Tales from Jim O'Brien's Christmas Stocking

First appeared on December 16th, 2009
in The Lebanon Reporter

As Colts coach Jim Caldwell struggles with how best to play out his schedule, he has not been at a loss for advice. To the surprise of nobody, Peyton Manning and Dwight Freeney both say they want to play but will accept Caldwell’s decision. Most understand the pressures of mainstream society require that all card-carrying members of “The Former Coaches of America Club” weigh in on such unclear issues. Former Bears Coach Mike Ditka says play your starters till the end while Tony Dungy sticks by his decision to rest guys when there is nothing left to play for. While Caldwell wrestles with his decision, across town another professional coach is struggling with issues of his own. At the time of writing this the Pacers, despite winning two straight, were still 5 games under .500 and had just lost Danny Granger for a month.
While the Pacers struggles can’t be hung solely on one player, they likely will wind up hanging one man. It’s probably safe to say Pacer Coach Jim O’Brien’s season isn’t off to the start he’d hoped for. Though off season acquisitions Dahntay Jones and Tyler Hansbrough have brought excitement the Pacers still find themselves one game away from slipping into the Central Division basement; and taking up permanent residence here is likely not the best career move O’Brien could make right now.
According to the numbers the Pacers are better defensively. This comes as a relief after a long off-season that saw the front office wear the word defense out just as the mass media have drummed the Tiger Woods story to death. What then is the explanation?
One issue is Danny Granger. As good as he has been on the offensive end the Pacers need more from him defensively. Bird needs to rig the Pacer Secret Santa draw so he can gift Granger a DVD of Michael Jordan’s Greatest Hits. The idea is to understand how Mike dominated BOTH ends of the floor. To take his game to the next level, and win more games, Granger needs to welcome the match up with the opponent’s best offensive player (translation: stop making Jones guard LeBron). Granger’s athletic 6’8 frame should be enough to help him lock down the top scorers in the league.
The second hint Santa would stick in Jim O’Brien’s stocking if he were a Pacers fan is that its time to sit TJ Ford. In virtually every Pacer loss the team has suffered though dry spells where they’ve made scoring points look like a third grader trying to do Calculus. This falls on the point guard. It took Jarrett Jack about two months to put some doubt in O’Brien’s mind last year as to who should be starting. With Jack gone to Toronto, the same has now happened with Earl Watson.
The point is clear. When Watson is on the floor, the Pacers are stronger defensively and the ball moves better. Open shots are just one direct result of good ball movement and, with the shooters the Pacers have, finding more open shots should be enough to avoid those dreaded dry spells that have plagued them all season.
The point is not to give up on Ford. He can be a nice change of pace off the bench and provide your second five with some offense. If he doesn’t want this however, then the point is to give up on Ford.

Just another boring day in the life of the Indianapolis Colts

First appeared on December 11th, 2009
in The Lebanon Reporter

So the Colts won again. With a 27-17 victory over the Tennessee Titans Sunday, Indianapolis ran its record to 12-0 on the season. Yawn. They also tied an NFL record with their 21st consecutive regular season win. Yawn. They have now won 12 games in a season for an NFL record 7th time. Yawn. The win was their 113th of the decade tying them with the San Francisco 49ers of the 90’s as the most wins ever by a team in a 10 year span. Yawn.
This is the typical reaction of so many to the success of the Indianapolis Colts. No matter what they do, those in the national media remain apparently unimpressed. There was more discussion on the post game shows Sunday about Ochocinco’s Sombrero and the state of Tom Brady’s pinkie finger than there was about the perpetual success of the Indianapolis Colts.
Be it a “small market conspiracy” or the fact that the face of the Colts is about as controversial and outspoken as a Buddhist Monk who’s taken a vow of silence, Indianapolis remains the NFL’s Rodney Dangerfield. What the Colts are doing has never been done before. I’ll pause while you think about that. Those of us in Indiana are likely guilty of overlooking them too. We see 18 take the field Sunday after Sunday and simply expect the Men in Blue to win as a result.
But the success of the Colts runs far deeper than Manning’s “laser rocket arm”. You could pay $75 for a ticket, $9 for nachos, squeeze yourself into a seat between the guy with a Colt blue mohawk and some dude who says he rotates Peyton’s tires and not see the real reason behind the unprecedented run of the Colts.
The real reason behind the success of the Colts can likely be traced to three things: The hiring of Bill Polian, his hiring of Tony Dungy and the drafting of Manning. The Colts were 3-13 the season before Polian was hired. The next year he sealed the fate of the franchise by selecting Peyton Manning and NOT Ryan Leaf (who draft guru Mel Kiper claimed had an attitude that would benefit any NFL team).
While most GM’s are working the phones and scratching the backs of greedy agents trying to land monster off season signings, Polian is standing in the rain on a Thursday night watching Ball State play Central Michigan. The draft is where he has built the Colts. The Colt’s have reaped the benefits of Polian’s notorious eye for talent and uncanny knack for finding difference makers in the most unlikely of places (see Pierre Garcon).
Bringing Tony Dungy in was a brilliant move as well. It can be argued that Dungy’s work in building the perfect beast that is the Colts was done largely off the field. He did more than simply coach a team up, Tony Dungy created a culture. And, though he is now working for NBC, that culture endures. Polian’s job then has always been to find guys who not only have talent, but also fit Dungy’s system; the prerequisite of which is to accept the responsibility that comes with being a Colt.
Of course thirdly is Manning whose success has been well documented so we’ll spare you the time. It would seem for now however the Colts are destined to remain the NFL’s “elephant in the room”, but if you happen to be a member of the Detroit Lions front office and are looking to blueprint anything about this franchise; forget about #18- you’d be wise to start with the culture.

The truth is you can't handle the truth

First appeared on October 28th, 2009
in The Lebanon Reporter

When Titan’s head coach Jeff Fisher stripped down to his Peyton Manning jersey recently the ensuing fallout reminded us once again that ours is a hypersensitive world. Far too often Americans gorge themselves on a twisted reality of what their lives should be before ultimately gagging on the truth. If there is a lesson to be learned here it is that clearly too many people are incapable of handling the truth (pardon my Jack Nicholson).
Let’s be clear, Fisher’s motivation was not misguided. At 0-6 he may be the captain of a ship that has no hope of staying afloat, but he is still far too intelligent a man to be thumbing his nose at Bud Adams (his boss) and the Titans ownership (his employer) by pulling some corny stunt (wearing a Colts jersey in Tennessee). More than a stunt, the truth for Fisher is that this was the closest he could come to being lighthearted while his world is crumbling down around him. Wearing the jersey and commenting that he “wanted to feel like a winner” both came from a healthy respect for Tony Dungy (the man he was brought in to introduce).
What else was Fisher supposed to do? Is there anything about his season that anybody is going to want to hear when his team is 0-6 and was just creamed the day before by the Patriots 59-0? “Well, despite Brady’s five touchdown passes-I liked our energy in the second quarter.”
At some point we must applaud Fisher’s moxie for donning a Manning jersey as his life and future are being swept up by an F-5 Tornado of rumors. When it comes to athletes and coaches in tight spots we as the general public get bombarded with anything but the truth that we all too often come to expect window dressing. Perhaps this is why so many had a hard time with his so called stunt; they were expecting something they had heard before and when they didn’t get it Fisher was labeled an incompetent nut.
The negative reaction to Fisher’s stunt however is just another example at how hypersensitive our world has become. America as a whole is getting softer by the day. Participation trophies and the “we’re all winners” mentality are driving a stake in the heart of true competition. The world is full of countries making up ground on us daily, some arguably passing us by as you read this. All because there are workers, students and children in far flung parts of the world whose lives are so tough they are naturally hungrier and more driven to succeed.
A few years ago a Little League coach created a national episode by calling on the much used strategy of walking the opposing team’s best hitter to face someone else. Ripples spread nationwide as the “next kid up” in this championship game turned out to be a cancer survivor. Nobody could ever argue cancer is anything but ugly and horrible, but isn’t the fundamental idea behind Little League to help kids discover those things they can and cannot do?
The biggest difference between us and those nations closing the gap on us is the truth. Far too often American’s are busy playing hide and seek with it while the lives of people in other parts of the world are so difficult they must embrace it early on. Chasing dreams is the natural born right of any free person, but at some point we all must face the realization that people pay hard earned money to watch professional athletes with good reason. The sooner this lesson can be learned the better off we’ll all be.