COACHING CORONAVIRUS: GO FOR THE WIN

What is the game plan for coaching coronavirus?

What happens when the top guy claims he’s a cheerleader, not a coach?

In a life or death game, and by most counts, life or death isn’t an overstatement with coronavirus, where is the Head Coach for the home team?

Who is The Man?

Non-sports people read a sports analogy, especially a football analogy that calls for oversight on the field, and automatically jump to a position.

Quarterback is the auto choice. Not the center, the guard, or the guy holding the ball for field goals and extra points, but the QB, the face of the team.

Which is the exact wrong choice, and here’s why:

Based on wins, the greatest NFL team of all time is the Miami Dolphins, The Fish, even though they’re not fish. Things are different in Florida, which becomes more apparent every day of the national shutdown.

Florida, the Sunshine State, was the state of poor vote counts under the leadership of a candidate’s brother during a presidential election. But that was soooo 2000, soooo hanging chad and shanked absentee ballot counting.

It’s all history now, long ago and far away, but still a prescient reminder today. That the eventual winner got there based on a Supreme Court vote assisted by the justice appointed by his father is beside the point here.

Later, when war president Mr. Bush cheered the nation with his Mission Accomplished message, he did so based on his personal cheerleading experience.

“Goooooo Teeeeeam,” he said, right after he checked with Vice President Cheney for the proper enunciation.

Coaching Coronavirus Like A Fish

The Miami Dolphins went undefeated through the 1972 football season. Was it their quarterback’s stellar play?

Who even remembers the quarterback? If you do, you’d probably say it was the young Bob Griese. But it was the old retread Earl Morrall who started and won nearly twice as many games that year as young Bob.

It wasn’t the first time Earl showed up big, which is what you hope for from a former #2 pick in the first round. From wiki:

When regular Colts signal caller Johnny Unitas was injured in the final exhibition game, Morrall became the team’s starter. Morrall proceeded to lead the Colts to a 13-1 record, then added two playoff victories en route to winning the NFL’s Most Valuable Player award, leading the Colts into Super Bowl III. 

On April 25, 1972, Morrall was claimed on waivers for $100 by the Miami Dolphins, reuniting him with his former Colts head coach, Don Shula. Shula described Morrall as “an intelligent quarterback who’s won a lot of ball games for me.”

Morrall replaced the injured Bob Griese for the Dolphins during the team’s October 15 win over the San Diego Chargers. The victory gave Miami a 5-0 record, with Morrall building on that win to lead the team to the first undefeated regular season in the NFL since 1942 and only undefeated season ever, starting 11 out of 17 games that year. After notching a win in the team’s first playoff game against the Cleveland Browns, Morrall struggled against the Pittsburgh Steelers in the AFC Championship game, leading to the return of Griese.

For a quick recap, Old Earl replaced all time great Johnny Unitas, and Bob Griese. He was good, but the name that’s often forgotten in all of the glory is Don Shula.

Coach Don Shula, Not Cheerleader Don Shula

Coach Shula comes from the Paul Brown coaching tree, one of the biggest coaching trees ever planted.

He didn’t just show up in Miami and lead the team to a perfect season along with back to back Super Bowl wins.

He moved from his playing days to assistant college coach in several colleges, then began his NFL climb as a position coach.

He knew his job from every possible angle, from the highest of highs to the lowest of lows, which most agree is where they were after Shula’s Baltimore Colts lost Super Bowl III to Broadway Joe Namath.

If he had been a TV guy, or a cheerleader, the results would have been different?

President Cheerleader In Chief

What’s the big difference between a Coronavirus Coach and a cheerleader?

A coach reviews plays, players, situations, and probable outcomes. They watch film until their family wonders what happened to them.

Cheerleaders practice routines and coordinates cheer with their cheer team to get ready for the big game.

The coach looks for weaknesses in the other team to exploit, which means putting their good guys where they’ll have the most effect. The Fins had Butch and Sundance in their backfield, and they could take the ball inside or outside.

Imagine the results a kick-ass football team would have if they were led by someone who didn’t know the game, didn’t know the players, didn’t know the environment the game is played on.

And didn’t care.

Did anyone ever think this guy was a real coach, let alone one good at coaching coronavirus?

Or this guy?

Or this guy?

Coaching coronavirus takes more than a good cheer.

TV Stars and Hollywood

Movie stars may play coaches, but it’s a role, an act. Popeye Doyle was no one’s idea of a coach in the French Connection. Gene Hackman won an Oscar for his role, not a Presidential election.

Mr. Trump made a phenomenal leap from television to Washington. He did it, but what did it mean?

Did he understand the grind of winning lowly elections, the stepping stone to a more important office? If he understood what others have gone through to get where they are, he’d be a different person.

Instead of being a cheerleader, a self-proclaimed cheerleader concerned with his appearance, his ratings, his hair and makeup, he would have been through the fires of harsh competition and arrived in the White House with reverence and respect.

Instead he showed up, looked around, and deemed the place “a real dump,” according to sources.

The Cheerleader In Chief also spread his views to the world when he asked why people from “shithole countries” come to America.

Coaching Coronavirus Like A Boss

When a coach arrives at a broken down stadium they say, “Pay no mind, the ball bounces the same for both teams. We all put our pants on one leg at a time.”

If they play an over-matched team they say, “It wasn’t long ago we were just like them, but we found a way out. We’ll pound them this time, but it’ll make them better. Stay on our game.”

I’ve heard it said that Mr. Trump is a voice for so many, that he tells it like it is.

If that’s the case, he ought to take some counsel from the great diplomat Rasheed Wallace:

“Both teams played hard. Ball don’t lie.”

When you know the game and play to win, the talk changes. Don’t give opponents any bulletin board material, respect the adversaries, and move those with doubts by effective action.

How long will it be with this Cheerleader In Chief before we can look at the coronavirus and scream, “SCOREBOARD BITCH”, like a good sports fan.