Midseason Form
With the NFL season in full swing it seems like this is the time of year where every company has a clever blog relating business to football. We’re not going to do that. This is however our blog talking about the 2014 NFL season.
I am a long suffering NY Jets fan. For whatever reason I grew up rooting for the Jets and stuck with them for decade after decade after decade. If there is a worse franchise in the NFL I’m not aware which one it is. The 80’s stunk. The 90’s were worse. And then came the Tuna and a glimmer of hope after the Rich Kotite debacle. In ‘98 the Jets almost made the Super Bowl before losing to the Super Bowl winning, salary cap cheating Broncos in the AFC Championship game. In ’99 they were the best team in the NFL for 22 minutes until Vinny blew out his Achilles in the 2nd quarter. Like the cursed franchise they are they had the punter play QB the rest of the game – an eventual loss to New England.
So what is it that makes the Jets so bad? They’ve had coach after coach and QB after QB and yet they still stink. Are they just cursed? Is there even such a thing (see Cubs, Chicago)? Looking at the Jets today they have one of the youngest rosters in football with the lowest payroll and…..they stink again.
As a Jet fan we are conditioned to expect the worst. They could be driving right down the field with ease and all Jet fans are thinking the same thing – here comes the interception. In 1991 the Jets desperately wanted Brett Favre and ended up with Browning Nagle. ’96 is still a painful memory because the Jets had the first pick in the NFL Draft and were all set to select a can’t-miss prospect you may have heard of – some guy named Peyton Manning. What happened? Peyton went back to Tennessee for his senior season and the Jets ended up with Neil O’Donnell, who subsequently stunk.
Today there is a new GM. His philosophy is to build through the draft and never overpay for players. I like the strategy the only problem is he’s not very good at drafting and the players he does pay are not very good.
Every Sunday for 3 hours I get a break from the everyday grind. I don’t think about BPM Software, Dynamic Case Management, Big Data, or how to build a world class company. For those 3 hours I am singularly focused on how the Jets are going to snatch defeat from the Jaws of victory on their way to another 6-10 season.
So this is where I relate the blog back to business in some clever way. Well, I’m not going to do that other than to say if I seem a little grouchy on a random Monday this fall it’s because the Jets just ripped my heart out the day before.
So what then is the point to this blog? I guess there really isn’t one. If anything I’d say it’s great to have dreams, it’s great to be loyal, but in reality you should focus your energy and aspirations on things you can control (not the fate of the NY Jets). If you are still reading at this point thanks for letting me vent (the Jets are 1-5 and done with 2014 already) and I promise the next blog will be all more in line with our business.