Lavar Arrington: “I saw Joe Thomas’ comments and how he said this is crazy, like you 'hire your drinking buddy’, and that’s what it takes to become a head coach these days. I don’t know why guys are hating on this. If your ‘drinking buddy’ knows what he’s doing, just because he’s your drinking buddy now there’s a problem with him being up for the job and up for the task? How many people were really sitting there hoping that Jeff Saturday would fail? Those people should honestly be ashamed of themselves. What we found out this weekend is you have to recycle jobs to the same exact coaches, and it’s the SAME people going to the SAME positions… How about there are a lot of people who want to coach that are really, really good coaches that coach high school football and coach youth league football that trying to get into college and they can’t even really get the opportunity to coach at the college level. I see so many awesome coaches. What Jeff Saturday did may have opened the door up to take these conversations into bigger and higher consideration. For all of those people who have tried to convince you ‘THAT’S THE CEO!’ and that the guys leading these teams don’t generally look like the guys putting the uniforms on— why? Their intellectual level on understanding how a team is ran and how you should call a play is so different and so far apart that you’re good enough to go out there and take those orders and take that direction from these coaches, but you’re not good enough to be one of them? If he continues to win, and I think one win is extraordinary given the circumstances, but I think the conversation has to change. You can’t make the coaching position something that it is not. It is not brain surgery, I’m sorry. It’s not open-heart surgery. You’re not building a rocket and flying to outer space. It’s managing men, managing young people, and calling the right plays. You know what calling the right plays is? A play that your players believe is going to work and they go out there and execute it. That the person calling the play believes in me, we care about one another, and we’re going to make this play work. THAT’S what great coaching is, you teach it, they execute, everybody believes it, and you go out there and you win. You know what football players know by the time they get to the NFL? What plays are, what positions are, what gaps are, what gap responsibilities are, what protections are. Do you have to make that s*** so complicated that they can’t understand the dynamics or the essentials of what you’re supposed to execute on offense and defense? They’re not Neanderthals, they’re not dummies, they’re actually pretty intelligent people. Give them a little bit of respect. Give them a little bit of grace in knowing that if someone comes in who has no real experience even as a football person, and picks up a piece of paper and says ‘here are the plays we’re going to run’, if you don’t think that those guys can comprehend those plays and run those plays then you don’t understand athletes, you don’t understand how the mind works, you don’t understand how a professional operates. All of this outrage is mock outrage to me. All of these people talking this, that, and the other can kick a mighty big boulder rock and break that toe on it because it’s mock outrage. That man knows football. He knows football well enough to pick up a playbook and say to guys ‘I care about you, let’s go out there and win the game.'” (Full Segment Above)
Listen to LaVar Arrington explain why the Jeff Saturday haters in the media who came out of the woodwork this past week to dump on the Colts new head coach hire should be ‘ashamed of themselves’, as Arrington says Saturday’s victory in his first-ever appearance as an NFL coach could change the way we look at former players getting into coaching.
Check out the segment above as Arrington details why being a football coach isn’t ‘rocket science', and how we need to stop acting like former players are dumb ‘Neanderthals’ who don’t know how locker rooms and playbooks work.
Colin Cowherd Says Lakers Are Nearing Irrelevance: 'Their Future is Bleak'
Colin Cowherd: Derek Carr Will Not Be a Raider Next Season
Colin Cowherd: McCaffrey Trade Could Clear Path For Tom Brady Move to 49ers
Jason Whitlock Explains the Real Reason Why He Left ESPN
Colin Cowherd: Why the 8-0 Eagles Will be One-and-Done in the Playoffs
Jay Williams Defends Kyrie Irving: 'I Might Lose My Job'
Colin Cowherd Downplays Tua Tagovailoa's Breakout Season: 'He's Not Great'
Jason Whitlock: Kyrie Irving Saga Proves LeBron Would've Hated Muhammad Ali
Jason Whitlock: The Real Reason the Colts Didn’t Hire a Black Head Coach
Jason Whitlock Calls Out Media For Treating Kyrie Irving Like 'Kunta Kinte'