It is bad enough when players celebrate prematurely; but coaches? Late in Sunday’s matchup against the New England Patriots defensive coordinator Rob Ryan, of the New Orleans Saints, was seen slapping five with anyone and everyone in his vicinity. His celebration commenced after the Patriots had turned the ball over on downs deep in their own territory. At the time, with a one point lead, he felt his Saints had the game locked up. Soon thereafter the Saints kicked a field goal extending that lead to four. At that point about 2 minutes remained in the game and many of the Saints players began to follow Ryan’s lead and started to party on the sideline. Even a large number of Patriots fans felt the game was over and began to pour out of Gillett Stadium.
Fortunately for the Pats, quarterback Tom Brady did not believe the game was lost. That is because 36 times in his NFL career Brady had taken his team from a 4th quarter deficit or tie to a victory. Sunday was to become number 37. Taking over on his own 30 yard line with only a minute eight seconds remaining Brady drove his team to the winning score. This without having a single time out. As his touchdown pass nestled into the arms of his receiver only 5 seconds remained on the clock. Now would be the time for Tom Brady to celebrate!
But I guess Rob Ryan, who has been in the league since 1994, was unaware of Tom Brady’s resume. Maybe he was unaware that players should play the full 60 minutes. But aren’t coaches supposed to know these things? Either way his gloating sent a bad message to his team who instead of celebrating should have remained ready to finish the game. Possibly this is why he is coaching with his fourth NFL team in the past five years.
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Players make mistakes; coaches are there to correct them. Not show them how to make more...
