Kornheiser on the Skins' situation

[Kittymama]

What We've Got Here Is A Failure to Communicate

By Tony Kornheiser
Post
Monday, May 23, 2005; D01

I wonder what Joe Gibbs is thinking when he can't get Sean Taylor to return his calls. I wonder if Gibbs is thinking, "Is this what I came back for?"

I wonder what Sean Taylor is thinking when he doesn't return Gibbs's calls. Maybe the message got garbled. Maybe Taylor thinks it's not really Joe Gibbs. Maybe he thinks it's "MTV Cribs." Or maybe he thinks it's Tony Roma's: Famous for Ribs. Or maybe Taylor never picks up his phone messages. Or maybe Taylor is just a dope.

I wonder what Gibbs is thinking when he hears Taylor's personal spokesman, Mr. Clinton Portis, say something like: "Sean has had the spotlight on him all year. Sean just needs to chill."

So Sean can't return phone calls from a Hall Of Fame coach?

Chilling means no calls?

"I'm sorry. Mr. Taylor is chilling now. Why don't you try back in the fall?"

I wonder how long I would last at this newspaper if I didn't return calls from Len Downie, the executive editor? Whaddya think, five minutes?

How well would it go over if I had Wilbon explain, "Everybody wants something from Tony right now, and he just needs to chill."?

I wonder if Gibbs ever thinks to himself, "Do I really need these Miami guys?"

The last time I looked, if the guy's your boss, you return his call.

You don't blow him off like a telemarketer. Personally, I don't know about this "spotlight" on Sean Taylor thing. I'm not that familiar with what Sean Taylor looks like, because most of the time I see him he's wearing a football helmet. I don't think Sean Taylor has anywhere near the "spotlight factor" in Washington as, say, Ted Kennedy. Me, I couldn't tell Sean Taylor from Elizabeth Taylor, especially if both of them had on white diamond earrings. I think it's possible Sean Taylor overrates his importance to our lives.

But I wonder about the University of Miami players -- the guys from the place they proudly call "the U." They don't seem to be happy where they are. Portis was terribly unhappy with Gibbs's offense last season. Taylor is unhappy here now. Edgerrin James is threatening not to report to the Colts. Jeremy Shockey wasn't happy working out in New York with the Giants, the team that pays him. So he left and went back to Miami to work out with "the U" guys. Look at Kellen Winslow Jr., a U guy who so famously said he'd make the Redskins regret not drafting him. Winslow's contract specifically forbids him from riding a motorcycle. But he rode one anyway, wrecked it, and now he's out for the whole season.

The U guys are an island unto themselves. They appear to value each other more than they value the teams they play for. They play very well on Sundays. But they don't appear to be particularly responsive to their teams on other days. It's almost like U guys enjoy getting into scrapes with management. It's almost like a contest to see if they can force the teams into subservience and publicly punk them. I wonder how long it'll take Santana Moss to find something wrong here.

You can't talk about players from the U without mentioning Drew Rosenhaus, who's the agent for many of them (and famous wannabe holdout Terrell Owens). Rosenhaus seems to believe that no contract signed before he got there has any validity -- and that any contract signed with him can be renegotiated upward at any time, like, say, this afternoon at 4.

It's not just U guys, of course. There's a lot of runaway egomaniacal posing and flexing going on in all sports by lots of players. Look at Barry Bonds, unassailably one of the greatest players in the history of baseball. Nobody should question Bonds's right to his own doctor. (Though one might question the results so far of these operations with Dr. Ting.) But I've heard that Bonds has so little communication with the San Francisco Giants that they, too, like reporters, have to learn of Bonds's condition by reading his Web site. It makes you wonder how awful Bonds's life must have been before the Internet, when he actually had to talk to someone.

I wonder when it became unfashionable to be like Grant Hill, and just play the game and not call attention to yourself after every basket by pointing upwards. (I'm never sure if they're acknowledging a supreme being or their agent in a luxury suite.) I wonder if we'll ever see a Reggie Miller again, a great player with loyalty to the franchise and the city that treated him well? Other than great quarterbacks, it's now rare when someone stays with one team for his whole career. Maybe Allen Iverson will with the Sixers. Maybe Derek Jeter will with the Yankees.

I'm wondering what will happen with Afleet Alex now. He overcame obvious adversity to win the Preakness -- he almost broke both forelegs pitching forward and almost flipped his rider. And yet Afleet Alex did not flex afterwards! Or try to renegotiate for more oats.

Afleet Alex finished third in the Kentucky Derby, so he's been in the money in both Triple Crown races. (So has Giacomo, by the way, the horse most "experts" predicted would run so slowly in the Preakness that he might finish behind Triumph the Insult Comic Dog.) I think you can look for Afleet Alex to stop returning calls from his trainer and to have his spokesman, Giacomo, say, "Alex has had the spotlight on him all weekend. He's skipping the Belmont. He needs to chill."

[dmq]

Thats why I'm glad to see how much character plays into the guys we are drafting. In Bill I trust!

[Kittymama]

Originally Posted by dmq

Thats why I'm glad to see how much character plays into the guys we are drafting. In Bill I trust!

And why I'm glad to see us avoiding Miami guys. Sorry Miami fans--but read again the list of players he gives (& that's a short list). You just don't see crap like that overall from players from other schools. An occasional one, but not as a pattern from any other school than Miami.

And Skins fans--remember how excited you were to have Portis? And Taylor?

[Dangerous Dave]

Thanks for posting. I enjoyed that. Now if Kornheiser can get rid of the comb-over.

[T-New41]

When did these Miami boys start to get like this. Maybe I am wrong, but we had a lot of Miami guys in the 90's and it didn't seem like they were such headcases as far as screwing w/ team management. Maybe I was too young to notice.

[Zaxor]

Joe Gibbs is not getting the respect he deserves mostly because all his former players are out of the league and he has to start anew with all these kids that don't know him from santa claus...unlike Bill, who surrounded himself with his "guys" to teach the others what is expected... I think maybe this is where Gibbs biggest challenge all year will come from...whether he gets all the players moving in one direction or whether he is gonna need to trim more fat next season...Gibbs is a heck of a good coach and person... but not even he can win without having some good chemistry on his team...It will be interesting to see how this pans out..

[MinnesotaCowboy]

Thanks for the article, Kitty Mama......what is with these "Miami" guys? Who was the wise a$$ who said "character comes second to talent"? Maybe if Cleveland taps into Winslow's savings account for a few million some of this stupidity will cease. Are a lot of these problem athletes managed by problematic agents? Who knows......but I do think there should be some kind of rule about changing agents shortly after the draft. If the players sign an agent, they must keep him for 3 years by contract.....oops, that wouldn't work since most contracts don't seem to be worth the paper they are written on!

[Erik_H]

Originally Posted by T-New41

When did these Miami boys start to get like this. Maybe I am wrong, but we had a lot of Miami guys in the 90's and it didn't seem like they were such headcases as far as screwing w/ team management. Maybe I was too young to notice.

Well, at the time, we also had the "team managment of Miami" so to speak.

Jimmy Johnson was Miami's coach before he came here. He then brought his guys in, which makes it a completely different dynamic.

To some degree, we were "The U, west" for a couple of years. Granted we weren't all that packed with former Miami U players, but for the guys who were from there, the Miami bonding took place with inside the Cowboys organization rahter than being separate and exclusive.

I'd agree that the headcase factor was much less, but the flamboyance did exist. (Irvin anyone?).

[hipfake08]

Thanks for the article.

Irvine was always a team player from where I stood.
What is up with this new batch?

[k19]

Kornheiser has his moments and this is one of them.



Welcome to the reason we don't have the marquee big names and big ego. Why the "no player is bigger then the team" mentallity wins in the end and the skins are going to continue to struggle

[Alexander]

Originally Posted by T-New41

When did these Miami boys start to get like this. Maybe I am wrong, but we had a lot of Miami guys in the 90's and it didn't seem like they were such headcases as far as screwing w/ team management. Maybe I was too young to notice.

That is because most of them came from the program that Jimmy Johnson and Howard Schnellenberger built. Coming to Dallas was simply a step up, but Johnson had good lines of communication and they knew who was boss.

Many Miami players are struggling with authority now because that program has gotten more and more lax as time has gone by.

Since they left, it has gradually gone downhill from Dennis Erickson to Butch Davis to Larry Coker. Character is much less important than sheer athletic gift.

The discipline element just is not there any more. Great athletes, but too many me-first types.

[JakeCamp12]

Gibbs is also stuck with all of these fat contracts that Danny negotiated for him. I am sure Taylor would have been cut already if Gibbs had his way. If Gibbs wants to get control of the ship he will have to cut some guys that can play to show the other problem players, he is not joking. I think that is why BP has everyone's respect in the locker room, if you screw up, you are gone and he does not care how that impacts the cap.

[NorthDalal]

.....Riddle me, this if Irvine went to the University of Miami, then is Irvin, Texas the home of the Cowboys or would Irving be an hour south of L.A.?

[Arch Stanton]

Taylor must still be suffering from the Crayton effect.

[miamicowboy21]

Originally Posted by T-New41

When did these Miami boys start to get like this. Maybe I am wrong, but we had a lot of Miami guys in the 90's and it didn't seem like they were such headcases as far as screwing w/ team management. Maybe I was too young to notice.

Other than irvin, the miami guys we had in the 90's were guys of high character. Maryland, j.jones., kevin williams, darrin smith.


Miami palyers will always have that cockiness and arrogance that's just the way we roll down here. I hate the hurricanes, but they've always had this us against the world mentality. They could care less what anyone thinks of them as long as they perform on the field they feel everything else is acceptable.


They just accepted a LB that had 11 prior arrest 2 years ago, but he was the top rated defensive player in the nation, and if miami wouldn't have taken him , florida state would have been right their to scoop him up. Miami guys back them had more to prove, and were hungrier, and didnt come into college with all of this fanfair. When you come into school as the number 1 or 2 rated player at your position you think the world is yours, and anything you do is acceptable as long as you perform. As long as winning comes before character you will always have these problems, not just at miami, but at any school.