There's a difference between being a straight-shooter and being too blunt. A straight-shooter would say "your performance isn't where it needs to be, you need to improve". Someone who is too blunt would say "You f*cking suck, get better or I'm cutting your *ss". Now, on average, which one is going to get the better response from his team? If anyone says the blunt guy, you haven't taken any psychology courses, ever. Whine and cry all you want, countless studies show that positive reinforcement is the best way to get the most out of someone, and it's not even close.
I'm not saying that's how Zimmer is. I don't know the guy and I doubt I've heard say more than a few sentences. But, if he comes off as someone like that, someone who risks losing the locker room because no one likes him, you can't possibly blame Ross for not going that way. It has nothing to do with insulting the interviewers, all though that can't help matters if it happened. You always hire the guy who is going to get the most out of the players, and it sounds like Ross has at least a rudimentary understanding of psychology and business, both of which are more involved in an NFL team than most realize...
As for your questions about Zimmer: without exception, players who have been coached under Zimmer have rallied behind him. They rave about him as a person and as a coach. As has been previously mentioned, Jonathan Joseph stated that Zimmer has been the reason for the Bengals success and that he helped changed their entire culture. Around the time his wife died(which the entire team went out of their way to support the man), his players even then were pushing for him to get a head coaching job. That kind of support, that kind of long term loyalty, doesnt come to someone who simply curses out people without remorse. He is a straight shooter
and probably blunt, but he is honest and seemingly supportive.
General rant: when it comes to searching for a head coach, there should be one overriding goal:
can this person win football games. If its a yes, then thats all that should matter. If you can find someone who you feel can win more football games then another person, then you hire the one that can win more.
And yet, what have we been doing? We
keep dismissing the most qualified candidates because they are "to honest" or "come across as arrogant". This search is overwhelmingly becoming a popularity contest. We already know thats what Ross wanted, he wanted a rock star coach, someone who could fill the seats and if the wins come all the better.
Its officially over. There is no more debating this fact: Stephen Ross is an idiot. He has no idea what he is doing. He wants "Yes Men" instead of decent hard working individuals. He isnt interested in the most qualified, hes interested in the person who he thinks he could personally like the most. Look at the people he has surrounded himself with? Look at the people he is interested in hiring? Compare them to the people he
refuses to hire. In business, he could get away with hiring people who told him what he wanted to hear. In football, in any team enviroment, thats a cancer to an organization. This is a unmitigated nightmare that wont end until the blind stop leading the blind.
