No.
Let the Weis-bashing commence! But my goodness, please, if you say anything like this in the process, you will, and I do mean will, sound like an inconceivable jackass. You know, kind of like David Haugh.
Notre Dame lost Charlie Weis's final game to Stanford, for those who haven't seen. Stanford was driving with little time left in a tie game, 38-38. They were down at ND's 4 yard line with just over a minute to play. First and goal.
The first came with 1 minute, 3 seconds left and the game tied 38-38 with Stanford at the Notre Dame 4. During a timeout, Weis told his players to let the Cardinal score to get the ball back with enough time to drive. On the next play, Toby Gerhart walked in untouched as one Irish defender didn't even move his hands off his knees.
Even if the call could be defended strategically, any time a coach of a bunch of 18- to 22-year-olds tells his team to lie down -- to quit -- it offends the sportsman in all of us. Weis first quit on his players last Sunday when he publicly acknowledged athletic director Jack Swarbrick had reason to fire him and again Saturday night with the game on the line.
What happened to the fight in Fighting Irish?
I'm near speechless, but I'm sure I can work up a tirade for this.
Stanford could have downed the ball three times and kicked a last-second field goal to win the game. Instead, they offer a GIFT, and try to score 7 points, which would give ND's offense a chance to retaliate in the final minute. And you are criticizing Charlie Weis for not vomiting the gift back in Stanford's face for some misconstrued sense of horseshit pride and "the sportsman in all of us". You literally just said that Weis told his players to "quit" in TAKING THE ONLY FUCKING CONCEIVABLE CHANCE THAT ND HAD TO WIN THE GAME.
I love this qualifier: Even if the call could be defended strategically
You are a football coach. As long as you are following the rules, that is THE ONLY THING THAT FUCKING MATTERS.
In reality, the only real mistake was that Weis didn't "quit" one play earlier. Why tackle them on the 4 yard line? That costed a timeout and about 10 seconds (because for whatever reason, Weis wasn't feeling the need to call timeouts as fast as possible yesterday).
I am not a Weis supporter. But as for writing crap like this in one of the nation's major newspapers: It is ignorant, it is lazy, it is stupid. Get a new job, you suck at yours.
4 comments:
And that's the thing -- it's just so effing lazy. OF COURSE you let Stanford score the touchdown there. What is David Haugh (if that is his real name) possibly suggesting an alternative strategy? That's just awful.
Who ever heard of letting a team score quickly to get the ball back with time enough to tie the game or win? You'd never see this kind of bush-league tactic in the NFL. For example, if the Jags were trailing by a point and driving on the Jets with a little over a minute left, Rex Ryan would never order his team to let Jones-Drew walk into the end zone. And Jones-Drew would never do anything awesome, like go down at the one to allow for a game-winning field goal attempt as the clock strikes 0:00. Because that's not competitvely spirited football. I daresay, Weis' decision is the worst thing in the history of football.
Big Rickus:
And it definitely would never happen in the Super Bowl, especially not one with Brett Favre playing. He would have gone out there and made the tackle himself!
Charlie Weiss saw this coming weeks ago, and already has feelers out there with NFL teams for the offensive coordinator position. You just cant win 6 games a year at Notre Dame and expect to keep your job. I think Gruden or Stoops would fit ND quite well.
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