A case study in today's media: Mike Shanahan and Super Bowl or bust

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/dc-sports-bog/wp/2013/08/28/mike-shanahan-the-super-bowl-and-pti/

This is staggering. During a lunch event, Shanahan said of the Redskins, “You’re with a football team that has won Super Bowls. People are in the Hall of Fame — players as well as coaches. And you know that they have set the standard for this organization. Anything short of the Super Bowl is a failure, and that’s good. That’s good. Because there’s only one team that’s happy at the end of the year.”

Via the Redskins' Twitter account, that quote became:

Shanahan on #Redskins players: "They have set the expectations: anything short of a Super Bowl is a failure."

And oh my Lord, we were off to the races with Shanahan and the idea of Super Bowl or bust.

Now this is something I might want to see Olbermann take on.

 

Did Shanahan twerk before or after the surf and turf?

 

The thing is, probably 20+ of the 32 coaches have made similar comments leading up to this season. A coach in his first year might not be so bold, and I doubt Dennis Allen would say anything like that, but that's what the mindset is, one team is happy with the how the season goes and 31 other teams fall short...

Look at the Niners... Jim Harbaugh inherits a team that had missed the playoffs for about a decade. It looks like a 2-3 year rebuilding project. His first year, he's a couple fumbles away from making the Super Bowl and in his second season, they make it, but they lose... If they don't win it all this year, we're going to hear, "Can Jim Harbaugh ever win the big one?"

Shanahan is held to the standard he set by winning two titles in Denver. If he doesn't win another title in Washington, his tenure will be seen as a failure.

Jerry Jones was recently caught by TMZ and was asked, "Can the Cowboys win the Super Bowl this year?" and he said yes. "What is he supposed to say?"

The difference in the NFL is that there is enough parity that one could argue that the majority of the teams actually feel like they have a shot to win the Super Bowl. I don't think you get that in baseball (although it's gotten better...) and you sure as hell don't get that in the NBA.

 

I don't think you understand what happened, Mizzou.

 

I read the blog... I get it now...

Yeah, it's one thing for a news organization to take a quote out of context, but when the team does it, that's pretty funny. I'm guessing some poor intern who tweeted it will be shown the door today.

 

Publicly, every team says their goal is to win the Super Bowl every year. OK, fine, I get that. But when it comes time to negotiate contracts, it's a different tune. Like "I want five years, guaranteed and total control over personnel moves and ..."

 

Of the NFL, MLB and NBA, the NFL is the only of the three where you can argue that more than half the teams have a legitimate chance to win the Super Bowl in most years. The parity is so much better and it's a huge reason why ratings are so much higher for the NFL than other sports. Baseball has had a few surprises in recent years, but not too many. I don't think the NBA has had a champion that was much of a surprise during my nearly 40 years on this planet.

 

Mizzou, baseball and NFL parity are equal these days. There have been eight NFL teams to win Super Bowls from 2001-2012 and nine MLB teams to win World Series in that period.

 

Interesting you choose 2001 to start that with, when the Pats started winning 3 of 4. I'd be curious what the numbers are from 1990 or 1995.

What's the longest playoff drought in the NFL? Raiders at 10 or 11 years? How many baseball teams have a drought that long? I'm guessing more than a couple.

 

LTL why even follow of comment on football since you think it's a dyeing sport?

 

DC is the town where people consider it news if Joe or Josette Politician say they "haven't ruled out" running for President three years from now.

 

Is it turning its players colors?