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Oct. 17, 2005 All right, for anyone to whom it is not painfully obvious by now, New England is through. No, I am not in the cheering section; by the same token I won’t be numbered among the mourners either. As a semi interested by-stander and observer of things from the lost and found department, I can not help but notice that the cycle has not changed. This despite changes to the rules, free agency, instant millionaires, steroids or anything else that you might bring up that has occurred to the game in recent (say the last twenty years or so) history. I am just happy to see that regardless of outward appearances team sports remain just that and the successful franchises are still a collection of talent, intelligence and personality that occur relatively rarely and are generally just as fragile as they are hard to come by. In my humble opinion far too much emphasis is placed on the outstanding player or two, or the head coach who is said to be a ‘genius.’ A slightly more than casual examination and analysis of the history of the game that occupies such a prominent place in the weekend afternoons of our society reveals what has to characterized as more than a trend. In fact it is the way the game works and has been that way since the modern draft system was instituted. The cycle has repeated itself time and again for the last 35 or 40 years or so. A team emerges to dominate the league and remains on top for several years, then seemingly inexplicably it crumbles into so much testosterone laced dust to be blown away like the wind sweeps the snow from Lambeau Field on a late December afternoon. A classic example of this is the disintegration of the Patriots this year after remaining at the top of the heap for the last 4 years. What has happened to them? Some might say that injuries have decimated their ranks. While true, in particular with the case of the defense, this year is not a lot different from last. A season that saw the team resort to converting players from anywhere they could get to fill the back field, including offensive personnel that played both sides of the ball, something that has not been a common sight since the rule allowing unlimited substitutions was adopted shortly after the last World War. Free agency has not been a factor either. Though that practice along with the salary cap have done more to create parody in the league than any other 5 things combined, no player of any consequence has leapt from the New England boat. That I suspect would not effect the organization much anyway. The manner in which they weathered the injury storm last year proves that. I guess no one likes to admit it, or at the very least talk about it, but what is pulling that franchise down this year is the cavernous vacuum left in the wake of the departure of both the defensive and offensive coordinators. Enter my ‘house of cards’ theory. The modern head coach in the pros and the upper echelons of the NCAA have very little time to actually coach anymore. Their job has taken on a much more administrative role as the years have gone by, to the point where few of them even make on field decisions anymore. Most games are called from the lofty perch at or occasionally even above press box level. Called by the heads of the respective departments, not at all unlike the manner in which a foreman makes common decisions on a factory floor. He doesn’t usually run to the CEO if a machine is down or someone is out sick. When a situation presents itself he just handles it, for better or worse. The secret to the truly successful head coach these days and to a certain extent on a descending scale as you go further back into the past, is in keeping quality people around you at all times. How many times have you heard of a head coach taking another position and packing up several assistants along with his playbook on the way out the door? They don’t persist in that behavior because their underlings give them a warm, fuzzy feeling all over. They know that they can win with key people and will take as many as they possibly can when they leave for greener pastures. The departure of those 2 coaches knocked the pillars out from under the New England ‘dynasty.’ The worst part, other than a good team falling on hard times, is that most people will look at the misfortunes that befall the organization as the failing’s of the head coach. This of course is based on fact, but it is not the coach’s lack of football know how, it is in failing to hold the blocks that keep the house of cards erect. How else would one explain a team that has taken quite handily the last 3 out of 4 championships suddenly struggling to play 500 ball? The only significant change being the loss of the 2 coordinators in the off season? The talking head pundit’s speculated briefly last year on the effect that move would have on the Patriots and almost to a man said that the team was too good and the coach too crafty to be put off by such an outwardly minor disturbance. "After all" they said, "The head coach isn’t going anywhere, that’s where the real genius lay anyway." Uh huh…ask them how that is working out for them so far. An equally impressive example of this phenomenon is what is happening to USC this year. They have barely managed to eke out victories and maintain their streak. What happened last winter? Norm Chow, the offensive guru behind USC’s success, left. That’s all. Same head coach, the same team (more or less,) the same Heisman Trophy winner at quarterback and several potential candidates for this years award around him and the same power of the USC athletics department behind them. Yet were it not for a fumble in the closing seconds USC would have had their streak ended in Indiana this Saturday past, at the hands of Notre Dame, a perennial Big Ten power whose program has not been what one would call exceptional in recent years. That is until the addition of a new head coach for this season, a man that just happened to come from the New England Patriots, their ex-offensive coordinator. Funny how these things just happen to work out, ain’t it? I personally would find it interesting to know how many subordinates the Patriot’s coaches took with them to South Bend and Cleveland, you rarely hear about that part because of the perception of the head coach being the end all of any particular program. I can only guess at how deep the decimation to New England’s staff went. Strictly judging by historical precedence and the individual team records so far, I’d have to say Notre Dame got the best deal. The closest most head coaches come to real coaching these days is in coaching his coaches. Now were talking real genus. The best of the breed are able to convey their convictions and philosophy, the things that got them where they are today, to their subordinates and teach the team vicariously through the assistants. The Patriot’s are not to be faulted for their shortcomings this year. When a baby bird gets big enough, one day sooner or later it ambles over to the edge of the nest and takes off on it's own. No one can rightfully stop it from happening and when attempted in many instances all that is accomplished is teaching the bird to foul the nest. If blame has to be placed somewhere it is in the chief’s short sightedness and misconception that his protégé would not strike out on their own. If he were a true ‘genus’ he would have had people coming up through the ranks to step in and take over. After all, we are all big boys and this kind of thing has been happening around the league for a long time. The salary cap has effectively eliminated anyone from putting together a team of ‘all stars.’ The team’s management staffs have come up with some very creative means around the cap, such as the mysterious 'franchise' player, apparently a sort of last gasp stalling tactic. However, despite their best efforts management can not create a football equivalent of the Yankees. So teams end up with one or two and on occasion three very good players that demand top shelf salaries, the rest are roll players. What’s frightening is that every one of the 1800 players in the league are at a level so much higher than most people can imagine in their wildest dreams that it boggles the mind. They have to be, as the game has gotten so fast and so brutal that it is not too far on this side of illegal. So the game has morphed from one in which a team’s owner, providing he/she had deep enough pockets, could go out and buy a dozen top talents, add a mediocre staff and win on a consistent basis, to one where the rules dictate no more than as many super stars as can be numbered on one hand. With the average talent level found in the pros and the obvious fact that athletes do not reach that plateau without being coachable, the clear value in the market for the owners is to put their money in the coaching staff. The notion persists however, that all one needs is a big name head coach and the Super Bowl is as good as in one’s back pocket. No one ever stops to consider what that big name brings with him and there have been several occasions that saw the coach coming if not on his own, at least with a minimum entourage. In that case the man will usually fall flat on his face. That is the underlying reason coaches find it so difficult to make the jump from NCAA to the NFL. It is a lot more difficult to dislodge assistants from their warm and cozy collegiate jobs to plunge into the pressure cooker that is professional sports. Steve Spurier is a prime example. So, before anyone jumps on the bandwagon hollering for Brother Bill’s head, think about how easily it is to bring down a house of cards. You might get away with pulling a card, or sometimes even two, but take them from the wrong place or do it with a shaking hand and everyone winds up on their butts. ------------ About the author Keith Ian Middleton: was born in Portland OR., at age 6 his parents moved back to Upstate NY. where they had grown up. He spent most of his childhood on a farm and started working in sawmills upon graduation from high school. His natural design and engineering talents served him well and he made the rounds through several moves as a troubleshooter and hired gun with a number of lumber manufactures. Keith now resides and writes from Kentucky where he met and married his second wife. Email: kmiddle1957@yahoo.com Tell a friend about this site! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com. Please link to this article rather than copying and pasting it onto your site (which would be unauthorized and illegal). |
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