PALM BEACH, Fla. — One of Falcons owner Arthur Blank’s core principles is to listen.
So, when disgruntled quarterback Kirk Cousins wanted to talk, Blank granted him an hour in a phone conversation to discuss his desire to leave the team.
“I had a long and impactful conversation with him,” Blank said at the NFL annual meeting Tuesday. “I wasn’t the first one he talked to, but he did ask to talk to me. I said, of course I will. I spent an hour on the phone with him and I took five pages of notes. … I told him that I wanted to be a really good listener and understand where he was coming from. I did that, and I shared that information with our football folks.”
The Falcons signed Cousins to a four-year contract worth up to $180 million in March 2024. He played 14 games before losing his job to rookie quarterback Michael Penix Jr.
“I think, one of the things, as you live life, there is no point in living in the past,” Blank said. “It a great point in learning from the past and reflecting on the future, but living in the past. … I think that we obviously, at the time we made a commitment to Kirk, Kirk to us.”