NOT BALLIN' THREAD, under control

[zook]

Meh. No team should make up their mind before interviewing multiple candidates.

That's only true if you think an interview is the end-all, be-all of a person's coaching acumen, which it isn't. Dungy's record in Tampa Bay made him the obvious coach for the Colts and the interview was just a formality. Do you think the Patriots should have had open tryouts for WR so as to give an equal shot to James Thrash and Todd Pinskton, instead of just going and getting Randy Moss when he became available?

I think there are lots of important things you could learn from interviews with multiple head coaching candidates... how they see their system fitting with your players, what personnel changes they think need to be made, how much control they want over personnel decisions, how they handle themselves in public speaking situations, their personal values and beliefs... I don't know the details of the Dungy hire, but I can't imagine interviewing a couple more candidates (while telling Dungy he was at the very top of their list) could possibly have done anything but help the Colts owners.

The analogy with players is a bad one because you can evaluate almost everything they do on film while so much of coaches' work is in player motivation, preparation, personnel decisions and strategy that may or may not be obvious on game day.

I don't want to come off as a huge affirmative action flag-waver, but it's probably too late. I understand that it isn't the best solution to the underlying problems and I hope it's eventually unnecessary. I just can't stand people bashing it without acknowledging the rationale behind it or offering better solutions. I especially can't stand people who whine about "reverse discrimination". Not talking about you here mcat, obv.