BREAKING: Calvin Ridley 'Fresh-Start' Trade Addressed by Falcons Owner Arthur Blank

“We love the young man. We’d love him to stay in Atlanta. Whether or not he wants to do that — he may decide that he wants a fresh start someplace else.'' - Arthur Blank.

The Atlanta Falcons are professing their "love'' of Calvin Ridley.

But is that "love'' unrequited''?

“We love the young man. He has had a great history in Atlanta. We’d love him to stay in Atlanta. Whether or not he wants to do that — he may decide that he wants a fresh start someplace else,” team owner Arthur Blank said this week, via the team’s website. “We don’t know that. I don’t know that. I don’t have any information to indicate that, but we’ll see how that plays out.''

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Blank is of course referring to the educated speculation by using the phrase "fresh start.'' He also expressed sensitivity to the situation as it regards the talented wide receiver having stepped away from the team with a statement on Oct. 31 that indicated he was leaving to focus on his mental health.

Since then, the Falcons have yet to receive any definitive answer regarding his possible return for the 2022 season.

On Wednesday, Falcons owner Arthur Blank shared his thoughts on the situation.

“We’ve been totally supportive in every way that we can be, both emotionally and financially in working with him as well as his agent,'' Blank said. "We’ll see, but I’m mostly concerned about him as a human being.”

That is a wonderful and important sentiment. But we must admit, we are confounded by something else Blank said during this Super Bowl Week buildup.

The owner of the Falcons said he had not spoken directly with Ridley himself.

“We’re not permitted to speak with him directly but have spoken with his representatives. How he handles his situation and how that plays out remains to be seen,” he said during a radio appearance on the Dukes and Bell show.

Surely there is a reason for that ... but we're not aware of it. Why aren't the Falcons "permitted to speak with him directly''?

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Ridley is under contract with the Falcons through 2022 after the team exercised his fifth-year option last spring. Through five games this year, the former first-round pick logged 281 yards and two touchdowns before taking his leave.

The possibility of a trade looms. A return to the Falcons, it seems, does not.

”We’re very sensitive to it,'' Blank said of the situation, adding that he holds out some hope of a reunion, "and would love to see him stay.”