Former Browns head coach Pat Shurmur, who was hired to the same position by the New York Giants on Monday, is a good guy.
A really good guy.
He truly is.
And his friendly personality really stood out when he coached in Cleveland in 2011 and ’12 because it came on the heels of two miserable seasons with Eric Mangini as coach. Mangini is a mean, distasteful human being.
Back to Shurmur. He’s a good offensive coordinator. He’s proven that in the NFL, especially with the Minnesota Vikings this season, Sunday’s blowout loss to the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFC Championship Game notwithstanding.
So, then, the Giants are getting a good head coach, right?
Uh, not so fast, my friend.
It’s possible – entirely possible – that Shurmur will succeed, but to do so, he will have had to learned a lot from his experience in Cleveland, which was a disaster. It was clear – crystal-clear – that he was way in over his head. He didn’t know what to do, or how to act, as a head coach. He was listless on the sideline, like he was standing along the interstate and watching the traffic fly by.
In addition, when things really began to spiral out of control in Cleveland, he started to take it out on the media, getting testy. The Cleveland media is nothing – nothing! – in terms of viciousness in comparison to the New York media. Those people will slice and dice a coach to shreds and think nothing of it.
So if Shurmur couldn’t take the media here, it’s a good bet that he will have an even harder time – a much harder time – handling it in New York. And that makes a difference.
There’s enough contentiousness between any head coach and the media. It’s just the nature of the relationship. But when a coach not named Bill Belichick,, Bill Parcells or Nick Saban gets contentious with the media for no reason, he’s asking for trouble. And once trouble shows up and the media grows to dislike the coach, it can get very ugly very quickly.
But good luck to Shurmur, anyway. I would love to see him win big with the Giants.
I just don’t think it will happen.
