Not to be too old manish this morning, but what has happened to our world? In particular, our sports world?
As a kid we had four food groups: Meat. Dairy. Vegetables. Fruit. Eat one from each section every meal and, presto, good to go. But now? We’re counting fat grams and carbs and sugar and salt and gluten and 2 percent and … I’m not sure if we’re healthier today than we were in the ‘70s.
Likewise with football, where I’m not convinced quantity means quality or that specialization leads to anything special. But, like most NFL teams, the Cowboys are believers. So no surprise that yesterday assistant coach Matt Eberflus was promoted to something called passing game coordinator – for the defense.
“Over the last four or five years, you see some teams doing that and really just kind of allows you to focus on that area,” head coach Jason Garrett said at his Scouting Combine press conference in Indianapolis. “Teams do it different ways. We thought having Matt being the guy who oversees that back end, in regards to the passing game, we thought that would be a good way for our defense to go. It’s been good here over the last couple of weeks.”
So let me get this straight. The Cowboys have a defensive coordinator in Rod Marinelli, a new secondary coach in Joe Baker, a new coach solely in charge of safeties in Greg Jackson, and now Eberflus, who last season coached the linebackers but will now be in charge of a pass defense that somehow Marinelli can’t handle?
It’s a first for the Cowboys. But I’m not sure it will last. Once upon a time some savvy gent coined the phrase, “Too many chefs and not enough cooks.”
The fear is that the leadership voice will become fragmented. Which, come to think of it, goes all the way to the top in this organization with Garrett as the head coach but Jerry Jones as the main decision-maker.
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And now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to follow the Cowboys in this silly system of specialization. I’ll write the blog items, then hand it off to my assistant in charge of punctuation, who will then forward it to the assistant in charge of uploading, who will then …
Oh, forget it, just please pass me a hamburger, French fries, an apple and a glass of milk. Deal?
A native Texan who was born in Duncanville and graduated from UT-Arlington, Richie Whitt has been a mainstay in the Metroplex media since 1986. He’s held prominent roles on all media platforms including newspaper (Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Dallas Observer), radio (105.3 The Fan) and TV (co-host on TXA 21 and numerous guest appearances, including NBC 5). He lives in McKinney with his wife, Sybil, and two very spoiled dogs.
