When Gordon was arrested, I had a feeling in my gut that this was a bad omen for our team. Think I was right.
1. The most visible and important player on the team harmed the culture dramatically. How? When Gundy let him off the hook, it told the team that Gordon was more important than the team. Anyone else would have been suspended for several games or kicked off.
2. We’ll never be sure how this affected the team’s chemistry. Did it contribute to the offensive line playing like crap most of the year? How could they regress so quickly with the same players? Players knew that they would have been treated much differently if they had done the same thing.
3. Gundy mismanaged the situation terribly. He made it worse by saying he was guilty of drinking and driving when he was a young man. He then criticized fans for expressing their frustration about the season. Gordon is lucky he didn’t klll himself or some innocent person.
4. I remember Bear Bryant kicked Joe Namath off the team for the same offense, even though most of his coaches wanted Bryant to keep him on the team. Namath later said that Bryant’s decision taught him a lesson he needed to learn. He returned to the team the next season, and did a great job even with an injured knee. He became a Hall of Fame quarterback, and led the Jets to the Super Bowl Championship. It was the first time the an AFC team had defeated an
NFC team for the NFL Championship.
1. The most visible and important player on the team harmed the culture dramatically. How? When Gundy let him off the hook, it told the team that Gordon was more important than the team. Anyone else would have been suspended for several games or kicked off.
2. We’ll never be sure how this affected the team’s chemistry. Did it contribute to the offensive line playing like crap most of the year? How could they regress so quickly with the same players? Players knew that they would have been treated much differently if they had done the same thing.
3. Gundy mismanaged the situation terribly. He made it worse by saying he was guilty of drinking and driving when he was a young man. He then criticized fans for expressing their frustration about the season. Gordon is lucky he didn’t klll himself or some innocent person.
4. I remember Bear Bryant kicked Joe Namath off the team for the same offense, even though most of his coaches wanted Bryant to keep him on the team. Namath later said that Bryant’s decision taught him a lesson he needed to learn. He returned to the team the next season, and did a great job even with an injured knee. He became a Hall of Fame quarterback, and led the Jets to the Super Bowl Championship. It was the first time the an AFC team had defeated an
NFC team for the NFL Championship.
