So the Bengals have now won more games this season than they did all of last season. I'm pleased and trying to enjoy it while it lasts.
Funny how he goes after the new head coach before his O-line, which (a) has more to do with his 2.7 ypc, and (b) has been suspect a lot longer than Haley has been in KC.
Yeah, but the difference is that the head coach is not in a position to perform any "LOOK OUT" blocks.
Valid point, BD, but be honest, how many coaches did you play for who never EVER laced em up? We had an O-line "assistant" who claimed to have played at Monmouth. The slightest bit of cyber stalking sent him packing from our meeting room and our team after the season.
Oh no, I agree with the sentiment. I'd have had a hard time listening to a guy trying to teach me how to zone block if he had never taken those same steps himself. I was just referring to the fact that if bad mouthing your coach in public is bad, talking shit about your o-line is fucking awful. But in what world does Larry Johnson live where he thinks that bad mouthing his superiors is a good idea or does anything other than create discord? You know as well as I do, you don't have to like the shit that is going on with the team, but you keep shit like that in-house.
You're talking to a kid who was on the team that dealt with this asshole (http://gothamist.com/2005/11/21/a_season_that_d.php). He recruited me, and what the article leaves out is that he was having multiple affiars with office girls, that capped with his wife coming to a practice my Junior year near the end of camp, telling him he'd 'never see his kids again', and leaving. AND THIS GUY HAD THE AUDACITY TO KEEP COACHING THE REST OF THE 2-A-DAY. We agreed as a team to keep that inhouse, but as obviously, there were leaks to alumni, and more people found out than prolly should have. Point being, if LJ had kept his mouth shut, football people who listen would realize what a bomb job Haley is doing, and reported/discussed it more. Now, Haley is the victim, and will be given a (longer) grace period by fans and management. Smooth move Mr. 400 carries. Idiot.
On the bright side, the Titans are looking like they will have a high enough draft pick to select Sam Bradford.
Fuck you. The Browns are going to select him and promptly ruin him properly. He fits our requirements to be an utter failure, and I will not see him fail elsewhere.
So if you're not a published author you can't criticize literature? If you haven't done the building yourself you can't be an architect? I don't see why someone who has literally spent their entire life studying the game can't be a head coach, regardless of whether or not they had the talent to play themselves. I don't mean to be pedantic, but I just found LJ's accusations to be baseless.
Really? What if that coach was Mike Leach? I hear he's doing pretty teaching his guys, well except for getting drafted or signing their contracts in a timely manner. Paul Johnson is doing pretty well and David Cutcliffe is doing an admirable job considering he's coaching Duke. None of them played football but I'd bet the guys on their respective teams would listen if they spoke. Granted, college football is a whole different animal from the NFL but we're talking about leadership and teaching here. I think the prerequisites for those two are pretty universal. If a head coach is doing a poor job leading his players it's not because he didn't play ball when he was a kid. Maybe it's just because he's a bad head coach.
Not only is the NFL a different animal from college (for both players and coaches), as far as I know all of those D-1 guys you mentioned at least played football in high school. Playing college football isn't a given, since there is a requisite level of athletic ability and talent required to earn a roster spot that not every bright football mind may possess. But Todd Haley not even playing high school football and coaching in the NFL is pretty ridiculous.
100% Agreed. My head coach in college never played college ball, but did play high school and had the experience of coaching 30 odd years before he coached us. A coach that didn't even play high school ball might have had less respect in the locker room, especially during spring training when the going gets tough. I can't imagine an NFL head coach that had never even played the game; maybe an offensive co-coordinator or a GM, but not a head coach.
Hey, nobody is saying that the guy isn't knowledgeable, but using your example- who would you rather have build your house- the guy who has read a bunch about the subject, or the guy who has actually done it before?
I'd go with the guy that has more experience planning, managing and implementing the building process, regardless of whether or not he's ever picked up a hammer himself.
Sure the NFL and college ball are completely different, but we're talking about the prerequisites for a coach to successfully inspire trust in his players. Are you telling me those leadership qualities change depending on what league you're in? Hell, wouldn't college coaches have a harder time than NFL ones since they'd be dealing with 18 year old kids and not older professionals? [quote ="El Tee"] Playing college football isn't a given, since there is a requisite level of athletic ability and talent required to earn a roster spot that not every bright football mind may possess. But Todd Haley not even playing high school football and coaching in the NFL is pretty ridiculous.[/quote] You really think the players give a damn whether Paul Johnson or Mike Leach played ball in high school? Their experience playing high school ball might affect how they coach, but you really think four years from their teenage years are going to have that much of an impact on their coaching styles? And that it somehow trumps over a decades worth of experience that Haley has?
Yea but the point isn't that he doesn't have the knowledge. Its that his lack of practical experience playing the game makes it harder on him in the intangible factors of coaching the team. It's harder to gain the player's respect, especially on a team struggling like this. If a coach who never played came in and started winning or improving the team, he's proven himself and the players will get on board. But with no, for lack of a better term, "street cred" a coach that comes in and loses still is going to lose his locker room fast. It also doesn't help that he is only a little older than some of his players. You think LJ is the only one talking like that? I guarantee you thats a common theme in locker room gripe sessions. It doesn't necessarily make sense, but its still the way it is. To play off El Tee's example, its the way I can imagine a military unit would feel if an officer on a general's staff was all of a sudden given command of a front-line unit. Yeah, he's got the knowledge and he's shown he can use it, but he's never been in the shit before, and that makes it a little harder to follow him until he proves himself. And to Zyang31, he's not saying it affects their coaching style, it affects how they are initially perceived by their players. Once they saw any success it was gone. All it effects is your initial effort to win over the team and locker room. Once you have it, it doesn't matter. Put it this way, How do you think the 49ers defense felt knowing that Mike Singletary was going to be coaching (either as head coach on when he came on as LB coach). Do you think they were more excited and willing to listen and take on his coaching points because he was one of the best MLBs of all time? Thats the kind of cache your past career (and specifically playing career) gives you.
First, I can understand how it would be hard to take orders from a guy who doesn't know what it's like to get his hands dirty in the trenches, doing two-a-days, and feel what it's like to have a 250lb guy run into you at full steam. For me though, in the end it would just be about results. Would we be having this discussion if the Chiefs were winning? I don't think the question is whether you can play for a guy who doesn't have first-hand experience of the game. I think it is whether first hand experience of the game is a pre-requisite for being able to win on a regular basis.
Yes, the leadership qualities for an NFL coach and a college football coach are substantially different...but no, college coaches have a much easier time than pro coaches when it comes to dealing with their players. There are several reasons for this, but I'll mention the biggest one. Generally speaking, the head coach of a college football program (at any level) is the end-all-be-all when it comes to football decisions. This is very rarely the case in the NFL, where both GMs and owners have incredible influence over the team. A perfect example of this is happening right now in Nashville, where Bud Adams is ordering Jeff Fisher to start Vince Young for the rest of the season. (I don't want to stroke my own cock here, but I do have some experience with both pro and college football. I played four years for a top-ranked Division III program and spent a full training camp with the then-Houston Oilers. I'm not saying that makes me an expert in all things football, but it did provide me with some unique perspective when it comes to the differences between coaching qualities.) But getting back to the subject at hand, I'll explain a little more about Todd Haley and the Chiefs with the full caveat that a lot of this is conjecture. I don't know any more than most of you who read the papers, but I don't feel completely unjustified in trying to read between the lines a little. First, the fact that Haley didn't play college football is one thing but not every quality NFL coach had a stellar undergrad career. That's actually not a big deal, although it's certainly odd in that community. The fact that he didn't play high school football (despite having an father in the NFL) is something else entirely, and far more puzzling. Here's the thing: ANYBODY can play high school football. Shit, every other year ESPN will run some kind of heartwarming piece about a retarded kid who scores a touchdown at the end of a blowout. Seriously, there are 'tards out there with more experience under pads than the head coach of an NFL franchise. There are thousands of deaf kids who've gone through Gallaudet that have more experience blocking and tackling than Todd Haley. All that is troubling enough, but what really makes the situation untenable is that Haley is reportedly very, very sensitive about it and when you have that kind of "unmentionable" subject hanging in the air it's going to eat into the sense of camaraderie and humor a good NFL team needs to have in order to thrive. So basically, anyone who wants to say that Todd Haley's lack of football playing experience isn't an issue doesn't need to convince us...you need to convince Todd Haley. Secondly, I think a lot of NFL'ers respect athletes of any sort. You'll find that a lot of strength and conditioning coaches don't have football backgrounds at all. Also, a lot of teams employ swimming coaches for part-time rehab and conditioning during the off-season. And if you go down any roster, you'd be surprised at how many pro football players probably list football as their second favorite sport they'd like to play. You'll not only find a lot of guys who'd rather have played in the NBA (Antonio Gates, Terrell Owens), but also guys whose first love might have been baseball or track-and-field. I dare say if an Olympic sprinter were hired as a wide receivers coach, he'd have more credibility for his training regimen (and BALCO hookups) than Todd Haley has. And here's why: Instead of playing football in high school and college, Todd Haley played golf. You know what pro football players do when they want to get away from the incredible physical strains of playing football? They play golf. When your leader's most impressive personal athletic achievement is something you'll do in your free time to get away from the "real" job you've got the makings of a credibility issue there. It would be like some guy who won a SOCOM XBox competition showing up to take command of a SEAL platoon. He might be the most brilliant CQB tactician in the world, but his shooters won't take him seriously until he actually has to dodge bullets instead of paintballs or something. Likewise, how can a man with zero field experience in football inspire 53 athletes to put their bodies on the line? Without yelling, anyway (which is reportedly his go-to move)? I'm not saying it's impossible, but from the looks of things it's going to be very very hard for Mr. Todd Haley.
If everything you posted is true, then how is it that Haley has been able to be a coach for so long? Wouldn't he have had just as much difficulty in instructing his players before as he does now? It's not like his previous job was as the water boy. He was the offensive coordinator of a pretty good, offensively at least, Cardinals team during their super bowl run.
I think we're all going to have to agree to disagree on the debate we're having, but it doesn't make a LJ less of an idiot for attacking his coach like that, especially when he isn't performing well. Looks like he's getting benched: http://www.theonlinewire.com/19/575...aspxLooks like he's getting benched next week. Way to piss everyone off while your market value is plummeting. Then calling your fans faggots when they dissagree with you? Classy.