The CheckerBoard

On his Sun. a.m. radio show in Nashville (during which we get to hear him ramble for an entire hour, due to the lack of any callers except a couple of senile, elderly gentlemen who call regularly), he has repeatedly said, since Sun. was hired, that:

-He had NEVER seen anyone successfully change from a 4-3 to a 3-4 in one year; it ALWAYS took 2 years for the change; and the first year in the new 3-4 you just had to accept that the D would be horrible. Thus, in his opinion:

-The Sun. decision was far and away the worst single decision Dooley had made since hired, UNLESS he had private assurances from Hart that he fully trusted to not fire him, regardless of what happened this year.

He made it clear, without saying it in these words, that if Dooley's job really was on the line this year, he was very afraid that decision would get him fired. I remember him saying it back in January, and since Doug is very much an admitted homer, that one repeated opinion, going into the year, scared me more than anything else.

We shall see. Doug is getting older and perhaps a little less sharp himself, but still, the man has coached an awful lot of defensive football in his career and has been a DC himself.