Tweet
Wolf also gets a free pass because (as Bob McGinn says in his book) that he taught folks in Wisconsin what a winning franchise looked like. I assume Bob meant people not old enough to know the Lombardi teams or pay attention to other franchises. He was first on the scene to turn this around and hired other very capable people. Like Rodgers replacing Favre, Thompson suffers by comparison.
Retailguy may be right that Thompson is going to see more articles like this, but this is neither new nor representative. Thompson got lambasted all during the 2008 season by the beat guys and columnists after a stretch of remarkably evenhanded reporting about Favre-a-Palooza during the off-season and camp. I know many will not see the local coverage this way, but I was stunned that it was not as pro-Favre as the national stuff. In a way, Thompson benefited from Favre blowing off the local guys for years.
Michaels is a poor representative. He gets credit from me for actually watching the game and players (not just the ball) but he regularly fails to place any of his observations in context. Whether it is a question of scheme, responsibility or failure elsewhere, Michaels returns to his favorite whipping boys regardless of the actual cause. You will never his from him that this offensive line can run block. You will only hear about pass blocking failures and lack of big gainers. There is no sense of proportion in his critique.
But Thompson will regularly get dismissed by the idiots, including the twin combo of thumb twiddlers Bedard and Silverstein. They had all but registered a site for Thompson must go after Clifton was on a plane bound for Washington. McGinn at least starts with acknowledging the upswing in talent. Silverstard simply spends other people's money fast on poor choices, and like preseason picks, are never called to account for the dumber of their suggestions.
RG also has a point, one that has some echoes in Brandt's lone criticism of Thompson so far. By failing to engage people and having difficult conversations early, problems get exacerbated. Not to the point of catastrophe, but to the point of distraction.
But the largest factor is the Super Bowl win. Wolf has one, Polian has one, Thompson does not. Until he gets one, no one will believe you can do it this way. There has also been a failure of anyone writing for the papers to connect the reason Wolf left (Salary Cap) with the way Thompson operates differently than his mentor. Once teams stopped losing good players because they could not budget, it became much harder for Wolf to find talent through that channel. If not for his outstanding 2000 draft class, he would have left a pretty mediocre team behind.
Retailguy may be right that Thompson is going to see more articles like this, but this is neither new nor representative. Thompson got lambasted all during the 2008 season by the beat guys and columnists after a stretch of remarkably evenhanded reporting about Favre-a-Palooza during the off-season and camp. I know many will not see the local coverage this way, but I was stunned that it was not as pro-Favre as the national stuff. In a way, Thompson benefited from Favre blowing off the local guys for years.
Michaels is a poor representative. He gets credit from me for actually watching the game and players (not just the ball) but he regularly fails to place any of his observations in context. Whether it is a question of scheme, responsibility or failure elsewhere, Michaels returns to his favorite whipping boys regardless of the actual cause. You will never his from him that this offensive line can run block. You will only hear about pass blocking failures and lack of big gainers. There is no sense of proportion in his critique.
But Thompson will regularly get dismissed by the idiots, including the twin combo of thumb twiddlers Bedard and Silverstein. They had all but registered a site for Thompson must go after Clifton was on a plane bound for Washington. McGinn at least starts with acknowledging the upswing in talent. Silverstard simply spends other people's money fast on poor choices, and like preseason picks, are never called to account for the dumber of their suggestions.
RG also has a point, one that has some echoes in Brandt's lone criticism of Thompson so far. By failing to engage people and having difficult conversations early, problems get exacerbated. Not to the point of catastrophe, but to the point of distraction.
But the largest factor is the Super Bowl win. Wolf has one, Polian has one, Thompson does not. Until he gets one, no one will believe you can do it this way. There has also been a failure of anyone writing for the papers to connect the reason Wolf left (Salary Cap) with the way Thompson operates differently than his mentor. Once teams stopped losing good players because they could not budget, it became much harder for Wolf to find talent through that channel. If not for his outstanding 2000 draft class, he would have left a pretty mediocre team behind.
Comment