Dear John:
It’s Pittsburgh week here and we’re finally on the cusp of getting to the promised land of having some home “Festivus” games in January. And it’s all come down to this: if we win this week and vanquish the Steelers, who have been our oppressors as a community since 1971, we’re probably going to have a week off to watch the playoffs on TV and then have some home cooking. And maybe some folks will even bring those ridiculous purple towels back for another meeting with the Steelers here in Baltimore in January.
But if we lose – and let’s be honest – we’ve NEVER won this kind of game at home on your watch – we’ll be back on the road to Jacksonville or Indianapolis or San Diego or Kansas City for Week 1 of the playoffs. That is, if we even get there at all, because we all know nothing is automatic in the NFL.
This is an open letter and I think this is going to be a trial way of communicating and writing what I think about what you’ve done and what you’re doing here as the leader of the 53 Mighty Men. I haven’t opined much since you’ve taken over as head coach. As you probably know, I’m semi-crazy running and growing WNST.net and I limit my “media time” to my social media endeavors and the occasional video or blog on the run. I also still love your football team with all of my heart and my life is built around Sundays, just like yours. And, honestly, I only take the time to write about stuff that I’m very passionate about or on topics I’m interested in tackling.
Today, I’m writing about you because it’s time to get some stuff off my chest.
I don’t know you that well and I can’t believe you trust me anymore than you trust any of the other media people or anyone else poking for what you deem to be “state secret” information regarding injuries, plays, schemes, coaching philosophies or any of the other things that makes you a very paranoid dude.
Sure, I know you read all of this stuff and you’re probably not going to like everything I write here. But that’s OK, because it needs to be said by someone. And as much as you don’t really understand or respect the Baltimore media – I’ve been doing this for 27 years and I know as much as about the media as you do football coaching – this is what we do for a living: we report, analyze and opine about what you do.
And it’s my job to know as much as I can possibly know, learn as much as I can possibly learn and ask questions on behalf of the fans in the community and then try to interpret and analyze and EXPLAIN to people how all of this really works.
I’ve dedicated my entire life to it and I’ve been proudly trained by the best people in the world from every walk of life in a variety of sports since I was 15 years old on journalism, coaching, leadership, strategy and sports psychology and business. I’m also a bit of a sports history buff.
That’s my job. I’m good at it. I work hard at it. I take pride in it. It’s as important to me as football is to you.
Let me begin by saying that I can’t imagine a soul in this city who could argue with the results we’ve seen since you took over as head coach. This is a good football team that appears to be on the road to doing some special things if the breaks go our way. As much as we hear the bitching and moaning after the losses to Cincinnati and New England and Atlanta, anyone who doesn’t think 8-3 is good enough is just an ingrate.
Sure, the secondary could be better, this McClain injury sucks, Flacco could use a few more footballs for his wide receivers, you’d prefer to have a real punt and kickoff returner you could rely on, etc. If you had Ed Reed and Ray Lewis in their primes
