Should the New England Patriots win their second Super Bowl in three years Sunday, do not expect their front-office guru to make the late-night talk rounds or become the subject of best-selling nonfiction.
Operating as the stealth administrator between coach and cast, the rock and a hard cap, Scott Pioli asserted on Wednesday that there was no place in football for a front-office celebrity, for the equivalent of Billy Beane.
"It's about the team winning championships," he said. "If you're in this for the trappings of the game, you're in this for the wrong reasons. And that higher-profile garbage is part of the trappings."
Tell that to Beane, the general manager of the Oakland Athletics, who is the gilded genius of the book "Moneyball." Tell it to Isiah Thomas, the mayor of Madison Square Garden. From Pat Riley to Joe Torre, other sports have their power bench people, but in far more cases than in the NFL there is at least acknowledgment of the working partnership that generally is a stipulation for success.
Elsewhere in New England, front-office trappings come with the territory. If the region should find itself with a World Series champion by next October, you can bet that Theo Epstein, the young Red Sox architect, will be the Election Day preference for president, not John Kerry.
Pioli? He enjoyed his 15 minutes of round-table fame on Wednesday at the Patriots' hotel but was more interested in returning to his room to continue preparations for the 2004 college draft. "I don't care that people don't know who I am," he said.
Officially, he is the Patriots' vice president for player personnel, or the chief operating officer of Bill Belichick Inc. Not that Belichick is a serial attention-seeker, far from it, but this is how it goes in the sport of coaching monarchs, on teams where sideline-generated heat is often the primary motivational tool. He who dons the headset indisputably wears the crown.
"Coaching has more of a play in football than it does in any other sport," Marty Hurney, the Carolina Panthers' general manager, said.
Like Ernie Accorsi, the Giants' front-office honcho, Hurney is a former sportswriter, which must mean he knows what he's talking about. He covered the Redskins for The Washington Star, which is now defunct, and later The Washington Times before landing a job on the Redskins' public relations staff. The rest is history and the mastering of the football science known as capology.
There are more players in football, more arcane rounds of the annual college draft than in basketball, more negotiations, more year-to-year roster manipulations in a system with few guaranteed contracts and wanton free agency.
"You've got so many things that go into it, especially the cap," Hurney said. "Then again, you say it's a hard cap, but what makes it hard is that it's not really hard. You can manipulate it any way you want for the present, but it's going to get you in trouble for the future."
If the Panthers win Sunday night, Hurney can count on getting no national recognition for cracking the cap code, for Carolina's turnaround from 1-15 two years ago, for reeling in two vital free-agent offensive cogs, running back Stephen Davis and quarterback Jake Delhomme.
John Fox, the charismatic coach Hurney helped hire, will have a book offer before he gets to Disneyland, not that Hurney, the old Redskins beat guy, cares any more about that than Pioli.
US track and field athletes have about four dozen pieces to choose from when assembling their uniforms at the Olympics. The one grabbing the most attention is a high-cut leotard that barely covers the bikini line and has triggered debate between those who think it is sexist and others who say they do not need the Internet to make sure they have good uniforms. Among those critical or laughing at the uniforms included Paralympian Femita Ayanbeku, sprinter Britton Wilson and even athletes from other countries such as Britain’s Abigail Irozuru, who wrote on social media: “Was ANY female athlete consulted in
Four-time NBA all-star DeMarcus Cousins arrived in Taiwan with his family early yesterday to finish his renewed contract with the Taiwan Beer Leopards in the T1 League. Cousins initially played a four-game contract with the Leopards in January. On March 18, the Taoyuan-based team announced that Cousins had renewed his contract. “Hi what’s up Leopard fans, I’m back. I’m excited to be back and can’t wait to join the team,” Cousins said in a video posted on the Leopard’s Facebook page. “Most of all, can’t wait to see you guys, the fans, next weekend. So make sure you come out and support the Beer
Former US Masters champion Zach Johnson was left embarrassed after a foul-mouthed response to ironic cheers from spectators after a triple bogey at Augusta National on Friday. Johnson, the 2007 Masters winner, missed the cut after his three-over-par round of 75 left him on seven-over 151 for 36 holes, his six on the par-three 12th playing a big role in his downfall. Television footage showed Johnson reacting to sarcastic cheers and applause when he tapped in for the triple bogey by yelling: “Oh fuck off.” Such a response would be considered bad form in any golf tournament, but is particularly out of keeping
The sacred flame for the Paris Olympics was lit yesterday in Olympia, Greece, the birthplace of the ancient Games, in a ceremony inspired by antiquity and marked by messages of hope amid multiple global crises. “In ancient times, the Olympic Games brought together the Greek city states, even — and in particular — during times of war and conflict,” International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach said. “Today, the Olympic Games are the only event that brings the entire world together in peaceful competition. Then as now, the Olympic athletes are sending this powerful message — yes, it is possible to compete fiercely