I want to see a rerun with some better coaching. They're leaving those pros wide open. I'd assign 10 kids per pro and tell them to just stay as close to them as you possibly can. Grab their shirts, tangle up their feet, just do kid stuff. Just make it messy at least.
On a related note, how have these scenarios not become a running show already. My buddies and I talk about this all the time. Like could 10 of us tackle Barry Sanders if he was limited to like a 10 yard wide field. How many 90 mph pitches could we swing at before we make contact. On and on.
That last question reminds of an apocryphal story I once heard: Supposedly a guy went to some conference in D.C. many years ago and ran into a man who said he had played a little football in his time. They ended up playing a little catch and the guy came back to his office raving about how he had met this fantastic athlete, a guy who zipped the ball so hard it left marks on his hands. The athlete's name: Danny Wuerffel. Even the pros we think of as limited and underpowered are far better than us regular Joes.
"no coach has ever won a Super Bowl for two franchises"
That's pretty crazy! I'm guessing rebuilding an organization is harder than people imagine. Just goes to show how impressive McCarthy has been this year.
Couple of factors at play - winning a Super Bowl is hard! Even the best coaches on good teams for a long time struggle to do it. John Harbaugh, Andy Reid, and Mike McCarthy spent 27 years coaching the Ravens, Eagles, and Packers with 0.600 records and only had two combined rings. Then Reid went to KC and averaged 11 wins a season for 6 years and still couldn't get over the hump until he landed Mahomes.
But also, if you have a Super Bowl winning coach, you're likely holding onto that guy for a long time and so he never gets a chance to win with another team until he's at the end of his career!
Just for fun, went through the list of SB winning coaches since the 90s:
Parcells - Close but not quite with the Pats (duh, or with us!)
Gibbs - Never coached another team
Jimmy - 4 decent years with the Dolphins
Seifert - 3 rough years with the recent Panthers expansion
Switzer - I think we know this one
Holmgren - close but not quite with the Seahawks
Mike Shanahan - 4 rough years with Washington
Vermeil - close but not quite with the Eagles
Billick - Never coached another team
Belichick - (Forgot he couldn't get it done with the Browns!)
Gruden - Couldn't get there with the Raiders either time
Cowher - Never coached another team
Dungy - Couldn't get there with the Bucs
Coughlin - Couldn't get the Jags there
Tomlin - Never coached another team
Payton - TBD with the Broncos
McCarthy - Fingers crossed
Harbaugh - Never coached another team
Carrol - 3 decent season with the Pats
Kubiak - couldn't get the Texans there
Pederson - TBD with the Jags
Arians - couldn't get the Cardinals there
If I'm reading that list right, in the past 35 years a SB winning coach almost always stayed with the same team until retirement with few exceptions. Half of the four that are 'in play' retired first and then came back (Gruden, Payton) or have only been on their next team for a couple of years (McCarthy, Pederson).
Aside from those 4, there hasn't even been a possibility since Holmgren was on the Seahawks, Mike Shanahan at Washington, and Parcells with us.
Belichick coached the Browns in the 1990s. One good season, but it did not end well (team move was announced, then team fell apart). Incidentally, Belichick was coaching the Browns in 1994 when I went to my first Cowboys game. We lost a heart breaker on the final play. And it took ~ 2 hours to get out of the f***ing parking lot.
In college, I had a friend who insisted he could gain 15 yards if given 5 carries in the NFL. We all told him he was nuts, and regardless of how much he got on that first carry he would probably be in no shape for a second.
The baseball question is interesting, as I feel like there's a non-insignificant chance you might not have someone who could consistently get the ball across the plate among those nine guys, meaning the other team wouldn't have to swing much. Assuming there is a competent pitcher, I think the MLB team's best strategy isn't to swing for the fences, particularly as it's unlikely to be heaters coming over the plate. Instead, just smack line drive after line drive and dare the "Average Joes" to make plays. I feel like they might score 50 runs before making 3 outs.
I think you're dead-on with this. I tried to watch a lot more baseball this past year, both college and pro. By far the biggest difference between the levels was how well they fielded. The pros collected way more outs on balls that the college guys just couldn't quite handle.
I think you're right on the pitching. I can't remember the stat off the top of my head, but Tangotiger looked at the results of 0-3 counts with a pitcher *batting*. In other words, situations in which the batter probably has no intent to swing, and the opposing pitcher just want to get a strike across the plate. And even in that extreme scenario, MLB pitchers still threw outside the zone something like 20% of the time.
And if MLB-caliber pitchers can't always throw a strike when they just want a strike, I don't know how often a random Joe will be able to hit the strike zone.
While having consistently high recruiting classes & a ton of 5-stars doesn’t guarantee a national championship, historically you’re not going to realistically compete for one without a top-10 composite recruiting ranking. The transfer portal appears to be muddying that correlation somewhat, but it still mostly holds true.
Yes, I have read this article before I and I do believe it has truth. Obviously, faster horses win more races than slower horses. But, not the whole truth – which I did not articulate well enough. Let me circle back and try to put this on the "To write" list for sometime soon.
I could be mistaken but I seem to recall hearing something about the Cowboys using VR headsets for the QBs around the Romo/Dak timeframe (mid to late 10's?) to help the backup see what Romo was seeing/doing. The GoPro is probably a cheaper solution that does just about the same. A bit surprised as it doesn't sound like this caught on at all if Miami is just implementing it and you would think a young HC would be up on this type of stuff.
We were waiting in line for the Arkansas-Alabama line a couple years ago and my buddy was positive that he could get one 1st down as QB against Bama during the whole game. We called him crazy but he still believes it to this day
Bob as a Palace supporter - Chelsea ‘lost at sea’ means Palace is buried in the ocean. Would love to get a breakdown of teams from you as a special piece (post NFL?).
The Hodgson managerial tenure is shaken currently and without Olise, there’s no creativity. The FA match against Everton set football back 30 years.
Ah well - off to see Oxford United against Coventry in the FA tomorrow. Come on Yellows!
Well aware. But also skeptical that fans love to blame owners as a massive cop out. Cowboys fans do that more than anyone but Man United have let a lot of teams off the hook because ugly Americans who own them.
Agree that blaming owners is often a simplistic cop out, but also not really a fair comparison between United’s owners & Jerry. While Jerry has his faults, there’s no doubting his commitment to “trying” to be the best. The Glazers on the other hand haven’t invested a penny of their own money and instead have taken £1B+ out of the club in debt, interest, and dividends, while failing to invest in any of the infrastructure that would create any sense of there being a culture of excellence. That’s even before you look at “sporting” decisions (or indecision) that’s plagued them & their cronies. They stumbled into a product that was about to explode, juiced it for what it’s worth and now can’t even make a profit. If not the fault of the owners, then who’s to blame for the mess?
With your premise re: A&M, I counter with their commitment of Scourton from Purdue. With a solid rumor of $600K, car, and a house for the family to use, I’d say that “culture” that Elko is supposedly building is no different than Jimbo’s. Scourton is nothing more than a mercenary like all the others,
Yep, and when he was in HS and being recruited his stepdad wanted him as far away from A&M as possible due to bad influences (as has been reported). I guess i’m old school when it comes to keeping your word. Coach made him priority and visited him and family to make sure everyone was ok with NIL compensation, etc. After getting the ok, Coach moves on to make plans for everyone else. He calls coach 2 minutes before it goes public and says he’s leaving. Good riddance, I say.
"I am not telling you he is going to win a Super Bowl for the Cowboys because A) I have no idea and B) no coach has ever won a Super Bowl for two franchises, but other than that, the Cowboys are much better for having hired him. Like I promised the day they did it, this was a very good hire."
Read this when you wrote it in 2020 and just read it again. Really does nail a lot of what we've seen since then. Nice to see the Cowboys in the dance for the third straight season. As someone that started watching them in 1996 (oof) this is a first for me.
The video of 100 kids against 3 pro soccer players alone makes my annual subscription worth it.
I want to see a rerun with some better coaching. They're leaving those pros wide open. I'd assign 10 kids per pro and tell them to just stay as close to them as you possibly can. Grab their shirts, tangle up their feet, just do kid stuff. Just make it messy at least.
On a related note, how have these scenarios not become a running show already. My buddies and I talk about this all the time. Like could 10 of us tackle Barry Sanders if he was limited to like a 10 yard wide field. How many 90 mph pitches could we swing at before we make contact. On and on.
That last question reminds of an apocryphal story I once heard: Supposedly a guy went to some conference in D.C. many years ago and ran into a man who said he had played a little football in his time. They ended up playing a little catch and the guy came back to his office raving about how he had met this fantastic athlete, a guy who zipped the ball so hard it left marks on his hands. The athlete's name: Danny Wuerffel. Even the pros we think of as limited and underpowered are far better than us regular Joes.
"no coach has ever won a Super Bowl for two franchises"
That's pretty crazy! I'm guessing rebuilding an organization is harder than people imagine. Just goes to show how impressive McCarthy has been this year.
Couple of factors at play - winning a Super Bowl is hard! Even the best coaches on good teams for a long time struggle to do it. John Harbaugh, Andy Reid, and Mike McCarthy spent 27 years coaching the Ravens, Eagles, and Packers with 0.600 records and only had two combined rings. Then Reid went to KC and averaged 11 wins a season for 6 years and still couldn't get over the hump until he landed Mahomes.
But also, if you have a Super Bowl winning coach, you're likely holding onto that guy for a long time and so he never gets a chance to win with another team until he's at the end of his career!
Just for fun, went through the list of SB winning coaches since the 90s:
Parcells - Close but not quite with the Pats (duh, or with us!)
Gibbs - Never coached another team
Jimmy - 4 decent years with the Dolphins
Seifert - 3 rough years with the recent Panthers expansion
Switzer - I think we know this one
Holmgren - close but not quite with the Seahawks
Mike Shanahan - 4 rough years with Washington
Vermeil - close but not quite with the Eagles
Billick - Never coached another team
Belichick - (Forgot he couldn't get it done with the Browns!)
Gruden - Couldn't get there with the Raiders either time
Cowher - Never coached another team
Dungy - Couldn't get there with the Bucs
Coughlin - Couldn't get the Jags there
Tomlin - Never coached another team
Payton - TBD with the Broncos
McCarthy - Fingers crossed
Harbaugh - Never coached another team
Carrol - 3 decent season with the Pats
Kubiak - couldn't get the Texans there
Pederson - TBD with the Jags
Arians - couldn't get the Cardinals there
If I'm reading that list right, in the past 35 years a SB winning coach almost always stayed with the same team until retirement with few exceptions. Half of the four that are 'in play' retired first and then came back (Gruden, Payton) or have only been on their next team for a couple of years (McCarthy, Pederson).
Aside from those 4, there hasn't even been a possibility since Holmgren was on the Seahawks, Mike Shanahan at Washington, and Parcells with us.
Belichick coached the Browns in the 1990s. One good season, but it did not end well (team move was announced, then team fell apart). Incidentally, Belichick was coaching the Browns in 1994 when I went to my first Cowboys game. We lost a heart breaker on the final play. And it took ~ 2 hours to get out of the f***ing parking lot.
Yup, totally spaced that Belichick was on the Browns first!
In college, I had a friend who insisted he could gain 15 yards if given 5 carries in the NFL. We all told him he was nuts, and regardless of how much he got on that first carry he would probably be in no shape for a second.
The baseball question is interesting, as I feel like there's a non-insignificant chance you might not have someone who could consistently get the ball across the plate among those nine guys, meaning the other team wouldn't have to swing much. Assuming there is a competent pitcher, I think the MLB team's best strategy isn't to swing for the fences, particularly as it's unlikely to be heaters coming over the plate. Instead, just smack line drive after line drive and dare the "Average Joes" to make plays. I feel like they might score 50 runs before making 3 outs.
I think you're dead-on with this. I tried to watch a lot more baseball this past year, both college and pro. By far the biggest difference between the levels was how well they fielded. The pros collected way more outs on balls that the college guys just couldn't quite handle.
I think you're right on the pitching. I can't remember the stat off the top of my head, but Tangotiger looked at the results of 0-3 counts with a pitcher *batting*. In other words, situations in which the batter probably has no intent to swing, and the opposing pitcher just want to get a strike across the plate. And even in that extreme scenario, MLB pitchers still threw outside the zone something like 20% of the time.
And if MLB-caliber pitchers can't always throw a strike when they just want a strike, I don't know how often a random Joe will be able to hit the strike zone.
Went to a local minor league game and threw 55mph in the booth on a radar gun. Ego blown. Pro athletes are beyond incredible.
I'm surprised you didn't bring up your personal experience in the BaD Radio vs Tyler Seguin game https://youtu.be/5rPSkANzkog?si=NBNry4IUwkT25ZLg
Hahaha what a memory!
That was so great
“I just don’t think there is a real correlation between stars and program excellence.”
This is demonstrably incorrect. See https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2016/11/02/by-the-numbers-recruiting-vs-field-success/
While having consistently high recruiting classes & a ton of 5-stars doesn’t guarantee a national championship, historically you’re not going to realistically compete for one without a top-10 composite recruiting ranking. The transfer portal appears to be muddying that correlation somewhat, but it still mostly holds true.
Yes, I have read this article before I and I do believe it has truth. Obviously, faster horses win more races than slower horses. But, not the whole truth – which I did not articulate well enough. Let me circle back and try to put this on the "To write" list for sometime soon.
I could be mistaken but I seem to recall hearing something about the Cowboys using VR headsets for the QBs around the Romo/Dak timeframe (mid to late 10's?) to help the backup see what Romo was seeing/doing. The GoPro is probably a cheaper solution that does just about the same. A bit surprised as it doesn't sound like this caught on at all if Miami is just implementing it and you would think a young HC would be up on this type of stuff.
Love the last question and the video, everything else great, but same thing, last one made me laugh and wonder ....... :) Thanks Bob!
I must have watched a different Arsenal Fulham game because mine didn’t end 5-0 hah
I apologize. Big mistake.
To be fair, as an Arsenal fan that match definitely felt like we lost 5-0 at the end 😞
We were waiting in line for the Arkansas-Alabama line a couple years ago and my buddy was positive that he could get one 1st down as QB against Bama during the whole game. We called him crazy but he still believes it to this day
Hey, given enough chances I believe in his ability to get a roughing the passer or pass interference penalty!
Crazy that no coach has ever won a SB with two different franchises, never realized that.
Bob as a Palace supporter - Chelsea ‘lost at sea’ means Palace is buried in the ocean. Would love to get a breakdown of teams from you as a special piece (post NFL?).
The Hodgson managerial tenure is shaken currently and without Olise, there’s no creativity. The FA match against Everton set football back 30 years.
Ah well - off to see Oxford United against Coventry in the FA tomorrow. Come on Yellows!
And Coventry blew the doors off Oxford.....
The reason for United's problems lies solely with the Glazer's ownership.
That’s the theory currently being pushed. It is only a theory.
It’s a theory that predated Ferguson’s retirement.
Well aware. But also skeptical that fans love to blame owners as a massive cop out. Cowboys fans do that more than anyone but Man United have let a lot of teams off the hook because ugly Americans who own them.
Agree that blaming owners is often a simplistic cop out, but also not really a fair comparison between United’s owners & Jerry. While Jerry has his faults, there’s no doubting his commitment to “trying” to be the best. The Glazers on the other hand haven’t invested a penny of their own money and instead have taken £1B+ out of the club in debt, interest, and dividends, while failing to invest in any of the infrastructure that would create any sense of there being a culture of excellence. That’s even before you look at “sporting” decisions (or indecision) that’s plagued them & their cronies. They stumbled into a product that was about to explode, juiced it for what it’s worth and now can’t even make a profit. If not the fault of the owners, then who’s to blame for the mess?
With your premise re: A&M, I counter with their commitment of Scourton from Purdue. With a solid rumor of $600K, car, and a house for the family to use, I’d say that “culture” that Elko is supposedly building is no different than Jimbo’s. Scourton is nothing more than a mercenary like all the others,
My counter to your counter would be that college football rumors are usually complete bulsh. He is from Bryan, right?
Yep, and when he was in HS and being recruited his stepdad wanted him as far away from A&M as possible due to bad influences (as has been reported). I guess i’m old school when it comes to keeping your word. Coach made him priority and visited him and family to make sure everyone was ok with NIL compensation, etc. After getting the ok, Coach moves on to make plans for everyone else. He calls coach 2 minutes before it goes public and says he’s leaving. Good riddance, I say.
"I am not telling you he is going to win a Super Bowl for the Cowboys because A) I have no idea and B) no coach has ever won a Super Bowl for two franchises, but other than that, the Cowboys are much better for having hired him. Like I promised the day they did it, this was a very good hire."
Read this when you wrote it in 2020 and just read it again. Really does nail a lot of what we've seen since then. Nice to see the Cowboys in the dance for the third straight season. As someone that started watching them in 1996 (oof) this is a first for me.