Musings On Black Friday

I live in the nearby suburbs of Washington DC.  Obviously, the sports media in this area are focused on coverage of the Washington Commanders; that is their job.  What I have never come to understand is the inability of the fanboys in this area to see glaring weaknesses on the team even if those weaknesses are fully on display week after week after month.  Those folks universally think that the team is one player or one new coach away from a Super Bowl dynasty.  Let me assure anyone reading this and any Commanders’ fanboy who can purge the adrenaline in his/her system for a moment:

• Such is not nearly the case!

Twelve days ago, the Commanders lost embarrassingly to the Giants 31-19.  Yesterday, the Commanders were given the football equivalent of an atomic wedgie on national TV losing to the Cowboys 45-10.  The cries for head coach Ron Rivera’s and defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio’s heads on plates awee loud and persistent last night – – and that is not a huge surprise.  A report earlier this morning said that Del Rio has been “relieved of his duties” as the defensive coordinator and the immediate reaction among the fanboys is that the team is poised to “make a run”.  Just to be clear:

• Such is not going to happen!

The shortcoming facing the Commanders as a team is an overall talent deficiency.  Said deficiency does not go away when you change a coach or a coordinator.  Yes, it might energize a few players for a game or two, but just as you cannot make a high school student smarter with an “IQ-points injection”, you cannot give adult football players more talent than they have gotten through genetics and practice.

The fundamental problem staring the Commanders in the face is the Commanders’ roster.  Once one recognizes that as the fundamental problem, it should become clear that if there is to be a firing, it should be Ron Rivera as the team’s GM and not necessarily Ron Rivera as the head coach.  I believe the team needs new talent-evaluators – – probably from the most junior person in the scouting department all the way through Ron Rivera as the GM and master of the drafting process.  Consider:

• Rivera got both jobs with the franchise in January 2020.  He has overseen four NFL Drafts for the franchise.
• In those 4 drafts, Rivera & Co. have selected 33 players.  Here is how those 33 draftees worked out:

28 players are still with the Commanders either on the roster or the practice squad.

4 players are still in the NFL on other teams.

1 player is no longer in the NFL.

            Rivera & Co. have drafted 40% of the players on the team and what everyone has seen this season – – and most glaringly in the last two weeks – – is that these players are simply not as good as the players on the opposing squads.  The flaw is in the player selection/retention process.

Back at the trading deadline, the Commanders chose to trade both of their starting defensive ends in order to amass “draft capital”.  So, riddle me this:

• What good is “draft capital” wielded by the same folks that produced the draft results above?
• Memo to Josh Harris and investment partners:  Let really smart “football people” advise you regarding the retention or firing of “Ron Rivera as your head coach” but consider the issue of “Ron Rivera as your GM” a done deal.
• You – – need – – a – – new – – GM.

Moving on …  Later today, the NFL will present its first-ever game on Black Friday.  The game will be the Dolphins at the Jets and it will be available on Amazon Prime Video as a free streaming telecast meaning that fans need not subscribe permanently to Prime Video to see the game.  If this initial foray into “Black Friday Football” is deemed to be a success by Amazon and by the NFL, one should expect that “Black Friday Football” would become a recurring thing.

The basis for this new presentation is – – of course – – money.  Amazon paid the NFL $1B for the rights to stream Thursday Night Football but Amazon would stand to lose one Thursday out of the season because of the traditional Thanksgiving Day telecasts which were negotiated and parceled out to other broadcasters.  So, how to make it up to Amazon?

• Create one each “Black Friday Football” game and sell it to Amazon so that Amazon can link the game to potential new subscribers for Prime Video plus to all the expected online shoppers for the day.

Problem solved.

NFL games on Fridays are rare events but they have been around for a while.  I remember that the old AFL – – prior to the merger with the NFL – – used to have a “Friday game” occasionally.  In recent times, “Friday NFL Football” would only happen to accommodate the calendar around Christmas or New Year’s.  I strongly suspect that we are about to witness the birth of a new “tradition” in the US – – Black Friday Football.

Finally, I will close today with this comment from former NFL defensive tackle, Alex Karras:

“I never graduated from Iowa, but I was only there for two terms – Truman’s and Eisenhower’s.”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………