[notorious]

Originally Posted by bowener

I think the Pioli/Peterson argument is one of bad analogy, at least where these 2 veterans acquired via trade are concerned. In the case of Pioli, he traded for 2 guys that he is extremely familiar with. These players spent their entire (or almost entire) careers under him. He knows all their physical and personal secrets, as well as any chinks in their armor. He has evaluated them for years, not months, not weeks, not on a hunch or word of mouth. Pioli's desire for them does not stem from glitz of monday night cameras, or spotlights (gone dark in the case of the majority of Petersons trades).

Peterson seemed to have a penchant for getting ****ed in trades. He thought he was the one with the 14" strap on when he walked to the trading table, but in reality he was beeing dooped almost every time. He was a schmuck for the most part. A used car salesman on the NFL, passing off aged lemons to the fans as sure-fire winners that would get us over the hump; when in reality, all he was really trying to do was fill his quota of seats for the season. He would trade for 'fan' favorites, or worse, personal favorites of his own, or his coaches. The players aquired rarely came from any first hand experience or coaching from him or his staff, most fit the mold of the "up and comer" a few years after they up and came.

All of this does not mean that Pioli is any better than Peterson, but Pioli at least realized the staff needed to be shit canned with very little hesitation. Peterson never had the balls to do what he should for the team, and that seems to stem from his desire to appease his owner/handler, and not the fans or the franchise itself. He wanted his used car lot to look and feel nice, but he wanted that at bargain basement prices, even if that meant passing off piles of shit as servicable (and then deflecting the blame).

That was very well put. Thanks for your well thought-out reasoning.