Dimitroff once cut Falcons' new assistant director
GM had to let Vital go in Canadian League

By STEVE WYCHE
Published on: 05/29/08

When Lionel Vital took a phone call a few weeks ago from Falcons general manager Thomas Dimitroff, his football life came full circle. Vital was offered and accepted the job of assistant director or player personnel.

Roughly 18 years ago, Dimitroff, a young scout at the time with the Canadian Football League's Saskatchewan Rough Riders, drew the unenviable task of having to tell Vital that he was being cut.

"He was a journeyman running back at the end of his career," Dimitroff recalled. "I had to go up the Lionel's room and say, 'Can I get your playbook? It's time to move on.' "

Things could have ended there, but that moment proved to be the starting point of a relationship that landed Dimitroff and Vital at the top of the Falcons' football personnel department.

"I was in my apartment and [Dimitroff] calls me a couple weeks after he cut me and he says, 'Hey Lionel, my dad [Thomas Sr., a longtime pro football scout] and I were thinking that you could make a good scout. Are you interested?' " Vital said. "I told him, 'No way, man, I'm going to come back and play,' and I hung up.

"The next day my phone rang and it was Tom. He said, 'Think about this. It's a great opportunity.' When I look back now I realize I was about to be so stupid because I almost missed a great opportunity."

Vital, who has worked in various NFL scouting roles with Cleveland, the New York Jets, New England and Baltimore, developed into the one of the league's top talent evaluators. Along the way, he worked with Dimitroff in Cleveland and New England.

Vital ground out his reputation on back roads, sidelines, practice fields, in film sessions and players' living rooms. He takes more pride in finding an undrafted college free agent who emerges as the No. 1 nickel back with the Ravens than a high draft pick who was on every team's radar.

Vital, 44, will oversee college and some pro personnel evaluation and work as Dimitroff's right-hand man.

"He's consistent with how he approaches things, he's easy to communicate with and he's got a very good eye," Dimitroff said.

The low-key Louisianan is another example of the Falcons' new model of blue-collar employees that have been hired in the franchise overhaul following the disaster that was 2007.

Vital's arrival in Atlanta is due, in part, to his friendship with Dimitroff. Even so, Vital and Dimitroff said a distinct line has been drawn between their work and off-field relationships.

"If I couldn't do what I do, I wouldn't be here because Tom's not that kind of guy," said Vital, who in 2007 was honored by the Fritz Pollard Alliance as the top African-American scout in the NFL. "We'd be friends, but we'd leave it as friends. It just worked out to where I'm good at what I do and Tom's good at what he does. You're not going to survive in this league and get where we are if you're not good at what you do. They'll run you out so fast."

Dimitroff said the reason he enlisted Vital is because they've learned how to evaluate players that fit their model for success.

An example: "We need to know about work ethic, training habits and coachability," Vital said. "We don't want fat guys. Why? Let's say a guy is an offensive tackle but he's fat. He weighs 330 pounds. He gets down to 310 to trick you because he wants a new deal. He signs his new deal and goes back to 330 pounds.

"Big guys always get big again. We don't want to deal with those types of headaches."

Though Dimitroff and Vital are going on nearly two decades of friendship, Falcons tight ends coach Chris Scelfo has known Vital nearly all their lives. They grew up on opposite ends of town in Southern Louisiana and have crossed paths ever since.

"As kids, we played against each other in baseball and football and everyone in that area came to watch — Lionel," Scelfo said. "Looking back, you can see how he's done so much because even as a kid, he was a stand-up guy who worked hard. He was raised that certain way.

"When I coached at Tulane, Lionel was scouting in the NFL and he would always come through to cross-check and research guys. He took up more of my time than any other coach or scout. He asked stuff no one else would ask about players. He was incredibly detailed.

"He would ask, 'How did a certain player behave when you were recruiting him and his little brother was in the room? How did he act toward his mother and father after a game? After a loss? After a win?'

"That separated him from everyone," Scelfo said. "That's information that could make a difference in determining if a player could be successful in the NFL."