A massive revival of public interest in art, architecture, science and literature throughout Europe in the 15th and 16th century led to some of the most important developments in human history.

This time period in world history saw William Shakespeare put pen to paper, Michelangelo suspend himself to the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and Leonardo Da Vinci complete the Mona Lisa.

Historians look back on this period in awe because of how it shaped humankind and the human experience in ways we still experience today. This era of human history is called the Renaissance, and it was born out of a time people aren't as likely to remember.

The crisis of the Late Middle Ages set the stage for societal rebirth. The time before the Renaissance was one most remembered for its turmoil, sickness and loss.

It's the Renaissance that stands to remind humankind that it has the ability to pull itself out of periods of darkness. And that's ultimately what the word renaissance represents at its core. It's a revival.

For Grady Jarrett in 2024, there is nothing except the renaissance for which he is chasing after a year of challenge.

A season-ending knee injury took his ninth season away from him. It sent him into a period of heightened emotion and reflection through the changes he was experiencing. Looking back, though, it was a time that taught him how much this game of football means to him.

What's special about Jarrett's story, though, isn't that he experienced a season-ending injury and is mounting a return. In a league where a player's average life span is only 3.3 years, he's not the first or the last to experience a season cut short.

What's special about Jarrett's story is that he hasn't just been a mainstay within an organization for 10 years. He's been one of the best to do it at his position during that time frame. That, and he's done it for his hometown team.

He's been to Pro Bowls. He's tied the Super Bowl record for most sacks in a single game. He's been named to the NFL Top 100 list three times. For the Atlanta organization he's spent his entire career with, he's third all-time in tackles for a loss, second in quarterback hits (one away from tying John Abraham's franchise record) and 10th in sacks. He was the Falcons' Walter Payton Man of the Year in 2019 for the work he's done in the communities that helped raise him.

Over 10 years time, names and faces about the organization have changed. Players have entered and exited the locker room. Coaches have come, gone and returned, too.

Only a select few names have been consistent. Jarrett's is one of them.

While Jarrett has been a consistent force for the Falcons, the city of Atlanta has been a constant presence for him as well. That connection began when he was still a young boy living just outside Conyers, Georgia, dreaming of seeing his name on an NFL locker.

Not only did he reach that dream, but he's cemented it over 10 years of work. From the beginning, though, Jarrett sought to strengthen the foundational connection he felt toward Atlanta and the surrounding area.

"You always felt like he was the heart and soul, you just didn't know of what yet," Raheem Morris said of Jarrett's first few years in the league. "It's really become Atlanta. Not even just the defense. It goes beyond a side of the ball. It's gone beyond even the building. It's going outside of the building and has gone to the whole city of Atlanta."

If Jarrett's most recent challenges have taught him anything, it's that this game, this business of the NFL, goes on without you. No matter how hard you work, no matter how many years you're in it, when it's over for you, it doesn't end for everyone else.

Just like life, the game continues.

"As hard as you fight to make a name, to be remembered," Jarrett said, "they'll forget you just as fast."

That reality can be grueling. Cruel even. But it doesn't change the fact that this is, indeed, the reality. If you're going to face it, you might as well fight it.

"While you have the opportunity to do what you do, do your best, try to be legendary, try to be one of them ones," Jarrett explained. "Because there's going to come a day when you can't go no more, and you want to be clear in knowing that you left your best everything out there. And your legacy will speak for itself."

Legacy, or the works of art an artist leaves behind.

Because that's what Jarrett is, right? The artist at the heart of the Atlanta Falcons.

No one person gets to decide what their legacy will become. They can do all they can to set one up, but it's others who dictate a legacy for you. They are the ones who remember, or forget. But if you could – even for a minute – try to articulate your legacy even in the midst of building it, what would it be?

"I have full confidence that my best is always ahead of me, but I'm really walking that, talking that, working for that," Jarrett surmised.

"If I wasn't great at my job, I wouldn't still be sitting right here. And I am damn good at my job. Whether that's zero tackles or zero sacks, or I get 10 sacks and 100 tackles, I do what is asked of me at a very high level."

Good, bad, great, ugly, indifferent, Jarrett has been the same regardless. That's what he wants people to understand about him if he could have the chance to write a little bit of his own legacy.

"My surroundings don't dictate my effort," he said, "and that's the biggest lesson that I think my legacy can teach."

This mentality is why, Morris said, one should try to be like Jarrett any chance you get, because you surely can't be him.

"If you can pick anything up from him, even one small thing, it's going to make you a better person, a better player, a better everything," the head coach said. "And that's the bottom line."

His own mother, who's never once missed a game of his, agrees.

"Grady is going to work if you're looking, or you're not looking," she said. "That's who he is."

Reflecting on the last 10 years, all she wants for her son now is to be the best version of himself he can be.

"In every aspect of life," Elisha said. "As a father, as a son, as an Atlanta football player, as a community advocate, as a philanthropist. Just that he's the best version of himself."

For owner Arthur Blank, he can say with confidence that it's Jarrett who has set the standard for what it means to be an Atlanta Falcon.

"There's probably nobody on the team that works harder than him. There's probably nobody on the team that's a better role model in every aspect that we ask our Falcons to be, not just on the field but off the field, too," Blank said. "... He's one of these folks you spend time with during your life and you never forget him."

And that right there, the last four words of Blank's response, is the foundation of a legacy: To build something so touching, so significant that it can't be forgotten.

If you ask Jarrett about a legacy, that's what he's working for, dreaming for, even with so much still left to give.

"I take a lot of pride in not being comfortable. Not being satisfied," Jarrett said. "… Year 10 is like a reset for me. Let's do it again. Let's turn it up some more. Because there's a lot more left.

"And when it's all said and done, hopefully in another 10, I can really say I put my best foot forward. That I gave it everything I had. That this is just a part of the story."

A story, a legacy, prepped and ready for a renaissance if the fire in Jarrett's eyes has anything to say about it.