Diner Morning News: Super Bowl Curse

“In the face of adversity and personal pain, we continue to strive to achieve our ideals... to provide comfort and hope to those we care about... by converting our collective hopes, dreams and aspirations into reality.” — Boris M. Struk

I wrote several weeks ago about the trials and tribulations that awaited the Super Bowl loser Arizona Cardinals this whole offseason. I focused on the “Disease of Me” from Pat Riley, the former NBA coach.

Riley explains that winning is harder to deal with from a team standpoint than losing. Everyone in the organization wants the credit, want new contracts, wants to feel loved. They have, in essence, over-evaluated their true net worth. Losing the Super Bowl is one of the hardest challenges for any leader because you must deal with the same problems as the champions, but you don’t have the ring or the trophy.

Can the Cardinals get through the rest of the NFC and make it back to the Super Bowl?

Some of those problems are off the field, but many of them are on it. It’s my belief that a football team breaks down in three areas: players, coaching and schemes. So if the Cards are to compete once again for the NFC West title, they must be solid in all three. Despite the recent proclamation by Darnell Dockett, words will not win the NFC West; quality in all three areas of football will.

Here’s my checklist to avoiding the “Super Bowl Losers Curse”:

(Side note: Since I was part of a team that lost a Super Bowl, then responded the next year with a stellar performance, losing 12 games, the Cards might want to consider my advice cautiously).

Coaching Checklist

1. Fire the defensive coordinator who could never settle on a scheme he liked and changed everything each week. Check.

2. Get the head coach more involved with the offense. Ken Whisenhunt is a very good offensive coach; in fact, he’s the head coach of the Cardinals because of this ability to call a game. Losing Todd Haley will not be difficult to overcome as long as Whisenhunt assumes a larger role. This will help the team adopt more of the head coach’s personality, which it will need to be successful.

3. Don’t talk about getting back to the Super Bowl. Focus only on winning the division. Spend all of camp thinking about Seattle, San Francisco and St. Louis. You must win the NFC West first. San Francisco is the opener, so this should be easy to do.

4. Adhere to the S.M.A.R.T. acronym with regard to setting goals for the team: specific, measureable, attainable, realistic, timely. The most important goal is to have a good practice the next day, not beat the Giants in Week Seven. Timely goals are critical.

5. Change the depth chart constantly. Make players feel they have to earn the right to play, not expect to play. Promote competition. Always remember, “Fear does the work of reason.”

6. Expect to deal with unhappy players—embrace conflict. Never lose sight of what is truly urgent and important. A player missing OTAs is not urgent. It might be important, but it does not warrant attention.

Player Checklist