This is another installment of a series in which readers engage with USA TODAY Sports NFL Columnist Jarrett Bell. In some cases, the e-mailed letters have been edited for clarity, brevity and/or accuracy. Questions? Comments? E-mail: jbell@usatoday.com
In this edition, readers serve up feedback on big comebacks and collapses, the NFL’s overtime rule, Patriots coach Mike Vrabel and … Coach Michael Irvin?
Steve Serotte on Michael Irvin: I’ve noticed some comments from Michael Irvin regarding holes in the Dallas Cowboys defense. Rather than comment and complain, the Hall of Fame player should join the staff and dedicate the time to help resolve this. In other words, he should have joined the coaching staff prior to the season. But he’s too busy jumping around on the sidelines as a cheerleader for both his college and pro teams. That’s OK, but Mr. Irvin, your comments are debilitating and not helpful.
JB: It’s quite a stretch to lay any of the blame for Dallas’ disastrous defense on Irvin, who with his huge presence – on YouTube and beyond – still moves the needle with opinions about his former team. I thought the suggestion of him coaching was far-fetched … until I called and asked him. Irvin, the high-energy, emotional soul of those three Super Bowl championship teams during the 1990s, said that he indeed was struck by the coaching bug in 2016, when he attended the 50th birthday party for his former teammate, Ken Norton, Jr.
Norton, currently the Washington Commanders linebackers coach, has built an impressive coaching resume since winning three Super Bowls as a player with the Cowboys and 49ers. He won a fourth Super Bowl ring with the Seahawks as a member of Pete Carroll’s staff.
“Very rarely in life do you get to see the impact that you have on people in real-time, like a coach or a teacher can see,” Irvin told USA TODAY Sports. “Most of us, we’ll look back in time and say, ‘I didn’t know I meant that much to them.’ ”
Irvin worked for the NFL Network when he attended Norton’s party and happened to fly to New York afterward. He said he shared his coaching reflections with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, who told him that he could have as great or more of an impact with his high-profile TV role, as an example of someone who overcame much adversity. “That sort of settled me down at that point,” Irvin said. “I appreciated him saying that and seeing that.”
Of course, Irvin sounds like a coach when harping on details. He mastered the art of catching the football against his body, reflected with those “Bang 8” slant patterns because he recognized how to channel what he considers as the body’s natural tendency to protect itself in traffic. He said people have told him Terrell Owens and Calvin Johnson never caught the ball against their bodies, as they used their hands.
“And I say they never caught a ring,” he quipped.
Owens, he added, led the league in dropped third-down passes during at least one point of his Cowboys tenure because of problems with slants and underneath crossing routes.
“He was trying to catch it with his hands, and his body was tensing up,” Irvin said. “If you don’t make those plays, you can catch a million balls but you ain’t going to win no championship.”
Sounds like a coach alright. Irvin has talked, too, with his ex-teammate, Deion Sanders, about coaching. But he admits he’s no Coach Prime.
“It was an itch of mine, but I just think I’m too intense for it,” Irvin said. “My concern would be if there’s a drop on third-and-nine. I ask, ‘What happened?’ And it’s, ‘Coach, I’ll get the next one.’
“I would Woody Hayes him!” Irvin said, referencing the former Ohio State coach whose career ended after he slugged a player. “There would be no next one!”
Yep. He knows. Too intense.
Biggest NFL collapses? Don’t forget Super Bowl 51
Brett Sorge on historic collapses: My favorite collapse was Super Bowl 51, when the Falcons lost after leading the Patriots, 28-3. Atlanta has never fully recovered since then.
JB: What an epic comeback by Tom Brady & Co., and yes, massive collapse, that resulted in the first overtime in Super Bowl history in February 2017 at NRG Stadium in Houston. And yeah, it’s striking to note that the Falcons have made the playoffs just once since that Super Bowl meltdown – the next season, with a wild-card round victory followed by a divisional round loss. Talk about a Super Bowl Hangover. As for the present, the huge rally by the Denver Broncos last weekend – they were the first team since 1970 (at least) to overcome a deficit of 18 points or more with 6 minutes left in the fourth quarter to win in regulation – again illustrated that for every big comeback there’s a big collapse. I’ve wondered: With more and more NFL games going down to the wire, are we seeing an increasing number of these wild games where no lead is safe? Well, yes. According to the NFL, seven games this season have been won teams that trailed by 14 points or more. And 14 victories have been achieved by overcoming deficits of 10-plus points. And the 30 games decided by a game-winning score in the final two minutes of regulation or overtime were the most ever through Week 7. So, remember: No lead is safe.
What could have been in Tennessee with Mike Vrabel
Keith Cox on Mike Vrabel’s return to Tennessee: Mike Vrabel would have won Super Bowls with the Titans had he agreed to finding a real NFL quarterback instead of sticking with Ryan Tannehill, as they tried to turn him into a game-management version of Tom Brady. Plus, Amy Adams-Strunk fires Jon Robinson, probably one of the best GMs in the business. And the Titans had arguably the most transformative running back in history in Derrick Henry.
JB: There were certainly multiple factors that contributed to Vrabel’s split with the Titans, just two years after he won a second consecutive division title. And several factors tied to the team’s decline since then, which was further underscored by the firing of second-year coach Brian Callahan on the week that Vrabel came back to Nashville with his first-place New England Patriots. Surely, you can start at the top with team owner Amy Adams-Strunk, who hasn’t made the football-power hires to, well, ensure stability. No, Tannehill wasn’t the long-term QB answer and King Henry has shown there is still mileage in his tires. Yet when I think of the turning point in Vrabel’s Titans tenure, I land on the disconnect between the coach and the since-fired GM, Robinson, who traded away Vrabel’s best player, wide receiver A.J. Brown, during the 2022 NFL Draft that netted a first-round pick used on … Treylon Burks, recently released after producing one TD in three seasons. Brown, meanwhile, is a three-time All-Pro since leaving Tennessee, with one Super Bowl ring.
On NFL overtime, should they just keep playing?
Jason Hill on the NFL’s overtime rule: I read your article on the Green Bay-Dallas game, and how OT is unsatisfying. The best solution to NFL OT has been obvious to me for years, and it’s almost too simple: You just keep playing when the clock hits 0:00 – no new possession, no new period, kickoff or special rules. You play until someone scores, and then the game is over. Everyone knows that when you play the game, you have the opportunity to defend and manage the clock throughout the game. It’s the most “fair” competitive solution. I never understood why it doesn’t get more consideration.
JB: On one level, I’m feeling your suggestion to just let the teams keep playing with a continuation of the game until a winner emerges. That’s much better than the jacked-up college system of red-zone roulette, as I’d call it. Then again, what if the game is tied after six or seven quarters? Although playoff games can become marathon matches that can extend to double or triple overtime because some team has to advance, the NFL and NFL Players Association put a time-limit cap on regular-season games (10 minutes, down from the previous 15-minute OT max) due to player safety (they insist) and competitive balance. I mean, what if a team plays a double-OT game on Sunday and then has to travel to play a Thursday night game? Yeah, it’s weird how the physical toll isn’t so much a detriment to playing a game on three days’ rest in the league’s eyes but is a factor for the OT rule. Yes, they can have it both ways. Beyond that, the rule requiring that both teams get a possession in OT can get twisted, too, even if it’s supposed to level the playing field, so to speak, to prevent a team quickly driving for a game-winning field goal. All that said, as much as I know the NFL and its competition committee wouldn’t go for it, given all the tweaks to OT in recent years, I personally wouldn’t mind your “play on” suggestion.
Contact Jarrett Bell at jbell@usatoday.com or follow on X: @JarrettBell