by B. Grant » Fri Dec 16, 2011 9:34 pm
Well, johnny, my first thought is that we are back to "sources", so there is only a slight chance that we have a completely accurate picture here. But let's say its all fundamentally true...
Coaches can be wrong, no question about it. A team has about 20 defensive players, and they are not all going to agree on calls and strategies, so while it is not uncommon for a player to question what it being called, he has NO rationale to do anything but what is called. Any player is COMPLETELY wrong if he chooses to abandon a call without authority to do so. Doing that is only going to make a difficult situation a much larger mess. If these rogue calls are taking place, that would explain some of what we have seen. To start with the depleted talent we have, and then combine it with players going in more than one direction is a combination that makes me wonder how we have even done as well as we have. Bottom line, though, is that we do what the guy paid to make the decisions says to do. There can be no wavering from that premise.
These are the types of things that happen when a team is losing, and it takes real maturity to handle a season like this. Some of these guys are anything but mature, we know that, so players start to become coaches, and all hell breaks loose. (I AM surprised that a Jared Allen or a Chad Greenway has taken some of these clowns aside and put an end to it.) Leslie has a lot of sorting out to do over the next few months, that's for sure. But there can be no room for players who are a part of what is going on here, if what we read here is true, and some of these guys are digging themselves a hole they may not be able to climb out of, either in Minnesota or anywhere else. if you want to keep your job, this is not the way to do it.