Is Continuity Overrated?

It’s the age old question, which came first, the chicken or the egg? For one to exist, the other has to and vice versa.

In sport, it’s easy to look at success with jealous, green eyes of envy and wish to copy it. Winning is what every team desires. Winning drives sport. Without it, some would argue, what is the point of playing the games in the first place. There is another saying that it’s not the winning but the taking part that matters. Bullshit.

Winners are admired in the most part. Sure, some of them can come across as arrogant but mostly that is magnified by our own craving, eagerness and aspirations. We want to be the celebrated, the ones that pick up the prizes and accolades.

Those who hanker after success often seek to emulate those who win. Whilst not being able to necessarily pinch players or coaches from winners, there are other, less tangible, qualities that are associated with the dominant.

Team chemistry is pointed at. “Look at the fun those guys seem to be having on the field. If our guys got along better…….” Perhaps this might just be because they are enjoying winning. Just a thought.

Another is desire. You must want to win more than the opposition in order to achieve it. What a load of nonsense. Everyone knows somebody who is ridiculously competitive at everything they do, often to the point where it becomes massively irritating. Are they the best in the world at what they do? Of course not.

And then you have good old continuity.

Coaches, General Managers and Owners like to believe that, in order to become better, you need to build. Building is one of the life belts to cling onto in the event of losing. It’s a means of justifying your own existence, of masking the fact that, yet again, the season has been one big disappointment.

The New England Patriots have been NFL’s preeminent franchise of the last fifteen years or so. Bill Belichick has been their coach for all of that period. The two must be linked, surely?

Just recently, the Jacksonville Jaguars signed Gus Bradley to an extension after three years of ineptitude. Why? The team won only five games last year in what was a truly abysmal division and are an awful 12–36 in his reign. That 2015 was seen as somewhat of an improvement just emphasises what a complete mess they have been for such a prolonged time. In fact, the biggest leap forward this year was Jacksonville’s offense, which just so happened to sport a new offensive coordinator, Greg Olson.

A coach needs time we hear. He needs time to get his guys, his system and his philosophy ingrained before we can decide if he has done a good job.

Again, why?

In the NFL, even more so than in other sports, the roster turnover season to season is enormous. Of course, there might be some superstars that teams refuse to let go elsewhere and also some players at the start of their career under team control. But still, from year to year, it’s almost impossible to keep the same group around. There are injuries, free agency, retirements, players allowed to leave or, indeed, cut.

Belichick has, of course, had one constant throughout his glory years in Boston, Tom Brady. Coincidence? Absolutely not. The rest of the Patriots players have come and gone and yet still they have continued to challenge for the very highest prize.

The idea that it takes four years, or even longer in cases like Jeff Fisher, to get to the point when a team is going to challenge is just nonsense, a fairytale story to tell to the media and fans that crave better.

If coaches are going to turn around the fortunes of a club, you tend to know pretty quickly. Jim Harbaugh, for example, took an 8–8 49ers and in his first year won 13 games. There was no needless hanging around waiting. It just happened straight away. Jon Gruden went into Tampa and bang! Andy Reid took over in KC, Bill Belichick won a title in his second year in New England and when Pete Carroll came to Seattle the results and wins followed immediately.

Of course, there are other factors at play than just the coach but, if we are to believe that good coaches can have a large impact on a team’s fortunes, then that impact is going to be apparent almost upon them taking the reins.

This weekend, we have two contrasting head coaches at play in that Gary Kubiak is in his debut season leading the Broncos whilst Ron Rivera has spent five years in Carolina.

One of them will win. That sounds asinine to say but the victor will have various omnipotent qualities and powers thrust upon him in the aftermath by an adoring and grateful media and fanbase.

If the Panthers emerge as the winners of the Super Bowl, inevitably we shall hear of five year plans and strategies and how this was all part of master plan back in 2011. Ignore all of that and just remember how close Riverboat Ron was to getting fired and how we all laughed at him to the point of mockery in his first couple of seasons.

If it’s the Broncos turn, the narrative will be I have been proven right…