Zorn Has To Leave Self-Criticism Behind

[bulldog]

Jim Zorn may be 'refreshingly' honest by NFL media standards and as a rookie coach has to feel his own way in the job, but he has to maintain his position as the unquestioned leader of the football team in the eyes of all including the players.

He may be unsure of himself and some of his decisions as the season goes along and he may share some of that behind the scenes with Bugel or Blache as a sounding board, but he cannot afford to wear his heart on his sleeve publicly here for too much longer and keep the edge necessary to be successful as a leader.

Whether it is the military, business or sports leaders can and do make mistakes, but the one think they can't do is dwell on them or on the reality that at times they don't necessarily know THE right answer to every question.

Gibbs got away with producing mea culpas for this team over the past 4 years because of his past successes, but in those early years Joe never publicly flailed himself the way that Zorn has done and is doing.

Joe may have been at a loss at 0-3, 0-4 and 0-5 in 1981 and at other times during his first tenure, but rarely did you see quotes in the Post or on the radio (no internet at the time) where Gibbs PUBLICLY voiced those doubts.

These problems and challenges were overcome INTERNALLY.

And that is what Zorn has to start doing. He needs to conduct his analysis of the team's problems and work on solving them privately.

You can address the media after a loss and show frustration or anger at the results, but following those emotions with an 'unbearing of the soul' so to speak is in my mind counter-productive.

The players have to believe that the coach has a plan and is going to move forward to fix things whether he actually has the whole plan in place yet or not.

That is the only way not to lose them.

Spurrier lost the team specifically by appearing to the players, media and fans as being an emperor who had been stripped of all his clothes.

[paintrain]

I disagree.. He has no problem discussing player errors with the press, he has to put some things on himself as well or else he comes across as unaccountable. That's a fair standard to me. Call me on my shortcomings and acknowledge your own. I respect that more than someone always pointing the finger either at their players (Billick) or themselves (Gibbs).

[chrisxcore]

I agree with a lot of your points, but at the same time I feel surprisingly content with the fact that Zorn appears to be pretty hard on himself. Seems to me like he's determined to get this right. Will he? Sure as hell hope so... but I get the feeling like he's going to work and work and work until we do. Just my .02.

[bulldog]

my point is he should be neither bearing his soul about his own shortcomings OR those of his players by name.

you can't lead men into a battle when they have before them evidence of your own lack of confidence.

[stevenaa]

As long as his assesments are accurate, and he is not disrespectful of the player in his analysis, then I think it's ok to a point. Typically you want to praise in public and rebuke in private.

[88Comrade2000]

Well, if he can't do the job; he won't have to worry about self critisms after this year.

[lifetimeskin]

i don't feel like addressing a area of improvement is a weakness, covering it up or minimizing it however is, i welcome this acceptance of one's faults and hope the player's will follow suit!

[redman]

I generally agree, bulldog, though I selfishly like the candor as it gives a lot of insight into what's going on.

More important than what you said, though, is that he needs to stop publicly picking apart his players, especially Campbell. It's fine here and there to clarify what happened, like on the first sack. Fine. But at some point you need to address these issues behind closed doors and let the player elect to make it public or not. It looks a lot like scapegoating when you're doing it as a coach, especially when your performance was anything but perfect.

In addition, Zorn needs to shoulder responsibility to the media to take pressure off of his team. I agree that it need not be and should not be a weekly mea culpa, but it also can't be a single tepid and rather obvious criticism of himself ("I should have gone no-huddle earlier") when there are so many other areas of Zorn's performance to criticize while at the same time he's publicly vivisecting Campbell in front of the media.

He's going to lose his credibility with the team very fast if he keeps doing that. I hope a veteran player or coach points that out to him.

[SkinsFanAnt]

Zorn wasn't ready to be head coach and probably still isn't. That's the truth of what we saw this week. Snyder overlooked this fact because Snyder is still a 'rookie' owner when it comes to management decisions.

That said, I have confidence in Zorn that he'll get us where we need to be one day. But the question is whether we are willing to wait or not. I'm willing to.

And I disagree about him flailing about himself...there's no shame in admitting mistakes because that is one of the ways you learn from them...as long as effort is made to change them as well though. Sweeping stuff under the rug doesn't work.

[Oldfan]

You know, bulldog. You're probably right. In order to be a great leader, Jim Zorn will have to learn to be just as boring as Joe Gibbs in his appearances before the media.

I'm not being the least bit sarcastic in saying that.

[WSHRedskins3ATLBraves3]

I've said it before and I'll say it again. I don't like the honesty of Zorn in press conferences.

Take care of these things internally, the media isn't a place to criticize a player.

[paredskinsfan]

while I do feel as though Zorn's personality is refreshing, a little less negative banter would be nice. I am interested to hear a PC after a victory.

[Om]

I agree in theory, bulldog, but not with the blanket assumption that Zorn's public demeanor reflects a lack of confidence in his player's eyes. The players see the man every day away from the cameras; in practice, in meeting rooms, casually in the halls of Redskins Park, on the bus, etc.--they have a pretty good sense by now who he is. We don't. All we see is the on-camera persona.

If he's lost their confidence, it isn't for anything you and I have been able to see, it will have been for the way he is the 99% of the time we don't see him. And I don't believe there's been even a hint of evidence of that.

[jwsleep]

I don't think Zorn is saying one thing behind closed doors and another publicly. And his "calling out" of players has been stating the obvious: Campbell has to stop looking down 1 receiver, oline needs to block, rookies need to be in shape and work hard.

About what he says to the media: I don't think that is what's going to undermine him with the team. It's not WINNING that will do that. Win, and everything looks good; lose, and everything is under the microscope. Win some games--worries about too much self-flagellation in the media will not matter at all.

Speaking of self-flagellation, it seems to me that this was Gibbs main way of dealing with a loss. He never called his players out. But he very publicly said what he himself had done wrong. Sometimes folks on this board ****ed and moaned about that.

Win some games. Score some points. The rest is immaterial. Different coaches have different styles.

[dfitzo53]

Zorn should do what any sensible person would and blame Dan Snyder.

[Ray Brown]

Zorn should do what any sensible person would and blame Dan Snyder.

haha. bye bye job

[roanoker]

Zorn calls it as he sees it. Im not sure what impact it has on the team when he calls players out in public. As far as admitting his own mistakes, I don't have a problem with it.

[KokoMike]

First, I don't think he is second-guessing himself. He is still in first-guess mode.

Openly questioning himself is OK with me. At least it shows he is continuing evaluation and development.

I hope he has asked himself this question: With 14 seconds left and the ball at the Giants 32, needing two scores to win, why didn't he try a 49 yard field goal? If he made it, it would have been 16 - 10, with about 8 seconds to go. An onsides kick would have been necessary in all regards. If we get it, you've got time for one play from about the 50. Campbell surely could have thrown the ball in the endzone (I'm really guessing here...who knows), and anything could have happened. The way I look at it, at that point, it was our only chance. Does anybody know if he was asked that question?

With Gibbs, when he made those terrible mistakes, everybody raised questions about him, but it didn't seem that he got it. He was past his prime and on the decline.

Zorn has a long ways to go to reach a peak. We might was well see if we can grow with him.

[guinnesscrazy]

I don't think he should go out and blame himself for everything every time the Skins lose, but if he is specifically at fault for something, I think it's important for him to at least acknowledge that.

I agree that he needs to be strong and perhaps shed some of the self-criticism in order to appear a strong leader, but remember - this is not a guy who has been a Head Coach before. No one really expects him to come out on Day 1 and act like all the other veteran coaches around the league. We can hope for it and advise him on how to act like it, but at the end of the day, he will learn how to address the media and show his persona. It may take a full season or 2 games, but he seems like a guy who will figure it out. Either way, blame should be placed where it is due. And if that includes Zorn himself, even if it's just a little bit, I'm glad to hear him say it. And I don't know the players, but if I were on the team, I would probably respect him more for doing it as well.

But like Om said - this organization knows Zorn and respects him, or will respect him based on everything they encounter outside of the media, not on a couple of press conferences.

[SoCalSkins]

He wasn't very honest in the post game presser. Calling his passing game "good" and making excuses for his ineptitude is not honesty. It is easy to throw a couple of rookies under the bus and to call out Smoot for being out of shape, but when it came to his own shortcomings, which we have only seen the beginning, he was quick to pass the buck.

[JWB]

Thank God he didn't say we fought our guts out!

[bulldog]

Football is a game of fight :D

[33]

As much as I hate to admit it, because it is selfishly interesting to hear Zorn go on and on, I think the OP is correct.

But I also think so long as he continues to call his players out publicly (he seems way too comfortable doing it for me to believe he'll stop, also Holmgren does the same thing) he will have to take some responsibility for losses and bad plays. But clearly, he doesn't need to sit in a press conference acting like it's some sort of play-callers confessional.

I think Gibbs demeanor and acceptance of responsibility spread to his players. They never passed the buck on to another player or unit. Something that was all too normal in years pre-Gibbs 2.

[Om]

He wasn't very honest in the post game presser. Calling his passing game "good" and making excuses for his ineptitude is not honesty. It is easy to throw a couple of rookies under the bus and to call out Smoot for being out of shape, but when it came to his own shortcomings, which we have only seen the beginning, he was quick to pass the buck.

Bull****.

[21KO]

I agree with a lot of your points, but at the same time I feel surprisingly content with the fact that Zorn appears to be pretty hard on himself. Seems to me like he's determined to get this right. Will he? Sure as hell hope so... but I get the feeling like he's going to work and work and work until we do. Just my .02.

I'm gonna save time and just say ditto. Pretty much nails it IMO.