The Patriot way?

McDaniel’s cold feet shows team’s history of deception

Riley Guerzini, News Editor

Josh McDaniels is a snake.

Mere hours after the New England Patriots’ offensive coordinator accepted the job to become the next head coach of the Indianapolis Colts, he backed out, opting to remain with the Patriots.

Source: American Football Wiki
New England Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels backed out of the Indianapolis Colts head coaching job just hours after the Colts announced him as their head coach on Facebook.

Ever since the Colts fired former head coach Chuck Pagano in December after a 4-12 season, McDaniels was the team’s top choice, but he could not sign with the team until the Patriot’s season ended Feb. 4 when they fell to the Eagles in Super Bowl LII.

The Colts had already hired many of his choices to become his top assistants and even scheduled a press conference the next day to introduce him as head coach.

McDaniels clearly doesn’t care about those assistants who uprooted their lives and families to take a job under him. He turned his back on the Colts who were the only team to offer him a second chance after he failed as head coach of the Broncos in 2010, getting fired after a 3-9 start.

He left the Colts in a frenzy and as the only team without a head coach for nearly a week before they hired former Eagles offensive coordinator Frank Reich to be their next head coach. Now they will only have a couple of weeks before prospects from all over the country come to Indianapolis for the annual NFL combine which begins Feb. 27.

“Although we are surprised and disappointed, we will resume our head coaching search immediately and find the right fit to lead our team and organization on and off the field,” the Colts said in the statement.

He ran back to the only team that would accept a coach who went back on his word.

Not even his agent, Bob LaMonte, who also represents Colts General Manager Chris Ballard, would tolerate McDaniels’ carelessness. He dropped the coach as his client the next day saying “my word is my bond. Once you break that, there’s nothing left.”

What makes this move even worse is the fact that the Colts and Patriots have been strong rivals since the days when Peyton Manning was hurling the pigskin for the Colts. The two teams were AFC powerhouses all throughout the 2000s, culminating with legendary games like the 2006 AFC championship game and the famous “4th and 2” game in 2009.

McDaniels’ decision to leave the Colts high and dry is still unknown, but this is not the first time a coach had second thoughts about joining a team.

In fact, Patriots head coach Bill Belichick did something eerily similar back in January of 2000 when he resigned as head coach of the New York Jets one day after signing a contract to replace his predecessor Bill Parcells, who subsequently assumed a front office position with the team.

Belichick spurned the Jets, citing concerns about the team’s ownership, and took the head coaching job for the Patriots. He went on to build a dynasty in New England, winning five Super Bowls, while the Jets have missed the playoffs 12 times since 2000.

While Belichick may go down as one of the greatest coaches in NFL history, McDaniels will remain as a worthless, uninspiring cog in the Patriot’s gear of deceitfulness. He has never shown any actual coaching talent outside of New England with two horrible coaching stints in Denver and as the offensive coordinator of the then St. Louis Rams.

The Patriots as an organization also have a history of wrongdoing. They were caught for filming an opposing team’s defensive signals in 2007 in what is known as the infamous “spygate.” The league responded by fining Belichick $500,000 and the team $250,000, and they had to forfeit their 2008 first-round draft pick.

In 2015, the team was fined $1 million and lost two draft picks after the NFL investigated an allegation that they had deliberately under-inflated the footballs used in the AFC championship game against the Colts. Patriots starting quarterback Tom Brady was also suspended four games for his involvement in “deflategate.”

Despite these numerous circumstances, the Patriots have continued to bend the rules and have no respect for the game or the rest of the league.

It doesn’t surprise me that McDaniels skirted any accountability and hurried back into the team’s realm of fraudulent behavior.

I hope McDaniels is pleased with his decision, and as Ballard said in a press conference Wednesday, the rivalry is back on.