Dear Jed,
I have never written to the President of any company before so I'm not sure if I should call you "Mr. President, Mr. York or Jed". I apologize in advance if the name I have chosen for you is not the name you enjoy hearing around the office.
The idea for this letter is to pass along some advice for your new job. I like you have no experience running a professional football team but unlike you my parents have not given me the keys to the castle.
Do I think you will do a good job or even a great job? I have no idea and anybody who is speculating how great or poorly you will do is foolish. You have no track record so we will let your work speak for itself. But again I am here to give you some advice and not predict the future.
The first thing I would do is put together a list of ten people who are in the NFL and have run or been apart of running successful franchises. This is import, think long term. Don't go searching for advice from people who have been one hit wonders. My list would include the following people (in no particular order)
1. Art Rooney
2. Bill Parcells
3. Jimmy Johnson
3. Pat Bowlen
4. Bill Belichick
5. Bill Cowher
6. Jeff Fisher
7. John Mara/ Steve Tisch
8. Mike Holmgren
9. Eddie De Bartlo
10. Bud Adams
I would give each one of these guys a call and fly to where ever it is they will meet you. If they only have 5 minutes for you I would take it. Put a list of questions together and hope they share some small nugget of information that would put you over the top and help you build long term success. Certainly not all of these guys are going to take your phone call but like most successful people in their respective fields these guys would love to sit down with you and tell you how great they are.
After you sit down with them I would put together another list, this would be the list of franchises you wouldn't want to mold the 49ers after. I would have three people at the top of my list...Jerry Jones, Al Davis and William Clay Ford. These guys clearly have no idea what they are doing. Again I'm not here to judge but take a look at their track records. Certainly they have had some success but we are looking to build a stable franchise, one that continues to win year in and year out. Ok, I just lied to you...William Clay Ford has had zero success.
I would sit down with them and find out what you should never do when making a decision. The list of idiotic things these three men have done are well documented. See if you can match the owner to the "great decision"
1. Fire Jimmy Johnson after turning around a 1 and 15 team and winning two super bowls.
2. Hire Matt Millen because well, why did they hire him?
3. Hire Art Shell (again) maybe it was the free bed and breakfast conncection.
4. Letting your GM draft 3 number 1 receivers 3 years in a row.
5. Giving Jason Garrett $3 million to never call a running play.
6. Fire and hire a coach every other year.
When in doubt while making a decision take a step back and ask yourself "Would Jerry Jones sign this guy?" If the answer is yes...well you know what to do.
After you've meet with the three of these geniuses you will then probably realize that the wealth of information you received from these 3 guys may actually serve you better in the long term.
And when it's all said and done and you're going over everything these people have shared... you need to make one more phone call. The person on the other end of the line should be your special assistant and a guy who has to answer only to you. His name, Steve Young. Possibly one of the smartest "football " guys out there who is wasting away sitting next to Emmitt Smith.
Sincerely,
Every Jealous Middle Aged Man
PS - If you need to hire me to make these phone calls I'm all in.
I have never written to the President of any company before so I'm not sure if I should call you "Mr. President, Mr. York or Jed". I apologize in advance if the name I have chosen for you is not the name you enjoy hearing around the office.
The idea for this letter is to pass along some advice for your new job. I like you have no experience running a professional football team but unlike you my parents have not given me the keys to the castle.
Do I think you will do a good job or even a great job? I have no idea and anybody who is speculating how great or poorly you will do is foolish. You have no track record so we will let your work speak for itself. But again I am here to give you some advice and not predict the future.
The first thing I would do is put together a list of ten people who are in the NFL and have run or been apart of running successful franchises. This is import, think long term. Don't go searching for advice from people who have been one hit wonders. My list would include the following people (in no particular order)
1. Art Rooney
2. Bill Parcells
3. Jimmy Johnson
3. Pat Bowlen
4. Bill Belichick
5. Bill Cowher
6. Jeff Fisher
7. John Mara/ Steve Tisch
8. Mike Holmgren
9. Eddie De Bartlo
10. Bud Adams
I would give each one of these guys a call and fly to where ever it is they will meet you. If they only have 5 minutes for you I would take it. Put a list of questions together and hope they share some small nugget of information that would put you over the top and help you build long term success. Certainly not all of these guys are going to take your phone call but like most successful people in their respective fields these guys would love to sit down with you and tell you how great they are.
After you sit down with them I would put together another list, this would be the list of franchises you wouldn't want to mold the 49ers after. I would have three people at the top of my list...Jerry Jones, Al Davis and William Clay Ford. These guys clearly have no idea what they are doing. Again I'm not here to judge but take a look at their track records. Certainly they have had some success but we are looking to build a stable franchise, one that continues to win year in and year out. Ok, I just lied to you...William Clay Ford has had zero success.
I would sit down with them and find out what you should never do when making a decision. The list of idiotic things these three men have done are well documented. See if you can match the owner to the "great decision"
1. Fire Jimmy Johnson after turning around a 1 and 15 team and winning two super bowls.
2. Hire Matt Millen because well, why did they hire him?
3. Hire Art Shell (again) maybe it was the free bed and breakfast conncection.
4. Letting your GM draft 3 number 1 receivers 3 years in a row.
5. Giving Jason Garrett $3 million to never call a running play.
6. Fire and hire a coach every other year.
When in doubt while making a decision take a step back and ask yourself "Would Jerry Jones sign this guy?" If the answer is yes...well you know what to do.
After you've meet with the three of these geniuses you will then probably realize that the wealth of information you received from these 3 guys may actually serve you better in the long term.
And when it's all said and done and you're going over everything these people have shared... you need to make one more phone call. The person on the other end of the line should be your special assistant and a guy who has to answer only to you. His name, Steve Young. Possibly one of the smartest "football " guys out there who is wasting away sitting next to Emmitt Smith.
Sincerely,
Every Jealous Middle Aged Man
PS - If you need to hire me to make these phone calls I'm all in.
1 comment:
Well Said! I couldn't agree with you more on the Steve Young part
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