Same game, different place

As freshman roommates at Princeton, Rich McKay '81 and his two best friends watched football every Sunday. They continue to watch football together a handful of times per year, only now they get to watch the game sipping on beers in the president's luxury box.

One of the most accomplished front office executives in the National Football League, McKay currently serves as the president and general manager of the Atlanta Falcons, having assumed that role in the winter of 2003. McKay has always been one of the most respected minds in the league — a mind that was sculpted, at least partially, at Princeton.

"[Being at Princeton] raised my standards, if for nothing else, from a competitive standpoint," McKay said. "Things had always come easily to me, but all of a sudden I was faced with the dilemma that there were a lot of kids who were much smarter than I was."

McKay has learned to thrive under competition and is no longer intimidated by those smarter than him. In fact, McKay now likes to surround himself with those that he believes are smarter than he is.

It is this strategy that has directly led to his success both as a general manager with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and in the position he currently holds. In just eight seasons as GM of the Bucs, from 1995 to 2002 McKay guided the team to a 73-55 record, five playoff appearances, two NFC title games and one Super Bowl ring.

Prior to joining the Buccaneers' front office, McKay served as the team's legal counsel for six years as a part of the Tampa Bay law firm Hill, Ward and Henderson. Upon graduating from Princeton with a degree in economics, McKay attended law school at Stetson University. He had always wanted to be a lawyer, but he thought that economics would teach him about business — an unfamiliar topic to him.

"I just didn't understand the business side of life," McKay said. "I thought that that was something that eventually I would have to understand. I wanted to be a lawyer . . . my dad had been a football coach all of his life and told my brother and I that we would not go into football."

All in the family

Football was a big part of McKay's childhood. His dad, John, was no ordinary football coach — he led the University of Southern California to four national championships and later became the first head coach of the Buccaneers in 1975.

McKay played football his freshman year at Princeton, but he quit after a coaching change. He also played four years of varsity golf.

Having grown up in a football-rich environment, McKay was thrilled when he was asked to join the Buccaneers' front office in 1992. He was one of the first in a new wave of ascending GMs. Past precedent dictated that aspiring general managers enter the organization through the personnel side — as a scout, for instance. More recently, however, individuals like McKay have been getting their start through the legal side of the organization and tend to be more broadly qualified.

"It is not just about drafting players anymore," McKay said. "With a salary cap and the size of the money you have to operate . . . supervising the financial and marketing side of the business has become a big part of the business, whereas 10 years ago it didn't really exist."

Only 12 years ago, the NFL was a business that had $25-30 million in revenue. Now, that number is approaching $225 million. The main goal of stadiums used to be just to sell seats, but, as McKay acknowledges, the business is changing. To him, however, this is not a negative thing.

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"We don't sell three hours of football anymore," he said. "We sell six hours of entertainment . . . But we have to make sure we don't sponsor every 10 yards or put ads on players' jerseys . . . We always have to protect the game."

This is the most overlooked aspect of the president's job description. What the fans and the media scrutinize week in and week out are the traditional duties that McKay performs as the team's GM. But McKay does not let the pressure from the outside affect his work in the office, though he admits that he still gets butterflies in his stomach on draft day. To him, as it is to the players and the coaches, Sunday is judgment day.

"I feel more pressure on Sunday," McKay said, "because that's what it really is about — measuring our team against your team."

Over his 10 seasons in the front office with the Buccaneers and the Falcons, McKay has repeatedly passed Sunday's test with flying colors. His success in turning around the abysmal Tampa Bay team drew the attention of Atlanta Falcons team owner Arthur Blank. McKay maintains that Blank was the number one attraction for him when he was considering the move to Atlanta.

"When you are in my job," McKay said, "the number one thing you are focused on is the owner's commitment to winning and his values."

Last season, the Falcons lost in the NFC title game, ending the second of the franchise's first back-to-back winning seasons. As always, McKay's expectations are to win the division and to compete for a championship.

This off-season, McKay has been busy both with his duties as a Falcons executive and with his duty as the chairmen of the league's Competition Committee. McKay has acquired more talent on defense this off-season and is working 12-hour days — 6:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. — with his staff prepping for draft day in late April.

The Competition Committee, which adjourned one week ago, broadened the definition of unnecessary roughness and instituted a rule stating that a player will be penalized for pulling down an opponent by his collar from behind among other more mundane rule changes.

In his nearly 10 years as a GM in the NFL, McKay has rarely made a bad pick, be it in the draft or in off-season acquisitions. In six of the seven Buccaneer drafts from 1993-99 that McKay presided over, Tampa Bay drafted at least one player that went on to become a Pro Bowler.

Not bad for a guy who wasn't supposed to go into football.