Baby Lee |
01-01-2020 01:51 AM |
I'm not making a prediction on Mayfield, but as a general proposition, I just can't wrap my head around attitude problems being an unfixable impediment, particularly compared to not having pocket presence or not having touch on your passes.
Maybe move it completely away from the NFL, I firmly believe Phil Jackson could handle all manner of head cases if the talent was there. He was blessed with Jordan and Pippen, but he could have made magic with an Iverson, or a Lambier, or even a Shawn Kemp. Look at how he handled Rodman for Christ's sake.
Absent head trauma or some shit, and unless they are just a plain bad seed like Hernandez or Carruth, it's the essence of a HC job to get the personnel in the right mindset, to be prepared, to be poised, to be alert, to be focused.
If someone can't throw 50 yards on a rope, there isn't a coach on earth who can teach you to. If someone can't stand in the pocket without shitting their skivvies, there isn't a coach on earth who can instill that in you. But if you have physical skills, there HAS TO BE a coach who can get your mind right. Appeal to ego, appeal to competitiveness. Appeal to vanity. Appeal to fear. Show trust if it helps. Show parental love if it helps. Show stern monitoring if it's required . . . find the levers that bring out the best and yank them heartily. That's coaching.
For the most part, underachieving talent is a coaching failure above all other failures.
Bradshaw was a sensitive and emotional soul who hated Knoll with a passion that would bring him to tears, but Knoll handled him in a particular way that led to the league's first dynasty, while leaning on Bradshaw's mental and emotional state a good deal.
Not everyone can be a self-starter in all facets like Mahomes, or Farve and Manning and Starr and on and on before him. But talent can be corraled. It can't be bestowed, but if it's there it can be corraled.
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