Brighteyes
Super Bowl!
Can you feel it?
The buzz around town; the excitement in the air. Sports radio talking more about the Cardinals after their season than they normally do during the season. People thinking of exchanging basketball tickets for the NFL.
There’s a new coach in town.
“My background’s in the NFC. I love the west. Most of you came to Arizona for the same thing that my wife, my children, and I did.”
We walk into the Cardinal Auditorium – not the tiny press room, but the large auditorium. A row of TV cameras stand proud; many more reporters mill about. Jim Omohundro stands nearby.
“He’s a great guy,” Jim tells us. “Intelligent, articulate. We’ve had a coach or two in the past that I simply couldn’t record. Couldn’t get them to say anything worthwhile.”
Jim, I realize, has a different perspective on this.
The stage is set with two charts flanking the podium. One listing Dennis Green facts; one listing the top current NFL coaches by winning percentage.
Coach Green, newly of the Arizona Cardinals, is fifth on the list.
“I personally feel we have some very good talent on this football team.”
Beside me sits a wonderful gentleman, calmly looking around. He wears no press badge, carries no pen or camera. It turns out he’s a season ticket holder who heard about the conference and drove down.
“Am I not supposed to be here?” he asks. I glance around, noting everyone else is media or part of the Cardinal organization.
“Stay put,” I whisper. “Just frown and glare. They’ll think you’re local press.”
Then Coach Green enters the room, along with Rod Graves, Michael Bidwill, and Bill Bidwill, Sr. Somehow he’s the one you notice. He brings his family with him, his son clad in an Emmitt Smith jersey.
When introduced, Coach Green dons a Cardinal red jacket, and smiles.
I smile back.
In his first press conference he wore a red shirt – and told us it was deliberate. His first words on speaker phone to the Cardinal brass were:
“I want to be the head coach of the Arizona Cardinals.”
Not because no one else wants him, not for the money. He was a popular candidate and would have easily gotten as much someplace else. Believe me, seeing this man in action, you get the feeling any team he set his sights on would have hired him.
Coach Green chose the Cardinals. He genuinely wants to be here.
“I’m very fortunate to be working with one of the top personnel guys in the National Football League in Rod Graves.”
In D.C. he’d expressed a different perspective, with more concern over controlling personal. Some have commented on the change in ‘attitude’, but I wonder if it’s due to locale, not philosophy. Coach Green may not have felt this confident of the personnel guys in the Redskin organization.
Confidence is his aura. He has a plan, and knows what he’s doing. He’s done it before.
He has enthusiasm. And it’s contagious.
“I know some of you are thinking, ‘he sounds like a first day coach. I’m not! I’m a second day coach.”
He takes the task of assembling the right coaching staff as important as the players. He told us what he looked for in coaches. “Be a teacher first; be loyal to each other, guys that know the game of football.”
“Just like I love to develop guys on the football field, I love to develop coaches.”
Questions ranged on both sides of the ball, about his thoughts on offense and defense. At one point he smiled at a few players in the back in referring to a ‘voluntary 16 week training program.’
“We don’t care about perception. What we care most about is attitude.”
He’s never fined a player, he tells us. He’s a teacher, not a disciplinarian. Yet he has cut some guys. Certain actions, he explains, indicate a player doesn’t want to be there.
The offense is further along than the defense, he tells us. The defense is young – and with young players, the right coaching is all the more critical.
He believes in taking the best player in the draft, not filling positions.
When speaking of the offensive line, he referred to Ferrari’s.
“You see a Ferrari in the parking lot, same place every day – you can assume it doesn’t have an engine that works. The offensive line for the Cardinals doesn’t have an engine that works.”
We do have three first round and one second round draft picks on that line.
I’m always ready to believe the best. I’m the first in line for the new season. But even the most deeply entrenched Cardinal cynic must admit things are changing.
The Cardinals have, for the first time in the valley, released every single coach. Prior to this, new head coaches would work with previous staff still on contract. Some of these men had been around since the move to the valley itself.
Coach Green is the first Arizona coach with previous head coaching experience. Further, rank them as you will, he was one of the top candidates in the market – if not the top.
Best of all, the man has a plan that’s worked three times in the past. And he genuinely, truly wants to be here as much as the Cardinals want him.
This could be the beginning of a beautiful relationship.
One local reporter grimaced, not ready to accept it all. “We’ve sat here before, and listened to other guys tell us the same thing you’re saying now. What makes you any different?”
Coach Green strides over to the “top current coaches” chart, and slaps the line with his name.
“Any of those other guys on this chart?”
The buzz around town; the excitement in the air. Sports radio talking more about the Cardinals after their season than they normally do during the season. People thinking of exchanging basketball tickets for the NFL.
There’s a new coach in town.
“My background’s in the NFC. I love the west. Most of you came to Arizona for the same thing that my wife, my children, and I did.”
We walk into the Cardinal Auditorium – not the tiny press room, but the large auditorium. A row of TV cameras stand proud; many more reporters mill about. Jim Omohundro stands nearby.
“He’s a great guy,” Jim tells us. “Intelligent, articulate. We’ve had a coach or two in the past that I simply couldn’t record. Couldn’t get them to say anything worthwhile.”
Jim, I realize, has a different perspective on this.
The stage is set with two charts flanking the podium. One listing Dennis Green facts; one listing the top current NFL coaches by winning percentage.
Coach Green, newly of the Arizona Cardinals, is fifth on the list.
“I personally feel we have some very good talent on this football team.”
Beside me sits a wonderful gentleman, calmly looking around. He wears no press badge, carries no pen or camera. It turns out he’s a season ticket holder who heard about the conference and drove down.
“Am I not supposed to be here?” he asks. I glance around, noting everyone else is media or part of the Cardinal organization.
“Stay put,” I whisper. “Just frown and glare. They’ll think you’re local press.”
Then Coach Green enters the room, along with Rod Graves, Michael Bidwill, and Bill Bidwill, Sr. Somehow he’s the one you notice. He brings his family with him, his son clad in an Emmitt Smith jersey.
When introduced, Coach Green dons a Cardinal red jacket, and smiles.
I smile back.
In his first press conference he wore a red shirt – and told us it was deliberate. His first words on speaker phone to the Cardinal brass were:
“I want to be the head coach of the Arizona Cardinals.”
Not because no one else wants him, not for the money. He was a popular candidate and would have easily gotten as much someplace else. Believe me, seeing this man in action, you get the feeling any team he set his sights on would have hired him.
Coach Green chose the Cardinals. He genuinely wants to be here.
“I’m very fortunate to be working with one of the top personnel guys in the National Football League in Rod Graves.”
In D.C. he’d expressed a different perspective, with more concern over controlling personal. Some have commented on the change in ‘attitude’, but I wonder if it’s due to locale, not philosophy. Coach Green may not have felt this confident of the personnel guys in the Redskin organization.
Confidence is his aura. He has a plan, and knows what he’s doing. He’s done it before.
He has enthusiasm. And it’s contagious.
“I know some of you are thinking, ‘he sounds like a first day coach. I’m not! I’m a second day coach.”
He takes the task of assembling the right coaching staff as important as the players. He told us what he looked for in coaches. “Be a teacher first; be loyal to each other, guys that know the game of football.”
“Just like I love to develop guys on the football field, I love to develop coaches.”
Questions ranged on both sides of the ball, about his thoughts on offense and defense. At one point he smiled at a few players in the back in referring to a ‘voluntary 16 week training program.’
“We don’t care about perception. What we care most about is attitude.”
He’s never fined a player, he tells us. He’s a teacher, not a disciplinarian. Yet he has cut some guys. Certain actions, he explains, indicate a player doesn’t want to be there.
The offense is further along than the defense, he tells us. The defense is young – and with young players, the right coaching is all the more critical.
He believes in taking the best player in the draft, not filling positions.
When speaking of the offensive line, he referred to Ferrari’s.
“You see a Ferrari in the parking lot, same place every day – you can assume it doesn’t have an engine that works. The offensive line for the Cardinals doesn’t have an engine that works.”
We do have three first round and one second round draft picks on that line.
I’m always ready to believe the best. I’m the first in line for the new season. But even the most deeply entrenched Cardinal cynic must admit things are changing.
The Cardinals have, for the first time in the valley, released every single coach. Prior to this, new head coaches would work with previous staff still on contract. Some of these men had been around since the move to the valley itself.
Coach Green is the first Arizona coach with previous head coaching experience. Further, rank them as you will, he was one of the top candidates in the market – if not the top.
Best of all, the man has a plan that’s worked three times in the past. And he genuinely, truly wants to be here as much as the Cardinals want him.
This could be the beginning of a beautiful relationship.
One local reporter grimaced, not ready to accept it all. “We’ve sat here before, and listened to other guys tell us the same thing you’re saying now. What makes you any different?”
Coach Green strides over to the “top current coaches” chart, and slaps the line with his name.
“Any of those other guys on this chart?”
