross-country flight for a playoff game against the Arizona Cardinals, continuing arguably the biggest feel-good ride in the NFL this season. And practically nobody watching will know who Smith is.

Look closely, and a few followers might surface. On Monday night, they jammed into a sporting goods store to watch a radio show in which he sits on a couch and waxes about Matt Ryan and chemistry. It was one of the purest examples of rebirth, little boys in the front row high-fiving, grown men standing on boxes to peer over racks of college gear. Four months ago, the same show drew four people.

When Smith heard the ovations, he was mildly embarrassed.

"He's just kind of an everyday guy," says Dave Archer, a former Falcons quarterback who hosts the show. "He's a guy that could very easily be living next door to you. You see him getting his newspaper, and he hollers to you like they do on TV shows.

"He's an honest, hard-working guy. That's what has been so endearing to so many people in the locker room."

No, there is nothing sexy about the name Mike Smith. There are 78 of them in the Atlanta white pages. When No. 79's hire was announced last January, it was met with collective groans and quick Google searches. Pundits thought the team was in massive rebuilding mode and needed a brilliant find. Players, still hurt by the Bobby Petrino late-season bailout, wanted a coach who'd look them in the eye and care.

They found it all in an unassuming person, an everyman career assistant whose bio is still being written.

"When he came in, he had a smile on his face," safety Lawyer Milloy says. "He said, 'Look, I understand what happened to you last year, but last year is over. The only way you can heal your wounds is by focusing on each other and trying to make a positive atmosphere.'

"There's no loyalty in this league anymore. But when you find something good and somebody you want to fight for and who's genuine, you have to make the most of it."

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