SmashMouth

In the course of spending his first four years in the NFL with the Atlanta Falcons, Curtis Lofton got to work alongside future Hall of Fame tight end Tony Gonzalez for three of them.

Lofton said he began eating, exercising and resting adequately while playing with Gonzalez from 2009 to 2011, and he considered the 14-time Pro Bowler who retired from the Falcons following last season a mentor.

But the Falcons ultimately opted against re-signing Lofton, and he joined the NFC South rival Saints in free agency in 2012.

Heading into his third season with the Saints and seventh as a pro this year, Lofton has drawn two conclusions: He never again wants to play for a defensive coordinator who’s not Rob Ryan, and he forever wants to beat Atlanta to make them regret letting him depart, his fondness for Gonzalez notwithstanding.

“You never get over the team that let you go,” Lofton, in part, said while speaking with SiriusXM NFL Radio with co-hosts Howard David and James Lofton (no relation). “I always want to beat them. I never want to lose to them.”

Despite the strong sentiments, Curtis Lofton made it clear during his interview that his feelings for Atlanta don’t stem from a place of dissatisfaction in New Orleans — far from it.

With Curtis Lofton as one of his inside linebackers, Ryan in 2013 took over a Saints defense that finished the 2012 season as the worst in NFL history and led it to a No. 4 ranking. No defense since the 1970 AFL-NFL merger had placed so highly the year after being at the bottom of the league, and the turnaround helped the Saints reach the divisional round of the playoffs.

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