Chargers and Norv

[firstdown]

Originally Posted by BringBackJoeT

Agreed. Look, everybody--EVERYBODY--agrees that Norv is one of the nicest, most genuine guys you'll ever meet. In fact, in the midst of the Chargers early season troubles, when many stories were being written about Norv, one former Raider was quoted as saying that Norv had been almost too nice for the job of head coach.

But that doesn't mean that we can't lay blame at his feet for his stint in Washington. The Redskins failed to make the playoffs during Norv's first five seasons as coach. How many head coaches in the NFL in the past 25 years have actually maintained their jobs after failing to reach the playoffs in their first five years as coach? (I think I checked this out once, and one of the most recent examples I could find was Tom Landry with the Cowboys in the early 60's, when the NFL was very different, and the Cowboys were a brand new franchise--there may have been one example more recent than that). Now, some have said, "Yeah, but he didn't have good players." But Norv wasn't a guy capable of raising anybody's game. Recall that it was Sonny J. himself that repeatedly referred to Redskin Park during the Norv years as "Club Med." That was the problem--he simply failed time and again to instill any sense of urgency in the locker room.

Some have asked when Danny came aboard. For the record, he bought the team before the '99 season, which was Norv's sixth season. It was in Norv's sixth season that the Redskins finally made the playoffs, and no one has ever doubted that Danny told Norv at the outset of the season what he had to look forward to if he didn't produce, ultimately meaning that it was Danny that finally brought the sense of urgency that Norv simply was incapable of producing. The following season, the Redskins started off 6-2, but then lost three of four games before the game against the Giants at FedEx. During that game (which at the time the Giants needed to win as much as the Redskins--the Giants went into the game 8-4), Pam Oliver was doing the sideline reporting and declared that the benches were completely different--the Giants were pumped, but the Redskins sideline seemed dead. It was that utter lack of life on the sidelines during a home game against a division rival in the 12th game of the season with the playoffs still a very real possibility that was cited as a primary factor behind Danny's decision THAT NIGHT to finally dump Norv. Danny didn't put too much pressure on Norv. Norv simply couldn't pressure on this own team. Some may say, "But they're professionals! They shouldn't need a coach to get them pumped up!" Yeah, there is some truth to that, but all of us learned from the first day of kindergarten, and have learned since, that the designated leader of whatever environment we are in sets the tone, whether it's a classroom, workplace, or locker room, and that the people inside those rooms respond to that tone. All of Norv's players liked him, but he couldn't fire them up.

For me, the most telling moment of his stint as Redskins coach was Marvcus Patton screaming at Gus for his third interception of the opening game against the Giants of the '98 season--I always thought Patton had had enough of Frerotte not getting an earful for his mistakes from the HC, and finally decided to take matters into his own hands.

I don't hate Norv, but I don't root for him, and, because of how intense my frustration still is over his years in Washington, I'm not happy for him that the Chargers have won. As some have said, he was lucky to get a job that a LOT of other people were more deserving of.

You have your facts off a little. By the time Snyder had purchased the team it was too late to fire Norv. Snyder has said so himself that he would have fired Norv if he would have had time to replace him. It was Cook who keep Norv around for so long. How can you blame Norv if Cook allowed him to keep coaching the Skins?

[BringBackJoeT]

Originally Posted by firstdown

You have your facts off a little. By the time Snyder had purchased the team it was too late to fire Norv. Snyder has said so himself that he would have fired Norv if he would have had time to replace him. It was Cook who keep Norv around for so long. How can you blame Norv if Cook allowed him to keep coaching the Skins?

Uh, I think you're the one with your facts wrong. As I said, Snyder was hired before the '99 season, when the Redskins finally made the playoffs. Your statement that "by the time Synder had purchased the team it was too late to fire Norv" is not responsive to anything that I said. Second, which "Cooke" are you referring to when you say that "it was Cook who kept Norv around for so long"? As I'm sure you recall, Jack Kent Cooke died in April, 1997, and his son was temporarily in control of the team for two years before the executors of the estate sold the team to Snyder. During the two years that Cooke's son ran the team, he avoided making big changes to the organization (like, for example, firing the head coach), because he, quite reasonably, decided that he would hold off on major decisions pending the estate's decision on who should get the team.

[firstdown]

Originally Posted by BringBackJoeT

Uh, I think you're the one with your facts wrong. As I said, Snyder was hired before the '99 season, when the Redskins finally made the playoffs. Your statement that "by the time Synder had purchased the team it was too late to fire Norv" is not responsive to anything that I said. Second, which "Cooke" are you referring to when you say that "it was Cook who kept Norv around for so long"? As I'm sure you recall, Jack Kent Cooke died in April, 1997, and his son was temporarily in control of the team for two years before the executors of the estate sold the team to Snyder. During the two years that Cooke's son ran the team, he avoided making big changes to the organization (like, for example, firing the head coach), because he, quite reasonably, decided that he would hold off on major decisions pending the estate's decision on who should get the team.

Your right.