Dan is my favorite player of all time--hands down. But let's not kid ourselves here-Dan is not the shaprest knife in the drawer. Even though I know it is not an indicator of athletic ability or future success in the NFL, Dan did barely score his jersey number on the Wonderlic test.
Now, let's think about this comment. Who has one the last three out of four Superbowls? And if anyone argues that this was not a product of coaching, then something is bad wrong with you.
As cliche as it is to say, in today's era of salary cap and revenue sharing, the only thing that you can truly control and buy is coaching. Look at what the Patriots have done. Belicheck obviously knows a thing or two about coaching-namely 2 major things. First, he develops schemes that allow him to shut down most teams in the league (see Indy Colts). Now I know that this year is a different story, but injuries do matter, especially if you have as many as they do. Second, look at his assistant coaches. Charlie Weiss is a football genious. Look what he has done with the Patriots offense-made a 6th round pick a Super Bowl MVP with mediocre receivers and RB's around him. Look at what he has done with ND. He has them in the Top 10 with the same athletes that Tyrone couldnt post a winning record with.
From a former college football player, although be it a smaller college, I can tell you first hand that coaching does matter. Throughout my four years as a starter, we had a different offensive coordinator every year. When you have coaches shuffling through the system like this, you break the consistent message that you are trying to instill in your team. There is no belief in what the team is trying to accomplish.
In summation, coaches bring consistency and instill a culture throughout an entire organization. When players don't believe in the system, which is be controlled by the coaches, then the team sets itself up for failure.
Bottom line, coaching does matter. Athletes are usually not smart enough or understand the intracacies of football enough to put a game plan together and call their own games. Sorry Dan, but you are wrong.
