Audio: Norm Chow Meets With Arizona Media

[conraddobler]

This is an interesting Yahoo debate on Chow.

I thought it was interesting several Titans fans expressed they'd like him to stay, other than that no one spelled Bidwill correctly and some of those posts look like 3rd graders did them.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/rumors/...lt=AkXmAhLXl.zHGimAGydJZ4tDubYF?urn=nfl,19584

 

[az1965]

I'm not sure why everyone is so excited. It is only a press conference. If rah, rah makes the best coach, then Mac would have been the top coach... talk is nothing. He may turn out to be a good coach, may even be the one to take us to the super bowl but I can't get excited with talk anymore. Gotta wait and see.

 

[slanidrac16]

Well.......With Chow this offense would hit the field running right from the opening kickoff of week 1. He seems very innovative and just to hear someone say you have to maximize the talent of a player gives me goosebumps.
Seems like Clancy would be gone and he made it sound like he would not have a hard time finding the coaches he wants.
It's also apparent that a top flight CB would be at the top of our free agency list. Can you say Asante Samuel?

The thing I like the most is that we can be assured he will come in here and not screw up Matt Leinart. He would enhance the offense and not overhall it.
Thats what scares me the most about all the other candidates, especially Rivera.
It's Chow for now, Sherman a distant second but it will be interseting to see and hear about Cameron and Caldwell.

 

[Cbus cardsfan]

I'm not sure why everyone is so excited. It is only a press conference. If rah, rah makes the best coach, then Mac would have been the top coach... talk is nothing. He may turn out to be a good coach, may even be the one to take us to the super bowl but I can't get excited with talk anymore. Gotta wait and see.

Exactly, all of a sudden Chow is the greatest coach in the world based on an eight minute press conference.Good offensive coach but there's reasons he's never been a HC.Like i said earlier, if he didn't know Leinart, he wouldn't even be a candidate.No other teams even looking at hi should tell you something. They are all loking at Grimm, Whisenhunt, Rivera.

 

[JeffGollin]

Given the fact that we all have about 25% of the information that Cardinal management has about all the candidates and don't know what is and isn't impressing BB, MB, RG and the players, things that jump out at me about Norm Chow are:

- He was going for a Master in Education. Bill Walsh and Mike Holmgren have similar backgrounds.

- His consistency of achievement from QB to QB and team to team.

- Adrian Wilson (a defensive player) likes him.

- He seems to like our current aggressive defensive approach, with the proviso that - if you're going to be aggressive and also stop the run, you'll need 8 in the box and corners able to play tight man coverage.

- He's known as a smart X's & O's guy.

- I agree with Skkorp that he comes across as straightforward, self-assured and sincere without all the ego-baggage and need-to-manipulate that seemed to be part of the DG regime.

So OK. Let's assume we hire him. If we do, we have to hope that Norm is (a) smart enough to know when to delegate and when to put his hands on a problem, (b) will look to his assistants to bring more fire and intensity to the team that otherwise might be missing and (c) has the necessary strength and resiliancy to put wheels back on the truck when they've fallen off.

Final point - I'd love to see each interviewee asked a few "adversity" hypotheticals - i.e. "What do you do and say after your team just blew a 21 point lead in the 4Q to lose a game?" "What do you do when 10 straight defensive starters suffer season-ending injuries while you're still in the playoff hunt?" "How do you handle a situation where a star player questions your offensive play calling in the press?" That sort of stuff. You can probably learn a lot about each candidate by asking them those types of questions.

 

[az jam]

If Chow is hired there are two critical people/positions that he would lean on:

1. Rod Graves. Like it or not Graves becomes more of a key player than he was when Denny was here. Free agency, the draft, player moves, etc are areas where Graves would be more of the leader with Chow adding input. This could be true of several of the other candidates but they all have more NFL expericnce than Chow. I see Chow leaning more on Graves than the other candidates.

2. DC. It would be critical to get a top notch DC as I see Chow really involved more with building the offense. Getting an NFL experienced DC would be paramount.

 

[BigRedArk]

This could be the makings of a very good story. A coach that always seemed to get passed over for head coaching positions and a franchise that could never seem to get it done.

Yes it does.

 

[Russ Smith]

Exactly, all of a sudden Chow is the greatest coach in the world based on an eight minute press conference.Good offensive coach but there's reasons he's never been a HC.Like i said earlier, if he didn't know Leinart, he wouldn't even be a candidate.No other teams even looking at hi should tell you something. They are all loking at Grimm, Whisenhunt, Rivera.

I will say this and only because I believe it, not to be PC. If we beleive that the NFL adopted the Rooney rule to overcome institutional racism against hiring black coaches, does anybody honestly believe that a CHINESE coach was competing on a level playing field for the last 20 or so years when it came to trying to get a HC job in college or the NFL?

Someone posted a story about why Chow left BYU, some offensive joke by a higher up just basically being ignored. I gotta believe if Norm Chow were white and had been as good a coach as he is, he would have been given a chance as HC before. After a while it becomes self fulfilling, everyone that interviews him is looking for the reason why he's never been hired as a HC before.

 

[Renz]

I will say this and only because I believe it, not to be PC. If we beleive that the NFL adopted the Rooney rule to overcome institutional racism against hiring black coaches, does anybody honestly believe that a CHINESE coach was competing on a level playing field for the last 20 or so years when it came to trying to get a HC job in college or the NFL?

Someone posted a story about why Chow left BYU, some offensive joke by a higher up just basically being ignored. I gotta believe if Norm Chow were white and had been as good a coach as he is, he would have been given a chance as HC before. After a while it becomes self fulfilling, everyone that interviews him is looking for the reason why he's never been hired as a HC before.

Great post, Russ.

 

[Gambit]

... After a while it becomes self fulfilling, everyone that interviews him is looking for the reason why he's never been hired as a HC before.

Absolutely.

 

[az jam]

Great post Russ. I couldn't agree more with you on that.

 

[D-Dogg]

Someone posted a story about why Chow left BYU, some offensive joke by a higher up just basically being ignored. I gotta believe if Norm Chow were white and had been as good a coach as he is, he would have been given a chance as HC before. After a while it becomes self fulfilling, everyone that interviews him is looking for the reason why he's never been hired as a HC before.

I posted that on another thread...here was the article:

His own experiences speak to the presence of racism within the college coaching ranks, which contributed, in part, to his departure from BYU. During a meeting between members of the athletic department and administrators, Chow witnessed firsthand the racism of those in power: "I'm sitting here, this guy's [a new white vice president at the university] standing three feet away from me talking about this, that, and the other. And he says, 'we're going to build this new facility and we got all the Chinamen lined up, ready to go.'" Rightly infuriated, Chow confronted his athletic director, who, in turn, took Chow's complaint to the vice president. The VP defended his own actions by telling the athletic director, "I didn't know Norm was Chinese." Chow left BYU soon after, forced to start over after thirty-two years at the school.

http://www.popmatters.com/sports/features/050303-normchow.shtml

 

[BigRedArk]

If Chow is hired there are two critical people/positions that he would lean on:

1. Rod Graves. Like it or not Graves becomes more of a key player than he was when Denny was here. Free agency, the draft, player moves, etc are areas where Graves would be more of the leader with Chow adding input. This could be true of several of the other candidates but they all have more NFL expericnce than Chow. I see Chow leaning more on Graves than the other candidates.

2. DC. It would be critical to get a top notch DC as I see Chow really involved more with building the offense. Getting an NFL experienced DC would be paramount.

Good point az jam. That is a distinct concern. How good is Chow at player evaluation? We will definitely need a Personnel type to assist in player evaluation for FA and the draft IMHO. Maybe my concerns about the player evaluation abilities of RG are exaggerated but I have sincere doubts about his ablilities there and feel he needs an objective voice/devil's advocate type in this area (note: having said this I am not raggin' on RG instead I think this is a legitamite concern). I hope Chow has some ability there if he gets the job.

I really want a coach who can develop an agressive Offense yet stresses that turnovers are not acceptable. If he can improve our Offense and cut the turnovers by at least 1/4th I would be ecstatic. Add in improving our ability to convert turnovers into TD's instead of FG's more frequently would be a bonus as well.

 

[Covert Rain]

If Chow is hired there are two critical people/positions that he would lean on:

1. Rod Graves. Like it or not Graves becomes more of a key player than he was when Denny was here. Free agency, the draft, player moves, etc are areas where Graves would be more of the leader with Chow adding input. This could be true of several of the other candidates but they all have more NFL expericnce than Chow. I see Chow leaning more on Graves than the other candidates.

2. DC. It would be critical to get a top notch DC as I see Chow really involved more with building the offense. Getting an NFL experienced DC would be paramount.

1. We should believe that why exactly? I just think he becomes a louder voice of the Bidwills.

2. If we did get Chow I would agree. However, I would like to see them spend enough money to get good assistants all the way around.

 

[KingLouieLouie]

1. We should believe that why exactly? I just think he becomes a louder voice of the Bidwills.

2. If we did get Chow I would agree. However, I would like to see them spend enough money to get good assistants all the way around.

I personally believe the Cardinals could have gotten better quality assistant coaches during Green's tenure, however, Denny was unwilling to delegate any of his authority to others.... Case in point... Bob Wylie and Keith Rowan were both highly regarded assistants, but were immediately terminated due to Green's power-tripping.... Plus, Denny also wanted to hire many of his cronies like Richard Soloman and Carl Hargrave.....

Therefore, I personally believe they will have better quality assistant coaches this time around since they wont hire someone as an egomaniac like Denny Green was...

 

[Covert Rain]

I personally believe the Cardinals could have gotten better quality assistant coaches during Green's tenure, however, Denny was unwilling to delegate any of his authority to others.... Case in point... Bob Wylie and Keith Rowan were both highly regarded assistants, but were immediately terminated due to Green's power-tripping.... Plus, Denny also wanted to hire many of his cronies like Richard Soloman and Carl Hargrave.....

Therefore, I personally believe they will have better quality assistant coaches this time around since they wont hire someone as an egomaniac like Denny Green was...

I don't think he could have. It was widely reported that the Cards told Green that he wouldn't have a high budget for assistants and wanted to know if he could deal with that. Green said yes. Not many coaches would not deal with that with a fat contract in their face. Now add Green's ego. His assistant budget was tempered because of his own contract.

Now the Cards are trying to hang on to those same assistants. Makes you go mmmmmmmmm.

 

[CardLogic]

I will say this and only because I believe it, not to be PC. If we beleive that the NFL adopted the Rooney rule to overcome institutional racism against hiring black coaches, does anybody honestly believe that a CHINESE coach was competing on a level playing field for the last 20 or so years when it came to trying to get a HC job in college or the NFL?

Great post, Russ!

Racism comes in all "colors".

 

[Russ Smith]

I don't think he could have. It was widely reported that the Cards told Green that he wouldn't have a high budget for assistants and wanted to know if he could deal with that. Green said yes. Not many coaches would not deal with that with a fat contract in their face. Now add Green's ego. His assistant budget was tempered because of his own contract.

Now the Cards are trying to hang on to those same assistants. Makes you go mmmmmmmmm.

True but the budget would have been lower if he didn't fire Wylie(got paid) fire Rowen(got paid) fire Wood(got paid) bring in Hargrave as a consultant(got paid) promote Hargrave to TE coach(got paid again) etc.

I've always wondered how much of that was a tradeoff, we'll let you hire Solomon but we're going to limit your budget on other assistants?

Of course I just don't trust Dennis Green so I have a bias.

 

[CardLogic]

I don't think he could have. It was widely reported that the Cards told Green that he wouldn't have a high budget for assistants and wanted to know if he could deal with that. Green said yes. Not many coaches would not deal with that with a fat contract in their face. Now add Green's ego. His assistant budget was tempered because of his own contract.

Now the Cards are trying to hang on to those same assistants. Makes you go mmmmmmmmm.

"Widely reported"... Do you know how something becomes widely reported in the sports world...

Some jock-sniffin', psuedo reporter like Dickley or Jerk says it's so based upon their "inside" connection. Then some lazy hack in another media picks it up and repeats it because it came from someone "close to the organization", next thing you know it's gone national and it's no longer opinion, it's gospel...

Far as we know, Green got every assistant he wanted, (including Soloman and Hargrave)except the one's which turned him down!

On another topic, regarding talent evaluation (scouting):
I believe that Steve Keim has more input than given acknowledgement by many posters. Graves is an administrator, the field work is left up to others. The majority of the Cardinals draft picks going back to the last year of McGinnis tenure, and since, have come from Keim's region/area of responsibility. Keim is a trusted talent evaluator, and at least twice (iirc)has been promoted, within the Cardinals organization. There is no question that Denny Green had some input to the decisions as the Cardinal's HC, but it was Keim that brought the prospects to his and the Cardinals' doorstep.

 

[red desert]

I will say this and only because I believe it, not to be PC. If we beleive that the NFL adopted the Rooney rule to overcome institutional racism against hiring black coaches, does anybody honestly believe that a CHINESE coach was competing on a level playing field for the last 20 or so years when it came to trying to get a HC job in college or the NFL?

Someone posted a story about why Chow left BYU, some offensive joke by a higher up just basically being ignored. I gotta believe if Norm Chow were white and had been as good a coach as he is, he would have been given a chance as HC before. After a while it becomes self fulfilling, everyone that interviews him is looking for the reason why he's never been hired as a HC before.

Yes, great post, Russ.

 

[JeffGollin]

It was widely reported that the Cards told Green that he wouldn't have a high budget for assistants and wanted to know if he could deal with that.
Where did you read that?

I consider myself as obsessive as anyone about reading anything remotely pertaining to the Cardinals and don't ever recall reading anything specific like that other than a couple of knowing winks and noodges without substance over at ESPN (If I had, I wouldn't have forgotten it). Do you have a definite source for this?

 

[BigRedArk]

I would feel better if Keim had the final decision more than anyone else at least at this point.

 

[lobo]

I don't think he could have. It was widely reported that the Cards told Green that he wouldn't have a high budget for assistants and wanted to know if he could deal with that. Green said yes.

you must be a super sleuth!!! i have access to stuff and read quite a bit....never did i hear from anyone or see anything about this widely reported story..maybe since the body is now cold you can share with us at least one of the sources of this....i would be very curious and sort of upset that i didn't know this...thanks.

 

[KingLouieLouie]

I don't think he could have. It was widely reported that the Cards told Green that he wouldn't have a high budget for assistants and wanted to know if he could deal with that. Green said yes. Not many coaches would not deal with that with a fat contract in their face. Now add Green's ego. His assistant budget was tempered because of his own contract.

Now the Cards are trying to hang on to those same assistants. Makes you go mmmmmmmmm.

I don't necassrily enjoy accusing people, however, it just seems you have some sort of an agenda to troll... I know we're all entitled to our own opinions and such....true...also the Cardinals have had only one winning season since relocating here, but it appears that you try extremely hard to try to find something or essentially conjure up something negative in everything that you post......

I believe that it was one of Green's stipulations of him being hired here in the first place was for Bidwills and Co. to accept some of his choices for some of the assistant coaching vacancies.... Soloman, Pollard, Mike Wilson, Kirby Wilson (IIRC), Alex Wood, and later on Hargraves were Green's choices.... Wylie, Pendergast, and eventually Rowen were more of Graves/Bidwill choices....

Wylie came in w/better credentials than most of the other assistants, but his personality immediately clashed with Dennys which is why he was so abruptly terminated...He couldnt settle for being just a "yes men".....

It seems everyone is blowing the Cardinals retaining the 7 assistants out of proportion....It was mentioned that the new coach will interview each and everyone of them... therefore, that does suggest that the new coach input is extremely crucial.... Plus, it makes the new coaches transition easier to discuss w/the previous staff their assessment on each and every player they coached at their respective position.....

If Rivera is hired... more than likely Pendergast, Brooks, and Courtright are gone.....Rivera and Pendergast will clash immediately..... I believe Kirby Wilson remains since he's highly regarded all throughout the organization and seems to be an up-and-comer... I see him linked to coaching vacancies over the next couple years.....

If Chow is hired, perhaps Kruczeck will return back to his original role as QB coach since he seems to have assisted Leinart quite well...... I would bring back Loney because the OL made tremendous strides under him........

Plus...are there excellent assistant coaching candidates available? Only a handful of staffs have been dismissed this offseason and I believe that most arent better than who the Cardinals have now filling those positions.....

It will be intriguing to see who the Cardinals hire.... I'm somewhat high on Rivera, but I do agree they need an offensive oriented coach... I'm torn....

 

[40yearfan]

I don't necassrily enjoy accusing people, however, it just seems you have some sort of an agenda to troll... I know we're all entitled to our own opinions and such....true...also the Cardinals have had only one winning season since relocating here, but it appears that you try extremely hard to try to find something or essentially conjure up something negative in everything that you post......

I believe that it was one of Green's stipulations of him being hired here in the first place was for Bidwills and Co. to accept some of his choices for some of the assistant coaching vacancies.... Soloman, Pollard, Mike Wilson, Kirby Wilson (IIRC), Alex Wood, and later on Hargraves were Green's choices.... Wylie, Pendergast, and eventually Rowen were more of Graves/Bidwill choices....

Wylie came in w/better credentials than most of the other assistants, but his personality immediately clashed with Dennys which is why he was so abruptly terminated...He couldnt settle for being just a "yes men".....

It seems everyone is blowing the Cardinals retaining the 7 assistants out of proportion....It was mentioned that the new coach will interview each and everyone of them... therefore, that does suggest that the new coach input is extremely crucial.... Plus, it makes the new coaches transition easier to discuss w/the previous staff their assessment on each and every player they coached at their respective position.....

If Rivera is hired... more than likely Pendergast, Brooks, and Courtright are gone.....Rivera and Pendergast will clash immediately..... I believe Kirby Wilson remains since he's highly regarded all throughout the organization and seems to be an up-and-comer... I see him linked to coaching vacancies over the next couple years.....

If Chow is hired, perhaps Kruczeck will return back to his original role as QB coach since he seems to have assisted Leinart quite well...... I would bring back Loney because the OL made tremendous strides under him........

Plus...are there excellent assistant coaching candidates available? Only a handful of staffs have been dismissed this offseason and I believe that most arent better than who the Cardinals have now filling those positions.....

It will be intriguing to see who the Cardinals hire.... I'm somewhat high on Rivera, but I do agree they need an offensive oriented coach... I'm torn....

Good post KLL.