Jim Mora Is A Natural Leader

I missed this article when it came out a few days ago, so it's old news now. But any opportunity to illustrate how big an assbag Jim Mora was as a head coach is always worth taking. The article is mostly about how Bobby Petrino will be judged on his first year as a head coach and specifically how he will relate to his players. But some comparisons are made to Mora.

Mora was at his best when he coached with an edge, which was early in his tenure. He didn't torment players but neither was he their pal. He had their attention. That started to change in his second season. He started playing favorites with players, particularly with [DeAngelo] Hall. He became their pal. Discipline was lax. By year three, Mora had lost the locker room.

If by "early in his tenure" he means his first four games, maybe. After that, Mora had about as much respect as a Michael Jackson daycare center. The example the author gives is priceless.

There was an incident in training camp when the coach organized a "team-building" outing to the movies. Players and coaches loaded buses to see "Invincible." But Hall spun out of the parking lot in his Lamborghini. Mora not only allowed it, he jumped into the Lamborghini with Hall. Veterans watching from the bus were stunned.

Mora spent all those years on his dad's teams being the cool son of the head coach who could get his players out of tackling drills that he never learned how to command a group of men. The Buccaneers take an outing to a movie sometime in each training camp, too. Can you imagine Jon Gruden hopping on the back of Michael Pittman's motorcycle and the two of them taking off to do their own thing while the rest of the team goes to the movie? Chris Hovan would rip both their heads off as soon as they got back. Gruden may not be a "people person", but he knows how command the respect of his team.