Parcells was hamstrung by Jones every step of the way. Parcells can’t be Parcells in that kind of environment; after a year or so it becomes intolerable. It’s pretty much the reason Cowher will never come to Dallas, though Gruden might. You can’t just base everything on winning percentage; Wade Phillips has an excellent winning percentage but he’s a joke of a coach.
The junior league fake play–how incredibly lame. Let’s set up a situation where we make an incredibly rules-lawyered play that the other team could not possibly figure out in time for us to score a TD (though that one kid did nearly catch up), a situation most pro players won’t even see. And we’ll do it with a bunch of kids. To me? It’s a fucking ridiculous stunt to pull.
Lorini mentioned racism on here in regards to Shanahan and quite a few people castigated her about it, but even John Feinstein brought it up the other day. Feinstein has his ups and downs as a commentator of modern sport but that’s really starting to hit the mainstream. From a Rick Reilly column (which is anti-Feinstein):
— Alan
Don’t forget the Saints beat the Steelers as well :)
Rimbo
3183
That’s what makes this version so damn satisfying to watch. :)
(Also, good Reilly column.)
Lorini
3184
To make it clear because I don’t think I did a great job before.
I believe that Shanahan continually has issues with well-known black players. I don’t know that he is a racist. Him bringing in the worst bust since Ryan Leaf to try out with the Redskins only proves my point. There was no way he was going to actually put Russell on the team, he just wanted McNabb to know that there were options out there that he would consider. (Wonder if McNabb is now regretting his refusal to go to the Raiders??)
I think Feinstein is completely off base with his assertions that Shanahan is a racist. Just as Reilly says, Shanahan has done other things with other black people. The willingness of people to brand people as racists because of one thing or even some things that they are doing is over the top.
A long time friend of mine who is white, will only date white women and was aghast when I said I had someone I wanted him to meet (who happened to be white but he wouldn’t let me get that far in explanation) because he would never date a black woman. When my mother died, the lowest period of my life, he was there at the service for me and our friendship continued.
Should I brand him as a racist? That’s the whole thing, it’s not that black and white :).
Shannon Sharpe has a very visible job to keep so what he says isn’t going to carry a lot of weight. It would be more interesting to hear from other retired black players who played for Shanahan and don’t need to be on TV every Sunday.
I tend to disagree with this because it’s my belief that Shanahan is just a megalomaniac jerkoff and the NFL has a lot of black players, so I cite sampling error. I seem to recall there being friction between him and John Elway - John Elway! - when he first became the HC of Denver. We’ve never seen him step into a head coaching position post-Superbowl accolades before, so who knows. I have to tell you, if I became the head coach of Washington and looked at a list of player salaries, I’d expect a hell of a lot from Albert Haynesworth too.
Also, wasn’t McNabb not technically a Shanahan decision? While Grossman was a Kyle (or is it Kurt?) decision, since Grossman was at Houston with him last season. This could just be a “my guy” issue. I’ll reference Brian Billick and Kyle Boller as an example of how stupid a head coach can get with “my guy” loyalty.
I’d be hard pressed not to think he was racist to some extent after that comment. That’s a pretty strong statement. I am currently dating a black lady (well, she’s a Puerto Rican/Dominican mix) and it’s been fantastic. If you hadn’t asked him yet, I’d ask him why he feels that way.
Like Terrell Davis or Clinton Portis, yeah. I mean Shanahan’s offense ran through the RB (at least it did as soon as Davis showed it could).
Genji
3186
Not saying that Shanahan doesn’t have problems with some of his black players (I would lean towards him just trying to cover his ass in non-superbowl seasons), but it should be noted that he has had problems with all of his QBs since (or including) John Elway. He treated both Brian Griese and Jake Plummer like crap even though they managed to do fine under his system.
http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/blog/shutdown_corner/post/Ex-NFL-QB-Jake-Plummer-is-playing-a-new-sport-th?urn=nfl-282499
At the time they were playing, both of them were pretty high profile players.
Shmtur
3187
I’m more than willing to defer to Tony Dungy on the subject:
“I think we’re way beyond that,” Dungy said. “Given the fact that they traded for him. If he was already on the team and Mike Shanahan came in, then maybe you’d have something to say.”
PFT also said it better than I can:
We agree with Dungy. It’s not a matter of race, but of respect. When Shanahan decides that he’s upset with a player, he arguably becomes what employment lawyers call an “equal opportunity asshole.” (That’s a statement of opinion on our part, not fact.) And he’ll bench a guy or ride a guy or otherwise disrespect a guy regardless of race, creed, national origin, or any other factor protected by federal, state, or local law.
Shanahan has taken on plenty of players in his time. He justifies the actions by convincing himself that he’s acting in the best interests of the team to do so. Regardless of whether the approach is misguided, his efforts to show specific players who’s the boss has nothing to do with a player’s race and everything to do with showing the player who’s the boss.
If Shanahan had a bias against African-American quarterbacks, he wouldn’t have traded for McNabb. That said, Shanahan’s explanation for the benching of McNabb was sufficiently clumsy to permit a reasonable person to infer that Shanahan’s views regarding McNabb have been influenced by racial stereotypes. In lawsuits alleging racial discrimination in employment, evidence of inconsistent or unbelievable excuses for the challenged decision fuels the notion that the employer’s inability to fess up to the real reason means that the real reason is being concealed because the real reason is a reason that would be an illegal reason.
Shame on Shanahan for not being sensitive to the possibility that the conflicting explanations reasonably could be viewed by some as “racial coding.” While we don’t agree with Feinstein’s position, the fact that smart people like Feinstein can come to that conclusion means that Shanahan should have simply told the truth from the get go.
The truth, as best we can tell, is that McNabb hasn’t played well, and that the Shanahans hoped to get his attention via the late-game benching. If that doesn’t work, the next benching will come earlier in the game. Eventually, McNabb will fall to No. 2 on the depth chart.
When it comes to Shanahan, I don’t know that he’s a rapist and murderer either. Though I do believe that Shanahan raped and murdered a girl in 1990.
Wait, that’s Glenn Beck.
Shanahan is a guy who has issues with lots of players on his teams. He’s a bit of a Napoleon, and he really wants people to know he’s the boss. If it were stated he has issues with high profile players on his teams, I’d agree with that completely. But saying he has issues with high profile black players on his teams is implying that he does not have these issues with white players, and thus implying that Shanahan is racist. And that is simply incorrect.
Rimbo
3189
I must not be up-to-date on my racial stereotypes, because I don’t get how what Shanahan said is “racial coding.” Clumsy, yeah. But racist? Whaaa?
I also wonder how so many discussions of McNabb’s obvious issues somehow end up being about his race…
Really, Shanahan had issues with white QBs. I don’t really see him having an issue with a black QB being controversial. It’s more likely that no one measures up to Elway in his mind. He has issues with QBs in general if they are not John Elway.
olaf
3191
If you are a racist, and dont like black people, I dont think you are getting to head coach in the NFL. Just throwing that out there…
Nawid_A
3192
I just hope McNabb blows up against the Eagles. I’m starting him in my fantasy league.
Lorini
3193
Thanks for the responses and the links. At least it’s being discussed which is good. I would trust Tony Dungy’s assessment over Shannon Sharpe’s.
Maybe I’ll go from ‘he doesn’t like well known black players’ to ‘he’s one of the worst coaches in the NFL in managing his players’. Which is certainly true. You don’t do what he does and expect players to play well for you.
Sarkus
3194
Since when did “down by contact” get really vague? In the Bengals/Colts game Palmer threw a pick. The defender was running it back and Palmer just barely bumped the guy’s leg as he ran by, causing the defender to stumble and fall. But he wasn’t touched while he was down, so he got up and ran into the endzone. The Bengals challenged the call and the officials agreed that the defender was “down by contact” even though the contact happened well before the guy went down. The Colts ended up having to settle for a field goal.
Seems like a really stupid interpretation of “down by contact.”
ckessel
3195
That’s always been the case as long as I can remember. If the defender touches him in any way and the runner goes down, it’s down by contact. There’s no judgment at all. Touch and he goes down, he’s down. Otherwise it becomes a judgement call about whether a touch caused the runner to go down.
Sarkus
3196
Except that it makes no sense if the runner isn’t touched when they are actually down. There are tons of situations where the runner has to be touched while they are down on the ground, so that would seem to be the way to interpret the rule. Causing somebody to stumble and fall is not the same as tackling that player.
The QB shuffle in the Titans/Dolphins game is crazy. The Titans started Young, who was injured and replaced by Collins, who was injured and replaced by Young. The Dolphins started Pennington, who was injured and replaced by Henne, who has now been replaced by Thigpen. And this is a one touchdown difference game, not some sort of blowout.
Contrai
3197
The Miami/Tennessee game has been crazy with all the people that have played quarterback during the course of the game.
The ending of the Houston-Jacksonville game was insane.
Cincy’s two-minute (well, one-minute) offense at the end of their game was beyond pathetic. TO needs to be canned for not even caring.
ckessel
3200
I get what you’re saying, but there’s a few cases:
- The player just falls, slips, whatever. No one ever touched him so he still needs to be tackled.
- A defender touches him, like a shoestring tackle. The player isn’t down while being touched, but dives, rolls, stumbles forward. He’s down at that point because the defender caused it.
- Straight up tackle, defender goes down with a man on them.
There are a LOT of tackles that fall into category 2. Especially a lot of receivers just get whacked, rather than tackled, and are down even though all they did was fall down and no one is tackling them when they hit.
