From Peter King’s weekly SI column:
“I learned from Bud Grant that every coach needs three things — a loyal dog, a faithful wife and a heck of a quarterback. Finally, we’ve got a guy giving us good, consistent play.”
— Tampa Bay coach Jon Gruden on Jeff Garcia
The funniest thing about that, if you know anything about Bud Grant, is that order he gives is totally hierarchical. Nothing against wives, but they don’t retrieve now, do they.
There was an amazingly funny TV interview with Bud Grant a few years ago, where the reporter clearly knew that Grant’s priorities were just a little different than the high profile coach these days. The look of utter disbelief on St. Bud’s face when asked if he regretted not being a head coach now because he could have things like his own cologne really had to be seen to be believed.
And yes, I am liking that Adrian Peterson pick right now, thank you very much. I’m not entirely sold on Tavaris Jackson for the future due to his accuracy issues, but he’s got a pocket discipline, he doesn’t throw many dumb passes and he’s definitely no Slash/Vick clone. In fact, twice I was screaming at him to go ahead and run the three yards for the first down when it was right there in front of him.
Speaking of the Vikings-Bears game… never EVER kick the football to Devin Hester. In fact, just give up punting altogether, I don’t care if it’s fourth-and-fifteen on your own twenty, your odds are still better than kicking it to Hester. And forget chucking, hit him with a baseball bat when he lines up as a wide receiver. A flag and 15 yards is better than 80 plus a touchdown. Yesterday, I felt a bit like all the other teams facing Randy Moss in 1998 must have felt.
Oh, and Childress, when it’s second-and-five on the 33, you only need a field goal to win and your running backs have rushed for approximately six thousand yards, how about NOT calling a FREAKING SLANT PATTERN!