azdad1978
Championship!!!!
With frogs, it's not easy being Green
By Scott Bordow, Tribune Columnist
TEMPE, Ariz. — Dennis Green was in the middle of one of his rambling mission statements Tuesday when a thought occurred:
I've heard this before.
Not the words, mind you.
The message.
Joe Bugel hugged his players and harkened to his glory days as an assistant coach with the Washington Redskins.
Buddy Ryan was all ego and bombast, the self-proclaimed winner in town.
Vince Tobin said the Cardinals needed more pioneers than historians, and Dave McGinnis promised his team would play with one heartbeat.
Now here's Green, going where so many Cardinals coaches have gone before, boldly speaking of better days ahead.
Same song. Different verse. You can set your training camp by it.
Now, we'll give Green a wider berth because he has a track record to stand on — eight playoff berths in 10 years as coach of the Minnesota Vikings.
But just because Green says it's so doesn't make it so. In fact, he's already backing off his prediction to the Tempe Chamber of Commerce that the Cardinals would finish 10-6.
“I don't think I have ever told you 10-6. Have I ever told the media 10-6?”
Green said. “What I have told you is that I expected to be a playoff team and I have said that from the start.”
Uh, here's the thing Denny: It doesn't matter who you said it to. You said it. Now you have to live with it.
You can't blame Green for making a strong sales pitch. He's trying to turn a frog into a prince, and it's hard to do that if the frog only sees its warts.
“I would say the most significant thing we have to do is there are a lot of psychological aspects that come with turning around a program,” Green said.
So he says quarterback Josh McCown reminds him of Brett Favre.
He says safety Quentin Harris and offensive lineman Reggie Wells, surprise starters on the depth chart, can be big-time players and make a lot of money.
He says the Cardinals dip into the same talent pool as the Seattle Seahawks, and if Seattle can turn itself into a playoff team after years of ineptitude, why not Arizona?
“Across the board we have to work on the mentality that it takes to stand up and be recognized in the NFL as a playoff contender,” Green said.
The Cardinals better put in a lot of overtime, then.
An NFL scout told the Sporting News that Green has the most difficult job among the coaches hired this past offseason because the Cardinals “probably have one of the most talent-poor rosters in the league — even after adding Larry Fitzgerald.”
The salesman will never admit that. The coach understands the challenge he's accepted.
“It's great to have an attitude, it really is,” Green said. “But before you look at a player's attitude, you look at his ability.”
And what you see when you look at the Cardinals isn't 10-6, but 6-10.
Green has begun to change the Cardinals' culture. Players who grew too comfortable under McGinnis are on edge, fearful of losing their jobs. Green got rid of the massage therapists in the locker room and dumped the team nutritionist. Oh, and those off-season workouts deemed excessive by the NFL?
A badge of honor.
“What most fans would probably say is that Denny Green said he would work with a high level of intensity and tempo, and the National Football League verified that,” Green said with a smile.
So here we are, on the eve of another training camp, with another Cardinals coach talking tough.
Go along for the ride if you want. I need to know where I'm going before I jump on board.
http://www.aztrib.com/index.php?sty=25426
By Scott Bordow, Tribune Columnist
TEMPE, Ariz. — Dennis Green was in the middle of one of his rambling mission statements Tuesday when a thought occurred:
I've heard this before.
Not the words, mind you.
The message.
Joe Bugel hugged his players and harkened to his glory days as an assistant coach with the Washington Redskins.
Buddy Ryan was all ego and bombast, the self-proclaimed winner in town.
Vince Tobin said the Cardinals needed more pioneers than historians, and Dave McGinnis promised his team would play with one heartbeat.
Now here's Green, going where so many Cardinals coaches have gone before, boldly speaking of better days ahead.
Same song. Different verse. You can set your training camp by it.
Now, we'll give Green a wider berth because he has a track record to stand on — eight playoff berths in 10 years as coach of the Minnesota Vikings.
But just because Green says it's so doesn't make it so. In fact, he's already backing off his prediction to the Tempe Chamber of Commerce that the Cardinals would finish 10-6.
“I don't think I have ever told you 10-6. Have I ever told the media 10-6?”
Green said. “What I have told you is that I expected to be a playoff team and I have said that from the start.”
Uh, here's the thing Denny: It doesn't matter who you said it to. You said it. Now you have to live with it.
You can't blame Green for making a strong sales pitch. He's trying to turn a frog into a prince, and it's hard to do that if the frog only sees its warts.
“I would say the most significant thing we have to do is there are a lot of psychological aspects that come with turning around a program,” Green said.
So he says quarterback Josh McCown reminds him of Brett Favre.
He says safety Quentin Harris and offensive lineman Reggie Wells, surprise starters on the depth chart, can be big-time players and make a lot of money.
He says the Cardinals dip into the same talent pool as the Seattle Seahawks, and if Seattle can turn itself into a playoff team after years of ineptitude, why not Arizona?
“Across the board we have to work on the mentality that it takes to stand up and be recognized in the NFL as a playoff contender,” Green said.
The Cardinals better put in a lot of overtime, then.
An NFL scout told the Sporting News that Green has the most difficult job among the coaches hired this past offseason because the Cardinals “probably have one of the most talent-poor rosters in the league — even after adding Larry Fitzgerald.”
The salesman will never admit that. The coach understands the challenge he's accepted.
“It's great to have an attitude, it really is,” Green said. “But before you look at a player's attitude, you look at his ability.”
And what you see when you look at the Cardinals isn't 10-6, but 6-10.
Green has begun to change the Cardinals' culture. Players who grew too comfortable under McGinnis are on edge, fearful of losing their jobs. Green got rid of the massage therapists in the locker room and dumped the team nutritionist. Oh, and those off-season workouts deemed excessive by the NFL?
A badge of honor.
“What most fans would probably say is that Denny Green said he would work with a high level of intensity and tempo, and the National Football League verified that,” Green said with a smile.
So here we are, on the eve of another training camp, with another Cardinals coach talking tough.
Go along for the ride if you want. I need to know where I'm going before I jump on board.
http://www.aztrib.com/index.php?sty=25426
