Well, good ol' Billy boy has
left town after 15 years of service, so
everyone has been full reflection mode about his tenure and performance, etc.
And if you've taken a look
at the message boards here, you know that subject has been beaten to death
slowly and painfully. Unlike many fans and critics, I feel passing judgment on
a person and profession as highly specialized as an NFL head coach is a very
tough task for the simple reason that I feel there are many factors that go
into decisions made by a head coach we don't know about, and still many more
that we never find out about afterwards.
I've been as guilty as the next person at being critical, especially during a
game. A certain play call will be made or a decision to go for the FG
instead of the TD... whatever the decision is.... and I'll scream bloody murder
over it...and sometimes the decision made by the coach doesn't turn out well,
and I'll get really pissed and yak on and on about it for a few
days. However, I wonder now how many times the reverse happened and the
coach's decision turned out well when I was screaming for the opposite
call..... funny, I don't seem to remember those as well for some reason =)
My point is that head coaching is an intense, intricate, complicated, and
stressful job, which requires a comprehensive skill-set to succeed and for the
most part, we are not really qualified to fully judge all the aspects of
a coaches performance, especially when the critique starts with 'Well I
would have done it this way....'. Looking back in
hindsight is really easy.
I'm not defending Cowher in any way because I don't think he needs it and I
know that most of the NFL community thinks he doesn't need it either!
People who work in the league at various levels are always saying how hard it
is to do well in the NFL and to sustain a high-level of success, and I tend to
agree. When a player doesn't play well in a big game, is it automatically
the coach's fault? Maybe there was something the coach should have said
or done to better prepare the player to optimize his
performance, but you know what, maybe there wasn't! Maybe that player was
going to choke it up no matter what you said or did on that particular day.
So the point of view that ....the coach has to have his team ready to go and if
they don't play well, then it must be the coaches fault..is not one I agree with most of the time. Do
we know what the coach said or did during halftime? Do we know what he
didn't say or do? Look at Big Ben in the super bowl last year. He
admitted afterwards that he was nervous as hell for the entire game and could
not shake the nerves. Cowher sais that he talk with him during the half to try
and snap him out of it and it
obviously didn't work. If Cowher took some other approach, maybe he could
have snapped Ben out of it? Who knows.
Let's check the current �Gold Standard� for NFL coaches, Bill Belichick.� People go
on and on about this 'genius' with schemes and playcalling.
For me, the reason why he won three rings is that he had a Quarterback and
Kicker who were amazingly clutch under pressure, and one of those rings was
enabled by the 'clutch rule'! Great talent
scout? Perhaps. Light years better
a head coach than Billy boy.. not
in my book. ��
You can probably make a really good argument that several post-season losses
were mis-managed, and that is a sore spot if there is
one in Bill's resume. Of course, he was in the post-season a lot so that
would increase your chances of screwing up to a degree. Yes, I do think he
screwed up a few big games, but no more than many other coaches. Hey, I
have my pet peeves with Billy like everyone else.... Hanging on the Kordell for
so long... Thinking Amos Z. could be an every-down RB.... agreeing to keep
Dewayne and
Besides all this, I think
Billy has been a class guy. We've seen him under the microscope for 15
years, so you'll see the occasional 'bad moment', but overall I think he has
represented
Well, that's about all I got. I give him a B+ for the whole ride.
Best of luck coaching in
2008..., hopefully for Carolina or somewhere else in the NFC =)
***
Go Steelers!
