St Louis Rams general manager Les Snead has admitted that he owes a great deal to the Atlanta Falcons for launching his career.
Snead served as a scout for 12 years at the club before being promoted to director of player personnel.
His talents were then noticed by the Rams who offered him a deal to become their general manager in 2012.
"Hey, I owe a lot to the owner Arthur [Blank], Thomas [Dimitroff], Mike [Smith]," Snead told reporters.
"The success Mike and Thomas are in the midst of is one of the reasons I'm sitting here in this chair. The stuff I learned that kind of helped get them on this roll is helping me here today, and it's one of the reasons why I'm here today."
St Louis face the Falcons on Sunday.