At the same time a ribbon-cutting ceremony was held to officially open the new football stadium that's about to represent the present and future of the Minnesota Vikings, word came that a vestige of Vikings Past is no more. Dennis Green, who coached the team for ten seasons, had died at 67.
When Green became head coach of the Vikings in 1992, he announced that there was a new sheriff in town. Now the Twin Cities wasn't Dodge City, but his main goal was to restore order to a team that had lost his way.
From 1992-2001, Green won more games (97) than any other Vikings coach besides Bud Grant, won four divisional titles, made eight playoff appearances, and brought them to within one game of the Super Bowl twice.
In the two NFC Championship games Green coached, disaster struck. In 1999, with a 15-1 team filled with stars, he chose to take a knee with seconds left in a tie game with the Atlanta Falcons. In overtime, the Falcons kicked a field goal that took them to the Super Bowl. In 2001, the Vikings were shut out by the New York Giants 41-0.
Clashes with management and some local media members, along with allegations of players quitting on him, led the Vikings to fire Green with one game remaining in the 2001 season. Assistant Mike Tice coached that last game in Baltimore, then went on to become the team's new head coach.
Green moved on to the Arizona Cardinals, where for three seasons (2004-06) he compiled a 16-32 record. His most notable moment with the Cards was following a Monday night game in 2006, in which his team blew a 20-point lead and lost to the Chicago Bears. During a postgame rant, Green shouted, "But they are who we thought they were! And we let them off the hook!". Shortly thereafter, his NFL coaching career was finished.
Green was also a trail blazer in becoming one of the first African-American head coaches in the NFL. Before that, he held the same distinction in the Division I college ranks, having had successful stints at Northwestern and Stanford. Three of his assistants--Brian Billick, Tony Dungy and Mike Tice--have gone on to coach other NFL teams.
Dennis Green was a passionate coach who found ways to motivate his players and get the results he wanted, winning everywhere he's been. Yes, he was a part of the legacy of Vikings Past. But what he brought to the field should be an inspiration for Vikings Future.
Saturday, July 23, 2016
Wednesday, July 20, 2016
Another Dead End For "The Twins Way"
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| English: Target Field (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
The Twins and Atlanta Braves, who played in the 1991 World Series, have two of the worst records in Major League Baseball 25 years later. The Twins' pitching staff has been decimated by injuries and incompetence. Offense is literally hit-or-miss. And the defense has been marked by indecision over which player goes where, and how well he plays his position.
Terry Ryan, who in his first stint as Twins general manager oversaw the talent he collected for the run of division championships in the 2000's, returned to his job after his handpicked successor Bill Smith was fired following the Great Collapse of 2011. Now, during the Second Great Collapse of 2016, Ryan has been let go by Twins management because the way he did business was no longer working. Big money contracts for free agents and acquiring players based on their analytics--neither of which the Twins are equipped for--are the new normal in baseball.
Rob Antony takes over as the interim GM. Despite all the talk about how the Pohlad family (which owns the team) is going to look outside the organization for a replacement, don't be surprised if the job goes to Antony. Because the Pohlads believe in The Twins Way, which is hiring from within and occasionally shuffling the management deck without actually firing anyone. Why do you think Ryan, Antony and former manager Ron Gardenhire have stuck around the organization for so long in various capacities?
Besides, any potential GM would have to abide by the Pohlads' one condition should they accept the job: Paul Molitor stays as manager through the end of his contract in 2017. Then they'll decide whether or not to renew it.
Molitor isn't the problem. The players Ryan saddled him with are. No veteran team leader since Torii Hunter retired. The constant shuffling of players from the Rochester, NY minor league team. The development of talented young players who are supposed to be the future of the club, such as Byron Buxton, have yet to pan out. The signing of a South Korean slugger named Byung Ho Park got lost in translation. And they've been drafting for hitters, not the pitchers they so desperately need.
The Twins are well on their way to another 90-plus loss season for the fifth time in six years. Target Field is rapidly becoming a monument to bad baseball. No matter who the general manager or any other front office employee turns out to be, The Twins Way needs to go in a different direction, or what remaining fans they have will start to go their own way.
Wednesday, July 13, 2016
Tempest On a T-Shirt
The Minnesota Lynx are sitting in second place behind the Los Angeles Sparks in the WNBA's pecking order going into the Olympic break, having started the season by beating their own record for the fastest start in the league's history.
But nobody cares about that right now. Following a week in which two African-American men from Louisiana and Minnesota and five Dallas police officers were murdered, the Lynx players made news of their own by sporting black T-shirts during warmups before a recent game at Target Center in Minneapolis. It bore the names of the shooting victims and the organization Black Lives Matter, which has been responsible for most of the protests in reaction to the police-caused violence in African-American communities across the country. As it happened, that night's opponents were the Dallas Wings.
Four Minneapolis police officers took exception to those T-shirts, leaving their jobs as off-duty security detail for Lynx games. Bob Kroll, who is president of the local police union, applauded the officers' move. Minneapolis mayor Betsy Hodges and police chief Janee Harteau did not, and both strongly rebuked Kroll.
The Lynx players deserve credit for bringing attention to an off-the-court issue. Yes, we know they're professional basketball players, for some of us who wish they would shut up and play. But they're also women who have had obstacles placed in front of them because of their sex, their race, their sexuality, or all of the above. They, like the rest of us, have had it up to here with the hate and violence.
The police officers who walked out are another story. They have tough jobs, no question about it. But they are also being selfish for reneging on the more than seven thousand fans who came out to the game that night, all because the message on those T-shirts was offensive to them. Anyone still wondering why the police don't have as much credibility as they used to?
The recent death of Muhammad Ali is a reminder that sports and activism need not be mutually exclusive. At the height of his boxing career, Ali fought against induction into the military during a divisive war and won. Today's athletes, with a few exceptions, can't afford to stick their necks out on the issues of the day. Not unless they want to lose millions of dollars in endorsement deals, player salaries, fines from the league and goodwill from fans and the media. When you play sports, your First Amendment rights are left at the door.
The leagues these players are employed in have already made their views known. They couldn't bend over backwards far enough for Our Men and Women in Blue and Khaki. Photo ops with the players, free admission for military personnel, flyovers, "surprise" homecomings, special game uniforms for military-themed holidays, the seventh-inning singing of "God Bless America", etc. It's as if George W. Bush (who once owned baseball's Texas Rangers) was still President.
The Minnesota Lynx did not wear those T-shirts before their next game at San Antonio (too close to Dallas). They might not ever wear them again. But the point has been made, even if the team loses a few fans in the process. Change does indeed begin with us.
But nobody cares about that right now. Following a week in which two African-American men from Louisiana and Minnesota and five Dallas police officers were murdered, the Lynx players made news of their own by sporting black T-shirts during warmups before a recent game at Target Center in Minneapolis. It bore the names of the shooting victims and the organization Black Lives Matter, which has been responsible for most of the protests in reaction to the police-caused violence in African-American communities across the country. As it happened, that night's opponents were the Dallas Wings.
Four Minneapolis police officers took exception to those T-shirts, leaving their jobs as off-duty security detail for Lynx games. Bob Kroll, who is president of the local police union, applauded the officers' move. Minneapolis mayor Betsy Hodges and police chief Janee Harteau did not, and both strongly rebuked Kroll.
The Lynx players deserve credit for bringing attention to an off-the-court issue. Yes, we know they're professional basketball players, for some of us who wish they would shut up and play. But they're also women who have had obstacles placed in front of them because of their sex, their race, their sexuality, or all of the above. They, like the rest of us, have had it up to here with the hate and violence.
The police officers who walked out are another story. They have tough jobs, no question about it. But they are also being selfish for reneging on the more than seven thousand fans who came out to the game that night, all because the message on those T-shirts was offensive to them. Anyone still wondering why the police don't have as much credibility as they used to?
The recent death of Muhammad Ali is a reminder that sports and activism need not be mutually exclusive. At the height of his boxing career, Ali fought against induction into the military during a divisive war and won. Today's athletes, with a few exceptions, can't afford to stick their necks out on the issues of the day. Not unless they want to lose millions of dollars in endorsement deals, player salaries, fines from the league and goodwill from fans and the media. When you play sports, your First Amendment rights are left at the door.
The leagues these players are employed in have already made their views known. They couldn't bend over backwards far enough for Our Men and Women in Blue and Khaki. Photo ops with the players, free admission for military personnel, flyovers, "surprise" homecomings, special game uniforms for military-themed holidays, the seventh-inning singing of "God Bless America", etc. It's as if George W. Bush (who once owned baseball's Texas Rangers) was still President.
The Minnesota Lynx did not wear those T-shirts before their next game at San Antonio (too close to Dallas). They might not ever wear them again. But the point has been made, even if the team loses a few fans in the process. Change does indeed begin with us.
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