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New Falcons GM has Canadian roots

New Falcons GM has Canadian roots

By Matthew Sekeres

The New England Patriots are known for taking young up-and-comers from obscure backgrounds and turning them into successful NFL executives and coaches. Both head coach Bill Belichick and vice-president of player personnel Scott Pioli attended small colleges in Connecticut and neither played professionally, which is the usual route to NFL management positions.

But by U.S. standards, perhaps nobody within the Patriots' organization - or the league for that matter - came from a more obscure school than former director of college scouting Thomas Dimitroff Jr., who was hired as the Atlanta Falcons' general manager this week. The son of a former CFL player and coach, Dimitroff was raised in Ontario and played football at the University of Guelph.

"Three-quarters of people here have trouble pronouncing the name [Guelph]," Dimitroff said. "They ask if it's Gaelic."

The 40-year-old Dimitroff - a relative unknown in NFL circles, mostly because only Belichick speaks for the organization - was not born in Canada, but he lived in Ottawa, Hamilton, Guelph and Regina from the age of 7 to 25 and cut his football teeth with the Saskatchewan Roughriders. His father, Tom, was a quarterback with the Ottawa Rough Riders in the late 1950s and later served as an assistant under Rough Riders head coach George Brancato.

In 1978, the elder Dimitroff became the head coach of the Hamilton Tiger- Cats, but quit four games into the season and later surfaced at Guelph, where another son, Randy, played quarterback. Thomas also played for the Gryphons and moved directly from the field to the Roughriders' front office, doing unglamorous odd jobs during a two-year apprenticeship on the Prairies.

"I pulled him off the field at Guelph when he was a senior, said Tiger-Cats director of football operations Dan Rambo, who was then Saskatchewan's assistant general manager and knew the elder Dimitroff.

"He was always a pleasure to talk to and he was a pretty mature kid. Tom showed an interest in doing this. We were looking for someone and, as they say, timing is everything."

In Regina, Dimitroff did everything from negotiating contracts to booking travel and setting up training camp. The elder Dimitroff, who died of kidney cancer in 1996, was scouting for Belichick when the coach was with the Cleveland Browns, and the father's NFL connections ultimately got the son scouting positions with the Detroit Lions, Browns and Patriots.

As college scouting director for the Patriots, Dimitroff was the No. 3 man in New England's draft war room during some hugely successful lotteries that netted star players such as cornerback Asante Samuel, nose tackle Vince Wilfork and running back Laurence Maroney.

Belichick and Pioli called the shots, but it was clear Dimitroff and the scouts he managed did an outstanding job identifying traits the bosses were looking for, namely selflessness and football intelligence, two staples of New England's team-first agenda.

"Let's call this what it is," Dimitroff said of what led to his hiring in Atlanta. "It's a 16-0 season [in New England] and a number of successful seasons. By virtue of being involved with success, good businessmen like [Falcons owner] Arthur Blank look to organizations for models. ... People talk about the Patriots' paradigm and I'd like to, along with the coaches here, create the Atlanta paradigm."

The Patriots are notorious for shunning employees who leave the nest - most notably New York Jets head coach Eric Mangini, a former defensive co-ordinator - but that hasn't been the case with Dimitroff, despite the three-year contract extension he signed this season.

His move had to be approved by Pioli because New England remains alive in the NFL playoffs and employees are not supposed to leave until after their team has played its final game. The Patriots did not want to lose Dimitroff to a lateral move and needed assurances that he would be a full-fledged general manager with the power to hire a head coach, which came when former general manager Rich McKay was named the Falcons' president.

Yesterday, Dallas Cowboys offensive co-ordinator Jason Garrett, another former quarterback of the CFL's Rough Riders, had his second interview with the Falcons and his first with Dimitroff. Former Baltimore Ravens defensive co- ordinator Rex Ryan is also a candidate for the job that became open when Bobby Petrino left for the University of Arkansas in December before the end of his first NFL season.

While Dimitroff may have the closest Canadian connection of any NFL general manager, he might also be the first one from the MTV generation.

He and his wife live in Colorado, where Dimitroff snowboards, mountain bikes and climbs rocks. While he wore a suit and short, spiky hair to his introductory news conference this week, he is not that far removed from long locks and a goatee. He is also the father of a seven-month-old boy, Mason, and Dimitroff said that also weighed on his decision to give up the heavy travel schedule of a scout.

"My father would be very, very proud," Dimitroff said. "He had many goals in the profession and put in a lot of hard work, but, obviously, he never got a position close to a GM. He would've said, 'You have to go after this opportunity because it may not come again.' He wouldn't have been the cautious father. He would've said, 'Step out of your comfort zone.' "

Biography

The Atlanta Falcons named Thomas Dimitroff the club’s new General Manager on January 13, 2008.

Dimitroff directs all aspects of football operations and, working with the new head coach of the Falcons, has final authority over all personnel decisions related to the signing of free agents, the selection of players in the NFL Draft, trades, terminations, and related decisions. He also handles coordinating other football-related activities with the head coach. Dimitroff reports to club President Rich McKay.

“Thomas is a really bright football mind who comes out of the most successful franchise in sports today,” McKay said. “He has an excellent track record of evaluating players, and I certainly look forward to working with him.”

An 18-year player personnel veteran, Dimitroff comes to Atlanta from the New England Patriots where he spent six seasons in total, and the last five as Director of College Scouting. In this position, he was responsible for overseeing area scouts who evaluate all of the nation’s college prospects while tracking the development and availability of drafted players.

Many of the players responsible for New England’s NFL-best 17-0 record, following last night’s 31-20 victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars in an AFC Divisional Playoff game, were scouted, evaluated, and later drafted at Dimitroff’s recommendation. Some of those players include: CB Asante Samuel, S Brandon Merriweather, G Logan Mankins, C Dan Koppen, RB Laurence Maroney, TE Ben Watson, CB Ellis Hobbs III, DE Ty Warren, and NT Vince Willfork. During his five years as the Director of College Scouting, the Patriots had a 75-17 record, and they won the Super Bowl in the 2003 and 2004 seasons.

For nine seasons prior to his tenure with New England, Dimitroff served in the scouting departments of three different NFL teams. His first NFL personnel opportunity came with the Kansas City Chiefs as a part-time scout in 1993. One year later, he was given a full-time opportunity as an area scout for the Detroit Lions where he served until 1997. Before being hired by the Patriots, Dimitroff worked in the scouting department of the Cleveland Browns from 1998-2001.

Dimitroff can credit the beginning of his scouting experience to the Canadian Football League where he worked during the 1990 and 1991 seasons. In 1992, he moved to the World League where he scouted all NFL, CFL and World League rosters while tracking player transactions. He also served two seasons as the scouting coordinator for the Saskatchewan Roughriders.

Dimitroff played football throughout college and captained his team at the University of Guelph (Canada) from 1987-1989. He was born in Barberton, Ohio, and is the son of Tom Dimitroff, who was a long-time personnel scout for the Cleveland Browns and an original member of the Boston Patriots in 1960.