Mellinger:Joining media won’t fix Scott Pioli’s NFL reputation

[Tribal Warfare]

Joining media won’t fix Scott Pioli’s NFL reputation
By SAM MELLINGER
The Kansas City Star
Scott Pioli’s new life will require a microphone and makeup and there are a million jokes we can make here, some of them funny, all of them missing the point.

We can kid about how Pioli will begin a six-minute answer on live TV by asking to go “10,000 miles off the record,” or filibuster every segment by taking credit for the Patriots’ Super Bowls and continuing to blame his struggles with the Chiefs on Carl Peterson. But all of this misses the point.

Pioli’s name is a virtual curse word for many in the place he still calls home. The man who never saw much use for the media is now a member of the media. But if we can get away from jokes about candy wrappers and vitriolic banners flying at Arrowhead Stadium on game days and the “Right 53,” we can see what is happening here.

Pioli is making the predictable career move to join NBC’s Sunday night NFL studio show after being fired as Chiefs general manager in January.

And he’s kidding himself if he thinks this is the fix to a diminished reputation around the NFL.

“Evaluating in my old job the things I did well and the things I did not do well, I certainly believe understanding the media and what their job is was something I did not do a good job of,” Pioli told Sports Illustrated. “I thought this was a good opportunity to learn and grow, and get better in a lot of different areas.”

Pioli said those words in an SI.com piece that broke the news of his new career, which also will include appearances on NBC Sports Network. He didn’t respond to a message for this column, but if his goal is to get back into an NFL front office, his evaluation needs to go beyond how he dealt with the media.

Pioli is smart, driven, prepared, intellectually exhaustive and a hundred other things that could make him a productive part of a team’s front office. But he’ll remain a creation of Bill Belichick if he doesn’t understand what truly sunk him in Kansas City.

It’s true that Pioli was generally awful with the media, especially in his last year with the Chiefs. Usually, he just wouldn’t talk. When he did, his answers often alternated between condescending, defensive, rambling and amazingly self-unaware.

Pioli was awkward in interviews, overthinking every word. He was also obsessed with everything written or said about him, often quoting columns in the paper old enough that the links had expired.

But football people can be bad with the media and good at their jobs. Pioli knows this well after spending nine years working for Belichick in New England. But Belichick is good at his job. If Pioli is honest with himself, he’ll see he could’ve sent bags of manure to every reporter in town and kept his job as the Chiefs GM if he was good at it.

As much as he’d like to blame the media for his problems here — and Pioli started pushing that narrative to friends around the league months before he was finally fired — if he wants another chance, he’ll have to understand he was a rotten GM in ways that had nothing to do with media.

For starters, he hired two bad head coaches, blew way too many draft picks, and did precious little to strengthen the roster other than sign guys he inherited to long-term contracts.

But mostly, Pioli spent way too much time on things that had nothing to do with winning football games or bringing in better players.

Pioli talked a lot about creating “a championship environment” with the Chiefs, but mostly it turned into an environment where too many people were scared for their professional lives. Insecurity is why he spent so much time bad-mouthing what he took over from Peterson, tried to run the team’s communications department, and surrounded himself with too many yes-men to get honest self-evaluations.

Going on TV is a smart career move, considering that interest from NFL teams was apparently tepid. He’ll have the platform of network television every week, and if Pioli finds comfort in front of a camera then the football world might remember New England more and Kansas City less.

He’s a smart guy with a lot to offer in the right situation, and as a holding cell until something inside the league materializes, joining the NBC crew is a good move.

But to really prepare for another NFL job, Pioli needs to focus on the problems that surfaced in his four years running the Chiefs. The problems that matter have nothing to do with the media.

[Tribal Warfare]

the link is ****ed up because of the word filter

[Hammock Parties]

I didn't know mellinger had a flying war mech.

[TribalElder]

he is just doing this to troll us

feed him to the beast!

[OrtonsPiercedTaint]

Lost interest 1/3rd the way through.

[BlackHelicopters]

Optimus Prime

[BossChief]

I really love this paragraph:

*****’s name is a virtual curse word for many in the place he still calls home. The man who never saw much use for the media is now a member of the media. But if we can get away from jokes about candy wrappers and vitriolic banners flying at Arrowhead Stadium on game days and the “Right 53,” we can see what is happening here.

[Hammock Parties]

Does Pioli still live in ****ing Kansas City?

[The Bad Guy]

The hatred I have for Pioli is really immense and unhealthy.

[The Bad Guy]

Originally Posted by Branden Albert's Huge Balls

Does ***** still live in ****ing Kansas City?

Sure does. Lives right next door to Andy. I hope Andy shits on his lawn.

[RunKC]

I wonder if Pioli will ever get a job in the NFL again? Who in their right mind would hire him to be the GM?

[Hammock Parties]

Jesus Christ. I hope someone is watching him carefully. He probably HATES Chiefs fans and is liable to snap at any moment.

[The Bad Guy]

Originally Posted by RunKC

I wonder if ***** will ever get a job in the NFL again? Who in their right mind would hire him to be the GM?

He will get one no question. There's enough dicks he will suck this year to get one.

Pioli is the biggest fraud in sports.

[mcaj22]

lol ugh, its going to be exactly what we predicted it seems too according to this, hes going to yap about the Patriot Way and then all the Good Players he evaluated and didnt draft while in KC. (Kaepernick, Dalton, etc):

http://kissingsuzykolber.uproxx.com/...-football.html

You may have thought Ray Lewis would be the most noxious addition to an NFL talking head show this fall. Well, you’d still be right. But here’s another studio show addition that’s almost as bad: NBC is bringing on former Chiefs general manager Scott Pioli to the already bloated roster of Football Night In America.

Oh, the unspeakable things that will result. Not only does it make an incoherent, crowded show that much more unwatchable, but it means opportunities for Rodney Harrison and Pioli to gush about the Patriot Way on air. Oh, and does it help that Pioli and Peter King are friends? Only if you’re looking for someone to come between the torrid love affair between PK and Mike Florio.

Pioli said NBC Sports executives have told him they want him to be an “informationalist.” He described that position as “being able to talk about experiences, tie them into what is happening currently, and attempt to educate fans and viewers about how things really work behind the scenes.”

INFORMATIONALIST! That’s so much better than BULLSHITITARIAN, which is apparently the job title of everyone else working there. If anything, the insights from Pioli won’t differ greatly from what Bill Polian does at ESPN: attempt to rewrite the history of his own blunders while using his media platform to settle old grudges. Apparently every network needs that now.

[DaFace]

I'm killing the Pioli filter. Don't hate me.