http://packerslounge.com/2009/.....motivator/

still applies…

You might want to read one of Bart Starr or Jerry Kraemer’s books and hear how Lombardi was able to motivate, not only them, but the whole team. I see Holmgrem grabbing Schoeder by the face mask as a kind of sideline motivation that encourages a player to get back on course. Their are far too many Nick Barnett’s and not enough Charles Woodsons to have you philosophy applicable to pro football players.

RonLC: You are absolutely right, MM is no motivator.

With all due respect this whole motivation thing just seems silly to me. Motivation, ultimately, has to come from within. These guys are professionals, at the very pinnacle of their profession. If they themselves can’t get themselves motivated to perform at a high level, nothing any coach is going to say is going to do it for them. I suppose on any given Sunday, a coach might be able to give a Hubie Brooks like speech and get a group of 53 guys motivated to exceep their potential for a particular game, but really … with adults … I don’t know a single person who goes to work each day expecting their coach to motivate them to perform up to, or beyond, expectation. What they DO expect is to know what is expected of them, and they expect that everyone will be held accountable for meeting (or not meeting expectations). Perhaps its a distinction without a difference … but I think setting expectations and holding people accountable is something very different than providing motivation.

Jersey Al: Football is based on emotion. I can’t have a Mr. Rogers leading my team. I know I’m old school, but I don’t want a “kinder, gentler” head football coach. I’ll never change my mind on that.</P

Football, like most sports, is a game of execution. If you block well, tackle well, and don’t turn the ball over, you’re usually going to win a lot more than you lose, regardless of the demeanor of the coaches, or the players. Having said that, determination and a genuine desire to beat the crap out of the guy lining up across for you goes a long way. I do like teams that play with a chip on their shoulder and a swagger in their step. But that’s confidence and toughness which are character traits and not emotions. But how many times have you seen a team come out on the field (or court) completely jacked, and ride a huge wave of emotion to a big lead for a quarter or half, only to eventually lose late when they’ve burned all the emotional energy they had, and end up with nothing left in the tank … and then wind up unable to execute and wind up losing. The problem with relying on emotion and constant adreniline rushes to carry you through an entire game is that both require a tremendous amount of energy to sustain, and often there just isn’t enough in the tank for an entire team to burn on that all the way. At the end of the day, they still have to execute for 4 quarters, and they need to have the stamina to do it just as well in the 4th quarter as they did in the 1st. Holmgren was intense, and required intensity from his players … but Holmgren’s teams won when they executed. Same with Bill Walsh. Same with Don Shula. Same with Tom Landry. Etc. Etc. Etc.

Bottom line for me is this … can MM get his team to execute at a high level consistently, regardless of the game conditions or anything else for 4 quarters of each game in the 16 game regular season … not if he can get every one of the players on the roster so jacked up to play every week that they are ready to run through walls for him when they come through the tunnel. If he gets that kind of reaction, and they execute at a high level for 4 quarters, great! All the more fun to watch. But its not emotion that carries a team … its proper execution. Something this team has not been particularly good at for the last 19 games. Penalties, dropped passes, missed blocks, blown coverages, are common threads that run through that 19 game stretch. My concern is not how ‘fired up’ McCarthy gets the guys to play … its weather he can coach these guys up to not keep repeating the same mistakes over and over and over again. Given the two games I have seen this season, where the mistakes that have been made look a whole lot like the mistakes I saw for 16 games last year, I’m not optomistic about it.

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You are absolutely right, MM is no motivator.

A line for Detroit? 0-19 and counting, and their owner is even worse than Undead Al. Undead Al actually has won 3 SBs, how many William Darth Clay Sidious Ford has? Worst franchise in sports are the Lions without a doubt. That being said, I actually like what Detroit has done this year, but they haven’t improven their lines, so they won’t win much.
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BTW, Seymour is still a top 10 DL in this league, no matter if his contract is expiring or not. He is a great improvement, and is 30. You can talk about paying that much to Tommie Kelly and Javon Walker, but not about Seymour. And it was a 2011 draft pick, not 2010.