Weis to the Giants?
Posted: Tue Dec 26, 2006 8:03 pm
I doubt it, but this is the one job he would leave for:
BIG BANG THEORY FIT FOR BIG BLUE
By STEVE SERBY
December 26, 2006 -- How would you fix the Giants? Click the Discussion Board link below the photo to comment.
THE Giants made a mistake when they passed on Charlie Weis three years ago for Tom Coughlin.
At this crossroads in their storied history, they must not make that mistake again.
When the Giants begin cleaning their crumbling house, Plan A should be going after Weis the way Lawrence Taylor went after quarterbacks.
Plan B, if he is attainable, would be to lure Scott Pioli away from Robert Kraft and Bill Belichick, make him the next GM and tell him to go get Weis out of South Bend, which he would want to do anyway.
We know what kind of team Belichick and Pioli have been in New England because we have seen the Jets try to emulate the model by teaming Eric Mangini with Mike Tannenbaum, Woody Johnson's Generation Jets gambit that dramatically has the Jets closer to a championship than the woebegotten Giants.
Pioli and Weis would be the dynamic young team that the Giants desperately need after 16 years and counting without a championship.
Pioli would find the Giants the same kind of smart, tough, high character, team-first players that Mangini and Tannenbaum have started to find for the Jets.
Weis would be the closest thing to a young Bill Parcells, a tough, smart Jersey Guy disciplinarian and motivator who would have the best chance of anyone on the planet of saving Eli Manning, because Weis is a brilliant offensive mind with the interpersonal skills necessary to nurture and steady a developing young quarterback.
The fly in the ointment for Big Blue ownership could be the reported $15 million or so it would cost it to buy out Weis' contract, which runs through 2015, but nothing is impossible in this day and age.
If Weis decides to honor his reported commitment - the exception rather than the rule in sports - I would bet my bottom dollar that Pioli would find the best possible man for the job.
If the Giants promote Jerry Reese and/or Chris Mara to replace Ernie Accorsi, the coaching search should start and end with Weis.
I lobbied for Weis to replace Jim Fassel three years ago and feel even more convinced that he is the right man for the job after watching his work in South Bend.
The Giants were his dream job then, and the Giants would be his dream job now, maybe the only job that would lure him away from the dream job he has now.
Coughlin's biggest mistake might have been this: He put too many games in Manning's shaky hand when he should have let Tiki Barber carry the team.
It was unfair to Manning, probably stunted his growth, and opened up a can of worms for the sharks that never particularly cared for his aloof, old-school style.
The inmates began running the asylum immediately after the Carolina playoff disgrace and Coughlin, who was advertised by none other than Wellington Mara as Vince Lombardi, could never put a muzzle on the snipers.
He is a good coach, and don't believe for one second that the players he inherited from Fassel do not bear a good share of blame for this unsightly, unconscionable collapse.
But it appeared that Coughlin lost the team for good on New Year's Eve . . . and probably never really had it. Winning the division last year was the great deodorant.
If Coughlin fails to win a playoff game after three years, with a team expected to make a Super Bowl run in a conference reeking of mediocrity, then he will have proven to be the wrong coach at the wrong time for a franchise that was certain Stalag 17 was just what the doctor ordered to replace Gentleman Jim's Country Club. Stalag 17 turned into Ringling Bros. Barnum and Big Blue Circus, where the players stopped having fun under The Big Top.
The Giants interviewed four candidates to replace Fassel, and of the four - Weis, Lovie Smith, Romeo Crennel and Coughlin - their choice would now have to be considered no better than third.
Manning desperately needs a decisive, imaginative game planner like Weis, who worked wonders with Tom Brady and Brady Quinn.
"He sets the tone for every meeting, every practice, and he has since the day I got here," Brady said once.
Repeat after me: the young Parcells. We can even call him Charlie the Tuna. Get him, by hook or by crook.
BIG BANG THEORY FIT FOR BIG BLUE
By STEVE SERBY
December 26, 2006 -- How would you fix the Giants? Click the Discussion Board link below the photo to comment.
THE Giants made a mistake when they passed on Charlie Weis three years ago for Tom Coughlin.
At this crossroads in their storied history, they must not make that mistake again.
When the Giants begin cleaning their crumbling house, Plan A should be going after Weis the way Lawrence Taylor went after quarterbacks.
Plan B, if he is attainable, would be to lure Scott Pioli away from Robert Kraft and Bill Belichick, make him the next GM and tell him to go get Weis out of South Bend, which he would want to do anyway.
We know what kind of team Belichick and Pioli have been in New England because we have seen the Jets try to emulate the model by teaming Eric Mangini with Mike Tannenbaum, Woody Johnson's Generation Jets gambit that dramatically has the Jets closer to a championship than the woebegotten Giants.
Pioli and Weis would be the dynamic young team that the Giants desperately need after 16 years and counting without a championship.
Pioli would find the Giants the same kind of smart, tough, high character, team-first players that Mangini and Tannenbaum have started to find for the Jets.
Weis would be the closest thing to a young Bill Parcells, a tough, smart Jersey Guy disciplinarian and motivator who would have the best chance of anyone on the planet of saving Eli Manning, because Weis is a brilliant offensive mind with the interpersonal skills necessary to nurture and steady a developing young quarterback.
The fly in the ointment for Big Blue ownership could be the reported $15 million or so it would cost it to buy out Weis' contract, which runs through 2015, but nothing is impossible in this day and age.
If Weis decides to honor his reported commitment - the exception rather than the rule in sports - I would bet my bottom dollar that Pioli would find the best possible man for the job.
If the Giants promote Jerry Reese and/or Chris Mara to replace Ernie Accorsi, the coaching search should start and end with Weis.
I lobbied for Weis to replace Jim Fassel three years ago and feel even more convinced that he is the right man for the job after watching his work in South Bend.
The Giants were his dream job then, and the Giants would be his dream job now, maybe the only job that would lure him away from the dream job he has now.
Coughlin's biggest mistake might have been this: He put too many games in Manning's shaky hand when he should have let Tiki Barber carry the team.
It was unfair to Manning, probably stunted his growth, and opened up a can of worms for the sharks that never particularly cared for his aloof, old-school style.
The inmates began running the asylum immediately after the Carolina playoff disgrace and Coughlin, who was advertised by none other than Wellington Mara as Vince Lombardi, could never put a muzzle on the snipers.
He is a good coach, and don't believe for one second that the players he inherited from Fassel do not bear a good share of blame for this unsightly, unconscionable collapse.
But it appeared that Coughlin lost the team for good on New Year's Eve . . . and probably never really had it. Winning the division last year was the great deodorant.
If Coughlin fails to win a playoff game after three years, with a team expected to make a Super Bowl run in a conference reeking of mediocrity, then he will have proven to be the wrong coach at the wrong time for a franchise that was certain Stalag 17 was just what the doctor ordered to replace Gentleman Jim's Country Club. Stalag 17 turned into Ringling Bros. Barnum and Big Blue Circus, where the players stopped having fun under The Big Top.
The Giants interviewed four candidates to replace Fassel, and of the four - Weis, Lovie Smith, Romeo Crennel and Coughlin - their choice would now have to be considered no better than third.
Manning desperately needs a decisive, imaginative game planner like Weis, who worked wonders with Tom Brady and Brady Quinn.
"He sets the tone for every meeting, every practice, and he has since the day I got here," Brady said once.
Repeat after me: the young Parcells. We can even call him Charlie the Tuna. Get him, by hook or by crook.