Falcons’ Terry Fontenot a product of his strong family roots

LAKE CHARLES, La. — While noshing on a piping-hot order of eight jumbo shrimp from Steamboat Bills along Lakeshore Drive in his hometown, Falcons general manager Terry Fontenot’s phone started buzzing.

It was the office.

Fontenot and his wife, Tanya, were home to visit their parents.

Fontenot was informed of Barkevious Mingo’s legal situation in Texas, and later that night Mingo was released. It was the first crisis-management situation for the team’s new general manager and former executive with the New Orleans Saints, the team’s hated rival.

ExploreMichael Cunningham: Terry Fontenot’s work makes him a good hire for Falcons

Fontenot’s decision-making ability will be at the center of the Falcons franchise as they seek to return to respectability in the NFL.

Fontenot hadn’t been home since before Hurricane Laura wrecked havoc on the city and the homes of their respective parents in late August 2020.

“This is the beginning of everything from where I fell in love with football,” Fontenot said.

Credit: D. Orlando Ledbetter

Credit: D. Orlando Ledbetter

When he was a student at Oak Park Middle School, after track practice Fontenot would ride his bike to LaGrange High School just to watch football practice.

“Football was always a big deal to me,” Fontenot said. “That’s where I met my wife, right before a JV game. I was a sophomore, and she was a freshman.”

Fontenot’s parents, Roy and Jacquetta Fontenot, were supportive of his sports endeavors. He’s the fourth the seven kids, and his father played running back at Grambling State for the legendary Eddie Robinson.

Fontenot gets his work ethic from his dad, who worked for 54 years at the Firestone factory as an operator.

“I knew that if I wanted to go and play college ball, go to college, I had to get a scholarship,” Fontenot said. “That’s where the work ethic and watching my father and seeing him, blue collar, just go to work every day helped.”

He also has some of his mother’s overflowing personality.

“He was my most focused child,” Jacquetta Fontenot said.

The family was raised in the church.

“It was always about church and my children,” Mother Fontenot said.

Credit: D. Orlando Ledbetter

Fontenot enjoyed growing up in Lake Charles.

“Everyone treats everybody the right way,” Fontenot said. “In your mind as a kid, you feel like if you do that, you work hard and you treat people the right way and do the right things or at least have the right intent. ... if you do that, you’re going to be successful. That was always the mindset.”

There weren’t any limitations.

“I always thought, regardless of where I grew up, who I was, I always thought I could do anything that I wanted to,” Fontenot said. “I got that confidence from my parents. I got it from my wife once we met when we were 15 years old. I always … my work ethic, my passion and the way that I treat people, that’s a definite reflection on where I grew up.”

In addition to his work ethic, Fontenot believes he gets his ability to process information and his patience from his father.

“He was an older dad for his age,” Fontenot said. “He was already in his 40s as I was growing up. ... Some kids had younger dads, who were learning as they go. My dad already had a lot of wisdom. He had a lot of patience.”

Fontenot’s mother also was very influential.

“My mom, you’ll be around her for one second, and she’s one of the more extroverted people (you’ll meet),” Fontenot said. “She’s never met a stranger.”

Once Jacquetta Fontenot arrived at Steamboat Bills, she greeted the guest like a long-lost cousin and then made a straight line to her granddaughter who was atop an adjacent table in a rocker.

“She’s such a great communicator, and I think I learned about relationships from her,” Fontenot said. “Whether she’s going to the grocery store, the school or wherever she is, church; she is always going to meet people and cultivate relationships.”

Sunlight Baptist Church and later Lake Charles Bible Church were the places of worship for the Fontenots.

“Where Sunlight Baptist was a predominately Black church, Lake Charles Bible Church, we were the only Black family in the church,” Fontenot said. “It’s funny. That never bothered me. I didn’t even think twice about it. When we played soccer, we were some of the only Black kids in the soccer league that we played in South Lake Charles.”

Going to a church in the mid-1980s, the parents were trying to find the best place and programs for their children.

“I just felt like people were people, and the different people might have been treating me differently, I never even noticed it or I never thought twice about it,” Fontenot said. “I know that some people do, but I think I learned very quickly to be able to communicate with a lot of different people. ... (We) went to a couple of different churches, and our faith was a big part of our lives.”

In the Fontenot household, all of the children had to play an instrument. Terry played the saxophone after starting out on the clarinet. While musically inclined, Fontenot drifted toward his love for sports, with Jacquetta Fontenot’s blessing.

Eventually, playing in the band and football was too much. He had to get up at practice at 5 a.m. and wouldn’t get home from football practice until 8 p.m. Jacquetta Fontenot saw him laying on the floor one day with a sore shoulder and asked him what was wrong.

She went to Roy, who played at Grambling in the 1960s, and told him that Terry’s band days were over and he’d be playing football.

“I said, my baby is done with the band. It’s too much,” Mother Fontenot said.

He grew in a neighborhood that was called “The Village” and looked up to other athletes.

“I always felt like, I can’t think back to a time in my life where I didn’t know that sports was going to be a big part of me and who I was,” Fontenot said as Tanya pulled their car into the old neighborhood.

Stephen Starring, who played at Vinton High and McNeese State, was from The Village. He went on to play six seasons in the NFL with the Patriots (1983-87), Lions (1988) and Bucs (1988).

“I remember seeing Stephen Starring in a parade,” Fontenot said. “Hearing the stories about him, meeting him and hearing people talk about the type of player that he was and who he was. I was like OK, what did he do? He was a really good football player, and he made it. So, that stuck with me.”

Fontenot thought if he could excel in sports, he could make it from The Village, too.

“It was such a big deal,” Fontenot said.

There was more inspiration from The Village.

Donald Malveaux was a defensive lineman who was being recruited.

“I think his name was Kerry Collins, and he was (an assistant coach) at Northeast (Louisiana) and he visited Malveaux, who lived in one of these houses right around here,” Fontenot said.

While Fontenot was on one of his conditioning runs through the neighborhood, the assistant coach stopped him.

“I saw Malveaux doing what he was doing the in classroom and as an athlete,” Fontenot said. “It was like OK, he’s going to go college. That was my goal, to go to college and be a college athlete. I knew if I worked at it, that I could do that.”

Tanya continued her drive though the city.

“That orange house right there, it looks exactly that same,” Fontenot said. “That was my soccer coach, coach Homer. He worked on the railroads. Me and his son were the same age, and we played soccer. I’d walk down to his house, and he’d bring us to the soccer games.”

In front on the old red-brick house in which he grew up, Fontenot flashed back to how much fun he and the neighborhood kids had playing on a grass median. He remembers the mode of transportation, the family car fondly called Big Blue.

“If (his dad) felt like he needed gas, he’d just have to stop,” Fontenot said. “If he ran out, put some gas in there and keep going because the gas gauge didn’t even work. That was Big Blue. Big Blue would sit right here. It was first base (for street baseball games). That was the end-zone tree (for football games).”

Fontenot would go on to star at LaGrange High in Lake Charles as a two-way player. He played wide receiver in the Wing-T and was an all-state safety.

While at the field, Fontenot flashed back to a big game in school history.

“LaGrange needed to kick the extra point and missed it wide left, Peter Nelson,” Fontenot said. “Missed it, and that was it. That was when I was in the eighth grade. I was with the team from ’95 to ’99. We won three district championships. We had some real good football teams.”

Coach Mike Johns has a banner hanging from the field calling attention to his place as the school’s coach with the most wins.

“I remember at that time in 1994, when Frankie London was one of the top quarterbacks in the nation,” Fontenot said. “He went to Nebraska … but we used to watch Nebraska tape all of the time because they were running that Wing-T. Their receivers were in three-point stances, and we were like Coach, we are not getting in three-point stances.”

(London helped Nebraska win the 1997 national title while backing up Scott Frost.)

Fontenot reflected on his playing days at LaGrange.

“I used to just ride my bike here and sit in those bleachers,” Fontenot said. “This really is where I grew up watching and fell in love with ball. I didn’t know exactly what I was going to do, but I knew it was going to be involving football.”

Tanya Fontenot, the daughter of Mike and Josetta Prudhome, was a cheerleader at LaGrange.

“So, under these bleachers, LaGrange’s mascot is a Gator and Barbe (High) was our rival,” Tanya Fontenot said. “So, (fans from Barbe) caught a baby alligator and spray painted it blue, and released it under the stadium.

Let’s just say that the Key Club was in for a little surprise when they came to clean up the stadium on Saturday.

“We found the gator wondering under the stairs,” Tanya Fontenot said. “That rivalry was a big deal.”

Fontenot credits Johns and coach Pat Victor with helping to shape his athletic career.

“They are not (still coaching),” Fontenot said. “Coach Johns had a couple bouts with throat cancer. So he can’t speak as well. He texted me congratulations when I got the Falcons’ job. He said I would call you, but you wouldn’t understand me over the phone. His vocal cords are so damaged.”

Victor is retired from coaching, but still works in the school system.

“The lessons that I learned from them (include) just the little things, the details and doing everything the right way,” Fontenot said. “Everything about team ball. It’s team over individuals. All of those core values, so much of that I learned from them.”

Fontenot was recruited to Tulane by Frank Scelfo, who was on Tommy Bowden’s staff. He ended up playing for Chris Scelfo, Frank’s brother, after Bowden left for Clemson.

Fontenot played four years at strong safety from 1999 to 2002 and was a captain. He earned a bachelor’s degree in business and organizational information technology.

He was a four-year letterman and played on the Green Wave’s 2002 Hawaii Bowl championship team.

Fontenot landed a marketing internship with the Saints after his playing days were over.

Fontenot developed a strong reputation after working with the scouts and coaches and started moving up the ranks. He spent 18 years with the Saints, the last 16 working in personnel.

“Look, I’ve learned a lot from (Saints general manager) Mickey (Loomis),” Fontenot said. “The (best thing) that I learned is that you really hire people and you empower people.”

Fontenot went back to the Mingo situation.

“We had a crisis that we had to handle, and I had a lot of conversations, but if you heard me on the phone, I’m not always telling (people what to do),” Fontenot said. “I’m listening. I do want to hear. I’m going to make a decision ultimately, but I really want to hear what everyone has to say.”

Fontenot has to convince a sector of the fan base that’s is OK to have a former Saints executive in charge.

“I feel like I’ve been here forever,” Fontenot said. “I don’t have any reservation with being a Falcon.”