The Atlanta Falcons fired their coach Arthur Smith on Monday. This happened after the team lost badly to the New Orleans Saints in their last game of 2023.
Arthur Smith was the Falcons' coach for three years, taking over from Dan Quinn in 2020. Before that, he worked with the Tennessee Titans. However, he couldn't make the Falcons one of the top 10 teams in scoring or gaining yards while he was their coach.
The Falcons will have a fresh start for the 2024 season.
"Decisions like this are never easy and they never feel good," said team owner Arthur Blank. He respects Coach Smith and is thankful for his hard work with the Falcons for three years.
"He has been part of building a good culture in our football team, but the results on the field have not met our expectations. After significant thought and reflection, we have determined the best way forward for our team is new leadership in the head coaching position."
Smith is the first coach to lose his job on what people in the NFL call "Black Monday." He's not the only coach to be fired this season, though.
He was fired just hours after getting angry at Saints coach Dennis Allen. This happened when the Saints scored a meaningless touchdown out of victory formation, with about a minute left in the game.
The Carolina Panthers, Las Vegas Raiders, and Los Angeles Chargers all changed their coaches during the year. It's expected that more teams will change their coaches in the next few days.
Saints Coach Dennis Allen issued an apology after the game.
“That’s not who we are, that’s not how we operate," Allen said. "We should’ve taken a knee, so I want to apologize to them, because, look, we’re all – we’ve got a good rivalry, and it’s a heated rivalry, but there’s a way that we go about doing our business and I wasn’t happy about that.”
Dennis Allen apologies to the Falcons pic.twitter.com/tpJMmxkFBC
— NMD Grant (@NMDgrant) January 7, 2024