Every week day morning I stop at my corner gas station for coffee. And for two and a half football seasons, I have had the same conversation. He has to go. I don’t wish getting fired on anyone. Although getting fired with millions of dollars in your bank account certainly cushions the fall from grace.
Hugh Jackson has had to go for . . . . since about the time he came. I am sure he is a very nice man. In the real world you can’t be horrible at your job for two and a half seasons and get to keep your job.
“Pants” my verbal sparring partner and die-hard Homie Browns fan, would ask me each week of the last 42 weeks, don’t you think they are getting better?
I would ask for the observable, measurable evidence that the Browns were getting better. They lost. They lost in close games. They lost in blow-outs.
They lost in overtime. They lost with rookie quarterbacks, and seasoned quarterbacks, and virtually no quarterback. It didn’t matter.
It didn’t matter because culture comes from the top. I am not even sure that Jackson is top enough to change the putrid culture of a team that does not believe in itself.
He had to go. You can’t suck at your job for years and get to keep it. It just is not right. It happens. But it is not right.
Ty Lue was the same but a different story. Still a David Blatt fan I never got on the Lue Train. I hated the way he had the stunned deer in the headlights look during the whole game, especially at times it mattered it most. I wouldn’t have followed him into battle, would you?
LeBron covered up that weakness. That mouth open, I have no idea what-to-do-look, I could not get past. Campy would try to sway me, didn’t work. In leadership the visual is too important.
Did players stop listening to him or did they never listen to him?
In Philadelphia players stopped listening to Andy Reid. But they sure are listening to him in Kansas City. My problem with Jackson and Lue is that I have no observable, measurable evidence that players ever listened to them.
You gotta go. Wish you well, somewhere else.
