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I was shocked when I heard news yesterday about Bill Polian—not that he had been fired, but that apparently Twitter was blowing up with Vikings fans & local sports media wanting to quickly make a move to bring him in as the voice of authority for the team. Digging deeper showed that many other media & fan bases, including Chicago, Oakland, and even Dallas were clamoring over the opportunity to hire a “proven commodity” in Polian.
But they all seem to be overlooking one significant factor – Bill Polian’s track record is generally one of building teams that are great in the regular season, then failing in the playoffs, or ultimately in the big game itself. Essentially he is to football exactly what the local media uses in Minnesota ridicule the Minnesota Twins – regular season success followed by postseason failure.
I still maintain that there is not a right side to the NFL lockout. I believe there is enough blame for this situation to go around and that the NFL and the NFL’s union, err, former-and-someday-to-be-again union, should realize they have more incentives to work together to find a deal than they do to stop negotiating and keep the players out of work.
However, I came across a post today that is the best I have read at putting forth the players’ perspective.
I don’t agree with every point TJ “The Dude” Johnson makes. But it’s a well-written, well-researched look at the reasons the players have taken the strategy they have used.
In fact, if they hired this guy to make their case with the public they’d probably be better off. If you have a few minutes, check it out. I thought it was a pretty good read.
Since the NFL and NFLPA decided they could not come up with an agreement for how to split $9 billion on Friday afternoon I’ve checked in on the twittersphere from time to time and it’s not really helping either side win the public relations battle.
I was already irritated that a bunch of rich guys couldn’t come to an agreement with a bunch of richer guys on how to split a plenty big pot o’ cash. But then I started reading.
Some players, in between hollow apologies to fans or tweets of disbelief wondering why fans are irritated with them instead of or in addition to being upset with the owners, are posting “jokes” like Alex Brown (alexbrown96) did Sunday afternoon: So since I am unemployed and have a pregnant wife and 2 other kids can I go get WIC?
Soon after my wife and I moved into the same house I was watching an NFL game in front of the basement television when she sat down beside me. She watched silently for a few minutes, then said “Who designed those terrible outfits?”
I don’t remember who was playing during that game. It might have been Detroit and Tampa Bay or some other out-of-market game I had on after watching the Vikings complete their game for the day.
With Nike taking over NFL uniforms sometime during the next couple seasons, there is a good chance any time she sits down with me to watch a game (a rare occurrence) that she’ll be saying the same thing more emphatically.
I found out recently that Nike was to soon take over the production of NFL jerseys from a post on the website for the Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal, which indicated that the company planned to “dramatically” change the Vikings’ jerseys – and likely those of the other NFL teams.
This scared me a bit because Nike is responsible for the yellow/green/checkerboard hideous things resembling jerseys that the Oregon Ducks wear for their NCAA games. The different combinations could not possibly be more disgusting, ranging in ridiculousness from banana yellow to something (I think) slightly darker than baby poop green, some of which have checkerboard designs on the shoulder pads and knees. I think the Ducks are the best team in college football this season. I think their uniforms are the worst college football has seen since I’ve been watching football.
Well, something called BusinessInsider.com has published potential uniforms for each of the NFL’s 32 teams. Reportedly they are fake, according to sports business reporting guru Darren Rovell’s twitter status.
It’s really annoying and stupefying to me that during a time when the country’s economy is teetering somewhere between stagnant and borderline recovery that the billionaire owners of NFL franchises and the NFL Players Association, which represents many, many millionaire players, can’t come together on a deal that makes sense for both sides.
For more than a year now the rhetoric going back and forth has led me to believe that neither side is all that interested in meeting in the middle to get a deal done.
I don’t really have a side in this fight. There’s plenty of damn money to go around. Figure out how to slice the pie and make sure there is a season in 2011. That’s the only thing I care about.
I found it more than a little ridiculous that the NFLPA took the time to get into a snit with three fans over the twitter handle @NFLLockout. The union attempted to negotiate with the three fans, who, according to Darren Rovell’s story here attached, had used the account to post updates on labor negotiations and occasionally tweak people involved with the league who make ridiculous statements, such as when Anquan Boldin allegedly said players aren’t really as rich as they seem because they have to pay taxes.
That brilliant one-liner, again uttered during a time when the country’s unemployment rate is as high as it’s been in years, reminded me a lot of the old Patrick Ewing line from the NBA lockout a few years back about how yes, players make a lot of money but they spend a lot too. Thank you, Mr. Einstein.
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