Rich Mckay

Biography

 Falcons President and CEO, Rich McKay, has been a fixture in the National Football League for more than 30 years. One of the League’s most influential executives, McKay recently finished his 13th season with the Atlanta Falcons including an NFC Championship title and a trip to Super Bowl LI.   McKay was initially hired by Owner and Chairman Arthur M. Blank in 2004 and served his first four years as the team’s general manager. He was promoted to president and chief executive officer in 2011. Together with Blank and Falcons general manager, Thomas Dimitroff, McKay played a key role in the coaching search that resulted in the hiring of Dan Quinn as Atlanta’s new head coach in early 2015. That same year, national columnist and creator of Monday Morning Quarterback (MMQB), Peter King, named McKay number 10 out of the 100 most influential people in the NFL.   McKay played a pivotal role in the negotiation, development and progress of building Mercedes-Benz Stadium, a process that began in earnest in 2008. Working closely with Blank, the city of Atlanta, the state of Georgia, and the Georgia World Congress Center Authority, McKay helped to secure approval and financing for Mercedes-Benz Stadium after years of intense negotiations. The club broke ground on Mercedes-Benz Stadium on May 19, 2014, with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, MLS Commissioner Don Garber, and Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed in attendance for the historic announcement, and it is set to open later this year as the home of the Atlanta Falcons and MLS expansion team, Atlanta United. He is the only executive to have led two successful stadium negotiations (Atlanta and Tampa Bay). In April of 2014, McKay was named President of AMB Sports & Entertainment (AMBSE).   McKay has served as a member of the NFL’s Competition Committee for the past 23 years. He was named co-chairman of the committee in 1998 and on March 1, 2011, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell named him chairman of the committee which is comprised of NFL head coaches and League executives who study the game and recommend rule changes and modifications to ensure player safety while promoting competitiveness. The Competition Committee has recommended and passed nearly fifty (50) player safety rules changes since 2002. In addition to his commitment to advancing the game, McKay was highly involved in the collective bargaining agreement negotiations, which led to the current multi-year agreement signed in 2011 between the NFL and the NFL Players Association.   Prior to joining the Falcons, McKay spent 10 years with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, serving as general manager. While serving as general manager for Tampa Bay (1994-2003) and Atlanta (2004-2008), McKay was the architect of a Super Bowl winning team (Super Bowl XXXVII) as well as six teams that reached the playoffs and three that advanced to the NFC Championship game. His teams compiled an overall record of 112-96 with a playoff record of 6-5. As a GM, McKay worked with three different NFL head coaches who have guided their respective teams to NFC Championship games – Tony Dungy in 1999 with Tampa Bay, Jon Gruden in 2002 with Tampa Bay and Jim Mora in 2004 in Atlanta. McKay’s personnel scouting acumen was a successful formula which produced 59 players that played in the Pro Bowl during his time as an NFL General Manager. McKay showed his eye for talent when he drafted eight players in the 1997 draft class that went on to play a combined 1,175 games, with 772 starts over their careers. Those players helped contribute to Tampa Bay’s 41 Pro Bowl selections between 1997 through 2002, which were the most in the NFL. To put it into perspective, the Buccaneers only had 19 Pro Bowl selections in the first 21 years of their history leading up to 1997.  Additionally, 11 of McKay’s former lieutenants have risen through the ranks to sit in the general manager’s chair at other NFL franchises.   While many of the players McKay drafted developed into Pro Bowl performers on the field, several have been stars off of the gridiron. Atlanta Falcons Limited Partner Warrick Dunn, whom McKay drafted in 1997 with Tampa Bay, was the recipient of the 2004 Walter Payton/NFL Man of the Year award. This award is presented annually to the NFL’s most philanthropic player. Derrick Brooks, who was also a draft selection of McKay’s, was also a co-recipient of the award in 2000.   The McKay family is one of the most successful football families with substantial roots in both the collegiate and professional game. Rich’s late father, the legendary John McKay, led the University of Southern California Trojans to four national championships in 16 seasons. Rich’s older brother J.K. McKay, was a starting wide receiver for the Trojans and part of two national championship teams (1972 & 1974) in addition to playing in three Rose Bowl games while playing for his father. Between the three McKay’s, they have won six national championships, participated as a player or coach in 12 Rose Bowls, participated as a coach, player or team executive in six NFL conference championship games, won two National Collegiate Coach of the Year Awards, won one XFL Championship as a general manager, and won one Super Bowl as a general manager.   Both Coach McKay and Rich saw their first draft picks selected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Lee Roy Selmon was the first pick for John McKay as a head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 1976 while Warren Sapp was the first pick for Rich McKay in 1995. After the enshrinement of Sapp and Derrick Brooks, Rich McKay became the first general manager in NFL history to have his first two draft picks go on to be first ballot members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.   Rich McKay was the 2005 recipient of the Jack Horrigan Award. This award is presented annually by the Pro Football Writers of America to the club or League office executive who is the most helpful and cooperative with the local and national news media that report on the NFL. He was also recently named Chairman of the Board for Central Atlanta Progress for the 2017 season. Central Atlanta Progress was founded in 1941 and it is a private, not-for-profit corporation that plans and promotes Atlanta’s Central Area and strives to create a robust economic climate for downtown Atlanta.   McKay earned his Bachelor’s degree in Economics in 1981 from Princeton University, graduated from Stetson’s College of Law in 1984, clerked for two years for Tampa’s U.S. District Judge William Terrell Hodges, and was inducted into the Stetson Law’s Hall of Fame in November 2014. McKay worked at the Tampa law firm of Hill, Ward, and Henderson, P.A., from 1986-1992 where he served as General Counsel for the Buccaneers. Born March 16, 1959, in Eugene, Oregon, McKay grew up in Los Angeles and Tampa, graduating from Tampa’s Jesuit High School.   As an avid long distance runner, Rich has participated in and finished five marathons including two New York City Marathons, an Atlanta Marathon, and the Los Angeles in Marathon in 2013 and in 2016.   McKay and his wife, Terrin, have two sons; Hunter, a 2012 graduate of Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama who is now employed in the Sports Information Office at Kennesaw State University in Kennesaw, Ga., and John, a 2015 graduate of the University of Southern California is a scout with the Los Angeles Rams.

Research Interest

 physical medicine and rehabilitation