Jeff Ireland and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad, Tenure

Well-known Miami sports personality Dan Le Batard spoke about the Miami Dolphins' situation on his radio show yesterday. Dan believes that head coach Tony Sparano, with a dearth of talent in Miami, is no different than Jim Caldwell, who is struggling to win in Indianapolis. The loss of Peyton Manning, he said, means more to the team than anything Caldwell could do. The addition of Andrew Luck could mean as much for Sparano's win/loss as having Manning does for the coach in Indy.

Le Batard also felt, that the addition of Bill Cowher, rumored to be receiving attention from Stephen Ross & Co. lately, would do nothing without a good QB.

His main point of contention was that personnel has a much greater impact than coaching on team success. I think Dan would agree with the assessment that the GM, the employer and architect of personnel, is more important to the success, or lack thereof, of an NFL team than the coach.

In looking past Sparano, to that GM, you see the root of the Phins' problems. The root's name is Jeff Ireland.

In the coming weeks the media, if they address him at all, will talk about how Ireland hasn't been sociable. How he has hid behind the scenes pushing buttons like the tiny man once believed to be the Wizard of Oz.

They'll wax poetic about how Ireland has let Sparano and Steven Ross take the blame. 

That's neither here nor there in The Coach's opinion. How often do you see Green Bay's Ted Thompson, Baltimore's Ozzie Newsome, or Pittsburgh's Kevin Colbert step to the podium for post game press conferences? You don't. Those successful GMs are no more sociable or media accessible on a major scale than any other. 

The real problem with Ireland's tenure in South Florida has nothing to do with media savvy or relationships with players, coaches or ownership. It's solely a matter of a bad job done filling the roster. The Dolphins fridge is full of bad groceries.

Instead of harping on bad free agent acquisitions (Reggie Bush, the Cowboy Castaways, etc.) and questionable trades (Brandon Marshall (which Monstar took his talent again?) or Jason Taylor to the Redskins), the best place to see Ireland's ineptitude is by looking at the NFL College Draft. Between 2008 and 2011, JI has had four cracks at making the Phins a contender, or at least markedly better. 

For your viewing pleasure, after the page break is each pick Mr. Ireland banked his employment on, how they've fared, and some notable young men who were available at the time. Let's start in 2008:

*Actual picks in orange

*Players passed over in blue 

All 32 Teams Make Forbes List

I know we're excited about having football back again. But I want to direct your attention back to the matters of the lockout briefly. I don't want to get you sad again. There's no news that's gonna take football away from you again. Don't fret. But there's one issue we can't let go unreported.
Leading up to and during the lockout, all we heard was how the NFL teams were losing money and they had to protect their financial interests by taking back a piece of the NFL pie from the players. The "Woe Is Me" feelings were rampant on ownership's side. This would be understandable if they were losing money.
But...

Now we have news that they might not have been scrugglin' after all...
Forbes' annual team valuation list, the "World's 50 Most Valuable Sports Teams" found a spot for, ::Lebron Voice:: not one, not two, not three, not four, not five, but all 32 NFL teams. Every @$%#^%^ing team. Every whining, sniveling, spendthrift, Goodell goading, De Smith loathing NFL owner has one of the 50 most valuable sports products on the blue and green planet.

Forbes' report states that teams "selling for $70 million in the mid-1980s are now worth $1 billion on average. That's MORE than a tenfold increase. Jerry Jones' Cowboys, they of 152 foot HD TV screen fame, makes over $100 million annually on it's luxury seating ALONE. They have sponsorship deals with many of the nation's major companies. And don't forget the TV Deals. Ohhhh don't forget those. They were getting paid regardless of whether there was a season this year or not.

Of the other American Big Four sports, the MLB had six entries on the list. The New York Yankees at number three were the only MLB team in the top 30. There were 23 NFL teams above baseball's next highest team, the Boston Red Sox.
To put this in even MORE perspective, the Jacksonville Jaguars are more valuable than the New York Knicks. That's right. The NFL's least valuable team is more valuable than the NBA's most valuable team. Let that marinate. There's a reason the owners would never show the players their books. You can't doctor financials. Yes, you can interpret financials different ways according to what accounting standards you use, but the numbers are the numbers. And ridiculously huge profits are ridiculously huge profits, no matter how you look at them.

To add insult to injury, the other teams dominating the list, International Soccer teams (namely English Premier League squads) are mostly owned by, YOU GUESSED IT, the same NFL owners complaining bout not having any money. Maybe you should sell your soccer teams and stop trying to spread yourself so thin. That's a novel idea. But don't try to tell me you aren't eating like a fat cat loves to.

One of these days, sports business outlets will be as popular as sporting news outlets like ESPN and SI and will be able to give mainstream sports fans a more accurate picture of the financial landscape in American sports. Then, teams won't be able to use public misconceptions and ignorance against the players to get things they don't deserve.
I am not advising any action against the owners because, frankly, what could be done. The only people in our country, including government, who can keep these billionaires in check, are the people we've been yelling at to quit whining and go back to work for the last four months. The leagues' players.
Only a group with their ability to essentially shut down the factory, can make ownership have to play ball. I take my hat off to De Smith, Kevin Mawae, Jeff Saturday and the other NFLPA brass and throw it at Goodell and the owners. I guess I need to use my ::parental voice:: for these owners. Don't ever ask us for money ever again.

Tired of Tebow? Pt. 1

Guess I'm not the only one huh...

Merril Hoge was the subject of immense pressure and ridicule, even from his own network, for being critical of Tim Tebow's future in the league as a starting quarterback. Nothing Hoge said consisted of personal attacks on Tebow, yet people took his critique as an attack on Tebow and his ideals. 


The funny thing to me about "the Tebow Thing" as receiver Brandon Lloyd called it, is that the gift for Tim, has subsequently been the curse for one Vince Young. The argument for Tebow apologists has always been that his  ability to carry a team, exuberance, and propensity for winning should trump whatever he lacks in skill. 


Shouldn't this logic be applied to Young as well? As Herm Edwards would say, "You play to win the game!" Why should  a player like Young, who has a better arm and more athleticism, be given no consideration for 32 starting QB jobs, while public opinion rallies for the Gainesville Messiah to take his rightful place in the starter's spot? 


Young, a Rookie of the Year, two-time Pro Bowler, has the highest winning percentage in Oilers/Titans history and a top 10 winning percentage for QBs of the 2000s. Many tout Tebow's heralded college career as reason to give him a chance. Somewhere Young is shaking his head as he glances at his 93.8 winning percentage which ranks sixth best in NCAA Division I history.


The fact remains that any non-talent excuse for Tebow to play can be given for another player in the league his is getting less run than even Timmy enjoyed last year. If one's argument is that Tebow has the talent to be a starter in the league, I disagree fervently, but at least the fan is looking at the situation from a practical standpoint.


But to say that "intangibles" can help Tebow in a way they haven't helped any other quarterback with his skill set in the history of the NFL is just asinine. As someone noted on ESPN recently, having intangibles with no talent is like trying to sell a beautiful house in a terrible neighborhood. Just as you can't look past the neighborhood to see the beauty of the house, there's no way you can sell a quarterback's intangibles without  looking at their talent set, or in Tim's case, a lack thereof. 


Once again, the public has caught feelings, and will take any realistic critique as "hating." This whole Tebow ordeal reminds me of how Fox News and other Republican news outlets (yes I consider Fox News Partisan) defended George W. Bush while his actions in office slapped us in the face with the truth. Let's not let emotions, faith, biases, cloud our judgment when it comes to assessing sports, politics or anything. It will save us a lot of wasted time being confused when Tebow is chasing cornerbacks to the endzone after yet another interception.

In part two, we'll look at how Tebow stacks up against the 32 proposed quarterbacks in the NFL for the 2011-2012 season...