Remember All Those Veteran Leaders in 2008

[Mojouw]

https://www.behindthesteelcurtain.com/2019/1/28/18200535/former-steelers-cb-bryant-mcfadden-shares-story-about-a-late-night-card-game-before-super-bowl-nfl

Apparently they spent the entire night before playing cards. I also have a hard time believing that any late night to early morning card game was only running on Pepsi and HI-C :)

[tube517]

Max McGee in Super Bowl I had a hangover and had to borrow his helmet when he got in the game.

He proceeds to win the first Super Bowl MVP.

[HollywoodSteel]

That’s why I think it’s SUCH an over reaction whenever fans complain about drama.

Did you guys ever see (or read) North Dallas 40? Do you guys doubt for a moment that teams in those glory days of less public information had better team chemistry than they have today? Were the players less “selfish”? Were the coaches better leaders of grown men?

Tomlin can and should be criticized for his objective coaching mistakes that possibly turn should be Ws into Ls, but all this talk about him losing the locker room is nonsense. It’s also nonsense that AB is any type of cancer that hurts the team in any meaningful way.

Bell never hurt the locker room either.

We overreact to such limited information and try to draw conclusions that are simply ridiculous.

If Boz made a few more kicks this year we could very well be going to the Super Bowl. Tomlin would be talked about as possible coach of the year and every one of us would think of the Steelers as a band of brothers.

I remember the threads right after the Jags game about what a tight and gritty team we have that could NEVER have pulled that win off if they didn’t believe in each other to such an incredible extent.

I still believe that’s true. And I believe we had a good enough team to beat anyone this year.

We just don’t have a DOMINANT team. We’re not good enough to overcome missed kicks, bad officiating, and a few crucial mistakes here and there.

The league wanted parity. They got it. Now those tiny things that “good” teams are supposed to just magically overcome, are not so easily overcome in the new NFL.

We weren’t DOMINANT, but we never got dominated either. Not for 60 minutes. That’s why this year was so heartbreaking.

We had a chance against ANY team.

That’s why I don’t buy into this “drama” thing. There’s always drama.

What we are REALLY reacting to is losing, and we often invent reasons that just aren’t objectively true.

[pczach]

https://media.giphy.com/media/xT5LMGHAFyCXQ6fWsE/giphy.gif

[86WARD]

They can stay up for 4 days straight as long as they are winning come Sunday. This clearly has nothing to do with their play on the field or leadership abilities. If anything, it strengthens the case...lol.

[DesertSteel]

The point is that they have to prove it in the field with wins when it matters. Just because some guys are made to handle distractions and still be great doesn’t mean that all are. Just because Johnny Q can throw a no-hitter with a hangover doesn’t mean that it’s not a problem for others.

[El-Gonzo Jackson]

They can stay up for 4 days straight as long as they are winning come Sunday. This clearly has nothing to do with their play on the field or leadership abilities. If anything, it strengthens the case...lol.

Exactly! Guys playing cards and drinking together is better than guys calling each other out in the media and not talking to each other.


Former NHL Goalie Kelly Hrudy tells a story in his book of how when he was a rookie with the 4 time Stanley Cup Champion NY Islanders and he was late for a team meeting in LA while they were playing the Kings. I think it was Dennis Potvin, the team captain that chewed him out for being late and told him that "it shows that you think your time is more important than your teammates time". Hrudy finishes the story by explaining that …...the team meeting was to decide where they were going to party on their day off. :drink:

[AtlantaDan]

Exactly! Guys playing cards and drinking together is better than guys calling each other out in the media and not talking to each other.

Or this :coffee:

Some Atlanta Falcon players said today that they were not surprised when their teammate, Eugene Robinson, was arrested on a charge of soliciting a prostitute in a seedy section of Miami the night before Super Bowl XXXIII. After all, some of them said, other Falcons had been there several times for the same purpose.

''Guys had been going there all week,'' a Falcon starter said. ''It's just that Eugene was the only one who got caught.''

https://www.nytimes.com/1999/02/02/sports/super-bowl-xxxiii-robinson-s-arrest-looms-larger-after-the-falcons-defeat.html

[El-Gonzo Jackson]

Or this :coffee:

Some Atlanta Falcon players said today that they were not surprised when their teammate, Eugene Robinson, was arrested on a charge of soliciting a prostitute in a seedy section of Miami the night before Super Bowl XXXIII. After all, some of them said, other Falcons had been there several times for the same purpose.

''Guys had been going there all week,'' a Falcon starter said. ''It's just that Eugene was the only one who got caught.''

https://www.nytimes.com/1999/02/02/sports/super-bowl-xxxiii-robinson-s-arrest-looms-larger-after-the-falcons-defeat.html

:rofl: I wonder if Robinson wasn't really liked in that locker room? Or maybe he was a guy that wasn't too discreet. Doesn't seem like anybody was looking out for him like they were in other areas of Georgia. :wink02:

[AtlantaDan]

:rofl: I wonder if Robinson wasn't really liked in that locker room?

Not according to this article that reviewed how Robinson spent his Saturday before the Super Bowl prior to his arrest

Robinson, whose family is with him in Miami, is one of the team's most popular players and is outspoken about his deep religious faith. At a breakfast Saturday, he received the 1999 Bart Starr Award from the religious group Athletes in Action. The award, named for the Hall of Fame quarterback from Green Bay, honors athletes of high moral character. :sofunny:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/sports/nfl/longterm/superbowl99/stories/01/robinson01.htm

At least blowing the 28-3 lead to the Patriots got Robinson off the hook for the worst Falcons moment at the Super Bowl

[EzraTank]

I happened to have the NFL XM channel on when he told the story. Hilarious (now).

[st33lersguy]

I wonder how many of those players couldn't sleep the night before the big game anyway? Sleep is important but I imagine the adrenaline rush and nerves of the Super Bowl can make a man lose sleep.

[Mojouw]

I often times feel that everyone buys way too far into what coaches and players want to paint; namely that a team runs on meetings, practice, workouts, home to sleep, and repeat until that routine is interrupted by a game. What these stories and many others demonstrate is that locker-rooms are far less disciplined than the myths of pro sports would have us believe and that none of it matters as long as you win. As soon as you start to lose or fail to meet expectations, someone comes looking for easy targets to blame.

[FrancoLambert]

I often times feel that everyone buys way too far into what coaches and players want to paint; namely that a team runs on meetings, practice, workouts, home to sleep, and repeat until that routine is interrupted by a game. What these stories and many others demonstrate is that locker-rooms are far less disciplined than the myths of pro sports would have us believe and that none of it matters as long as you win. As soon as you start to lose or fail to meet expectations, someone comes looking for easy targets to blame.

No doubt that winning makes it easier to overlook shenanigans.
And if locker room walls and hotel suites could talk....:wink02:

But if you look at the most successful coaches of teams that had runs of winning (Lombardi, Noll, Shula, Landry, Gibbs, Belichick) most would say that they’re coaches who stressed discipline.

Sure, all football coaches would say they stress discipline, but they do so at different levels.

[silver & black]

I often times feel that everyone buys way too far into what coaches and players want to paint; namely that a team runs on meetings, practice, workouts, home to sleep, and repeat until that routine is interrupted by a game. What these stories and many others demonstrate is that locker-rooms are far less disciplined than the myths of pro sports would have us believe and that none of it matters as long as you win. As soon as you start to lose or fail to meet expectations, someone comes looking for easy targets to blame.

Yep. The 70's Raiders are a perfect example............. "Just Win Baby!"

[86WARD]

I often times feel that everyone buys way too far into what coaches and players want to paint; namely that a team runs on meetings, practice, workouts, home to sleep, and repeat until that routine is interrupted by a game. What these stories and many others demonstrate is that locker-rooms are far less disciplined than the myths of pro sports would have us believe and that none of it matters as long as you win. As soon as you start to lose or fail to meet expectations, someone comes looking for easy targets to blame.

Difference is some teams are smarter than others...