BLEACHERS BREW EST. MAY 2006

Someone asked me how my blog and newspaper column came to be titled "Bleachers Brew". It's like this, it's an amalgam of sorts of two things: The bleachers area in the stadium/arena where I used to sit when I would watch baseball, football, and basketball games and Miles Davis' great jazz album Bitches Brew. That's how it got culled together. I originally planned on calling it "The View from the Big Chair" that is a nod to Tears For Fear's second album, Songs from the Big Chair. So there.

Thursday, September 23, 2010

The turnover: on Mark Sanchez & the Klinsmann disclosure

I think the New York Jets should turn over their offense to Mark Sanchez just to see what he can do with it.

The recipe for disaster? The Philadelphia Eagles proclaiming that Kevin Kolb is their starting QB then after Kolb gets knocked out with a concussion its putting in Michael Vick (who throws for a touchdown and ran for over a hundred yards), they do an about face and say that the latter will now start. If the Eagles win then it will cover up any issues stemming from that bit of management's prerogative. Should it fail... that's going to be worse that that headline of "squad helps dog victim." Bwahahaha. Pun totally intended. And now other teams are inquiring about Kolb's availability. At least that is what Philadelphia is leading all to believe.


What's going on with the US Soccer Federation is a result of politics. Why play it? If everyone were a little more forthright then this wouldn't have happened. I have always rooted for Jurgen Klinsmann but his video interview where he disclosed (at least his version of events) the reasons why the move to get him as coach of the US National Team never materialized. I'm still not convinced about Bob Bradley but he produced very good results in the Confed Cup and the World Cup. The reason why people are antsy is because the World Cup is every four years and some aren't convinced that Bradley is the man to take them to the next level. USSF President Sunil Gulati's lack of transparency led to this. After Klinsmann disclosed that the reason why he decided not to pursue the matter was that the USSF would not guarantee him control over a lot of team matters infers that Bradley doesn't have the same and is in fact, a lame duck coach. 

What I am getting at here is control over team decisions that cannot be second guessed by others. Take a Look at former US Ice Hockey Coach Herb Brooks who ran the team his way (much to the chagrin of US hockey officials) and was vindicated by a gold medal in the Lake Placid Winter Olympics Games.

Is that necessary -- control? The Philippine Men's National Football Team's former Coach Des Bulpin says that his decisions and plans were always countermanded by PFF officials making it hard for him to execute what he thought was right. While ceding control over team matters to the coach isn't always the right thing to do, it does help as well because then he cannot blame anyone else. That's Rafa Benitez' specialty. 

That is why it was crucial that partnerships such as the New York Yankees' Joe Torre (manager) and Brian Cashman (GM) -- before 2007 -- are important. You need that synergy, understanding, and friendship to make things work. Well it did until Torre turned down the one-year offer and wrote that book with comments about Cashman.

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