Thread: The Lovie Smith Press Conference Thread, 10/4/10

Originally Posted by WindyCity

3 Years without the playoffs is all that has mattered.

No one in the NFL gets paid to be mediocre and in the middle of the pack.

I'd love to have more playoff games in our history, don't mistake that, but.....


by definition 1/3 of the NFL gets paid to be mediocre, 1/3 to be crappy, and 1/3 to be pretty good. Just saying.

Originally Posted by chisportsfan

Fair enough. Personally, I don't care if our coach is one who shows emotion. IMO, that doesn't translate into wins and losses. For the quiet type coach, you can point to Landry, Shula, Noll and Walsh as successful. As for emotional, you can point to Halas, Lombardi, Cowher and Ditka as successful. There are others for sure, but those are off the top of my head. As long as the players respect the coach and play hard, I don't care whether he shows emotion or not.

Usually I'd understand your side and even agree. When it comes to winning and losing, there are plenty of different ways to motivate a team. Sunday night's game changed that for me, though, because he showed no concern for another human being, rather than a scoreboard. To watch your QB leveled time and again, due to the inefficient protection you are responsible for ... I can't forgive that. Be a human being, for Christ's sake.

Originally Posted by chisportsfan

As for press conferences, what do you think he owes you? His job is to win football games, not be the next great orator. It would be nice to get some explanations, but I certainly don't want my coach to air out the teams issues via the press. I'd rather see him do it behind closed doors in front of his team. Again, IMO, this doesn't translate into wins and losses. There are very few coaches who explain much during their press conferences.

To me, there's a difference between not giving explanations and being openly condescending toward the media. I thought reporters were asking some valid questions yesterday - how is Jay? Do you know when he suffered the head injury? Are you worried about putting him back behind that OL? - and he professed this "relax, it's only one game" mentality, acting as though reporters were worried because they had lost, rather than exposing themselves as a team with no defense for its quarterback. If Lovie had stood up there and growled non-answers a la Bill Belichick (who irritates me greatly), it'd have been 1,000 times better IMO than the sneering replies that purposely missed the point. Delivery is just as important as the words.

Originally Posted by chisportsfan

Whether he sees the big picture or not is hard to determine. Unless you can sit down and talk to him directly, it's all speculation. I wish we had a balanced team too. Our O line was horrid and has been needing help since our last Super Bowl appearance. I've stated that many times in this forum and on dabearz site before it merged. The O line was exposed last night and JA and Lovie are ultimately responsible for that, no doubt. But I don't hate him for that.

I hope you will if he ends up getting Jay Cutler killed.

Originally Posted by chisportsfan

I don't know about you, but I'd certainly hate to come home from a bad day at work and have a group of laymen grill me on why I didn't do this or didn't do that. You're entitled to your opinions and am glad you shared them. As a football coach, Lovie is pretty good. Definitely better on the defensive side of the ball. Is he a HOF'er? At this point, no. Will he ever be? Who knows and I'm not the one to answer that. I'd prefer to see Cowher as our coach. Not because he's emotional, but because he did a great job with the Steelers no matter what players they lost.

Luckily, neither of our jobs (as far as I know) entail dealing with the press or the opinions of millions of people who feel like they have (or actually do have, i.e. season ticket holders) a vested interest in the outcome of your week-to-week job performance. It's a given that this is part of his job, so you can't in good conscience defend him by saying "oh, but that's no fun!" Cowher would be incredible, I completely agree. The players could come and go, and the wins would still rack up regardless.

Originally Posted by chisportsfan

I just can't see hating Lovie for the job he's done with the Bears. I understand and accept that fans want a different coach for the Bears.

Until the debacle with Jay, I couldn't see it for myself either.

I appreciate the intelligent, well-worded debate, btw. I high-fived you. :)

Originally Posted by BearStuff

nah, she gives credit when due, is critical when warranted. She is pretty realistic and isn't afraid to post when things are going ok.

I just blew you a kiss ... that made my day. And ditto. xoxo

Originally Posted by pattyo

I just blew you a kiss ... that made my day. And ditto. xoxo

Get a room...

@Pattyo,

thanks for the further explanation of your viewpoint. I guess I just wanted to know where the "hate" came from. I didn't like seeing Jay get his clock cleaned either. IDK, Lovie has his style and I just can't "hate" the man. I do think he cares a great deal about his players. Seems he doesn't care as much about the offense as the defense, lol (tongue in cheek). I do understand where you are coming from with regard to his press conference answers though.

Others have posted that they want to see Lovie dead, and I just can't understand that level of emotion for a football coach. He has done a nice job for the Bears. Is he everything I want in a football coach? Simple answer is "No", but there aren't many other coaches I'd rather have in his place and most of those are already employed. There are only two available that I would rather have and that's Cowher and Jimmy Johnson. I've never liked Johnson and that's because he coached teams I don't like (The "U" and Cowboys). I don't even think he wants to return to coaching. But I'm getting off point.

In general:
3Nagurski has stated that Lovie hasn't done s*it since the Super Bowl. It's true, we haven't made the playoffs since. There are some good reasons for it and some player personel problems on top of it. IMO, if we don't make it again, I'd gladly watch Philips, JA and Lovie hit the door. What blows me away is the lack of understanding among some fans. It's incredibly hard in this NFL to build a consistent Super Bowl contender. The fact that the Super Bowl loser generally doesn't make the playoffs the next year is astonishing, yet true. Were is the patience or tolerance? But what irritates me even more about fans today is there huge generalizations backed up by "zero" facts. I see it on all message boards. When someone says "he sucks", I want to know the basis for that opinion. Some have none. They just want to be negative and enjoy being that way. Oh well, I'll jump off the soap box before this gets too long.

Originally Posted by chisportsfan

Others have posted that they want to see Lovie dead, and I just can't understand that level of emotion for a football coach.

Oh, I said that yesterday. My temper tantrums are, well, dramatic. ;)