www.the33rdteam.com
Great article by someone I really trust to have a better understanding of this than anyone other than Ballard and IrsayReally good article by Bill Polian
Perception Reich Mismanaged Colts’ QB Situation Untrue
The firing of Frank Reich as head coach of the Indianapolis Colts and the choice of Jeff Saturday as interim head coach by team owner...
They should be running these same scenarios in practices, and should actually do some of the same stuff if games are out of hand, etc for the reps.
With the caveat that I have never been an NFL coach, is it possible that big fans of the game are more schooled on clock management than pro coaches? How often do the pro coaches study clock management? We big fans watch and listen to announcers point out every little detail of clock management 4-8 times per week during the season. Wonder if coaches do that much?
Saw that. What is he going to say? “We are tanking”….Colts owner Jim Irsay said this week that there are no objections to playing Ryan again this year.
Starting to feel a little like Bob Sanders...
I was thinking the same thing. I think they both might play harder than their body can handle. Leonard had said that he had thought about quitting football last year. He might not come back next year.
profootballtalk.nbcsports.com
I don't get the disrespect thing either. I mean you might not like the hiring or think it's not the best move for the team, but I don't see where there is any disrespect for other coaches in the NFL. I guess it's part of this entitled society that we now live in.I just do not get the whole disrespect thing. Why is it interpreted this way?
Former Browns left tackle Joe Thomas shared his thoughts on the situation earlier today, on NFL Network. Thomas did not mince words.
“When I saw this, I thought it was a joke,” Thomas said. “It was the most egregious thing I can ever remember happening in the NFL, and I went 1-31 my last two years in the NFL.”
That comment came near the end of the three-minute rant. Here’s how it started.
“When you hire your drinking buddy to be the head coach of an NFL football team, it is one of the most disrespectful things I’ve ever seen in my entire life to the commitment, the lifestyle, and the experience that it takes to be an NFL coach — any coach — much less the head coach of the Indianapolis Football Colts,” Thomas said. “You have got to be kidding me that this is something that Jim Irsay and Jeff Saturday, who’s not blameless for accepting the job, could have talked and decided that this was the best thing for the Indianapolis Colts at this juncture of the season.”
Saturday definitely isn’t blameless. As pointed out earlier this week, the Colts twice tried to hire Saturday as an assistant coach. If he’d taken the job, it would have been much easier to sell the notion of putting him in charge.
So why didn’t Saturday pounce on the opportunity to become a position coach? Did he not want the hours and stress unless he was the head coach? Regardless, he’ll be getting all the hours and stress he can handle, and then some.
“The commitment that it takes to be a head coach is beyond what people can even comprehend, unless you’ve been in that locker room,” Thomas said, pointing to the example created by one-and-done Browns head coach Rob Chudzinski. “He saw his children one time every week. . . . If it was a home game, he would get to see his kids two times every week. . . . That’s a lifestyle. That’s who you are. That’s not something that you can just show up for. It’s not something you sign up for. This is something that changes your life when you decide to be a coach. It’s one of the reasons I don’t want to coach. Because I want to see my children. I want to have a life outside of football.
“When you’re a coach in the NFL, you do not have a life outside of football. Why do you think coaches never retire? What are they going to do? They’ve never developed any other parts of their life.”
And so, instead of entrusting the job to someone who already has made that commitment, Irsay plucked a former player from a much easier lifestyle as an ESPN analyst. It was an affront to all of the people who have put in the time, demonstrated the effort, and honed their skills through work and work and work.
“The disrespect that NFL coaches have to feel when they saw that this hire was made is higher than almost anything I can ever possibly remember in the NFL,” Thomas said. “And then to defend the decision by saying, ‘I’m happy that he doesn’t have any experience because he’s not scared.’ Like, if you didn’t already insult every person that’s worked their entire life to be a coach in the NFL then to go up there and say, ‘I like that he has no experience because all of y’all NFL coaches are scared because you use logic and analytics to make decisions’?”
Thomas is right, and not just because he’s saying things we’ve already said. (But it helps.) No self-respecting coach should agree to interview for the Colts’ head-coaching job after the season, especially since it already feels as if Irsay will find a way to justify giving the job to Saturday, even if he goes 0-8.
Joe Thomas: Jeff Saturday hire was "most egregious thing I can ever remember happening in the NFL"
Much has been written and said this week about the way-outside-the-box decision from Colts owner Jim Irsay to make former Colts center Jeff Saturday the interim head coach, despite Saturday having only three years of coaching experience, all at the high-school level.
I mean, the guy admitted that he himself was a loser so...
