Thomas Dimitroff

Thomas Dimitroff

Candid waist-up photograph of Dimitroff wearing a grey t-shirt and black visor both bearing Atlanta Falcons logos and standing on a football practice field with arms akimbo

Dimitroff in 2014
Atlanta Falcons
Position: General manager
Personal information
Date of birth: 1966 (age 49–50)
Place of birth: Barberton, Ohio
Career information
College: Guelph
Career history
As executive:
As administrator:

Thomas George Dimitroff, Jr. (born 1966) is an American football executive who was the general manager for the Atlanta Falcons of the National Football League (NFL). Before joining the Falcons in 2008, Dimitroff was with the New England Patriots for six years. He joined the Patriots in 2002 as a national scout and then was named director of college scouting a year later.

Early years

Dimitroff grew up in Canada, where his father, Tom Dimitroff, Sr. was a football coach with the Ottawa Rough Riders, Hamilton Tiger-Cats, and the University of Guelph in Ontario.[1] In 1983, Dimitroff served as an equipment manager for the Guelph football team.[2] From 1985–1990, he played defensive back for the Gryphons football team and was team captain from 1988–1990. Dimitroff graduated from Guelph with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1990.[3] His brother Randy played quarterback for Guelph from 1982–1985 and the two were teammates in 1985.[3]

Professional career

Early career

After graduating from college, Dimitroff joined the Saskatchewan Roughriders of the Canadian Football League as their Canadian scouting coordinator, but worked in many areas of the team's operations for the two seasons he was there.[4] In 1992, he worked in the Dallas, Texas office of the World League of American Football, tracking NFL player transactions and rosters.[4] When the league folded later that year, Dimitroff moved to Japan, where he helped coach a friend's corporate American football team.[4]

Dimitroff then considered leaving the football world for business, but instead he went back to the United States, where he joined the Cleveland Browns' grounds crew; his father was a scout for the team at the time.[4] There he worked under then-head coach Bill Belichick and then-pro personnel assistant Scott Pioli. At the same time, he worked as a part-time scout for the Kansas City Chiefs in 1993.[4] In 1994, Dimitroff became a full-time area scout for the Detroit Lions, a position he held through 1997. He then held a similar college scouting position with the Browns from 1998 through 2001.

New England Patriots

In 2002, Dimitroff re-joined Belichick and Pioli with the New England Patriots as a national scout. He spent the season reporting on the nation's top prospects before being promoted to director of college scouting on June 11, 2003. He oversaw the team's college scouting operations through the 2007 season.

Atlanta Falcons

After six seasons with the Patriots, Dimitroff was hired as the Falcons' general manager on January 13, 2008.

In the 2008 NFL Draft, Dimitroff and the Falcons drafted both quarterback Matt Ryan and offensive tackle Sam Baker in the first round. The Falcons also signed free agent running back Michael Turner from the San Diego Chargers, who was selected to the 2009 Pro Bowl in his first year with the team. The Falcons, under first-year head coach Mike Smith, reached the playoffs in 2008 for the first time in four seasons, but lost to the Arizona Cardinals in the opening round. Soon after, Sporting News named Dimitroff their 2008 NFL Executive of the Year.[5]

The Falcons finished 9–7 in 2009, missing the playoffs. In 2010, the Falcons finished 13–3, earning home field advantage for the duration of the playoffs; however, they lost to the Green Bay Packers in the Divisional round. He was named the 2010 NFL Executive of the Year by the Sporting News, his second time receiving the award.

References

  1. ↑ Metro, Phoebe Ho (2012-05-04). "SIU investigate death of Windsor man | Metro". Metronews.ca. Retrieved 2012-10-06.
  2. ↑ http://www.gryphons.ca/static/Football_History.pdf+Randy+dimitroff&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
  3. 1 2 Canada. "An Interview with Atlanta Falcons GM Thomas Dimitroff | The Portico". Uoguelph.ca. Retrieved 2012-10-06.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Robinson, Charles (2008-12-18). "Dimitroff’s rise as unlikely as Falcons’ ascent". Yahoo! Sports. Retrieved 2009-01-25.
  5. ↑ Breer, Albert (2009-01-28). "Falcons GM Dimitroff is SN's NFL executive of the year". Sporting News. Yahoo! Sports. Retrieved 2009-01-30.


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