Kevin Stefanski is yet to get his report card at the end of his debut season as the Atlanta Falcons head coach. But so what? Running back Bijan Robinson has already put him on a pedestal. Stefanski’s locker room speech reminded Robinson of civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. And as expected, the comment went so viral that Robinson had to address it later.

“Yup I just be talking sometimes 😭! Shout out to Coach 🫡,” wrote Robinson on his Instagram story, resharing Bleacher Report’s post. 

While we don’t have the specifics of the speech, it sure did its job. Robinson was an absolute nightmare for the Packers defense on Thursday. The star running back racked up 194 yards and scored two touchdowns. He also made the highlights with a 55-yard gain in the first quarter, proving why he is the highest-paid running back in the league right now.

Robinson revealed after the game how Stefanski had motivated them after the Week 2 loss to the Panthers, in which Atlanta had only put three points on the board.

“Last week was a bigger testament to who he is just as a person but as a coach,” Robinson said. “Obviously we lost how we did last week and he went right to the locker room, and I don’t know if he drunk some coffee or something but he said this speech – it was like if Martin Luther King was in there, man.

“He just brought everybody, all the players together. And he was saying like, ‘Are we gonna let this loss define us? Is this who we’re gonna be as a team, or are we gonna just change it right now and, you know, try to flip the switch?’”

Robinson was clearly happy beyond comparison after the Packers game, so he might not have been able to hold back on the praise, but as the speech went viral, he admitted the comparison was odd. Here’s what the running back commented on the Bleacher Report post:

“Yup I just be saying stuff sometimes lol. Awesome speech for the Guys tho🙌”

The Falcons’ offense was disastrous against the Panthers. Cooper Rush completed 10 of 17 passes for 86 yards, but his two interceptions and a lost fumble gave him three turnovers in a game where Atlanta desperately needed to avoid mistakes and keep its offense moving.

Jack Strand, too, struggled to make an impact, going 8-of-15 for 59 yards and an interception while also losing a fumble to end the game.

Asked about Robinson’s MLK comment, Stefanski joked that his language was far worse than King’s.

“I don’t think Dr. King used as many f-bombs as I did,” Stefanski said Friday, according to ESPN.

However, the Atlanta Falcons seemed to look like a whole new team against Green Bay. This time, they had Michael Penix Jr. return at quarterback, who was out rehabbing his torn ACL since last year.

With pundits still breaking down who really made the difference behind the team’s victory, Bijan Robinson knows that his coach deserves the credit.