Category Archives: Sports – Football

Qualities of a good football coach

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Houston Chronicle sportswriter Mickey Herskowitz passes along this story about those two NFL coaching icons, George Halas and Vince Lombardi:

One recalls the story of George Allen, who was hired off the staff of George Halas in Chicago to coach the Los Angeles Rams.
Halas was furious that the Rams failed to ask for his permission and threatened to take Allen to court. At a league meeting after the issue was resolved, Halas used the occasion to vent his anger at his former defensive coach.
“George Allen,” Halas said, “is a man with no conscience. He is dishonest, deceptive, ruthless, consumed with his own ambition.”
At that point, Vince Lombardi leaned over to the owner of the Rams and whispered, “Sounds to me like you’ve got yourself a helluva football coach.”

Texans turn a sixth round draft pick into a third round pick

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As noted in this earlier post, the Houston Texans chose former University of Michigan quarterback Drew Henson in the sixth round of last year’s NFL Draft even though Henson was playing baseball at the time in the New York Yankees minor league system. The Texans’ figured that Henson’s mediocre baseball skills would eventually lead him back to football, and today their gambit paid off. The Texans traded their contract rights to Henson to the Dallas Cowboys for a third round draft choice in the 2005 NFL Draft. By focusing on preserving draft picks, the Texans are building a formidable foundation of good, young players. The third round draft pick that the Texans received in this deal will probably be much more useful for them next year when the team will likely be maturing into a playoff caliber team than the sixth round choice would have been for this season’s team.

Houston Bowl attempts to go BCS

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This Houston Chronicle story reports on the intent of Houston Bowl officials to bid on being the host for a fifth Bowl Championship Series college football game to be added after the 2006 season.
This is a new initiative for Houston, which has never had much of a college football bowl heritage. The old Bluebonnet Bowl had a rather uneventful run from 1959-1987 and always struggled for sponsorship support and attendance. The newer Houston Bowl has been around for the past several years, but has paid the minimum amount to the participant teams, so it has not moved above the lowest tier of bowl games. However, with the wide array of new facilities that Houston recently used in successfully hosting Super Bowl XXXVIII, Houston now has proven that it has the capability of hosting major events such as a BCS Bowl game. Given Texas’ rich history and tradition in college football, Houston would be a logical choice for hosting one of college football’s premier bowl games.

UT honors Dr. Denton Cooley

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Dr. Denton Cooley is one of Houston’s many legendary doctors who have helped build the Texas Medical Center into one of the world’s great medical centers. Dr. Cooley founded The Texas Heart Institute at St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital, and he performed the first successful heart transplant in the United States in 1968 and the first involving an artificial heart in 1969.
As Houston sportswriter Mickey Herskowitz writes in this column today, Dr. Cooley was a starting basketball player at the University of Texas at Austin in the late 1930’s, and UT is honoring Dr. Cooley by naming its new basketball practice facility after him. The entire column is worth reading, but this part is essential for all fans of legendary former UT football coach Darrell Royal:

Among the speakers in Austin the other night were Mack Brown and Rick Barnes, who coach the marquee men’s sports at UT. But the one who stole the show was Jody Conradt, the Hall of Famer who gave the Longhorns a national championship in women’s basketball.
“They built the Erwin Center 21 years ago,” she said, “and obviously it never occurred to anyone that the women would need a separate locker room. So every room in this place had urinals in it.
“Now we have one of our own. Before one of our games, coach Darrell Royal was kind enough to speak to my team. Before he left, someone asked what the biggest difference was between our locker room and all the ones he knew from all his years of coaching. Coach Royal said, `Offhand, I can’t remember anyone ironing anything before a game in one of our locker rooms.’ ”

NFL revenue sharing to be reviewed

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This Washington Times article describes a movement among certain National Football League owners to revise the NFL’s Trust, the master business agreement that maintains that shared national revenue structure that has propelled the NFL into a multi-billion dollar industry and makes the NFL the envy of virtually every other professional sports league.

Cowboys back to Fair Park?

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This Dallas Morning News article is about the proposal that Dallas officials have made to Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones to bring a new Dallas Cowboys stadium to Fair Park, which is the location of the Cotton Bowl, the stadium that the Cowboys’ left 33 years ago when they moved to Texas Stadium in Irving. Dallas officials are pitching the proposal after rejecting the Cowboys’ overture to redevelop an industrial area near downtown. Fair Park, which is already developed, would require less public investment and benefit from having the Cowboys’ stadium replace the outdated Cotton Bowl.
Within the past five years, Houston has lapped Dallas in terms of sports facilities and related infrastructure. During that time, Houston has built two retractable domed stadiums–Minute Maid Park and Reliant Stadium–and the new Toyota Center basketball arena. In addition, Minute Maid Park and Toyota Center are adjacent to Houston’s downtown Convention Center and related hotel complex, and Reliant Stadium is in Reliant Park, which includes the Reliant Center convention facility and the Astrodome. Each of these facilities played a major role in Houston’s successful hosting of Super Bowl XXXVIII, and the NFL’s recent announcement that it intends to return the Super Bowl to Houston toward the end of this decade. Those developments have been a tremendous boon for Houston’s ability to attract large conventions, which had been lagging for many years. If Dallas builds a new football stadium for the Cowboys, then it would become one of the increasingly few cities that has adequate facilities and infrastructure to accomodate major conventions and events such as the Super Bowl.

NFL Moves for a Stay in the Clarett Case

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This previous post reported on the National Football League‘s recent loss in attempting to prevent former Ohio State underclassman running back Maurice Clarett from entering this year’s NFL Draft. Yesterday, the NFL requested that the federal district judge stay the order requiring the NFL to allow Clarett to be eligible for its 2004 draft pending the NFL’s appeal of that order.
Clarett’s attorneys have an interesting strategic decision to make here. Clarett would be eligible for the 2005 NFL Draft under the league’s current rules. Also, my sense is that Clarett has a strong case on appeal and will probably win it. Inasmuch as any such stay would be conditioned upon the NFL posting a rather large bond, Clarett may be better off strategically attempting to move the District Judge to set a high bond in favor of Clarett in connection with granting the NFL a stay of the order. In that case, Clarett could use the next year preparing for the 2005 NFL Draft (I’m sure Ohio State would not mind having him back for a season) and recover a windfall if the NFL posts the bond and then loses the subsequent appeal. Certainly something to consider.
Well, so much for that strategy. The Judge in the Clarett case has already denied the NFL’s motion for stay in this order.

Clarett Beats NFL

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Maurice Clarett, the talented running back who led Ohio State to a thrilling victory over Miami in the 2003 National Championship game, sued the National Football League several months ago in this complaint alleging that the NFL was violating anti-trust laws by not allowing Clarett to become eligible for the NFL Draft until 2005. Today, the District Court issued this decision ruling in Clarett favor and enjoining the NFL from not allowing Clarett to be eligible for the 2004 NFL Draft.
Although this decision may seem surprising, it is not to those of us who follow professional sports and anti-trust law. As a matter of fact, the NFL’s record in past anti-trust cases is not all that great. Part of the reason for the NFL’s phenomenal growth and business success over the past 40 years is that it has avoided investing the money necessary to capitalize a minor league football system similar to what exists in Major League Baseball. Rather, through rules such as the one Clarett challenged, the NFL has shifted the financial risk of minor league football to Division I-A college football teams.
The Clarett decision probably will not result in many high school football players moving directly from high school to the NFL similar to what often occurs with regard to high school basketball players moving directly to the NBA. As a general rule, high school football players simply are not ready physically for the rigors of the NFL. However, a few such as Clarett probably are, and the decision in Clarett’s case correctly gives them the opportunity to pursue that goal if they prefer that goal over a subsidized college education.

McNair is on a Serious Roll

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Bob McNair, the majority owner of the NFL’s Houston Texans, is an old friend and a wonderful man. Bob and the Texans just completed a masterful job in leading Houston’s hosting of the highly successful Super Bowl XXXVIII, and now it appears that Bob may have struck gold again.
Drew Henson, the former University of Michigan quarterback and NY Yankee minor leaguer, announced today that he has finally given up on baseball and is going to play in the NFL. In last year’s NFL Draft, many folks scratched their heads when Bob and the Texans used a sixth round draft choice on Henson. The Texans already have a young franchise QB in David Carr and Henson was still playing baseball with the Yankees AAA team at the time. However, Bob and the Texans knew what they were doing.
Henson’s poor on base average and mediocre slugging percentage in AAA reflected that he was not a Major League Baseball prospect. However, Henson is an excellent football talent, and many scouts considered him a better prospect than Tom Brady, the Super Bowl MVP who was his teammate at Michigan. With Henson now turning to football, the Texans retain his contract rights until this year’s NFL Draft, and there will be several teams bidding for his services. The Texans will likely come out of this deal smelling like a rose, and likely will pick up at least a higher draft pick in this year’s draft in return for the right to sign Henson.
My early bet on the Henson sweepstakes: the Miami Dolphins.