Media/ Fan influence on pro sports teams

14Red

14Red

Well-known member
Just want to get this out there and have a calm, adult conversation with you guys on the fan/ media's influence on sports teams. I'm incredibly tired of this incessant push to fire coaches. Now at the college level, the seasons over, ok. At the NFL level, we are just over half way through the season and it's the same thing. If you win, you're safe for a week, if you lose, and if you lose multiple games in a row, people clamor for coaches to get fired? Frank Reich got canned today for the Carolina Panthers. He was hired before this season, so he's been with the Panther for all of 11 games. NO ONE picked the Panthers to be any good this year, no one. They have a rookie QB and lots of holes in that roster. How in the heck can he be evaluated fairly as a coach?
Are we at such a point in fandom and getting clicks that just talking about the games isn't enough? We have to fire coaches and create stories to have things to carry through a week? Mike Vrabel with the Titans, pretty successful overall, had major injuries last year and are kind of in a rebuilding mode, is on the hot seat. Zach Taylor of the Bengals will be getting some heat and they've been one of the better teams in football the last 3 years. Joe Burrow is hurt. Is that Taylor's fault?
Part of it is the fact that fans simply do not blame the athletes they worship enough. I mean the guys who are actually making the mistakes don't get held accountable. It's got to be the coach's fault, right? Who are the better run organizations in football today? Chiefs? Ravens? Steelers? Andy Reid, John Harbaugh and Mike Tomlin. Long LONG time coaches who don't have fans and media in their cities dangling their jobs over their heads after every loss. Are they winning? Ravens won the SB back in 2012 and have been in the playoffs less than they've out of the playoffs. Steelers last SB in 2008.
Stability matters.
 
 
In regards to Carolina, there have been multiple reports that the HC didn't want Young, but the owner overruled him. From that standpoint, this marriage was never going to work out. Coach feels undermined from the get go, owner feels heat seeing Stroud do so well in Houston. Was it too soon, obviously yes, but I also think it was inevitable based on what was going on down there.

Your points about KC, Pit and Baltimore are solid, but in addition to their HCs, they've got some of the best ownership in the league. That helps as well.
 
It’s not just sports. It’s societal. It’s become an impatient instant gratification society. We no longer value stability. People change jobs, residences, spouses like they’re changing underwear. Ask anyone in a customer service industry how insufferable people have become. Everyone wants to pop a pill to feel good, have no pain, pay attention, lose weight, etc. Shortcuts. Calls to impeach politicians shortly into their terms, from both sides. What’s happening in sports is simply an extension of society at large.
 
It happens a lot in sports and it always has, really. A struggling franchise hires a coach into a bad situation then throws him under the bus and fires him for not working miracles with a bad roster.

As far as stability and loyalty, it can go too far. The Steelers are a prime example of that. Haven't won a playoff game in 6 seasons, the longest such streak since the Steelers hired Chuck Noll, and you'd think by the way some act that Mike Tomlin is actually Don Shula-Walsh-Belichick and should have a job there as long as he wants to coach. At some point results do matter.
 
I find it ironic that this topic ostensibly was created in response to the Frank Reich firing, which has roundly been blamed by the national media on an impatient and meddlesome owner. The fans and media had nothing to do with Reich getting fired. Rather, Tepper has been called a horrible owner and has been taken to task by multiple outlets, and it’s been called into question why any future head coach would want to work for him.

As for the other midseason firing, Josh McDaniels, was there any American outside of Mark Davis and McDaniels’ family who thought giving him another HC gig was a good idea? No. The players themselves said a weight was lifted off their shoulders when he got fired.

As for Zac Taylor, he’s 4-20 without the services of Joe Burrow as a starting quarterback. The evidence is in, and what we’re seeing is an all-time carry job by an elite QB and a formerly very good defense. I am not necessarily calling for Taylor to get fired, but only if he steps away from offensive design and playcalling; fires Brian Callahan and Frank Pollack; and hires a real OC who designs the offense and calls the plays. If he’s unwilling to do that, then Taylor has to go. It would be a crime to further hamstring Joe Burrow’s prime with poor coaching on the offensive side of the ball.

And yes, many Bengals players deserve some of the blame, too.
 
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