Rich McKay, the long-time general counsel and more recently president of the Atlanta Falcons, has been promoted to chief executive officer.
“Since joining the Falcons in 2003, there is no doubt that Rich has been a valuable leader of our club,” Falcons owner Arthur Blank said in a statement. “Beyond his day-to-day duties as president of the Falcons, Rich has led a good number of key initiatives for us. In addition, he is increasingly enlisted by the league as someone who can be counted on to lend his experience, expertise and dedication to solve problems or generate new ideas.
“This promotion is in recognition of Rich’s many contributions to the Falcons and the NFL, as well as recognition of his professional accomplishments along the way.”
Besides managing the Falcons’ business operations, McKay has also kept a hand in contract negotiations and salary cap management, where he works with General Manager Thomas Dimitroff. He is also spearheading the club’s planning for a new stadium in Atlanta, with the team nearing the expiration of its lease term at the Georgia Dome.
Prior to joining the Falcons, McKay spent nine years with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, where he was general manager of the Bucs team that won Super Bowl XXXVII in 2003.
McKay began his tenure with the Buccaneers in 1992 as vice president of football administration. Prior to joining the Buccaneers, McKay was an attorney with the Tampa law firm of Hill, Ward, and Henderson, where he was the Buccaneers’ legal counsel for six years.
McKay is highly regarded in the NFL and among followers of professional football. Since 1994, he has co-chaired the NFL’s Competition Committee and on March 1 this year, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell named McKay chairman of the committee.
For the past six years, McKay has served on the NFL Management Council Working Group, which is comprised of league executives who advise on collective bargaining issues. During the 2011 offseason, he played a pivotal role in negotiating a new 10-year collective bargaining agreement.
“Of all of the club executives, Rich had the most sustained and substantial involvement,” said Jeff Pash, the NFL’s general counsel, in a recent article published in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “We had a lot of club people who were involved in many phases of our planning, but Rich had the most direct ongoing involvement in the negotiations.”
David Donovan, the former general counsel of the Washington Redskins and current partner at WilmerHale, told Sports Litigation Alert that McKay is “highly regarded among other club executives and owners. There are really only a few team executives that get the kind of respect and deference from team owners that Rich does.”
McKay earned his bachelor’s degree from Princeton University and graduated from Stetson’s College of Law in 1984. He is the son of the late coach John McKay, who won four national championships at the University of Southern California and was the Buccaneers head coach from 1976-84.
