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Catching up is hard to do
We were out of the country for three and a half weeks, the Redhead and I, seldom encountering an English-language publication. And when we returned and I had gone through the mountain of newspapers in front of me, I was struck by one singular thing: Practically nothing had happened on the football landscape. Make that nothing unexpected. OK, the XFL folded. Did you really expect a show that drew the lowest prime-time network ratings in history to get more money from NBC for another year of same? To me, the shocking thing was that the network paid for this sorry mishmosh in the first place. But I guess that's a tribute to the salesmanship power of Vince McMahon. That guy is what we call a franchise hustler. The old WFL had a character like that named Gary Davidson, who skinned the league and then departed, and this was almost 20 years ago. McMahon got what he wanted from his XFL promotion, namely a lot of personal publicity and ink for his World Wrestling Federation, and then he said goodbye, amidst much hand wringing and sorrow. The basic problem is that there is simply too much minor league football. I've written this before, but when the XFL was alive you had five separate leagues in operation -- the NFL, CFL, World League, XFL and Arena Football. Enough already. Second major event: realignment. In an hour, the first plan presented was approved, despite some mild complaining by Seattle, the only franchise that had to switch conferences. The best thing about this speedy resolution is that we will no longer have to read all those mock-realignment charts that writers dream up on a slow day. Oh sure, I've done my share, too, but we're not privy to all the numbers that play a role in these decisions. I have no major complaints about the way things worked out. I'll take it a step further and say that I couldn't have worked out a better arrangement myself. But I'm sure there are lots of dissenting opinions out there, and that's why we have a mailbag section. The story that interested me most involved player personnel director (officially Director of Football Operations) Tom Modrak getting fired in Philly. A very strong case could have been made for him as Executive of the Year last season. The talent that he brought in, especially the young talent, lifted a mediocre team into the playoffs. It shocked me when I found out that he'd been axed. I made a few calls and got both sides of the issue. The club's position was that he was constantly playing footsie with other teams, notably Buffalo and Chicago, and that he always intended to jump ship. Why else would he have had the window put into his contract last year that for a four-week period after the draft he could entertain other offers? And when the rumors surfaced that he might be leaving, he didn't do enough to squelch them. Modrak's position: "For two weeks I was on TV telling everyone, 'I'm staying.' Which didn't mean that I was happy with everything that went on, just that I was excited about what we'd built here, and I didn't want to leave it. But when people want to get rid of you, they figure out an excuse." The problem with this organization goes back to the Ray Rhodes era. Once, in one of his periods of depression, Rhodes sounded off to me about his frustration with team owner Jeff Lurie and his first lieutenant, Joe Banner: "They come into my personnel meetings with a bunch of fantasy football cards. Maybe it's a fantasy to them. To me, it's my lifeblood." Now I didn't really think that they actually had those fantasy football things; thist seemed more like a symbolic statement, although who knows? Lots of weird things happen. What Rhodes was saying was that the bean counters were telling him how to run the hard football side of things, and it was upsetting. I heard the same thing from Modrak. Lurie? Well, he's the boss. Even though he doesn't come from a football background, it's his money. Banner is the cap guy, the numbers' juggler, valuable in an organization but unskilled in judging who's qualified to pick up a blitzing linebacker. For some reason Banner, who came to the NFL from the textile business, seems to bug the football people. The Eagles' p.r. department goes out of its way to make Banner available to the press, as if it's trying to show us what a nice guy he is. And he is a nice guy -- pleasant, soft-spoken. The first time I met him I was expecting some little Napoleon type, but he wasn't like that at all. Still, if I were a coach or personnel director, that doesn't mean I'd want him messing with my squad, once he got past the salary part of it. And that's precisely what Modrak felt was happening. He said, for example, that while he was away at the East-West Game, a player was signed without receiving a physical. He mentioned the constant meddling, the same accusation Rhodes had made. "They let me alone when we were losing," Modrak said. "Now that we're winning, everyone wants to get into it. See, you get smarter when you win." Modrak will get another job. He's too talented to sit on the beach. He has interviewed in Chicago, where the team would have him wait until June 15 to start work, putting him one step behind the rest of the field, and in Buffalo, where he'd work under his old boss at Pittsburgh, Tom Donahoe. In Philly Modrak had his own show, and the Eagles' success was largely his own creation. Now he has to begin again. That's the sad part of it. Some quickie takes. My favorite item from three and a half weeks of the transactions agate section: May 10, Miami Dolphins, named Ron Labadie director of college scouting. Named Adam Engroff college scouting director. How's that again? I guess a phone call could clear that up, but I prefer it as written, which is the way it'll go into my BIG BOOK, a 40-year record I've been keeping of the world's lunacy. Finally, my favorite quote during the period, from author Joel Best: Bad statistics are harder to kill than vampires. Sports Illustrated senior writer Paul Zimmerman covers the NFL for the magazine and CNNSI.com. His "Inside Football" column and Mailbag appear weekly on CNNSI.com. To send a question to Dr. Z, click here. The opinions expressed here are solely those of the writer.
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