IAOFM - Gut Reactions: Action Without Action

[itsalloverfatman]

Gut Reactions: Action Without Action
TJ "The Dude" Johnson Dec 7, 2010 1:06 PM

Forgive me if I'm not blown away by Joe Ellis' press conference today.

Although I understood the words that were coming out of his mouth, I ended up missing most of the meaning.

Let me see if I can get this straight. Ellis admitted that the organization burdened Josh McDaniels with too much responsibility; he admitted that the organization had not intended to give McDaniels so much power, but that it somehow had "evolved" to that point; he admitted that McDaniels would end up being an excellent and successful head coach in the league; he admitted that McDaniels was in the top of the league in game-planning; he admitted that the organization needed to do more to help McDaniels with all the responsibilities that came with being a head coach.

So the best course of action was to send the guy packing.

I guess Ellis was correct when he said, "We don't have a plan for moving forward."

During the press conference, Ellis repeatedly talking about the passion of Denver's fans and restoring the integrity of the organization.

Translation: we got rid of our coach over some "Fire McDaniels" signs and some videotapes.

It seems like Pat Bowlen has a quick trigger finger these days. Or is that Joe Ellis?

Who the hell knows? Today, Ellis wanted to make it very clear, yet again, that Pat is making all of these decisions, and that he's simply running the proverbial "day-to-day" operations. In fact, Ellis made it seem like his second meeting with McDaniels (the one in which he reportedly was so giddy with excitement to hire the guy) was nothing more than just confirming some administrative details.

Sure, Joe. Sure.

As all Broncos fans know, Pat Bowlen gave an interview to AOL's FanHouse recently, in which he said that McDaniels would be back this year and next year. Then, within hours, that statement was changed to mean that he would be evaluated for the rest of the season. When Ellis was asked about the strangeness of such actions from the owner at today's press conference, Ellis only said that when Bowlen had a chance to reevaluate the comments in light of being responsible to the constituents, he needed to pull back--within hours.

That doesn't sound the sort of behavior that we've come to expect from a guy like Pat Bowlen. Al Davis, yes. Pat Bowlen, no.

Does anyone have the guts to ask if Rick Reilly was right all along? And I'm not talking about within the context of whether or not Jay Cutler returns phone calls. I'm talking about his mental state in general. Woody Paige has reported that Bowlen is not in great mental health, while today Joe Ellis is telling us that Bowlen is in total control.

"Pat makes all the decisions," said Ellis. When asked then why Bowlen wasn't at the press conference to talk to the media, Ellis told everyone that Pat had asked him to handle it, as if Pat's just slowing down a bit.

Ellis plays the Broncos' fans for fools. Worse, by firing McDaniels, while at the same time acknowledging that they've got no plan for moving forward, he only proves that the organization is in knee-jerk mode and succumbs to the (wisdom) stupidity of (crowds) mobs. The salt in the wound will be when his own prediction comes true--Josh McDaniels as a successful NFL coach in another city.

Since everyone is fond of quoting McDaniels' record, here's the Broncos' record since Joe Ellis became COO in 2008: 19-25. They've gone through two coaches and will be paying three next season. Ellis said that if the Broncos have to pay eight head coaches so be it. If only he were so free with players' salaries.

Perhaps Ellis needs to not only restore the integrity of the organization, but the faith that Broncos fans have in his abilities as COO--if he's in charge, that is.

Near the end of the press conference Ellis said, "We haven't determined anything yet."

For once, I believe him.

[silkamilkamonico]

I think it's very evident that Pat Bowlen, and the executives in the organization not only are very unsure of the organization's identity the last few years, but also do not seem to have a confident plan in place for the direction they want to go.

After all this, we could still end up with f'n Sundquist, or some other lousy GM in an attempt to show that there is a clear plan in place.

Very very unhappy with Bowlen these last few years, as all of this is a direct imprint of him.

[G_Money]

Memo to Mr. Ellis - this is why you have a strong GM: to run herd on a coach so he doesn't get too power-hungry for his own good and run all the talent out of the building.

If you can't or won't, then please hire someone who can and will, while also making sure he's got a good eye for talent or trusts those that do.

The GM position is sorta important. It's not just an extra expense on a ledger sheet that you can eliminate or marginalize without repercussions.

And you are not qualified for it, so fer Chrissakes get someone who is.

~G

[Dzone]

so who is to blame for bleeding this team of its talent? The FO had no power to reel Mcd in.
We all saw the writing on the wall with the Cutler fiasco

[SOCALORADO.]

One more time.

John Elway-VP
Marty Shottenheimer-GM
Jon Gruden-HC

Enough with the high school defense and the
nintendo/madden offense.
You want an identity for the damn team!?!?
Now theres a freakin identity!
Smash-mouth, punch you in the face, mean, nasty
football. And all of them are available, and just waiting
for that phone call.

[silkamilkamonico]

so who is to blame for bleeding this team of its talent? The FO had no power to reel Mcd in.
We all saw the writing on the wall with the Cutler fiasco

Pat Bowlen. He was the moron who employed a 32 year old offensive coordinator, and then gave him the keys to the entire organization.

From a business standpoint, Bowlen is still stuck in the 1990's, and this organization is suffering for it.

[Juriga72]

Uh.... WHO I mean WHICH guy gave McDummy all the money and keys? Ellis...

WHO hasn't signed the NEW coach before firing the old coach.....Ellis

WHO is clueless??? Ellis

Now who needs to be fired

[silkamilkamonico]

Uh.... WHO I mean WHICH guy gave McDummy all the money and keys? Ellis...

WHO hasn't signed the NEW coach before firing the old coach.....Ellis

WHO is clueless??? Ellis

Now who needs to be fired

Who is clueless and hired Ellis?

[slim]

And who sold the team to Bowlen?

[slim]

Really, I think it's Lamar Hunt's fault.

I mean, he was behind the AFL/NFL merger.

[Cugel]

by firing McDaniels, while at the same time acknowledging that they've got no plan for moving forward, he only proves that the organization is in knee-jerk mode and succumbs to the wisdom stupidity of crowds mobs. The salt in the wound will be when his own prediction comes true--Josh McDaniels as a successful NFL coach in another city.

Is there ONE person who actually believes this that McDaniels actually WILL succeed as a head coach in this league -- when there's exactly ZERO evidence to support it? And if it were true does that mean he should stay in Denver where he's miserably failed?

Perhaps a lot of the blame IS on Bowlen for allowing him to accumulate too much power over player personnel decisions -- and on Ellis for not doing more to stop it.

But that changes NOTHING! It certainly doesn't absolve McDaniels for driving away all the talent he inherited from Shanahan because he's too arrogant and immature to handle his job! He's acted throughout like a petulant teenager who accepted ZERO responsibility for anything.

You can bet McDaniels doesn't think he did anything wrong at all. Things "just didn't work out the way we hoped" as if the effects of his stupidity and misjudgments were cast down written in stone from the mountain-top and he had no hand in the matter!

HIS personnel decisions were made by HIM. Nobody else is to blame. He was a damn fool and everybody with eyes said from the start "he's acting like a damn fool! What on earth is he doing getting rid of all those good players? Why on earth does he draft Moreno instead of Orakpo? Why did he trade a 1st round pick for a second, get a CB, never use him, and then throw him away? What was so terrible about Peyton Hillis that he got less than 10 carries with the Broncos, but is heading for the Pro-bowl now with Cleveland? Why did he need to ship out Marshall and Sheffler and scrap the ZBS?"

And all the moronic homers kept chortling when we tried to point any of this out, "we're 6-0! Whoo! HOo! You're just haters! Go buy a Bears Cutler jersey you loser!" :coffee:

That list just scratches the tip of the iceberg! The unending pathetic decision-making just had to END.

And if some moron thinks that's giving in to "the stupidity of the mob" then up yours! We are the ticket buying public and we don't have to put up with your garbage! We were right from the beginning and you were WRONG about McDaniels. So put a cork in it! :mad:

[silkamilkamonico]

Really, I think it's Lamar Hunt's fault.

I mean, he was behind the AFL/NFL merger.

I don't know. It hasn't seemed to affect other organizations like New England or Pittsburgh. But then again, Denver, along with almost the rest of the NFL, could only dream of having an organization run like that.

[silkamilkamonico]

Is there ONE person who actually believes this that McDaniels actually WILL succeed as a head coach in this league -- when there's exactly ZERO evidence to support it? And if it were true does that mean he should stay in Denver where he's miserably failed?

Perhaps a lot of the blame IS on Bowlen for allowing him to accumulate too much power over player personnel decisions -- and on Ellis for not doing more to stop it.

But that changes NOTHING! It certainly doesn't absolve McDaniels for driving away all the talent he inherited from Shanahan because he's too arrogant and immature to handle his job! He's acted throughout like a petulant teenager who accepted ZERO responsibility for anything.

You can bet McDaniels doesn't think he did anything wrong at all. Things "just didn't work out the way we hoped" as if the effects of his stupidity and misjudgments were cast down written in stone from the mountain-top and he had no hand in the matter!

HIS personnel decisions were made by HIM. Nobody else is to blame. He was a damn fool and everybody with eyes said from the start "he's acting like a damn fool! What on earth is he doing getting rid of all those good players? Why on earth does he draft Moreno instead of Orakpo? Why did he trade a 1st round pick for a second, get a CB, never use him, and then throw him away? What was so terrible about Peyton Hillis that he got less than 10 carries with the Broncos, but is heading for the Pro-bowl now with Cleveland? Why did he need to ship out Marshall and Sheffler and scrap the ZBS?


Just think, if Pat Bowlen has been more responsibile about the organization that reflects his decisions, none of this would have happened. From the Shanahan debacles, to hiring this guy and ingeniuously not giving him any power, it all points to Pat Bowlen.

[slim]

Ultimately it falls on Pat. I don't think you can make much of an argument to that.

You can blame Ellis, but if Pat has ceded authority for the organization to Ellis, that is on Pat too.

[HORSEPOWER 56]

Ultimately it falls on Pat. I don't think you can make much of an argument to that.

You can blame Ellis, but if Pat has ceded authority for the organization to Ellis, that is on Pat too.

Of course it's on Pat. Hopefully by turning to someone like Elway, he's trying to make better choices on who he trusts with franchise decisions. Of course it's on Ellis, he appears to be the new voice of the franchise with Bowlen's blessing and I have little doubt much of the decisions made are his agenda.

The bottom line is, nothing that Bowlen or Ellis did or didn't do, other than hiring McDaniels and trusting him to do his job properly, can be placed on their shoulders for why McDaniels was fired. He was hired to do a job and given pretty much unlimited resources and control to do it. The results were exactly the opposite of what he was hired to do. He signed his own death warrant as soon as he decided to cover up an obvious case of attempted cheating, especially when his boss, a well respected owner, is on the COMPETITION COMMITTEE!!! It's like working for a Church and getting caught being a practicing Satanist. How do you think it's going to turn out?

This is, and always will be the case with people that McDaniels somehow won over, even above common sense. It's never his fault for his actions, Bowlen should've stopped him. Ellis should've stopped him. Guess what? That ignorant "mob" of fans finally spoke loudly enough, both with their voices and their wallets, to force action that should've been taken long ago.

They act as if this "mob" of fans are just a bunch of ignorant, uneducated constituents in a poverty stricken voting district. These people are the BOSS. They pay the salaries and just like politics, if you don't listen to them long enough, you will lose your job. Like it or not, Football is a SPECTATOR SPORT and when the SPECTATORS don't like the product, the money dries up. Sorry that it is (for some people) so hard to understand, but regardless of what Bowlen or Ellis wanted, the vast majority of the FANS wanted McDaniels gone.

Want to blame someone for McDaniels' ineptitude? Blame McDaniels. Want to blame someone for McDaniels' firing? BLAME ME (and thousands of other Broncos fans)! We have broad enough shoulders, I'm sure we can handle the weight of poor Joshie Pooh losing his job...

Ya know, sometimes just because you can "blog", doesn't mean you should. This is one of those cases, IMO. :coffee:

[slim]

Of course it's on Pat. Hopefully by turning to someone like Elway, he's trying to make better choices on who he trusts with franchise decisions. Of course it's on Ellis, he appears to be the new voice of the franchise with Bowlen's blessing and I have little doubt much of the decisions made are his agenda.

The bottom line is, nothing that Bowlen or Ellis did or didn't do, other than hiring McDaniels and trusting him to do his job properly, can be placed on their shoulders for why McDaniels was fired. He was hired to do a job and given pretty much unlimited resources and control to do it. The results were exactly the opposite of what he was hired to do. He signed his own death warrant as soon as he decided to cover up an obvious case of attempted cheating, especially when his boss, a well respected owner, is on the COMPETITION COMMITTEE!!! It's like working for a Church and getting caught being a practicing Satanist. How do you think it's going to turn out?

This is, and always will be the case with people that McDaniels somehow won over, even above common sense. It's never his fault for his actions, Bowlen should've stopped him. Ellis should've stopped him. Guess what? That ignorant "mob" of fans finally spoke loudly enough, both with their voices and their wallets, to force action that should've been taken long ago.

They act as if this "mob" of fans are just a bunch of ignorant, uneducated constituents in a poverty stricken voting district. These people are the BOSS. They pay the salaries and just like politics, if you don't listen to them long enough, you will lose your job. Like it or not, Football is a SPECTATOR SPORT and when the SPECTATORS don't like the product, the money dries up. Sorry that it takes some people so hard to understand, but regardless of what Bowlen or Ellis wanted, the vast majority of the FANS wanted McDaniels gone.

Want to blame someone for McDaniels' ineptitude? Blame McDaniels. Want to blame someone for McDaniels' firing? BLAME ME (and thousands of other Broncos fans)! We have broad enough shoulders, I'm sure we can handle the weight of poor Joshie Pooh losing his job...

Ya know, sometimes just because you can "blog", doesn't mean you should. This is one of those cases, IMO. :coffee:

Do you really think the fans had anything to do with this firing? That is comical to me.

[HORSEPOWER 56]

Do you really think the fans had anything to do with this firing? That is comical to me.

I think the empty stands halfway through the last home game spoke volumes to Pat Bowlen. If you owned a business and one of your employees was driving away 2/3s of your clientele, would you get rid of him, even if you still believed in him, or just eat the loss? It's a business, bro. To pat Bowlen and Joe Ellis, it's the only business.

[slim]

I think the empty stands halfway through the last home game spoke volumes to Pat Bowlen. If you owned a business and one of your employees was driving away 2/3s of your clientele, would you get rid of him, even if you still believed in him, or just eat the loss? It's a business, bro. To pat Bowlen and Joe Ellis, it's the only business.

I think this decision has been in the works (talked about/thought about) since the Oakland game. In fact, I felt that Bowlen's refusal to comment after the Oakland game was a sure sign that McD was done.