Flowery Branch, Ga. ? Emmitt Thomas waited a long time to serve as head coach of an NFL team. He never could have imagined his opportunity would come this way.

One day after Bobby Petrino’s unexpected resignation, Thomas inherited an Atlanta Falcons team eager for new leadership.

Thomas, 64, was promoted Wednesday to interim head coach for the final three games of the season. Petrino resigned to become coach at Arkansas – and left behind Atlanta players who feel betrayed that he quit after 13 games, and furious he left word in a brief note placed at the players’ lockers.

The Falcons were 3-10 under Petrino, and players who had nothing good to say about the departed coach were eager to embrace Thomas, who has worked with the team’s defensive backs for three head coaches since 2002.

Thomas was selected to the Kansas City Chiefs Hall of Fame in 1986 after a 13-year career that included a team-record 58 interceptions. In August, the seniors committee added Thomas to the list of semifinalists for the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s class of 2008. The inductees will be decided the day before the Super Bowl on Feb. 2, 2008.

He began his coaching career in 1979 as defensive coordinator at Central Missouri State. His first job as an NFL assistant came in 1981 with the St. Louis Cardinals. He was an assistant with the Redskins from 1986-94, where he coached wide receivers and then defensive backs for teams that won two Super Bowls.

Thomas also won a Super Bowl ring as a player with Kansas City.

Thomas is the first black head coach in the team’s history. The only assistant coach who was not with the team Wednesday was Petrino’s brother, wide receivers coach Paul Petrino, who also resigned.