So how about that Josh McDaniels, eh?
I realize that there are still a large number of unknowns. I realize that I’m jumping to some conclusions here before all the facts are out. And should more facts come to light surrounding the bizarre decision Josh McDaniels made to turn down the job in Indianapolis to stay with the New England Patriots for at least one more season, I’ll gladly rethink my stance and offer a redaction/apology for what I’m about to say.
For now, though...this move really doesn’t sit well with me.
I love McDaniels. He has been a great coordinator for this team, and his relationship with Tommy B is well documented. But the bottom line is that the man made an agreement with the Indianapolis Colts to become their head coach following the 2017 season. They stopped interviewing candidates because of that agreement. Assistants left their jobs and uprooted their lives to come to Indy to work with McDaniels. Everything was in place based on an understanding that the two sides had. And then, out of the blue, he just turns it all down, leaves Indy hanging in the lurch, and goes back to the Evil Empire? Any way you slice it, that isn’t a good look. McDaniels comes away from this whole thing looking like a welch and a backstabber, and I can’t help but question his motivation.
I don’t say this out of concern for the Patriots’ image; the people that hate the Patriots wouldn’t hate them any less without these recent events. I don’t even say it out of concern for how the team will be perceived by anyone. If you care about what others think about your football team, New England is NOT for you - trust me. I hear that Cleveland is nice this time of year. I say this because...well, because I guess I feel like a man should honor his word, if he has in fact given it, and if a deal was all but set in stone, he has an obligation to live up to his end of the bargain. This whole thing just leaves me feeling a little...off.
Again, there may very well be more to the story here, and it would be unwise to formulate any kind of concrete opinion until I hear more details. Maybe Andrew Luck is more injured than we know. Maybe McDaniels has some family issues that he felt were best treated by staying in the New England area. Maybe he felt that the Colts were dishonest in the promises they made to him. Or maybe McDaniels just took a lot of extra money and basically said screw you to the city of Indianapolis. I don’t know, and right now nobody does. But what I do know is that as of this article, I’m not a fan of how all this went down. I’ll always have a tremendous amount of respect for McDaniels as an OC and a football mind, but I can’t help but wonder if he has now done irreversible damage to his image and his chances of coaching anywhere other than New England. It’s not like his track record away from Foxboro is all that stellar, and this certainly isn’t helping matters any.
On the plus side, I imagine Colts fans are fuming right now over this move. I can’t even imagine what the comment section over at Stampede Blue looks like at the moment, and that makes me giggle. The amount of real estate the Patriots occupy inside Colts fans’ heads has enough acreage to open up the Jim Irsay Substance Abuse Recovery Center and keep it well stocked for decades, and I find that hysterical. However, that’s just pettiness and the overall sports fan jackassery that we all exhibit at times. The bottom line is that if this had happened to the Patriots, we would be up in arms, and rightly so. Hopefully this situation becomes more clear over the coming days, because if this all turns out to be a power move or some attempt to stick it to the Colts...
Who am I kidding. I’ll love that. But still, I’m not the biggest fan of how this is all playing out.