Colts clean house: Polians are out

[jtnc]

We have our first stunner of Black Monday.

Colts Vice Chairman Bill Polian and his son G.M. Chris Polian are out in Indianapolis, according to Chris Mortensen of ESPN.

We’ll have more on this story soon. There’s no official word yet on coach Jim Caldwell.

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/01/02/colts-clean-house-polians-are-out/

[ladypanther]

Deserved.

[rayzor]

ibtFIREHURNEYHIREPOLIAN!!!comments

[g5jamz]

This clears the way for the Luck selection.

[5158Poundin]

Black Monday, indeed. The heads are starting to roll!

[pstall]

How many losing seasons has the Colts had while Polian has been there?

[Panthro]

How many losing seasons has the Colts had while Manning has been there?

...

[Panthers128]

Whenever you get a number one overall pick it's a good time to change your GM. If your GM was so great, you should have never ended up with the number one overall pick.

Also it gives the new GM a good opportunity to start with.

[pstall]

...

Did he draft himself?

[rayzor]

it's not about the losing seasons. there's a whole lot more going on.

i started a thread a few weeks back about some of the things that was going on inside indy.

cut and pasted for your reading pleasure:

pretty interesting read...esp. considering those who wish that polian had stuck around here.

The only Colts coach Polian has ever hired was Jim Mora Sr. The marriage ended badly, with Polian firing Mora after he refused to dimiss his then-defensive coordinator, Vic Fangio, following the 2001 season. Today, Fangio coordinates Jim Harbaugh's San Francisco 49ers defense, which ranks No. 1 in the NFL. Mora Sr. still has not spoken a word to Polian since their break-up ten years ago.

After Mora, the common myth is that Polian then hired former Tampa Bay head coach Tony Dungy. Not true. Polian never had any intention of hiring Dungy back in 2002. It was Colts owner Jim Irsay who wanted Dungy despite Polian's protests. To make the situation work, Irsay and Polian went to Tampa, met with Dungy, and worked things out. The rest is history, as they say.

Phil Wilson of the Indianapolis Star spoke about the hiring of Dungy yesterday on an Indianapolis radio show:

It's always been speculated that Polian wanted to hire Nick Saban as the Colts head man after Mora was canned. Some of you might not know this, but Saban was who Polian wanted to hire in 1998. The deal never materialized. Polian settled for Mora.

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As Phil Wilson astutely points out, the problem with keeping the Polians around is, quite simply, many coaches don't want to work for them. The Polians have an awful reputation in league circles for being insufferable pricks (they act that way with everyone, not just media), and they are known as meddlers. They will want full control over the roster, and they will also want the next head coach to retain some of the current assistants working under Caldwell.

Wilson explains to radio personality Dan Dakich on his show yesterday:

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Look, we continue to beat this drum, and we will do so until Jim Irsay opens his eyes and realizes the obvious: Bill Polian and his useless sons must be purged from the front office at the end of the season. I don't know how Jim Irsay could sell to the fanbase that soon-to-be-thrice-fired Norv Turner is going to lead the Colts to a championship. And since it seems unlikely that any sort of credible head coach would ever come to Indy and deal with the overbearing asshats who currently run the front office, the question is: Why keep them?

Why keep the Polians? How do they help? How do they improve the quality of the franchise?

Their recent draft record is horrible. They spurn free agency. They can't hire quality coaches. People around the league refer to them as 'toxic.'

http://www.stampedeblue.com/2011/12/16/2640456/bill-polian-did-not-want-to-hire-tony-dungy-in-2002-might-want-norv

btw...if you're wondering about that "toxic" quote:

As pointed out by Brad Wells of StampedeBlue.com via email and Jason Whitlock of FOXSports.com via Twitter, Bob Kravitz of the Indianapolis Star has crafted a compelling case for blaming the team’s current struggles on the son of Vice Chairman Bill Polian.

Based on interviews with several unnamed former Colts employees conducted in recent weeks, Kravitz writes that G.M. Chris Polian is a “toxic force who has brought this franchise to its knees for reasons other than Peyton Manning’s injury.” Apart from Chris Polian’s decisions as the man in charge of personnel, Kravitz explains that damage was done as Chris Polian stood on his father’s shoulders to leapfrog others on the organizational chart.

“ince he started moving up the organizational ladder in the early 2000s for no apparent reason other than being a Polian,” Kravtiz writes, “he has been instrumental in hastening the exits of scouts and assistant coaches who led the Colts to previous greatness.”

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/11/06/chris-polian-catching-more-blame-for-the-state-of-the-colts/

[rayzor]

oh...when was the last time he had a good draft? '06?

[stirs]

jeff fisher

come on down

[pstall]

To see some context added to the behind the scenes is good and spells out whats really at play.

For some to minimize what he has done or dismiss his football iq is a bit foolhardy.

[rayzor]

he hasn't done as much as people think, though.

crap. in that other thread some guy you said had a swatgasomethingorother post gave him credit for drafting faulk and marvin harrison and building a "great" defense when none of that is really true.