Finally, Football
Acceptance is one of those stages of grief, and I may well have reached it with my dear United States. Nothing will change there until the soulless barbarians are driven out. Certainly, nothing will happen until the Do-Nothing Congress gets tossed out in November.
So, on the the good news: NFL training camp is here. It's about time.
Let me kick off my extensive and exclusive football coverage for 2006 with an observation about some of this year's head coaching hires. As in: what the hell?
It used to be (curmudgeon alert) that NFL head coaches came from one of the following three groups:
1) Former NFL Head Coach (Retread).
2) Former College Head Coach (must have won a national championship).
3) Top Offensive or Defensive Coordinator (must have either won a Super Bowl or led the league in offense/defense).
This year, we have a few new coaches with the proper pedigree, and a few curiously without.
Among those who qualify is Art Shell, Hall of Fame tackle and former Raiders head coach. Shell was a winning coach in his first tour with the team, and gets to see if he can repeat that success with this Katrina of a roster. Good luck, Art.
Shell actually represents another old-time head coaching group which is rarely seen today (in the NFL): the former-great player. Like Bart Starr and Forest Gregg before him, Shell was an all-timer as a player who got a shot at the HC job. This is still quite common in the NBA and, I believe, in MLB and hockey, but hasn't happened in the NFL in a while.
In fact, the former players who've made it to the HC ranks were the nondescript try-hard types as players: Tony Dungy, Bill Cowher, Jack Del Rio, Jim Haslett (former Saints guy), Herm Edwards, and Mike Tice (former Vikings guy).
You won't see any of their busts in Canton, but they were the kind of players who needed to understand the game in order to play it for a living, and all those guys had long and undistinguished careers.
Back to the brief list of the new and able: Garry Kubiak in Houston was offensive coordinator for two Denver Super Bowl champs. Sure, he was a proxy coordinator for an offensive-minded HC, and it's been a while since his offenses sniffed anything like the Super Bowl air (coincidentally since Elway wore the Horsie), but at least he has the skins on the wall.
Herm Edwards comes to KC as a Retread, but was one of the original non-qualified guys who had some marginal success and opened the door for others. When the Jets hired him as Head Coach, Herm had never even served as a coordinator. A couple of marginal seasons in NY, and he's a hot property. Go figure.
Dick Jauron is another Retread in Buffalo. He was Coach of the Year in Chicago in 2001. He was a Defensive Coordinator before that, but never for a champion. Still, his Retread qualifications are solid.
The last qualified guy is Brad Childress, new guy in Minny and former Eagles OC. Once again, he was an OC for an offensive HC (Andy Reid), but at least he was a Coordinator and did get the team to a Super Bowl (loss). You have to wonder, though, about what he's going to run in Minny. The Eagles offense is built around the talents of Donovan McNabb, who will not be putting any horns on his head this Fall. The Eagles run a bizarro version of the West Coach offense, where the RB is a receiving threat and the running game is a second thought.
Whatever.
But who are these guys and how did they get HC jobs?
1) Scott Linehan, Rams.
2) Eric Mangini, Jets.
3) Mike McCarthy, Packers.
4) Sean Payton, Saints.
5) Rod Marinelli, Lions.
Seriously. Linehan was OC for a couple of crappy offenses in the past few years. Miami? Please. McCarthy was a QB coach that Favre liked. Mangini was DC for the Pats for one year - in which their defense took a step back and they didn't win a Super Bowl. Peyton was in Bill Parcelles' dog house in Dallas. Marinelli has never been more than a DL coach at this level.
It may have been Edwards' performance in New York, or positive results from the under-qualified Jack Del Rio in Jax, or similar results from non-qualified Jim More in Atlanta, or the very odd favorable press that non-qualified Mike Nolan gets in SF, but for some reason teams are digging down to the next strata for coaching talent.
It may be the money. Top coaching guys like Nick Saban in Miami (former college National Champion) get big bucks. And they want control - it's easier for the GM to control a guy like Linehan who would have trouble finding even a coordinator gig if he got canned.
Whatever it is, I think these teams have topped themselves out at about 7-9 for the foreseeable future. The NFL is competition on Growth Hormone. The coaches who have made their careers by succeeding at every level are ready to move up. Those who haven't are, by definition, not ready.
So, on the the good news: NFL training camp is here. It's about time.
Let me kick off my extensive and exclusive football coverage for 2006 with an observation about some of this year's head coaching hires. As in: what the hell?
It used to be (curmudgeon alert) that NFL head coaches came from one of the following three groups:
1) Former NFL Head Coach (Retread).
2) Former College Head Coach (must have won a national championship).
3) Top Offensive or Defensive Coordinator (must have either won a Super Bowl or led the league in offense/defense).
This year, we have a few new coaches with the proper pedigree, and a few curiously without.
Among those who qualify is Art Shell, Hall of Fame tackle and former Raiders head coach. Shell was a winning coach in his first tour with the team, and gets to see if he can repeat that success with this Katrina of a roster. Good luck, Art.
Shell actually represents another old-time head coaching group which is rarely seen today (in the NFL): the former-great player. Like Bart Starr and Forest Gregg before him, Shell was an all-timer as a player who got a shot at the HC job. This is still quite common in the NBA and, I believe, in MLB and hockey, but hasn't happened in the NFL in a while.
In fact, the former players who've made it to the HC ranks were the nondescript try-hard types as players: Tony Dungy, Bill Cowher, Jack Del Rio, Jim Haslett (former Saints guy), Herm Edwards, and Mike Tice (former Vikings guy).
You won't see any of their busts in Canton, but they were the kind of players who needed to understand the game in order to play it for a living, and all those guys had long and undistinguished careers.
Back to the brief list of the new and able: Garry Kubiak in Houston was offensive coordinator for two Denver Super Bowl champs. Sure, he was a proxy coordinator for an offensive-minded HC, and it's been a while since his offenses sniffed anything like the Super Bowl air (coincidentally since Elway wore the Horsie), but at least he has the skins on the wall.
Herm Edwards comes to KC as a Retread, but was one of the original non-qualified guys who had some marginal success and opened the door for others. When the Jets hired him as Head Coach, Herm had never even served as a coordinator. A couple of marginal seasons in NY, and he's a hot property. Go figure.
Dick Jauron is another Retread in Buffalo. He was Coach of the Year in Chicago in 2001. He was a Defensive Coordinator before that, but never for a champion. Still, his Retread qualifications are solid.
The last qualified guy is Brad Childress, new guy in Minny and former Eagles OC. Once again, he was an OC for an offensive HC (Andy Reid), but at least he was a Coordinator and did get the team to a Super Bowl (loss). You have to wonder, though, about what he's going to run in Minny. The Eagles offense is built around the talents of Donovan McNabb, who will not be putting any horns on his head this Fall. The Eagles run a bizarro version of the West Coach offense, where the RB is a receiving threat and the running game is a second thought.
Whatever.
But who are these guys and how did they get HC jobs?
1) Scott Linehan, Rams.
2) Eric Mangini, Jets.
3) Mike McCarthy, Packers.
4) Sean Payton, Saints.
5) Rod Marinelli, Lions.
Seriously. Linehan was OC for a couple of crappy offenses in the past few years. Miami? Please. McCarthy was a QB coach that Favre liked. Mangini was DC for the Pats for one year - in which their defense took a step back and they didn't win a Super Bowl. Peyton was in Bill Parcelles' dog house in Dallas. Marinelli has never been more than a DL coach at this level.
It may have been Edwards' performance in New York, or positive results from the under-qualified Jack Del Rio in Jax, or similar results from non-qualified Jim More in Atlanta, or the very odd favorable press that non-qualified Mike Nolan gets in SF, but for some reason teams are digging down to the next strata for coaching talent.
It may be the money. Top coaching guys like Nick Saban in Miami (former college National Champion) get big bucks. And they want control - it's easier for the GM to control a guy like Linehan who would have trouble finding even a coordinator gig if he got canned.
Whatever it is, I think these teams have topped themselves out at about 7-9 for the foreseeable future. The NFL is competition on Growth Hormone. The coaches who have made their careers by succeeding at every level are ready to move up. Those who haven't are, by definition, not ready.
posted by fiduciary at 10:22 AM
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