What I'm not trying to do is make it sound like it's the Indianapolis Colts' fault that they got left at the alter by someone whose cold feet were publicly reported well before his sprint back down the aisle made Julia Roberts look slow enough to play outside linebacker for the Patriots. When you bear the baggage of a franchise quarterback whose throwing shoulder is as unstable as his team owner's toxicology report sometimes you have to settle for the imperfect. A once failed head coach who is currently employed by the team that has taken delight in your downfall ever since DeflateGate is just that, even if he did happen to orchestrate 600 yards of offense in the Super Bowl. This is more or less an indictment on the current state of the Colts, but they would have been lucky to get Josh McDaniels. Therefore, sacrificing a little organizational pride as he sat around picking pedals from dandelions in order to determine whether or not he wanted the job was worth the risk. What wasn't worth the risk was essentially posting marriage photos with the runaway bride prior to the writing of the vows...
Putting together a staff you've yet to decide you're joining isn't exactly standard protocol, but there's nothing orthodox about the relationship between the teams involved here. Like, if there was one franchise that was liable to put the rug out from under another it would be the Patriots leaving the Colts lying flat on their ass staring bewilderingly up at their head coaching vacancy. A two year bitch-fest about ball firmness set the precedent. This buzzer-beating, ball-busting bailout just continued to follow along in its patently absurd path. Now, I don't know what this says about Josh McDaniels' hirability going forward, nor do I know if it's a foreshadowing to Bill Belichick's future. I do, however, know that it provides even more evidence to the fact that verbal contracts are a hoax and agreements aren't set in stone until the ink is dry. Social media - for better or worse, depending on whether you use it for humor or premature news circulation - lives on longer than the most lengthy of coaching stops, so while there is nothing particularly wrong with this announcement...
...the following statement is really all that matters...
I thought it was fairly obvious that in taking over for Ryan Grigson, Chris Ballard inherited the beefs he was involved in. I don't blame him for getting into bed with a candidate that could best help his team. However, seeing as his organization seemed pretty goddamned convinced that the Patriots had to cheat to routinely kick the crap out of them prior to his arrival, they should have also long been subscribed to the "once a cheater, always a cheater" theory instead of being overanxious in changing their relationship status. Rivalry is the wrong word because that would require the Colts to be competitive, but Indianapolis' biggest mistake was thinking the feud was ever off...
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Categories
All
Archives
January 2020
|