Post by heman on Feb 3, 2022 14:37:53 GMT -6
profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2022/02/03/vikings-missed-their-chance-to-get-jim-harbaugh/
By all accounts and appearances, Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh wanted to join the Vikings. By all accounts and appearances, the Vikings weren’t fully sold on Harbaugh.
It apparently got awkward, with Harbaugh basically treating the move as a done deal during his interview, like Michael Scott did when he went to corporate assuming (incorrectly) that he was getting Jan’s job.
With Harbaugh, everything is a little awkward. But so what? He wins. After multiple years of creating the impression that being “just good enough” was good enough for ownership, the Vikings declared that they intend to compete for championships. If they truly intend to do that, they should have hired Harbaugh.
Fortune favors the brave, they say. The Vikings ultimately weren’t brave enough to roll the dice on a guy who has generated plenty of sevens (when sevens are good). Instead, they’re opting for the predictable unpredictable, plucking the latest product from the Sean McVay assembly line and hoping that a guy who never was a head coach (and who never has called plays) will be able to effectively do a job he has never done.
Meanwhile, Harbaugh has been an effective head coach. FOR NINETEEN YEARS.
I would have hired Harbaugh. If it didn’t work, there would have been the next flavor-of-the-month, lather-rinse-repeat, cookie-cutter candidate from one of the Super Bowl teams. Like there is every year.
The Vikings hired Kwesi Adofo-Mensah to serve as the team’s G.M. Adofo-Mensah wanted to hire Harbaugh. They should have let him. Instead, Adofo-Mensah and Kevin O’Connell will have to find a way to form a critical partnership, even though both know that O’Connell wasn’t the first choice. (Good luck.)
There’s still time to fix it. O’Connell hasn’t been hired. The deal isn’t done until it’s done, as we learned four years ago. Even if the interview was an abject disaster, it’s not about who gives the best interview. It’s about who is the best option to lead a team that has never won a Super Bowl, and that supposedly wants to.
Do the Vikings really want to win a Super Bowl? Or is ownership concerned that things may not work smoothly in the building, given that they don’t live and work in Minnesota and thus aren’t there to monitor and/or mediate? If the Wilfs lived and worked in Minnesota, would they have hired Harbaugh? (Unfortunately, there’s a chance the answer to that question is “yes.”)
Harbaugh is proven. O’Connell is not. And the best evidence that Harbaugh would have potentially worked out very well for the Vikings is this: Big Cat, a Bears fan, made it very clear on PFT Live today that he was worried the Vikings would hire Harbaugh.
They still can. They still should.
What’s that, you say? The Vikings have promised O’Connell the job? Well, consider this. If the Rams win the Super Bowl, if Sean McVay decides to chase a very big broadcasting bag, and if owner Stan Kroenke decides to turn to O’Connell as the next coach of the Rams, do you think he’ll stay with the Rams, or leave for the Vikings?
By all accounts and appearances, Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh wanted to join the Vikings. By all accounts and appearances, the Vikings weren’t fully sold on Harbaugh.
It apparently got awkward, with Harbaugh basically treating the move as a done deal during his interview, like Michael Scott did when he went to corporate assuming (incorrectly) that he was getting Jan’s job.
With Harbaugh, everything is a little awkward. But so what? He wins. After multiple years of creating the impression that being “just good enough” was good enough for ownership, the Vikings declared that they intend to compete for championships. If they truly intend to do that, they should have hired Harbaugh.
Fortune favors the brave, they say. The Vikings ultimately weren’t brave enough to roll the dice on a guy who has generated plenty of sevens (when sevens are good). Instead, they’re opting for the predictable unpredictable, plucking the latest product from the Sean McVay assembly line and hoping that a guy who never was a head coach (and who never has called plays) will be able to effectively do a job he has never done.
Meanwhile, Harbaugh has been an effective head coach. FOR NINETEEN YEARS.
I would have hired Harbaugh. If it didn’t work, there would have been the next flavor-of-the-month, lather-rinse-repeat, cookie-cutter candidate from one of the Super Bowl teams. Like there is every year.
The Vikings hired Kwesi Adofo-Mensah to serve as the team’s G.M. Adofo-Mensah wanted to hire Harbaugh. They should have let him. Instead, Adofo-Mensah and Kevin O’Connell will have to find a way to form a critical partnership, even though both know that O’Connell wasn’t the first choice. (Good luck.)
There’s still time to fix it. O’Connell hasn’t been hired. The deal isn’t done until it’s done, as we learned four years ago. Even if the interview was an abject disaster, it’s not about who gives the best interview. It’s about who is the best option to lead a team that has never won a Super Bowl, and that supposedly wants to.
Do the Vikings really want to win a Super Bowl? Or is ownership concerned that things may not work smoothly in the building, given that they don’t live and work in Minnesota and thus aren’t there to monitor and/or mediate? If the Wilfs lived and worked in Minnesota, would they have hired Harbaugh? (Unfortunately, there’s a chance the answer to that question is “yes.”)
Harbaugh is proven. O’Connell is not. And the best evidence that Harbaugh would have potentially worked out very well for the Vikings is this: Big Cat, a Bears fan, made it very clear on PFT Live today that he was worried the Vikings would hire Harbaugh.
They still can. They still should.
What’s that, you say? The Vikings have promised O’Connell the job? Well, consider this. If the Rams win the Super Bowl, if Sean McVay decides to chase a very big broadcasting bag, and if owner Stan Kroenke decides to turn to O’Connell as the next coach of the Rams, do you think he’ll stay with the Rams, or leave for the Vikings?
... and neither is this Chris guy.