There’s not much going on these days in the NFL. If you don’t believe me, take a look at the ESPN NFL headlines. Gee, there’s the Ricky Williams signing by the Toronto Argonauts and then there’s the riveting story of Onterrio Smith and his inability to get it done in the CFL.
Wow! No wonder ESPN is so excited about bring us LIVE coverage of Barry Bonds decision about whether to go with the seedless or regular sunflower seeds.
The NFL season can’t start soon enough.
As a fan of the team and as someone who covers them, I long for those humid days at McDaniel College. And while the waiting seems like the hardest part for you, me and all Ravens’ fans, it has to be torturous for Brian Billick.
After the woodshed beating of Billick by Steve Bisciotti, Billick must be chomping at the bit and dying to get back out on the practice field. The sooner that he does, the sooner he’ll be able to put that not so pleasant January press conference behind him. Yet clearly there will be challenges ahead for Billick.
By his own admission, Billick has stated that football teams and their respective coaching staffs experience their own versions of the seven year itch. He’s compared the head coach’s relationship with his team to that of a marriage at a cross roads when its duration reaches the point of seven years. Sometimes you need to change the message because it needs to be fresh. As Chris Rock once joked in only a half-kidding way when describing marriages, “If it ain’t new, it’s through!”
And that’s what Billick must do in 2006. He must find a way of making it new.
Maybe it’s a new message, maybe it’s a new way of delivering the old message but whatever he does, he’s got to make it new otherwise, the team will tune him out particularly if they struggle early as they often have during the Billick era.
I’m reminded of that Dodge Caravan commercial where your prototypical American family ventures to the car dealership and they listen to the salesman’s dog and pony show. While the salesman describes the van’s features, the young boy of the family is bored and the only thing he hears from the salesman’s mouth is “blah-blah, blah-blah-blah, blah, blah.” The blah blahs end when the salesman’s pitch shifts to the van’s DVD player which of course the boy is supremely interested in.
Billick’s challenge will be to find his team’s DVD player.
If he’s lucky, maybe he’ll even have some videos starring Steve McNair.
