AP

Here’s a change: Someone is meeting with Roger Goodell about being reinstated from a suspension, and they’re optimistic about it.

Of course, it’s not a player, but Falcons president Rich McKay.

According to D. Orlando Ledbetter of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Falcons owner Arthur Blank said McKay would meet with the commissioner regarding being reinstated to the league’s competition committee. McKay had to give that job up for three months as part of the team’s punishment for pumping fake crowd noise into the Georgia Dome. He was eligible to apply for reinstatement on June 30.

“We’ve had some discussions with the league,” Blank said. “Rich is scheduled to go up there in a few weeks and meet with the commissioner and others. Rich certainly has my support. He was a very valued member of the committee for 22 years and was mentioned last night by Bill Polian, who was an inductee into the Hall of Fame, as somebody who was important that he worked with for a number of years. . . .

“I’m very optimistic that something will be worked out with Rich.”

The Falcons were also fined $350,000 and lost a fifth-round pick in addition to the mostly-for-show punishment of McKay.

“We’ve dealt with an unfortunate set of circumstances,” Blank said. “One of which we probably could have avoided. Hence the penalty and hence we didn’t appeal it.”

The Falcons quickly found a scapegoat, firing their director of event marketing, a guy named Roddy White (not the wide receiver and longtime friend of PFT). He’d have been suspended eight games if they hadn’t fired him first.

McKay was the chairman of the competition committee, and he didn’t miss much in his absence.