Jeff Saturday - The Legend
What hyperbole should we use today?
Revenge is a dish best served cold?
Get off your high horse?
Never say never?
Whatever phrase you want to use - the truth remains the same. Jeff Saturday is 1-0 in the National Football League. It’s one of my favorite stories that has occurred in the NFL over the past decade. I specifically love it because these takes were SO bad.
I am not here to say that Jeff Saturday is going to be a successful Head Coach. He very well could stink at this job. In fact, it is LIKELY that he will be bad at this. There are a lot of terrible head coaches throughout NFL history and odds are that he will join those ranks.
However to say this is one of the most egregious decisions ever made in the sport, well that’s just an absurd take. I am not going to get into the secret dark history of the NFL, this isn’t the time or the place, but I could. What I want to do instead is highlight reasons that I am excited that Jeff Saturday is the Head Coach of the Indianapolis Colts.
If you are a Colts fan like me, you have to recognize that this year has been a massive disappointment. There are no ifs or buts about it, they have been flat out bad in nearly every area of the game. In the pre-season, I believed this team was a mid-tier contender. They aren’t that. After last year's horrendous finish this was a make or break year, they broke and due to that, Frank Reich got the ax. That’s the business.
For the first time in a long time, I felt hopeless as a Colts fan. It’s not that I had high expectations in years past, but at least I knew the time was growing towards something. That sentiment at this point is gone. The juice was gone and needed to be brought back. Thus comes Jeff Saturday. A winner. A Colt. A difference maker. An electric personality. This is a move that, for better or for worse, brings the juice back.
That’s where the crux of the issue comes in though right? People don’t like that he was hired off the literal street with no experience. It’s “disrespectful” as some have said. I don’t have the same belief. To me, while he was terrible at explaining it, Irsay was trying to be different. Different can be the difference maker. It’s like the scene in Ted Lasso where Ted coaches the team like a football coach instead of a soccer coach for the last game because it allows them to have the upper hand.
When you are inexperienced that means you don’t develop all of the good habits that are developed in the coaching ranks, but it also means you don’t develop the bad habits. That can be a difference maker, for better or for worse, Saturday might not think like the typical coach. To me, it’s for the better because he was a professional, he understands the game, so just lead like he feels is right rather than conforming to the societal nature of coaching.
Many in the league look at this as a potential catastrophic failure for one of two reasons.
One: The Colts will stink.
Two: This hurts people trying to get jobs.
I don’t see the risk though. First of all the Colts already are in the midst of a bad season. How much worse can it really get? I don’t think much. In fact, we have seen the players rally behind Saturday. Second of all, maybe this opens the door of opportunity for more that want to coach. Pat McAfee and AJ Hawk had a great take on this on Pat’s show…. They know and played with a lot of guys who would be incredible coaches, but have made way too much money to ever want to go be the guy grinding and getting coffee for other coaches. If this works - it could open the door to a whole swath of coaches.
At the end of the day - the takes on this being one of the worst things for football are so overblown. This could be great, this could not work, or it could just be a thing that happens for 8 games and then we forget about it.
Here’s what I do know today.
Jeff Saturday brings juice to the Colts season.
Jeff Saturday has the opportunity to be a different kind of coach.
Jeff Saturday being the head coach is a no lose situation.
Oh and also Jeff Saturday is 1-0 as a NFL Head Coach.