Darrell Bevell Blaming Ricardo Lockette is the Most Brad Childress Thing Ever
By Dan Zinski
For coaches, there is a right way to handle failure and there is a wrong way. Pete Carroll demonstrated the right way last night by taking all the blame for the Seahawks’ dumb goal line pass onto his own shoulders, removing the burden from offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell and wide receiver Ricardo Lockette.
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Bevell should have taken a cue from Carroll and accepted his share of the blame without throwing anyone else under the bus. Instead, he channeled another head coach he used to work with.
In comments made immediately after the Super Bowl meltdown of all Super Bowl meltdowns, Bevell went full Brad Childress on Ricardo Lockette.
Now instead of just getting hammered for being an idiot, Bevell is getting crushed for being an idiot and a jerk.
Looking at the replay, Bevell is probably not wrong about Lockette. The receiver probably could have fought harder for the ball. And you know what? I bet Lockette knows that.
I bet Pete Carroll at some point will address that issue with Lockette. In private.
To me, what you don’t want to do as a coach is make that observation in front of microphones in the heat of the moment when Ricardo Lockette already feels like crap.
Things like that cause coaches to lose the respect of players. We spent years watching Brad Childress throw players under the bus in a similar fashion. Ask Marcus Robinson, Troy Williamson and Dwight Smith how they felt about Childress’ approach to player relations. Hell, ask Brett Favre and Percy Harvin.
There’s a reason Pete Carroll commands the total respect of his players. Yeah, a lot of Seahawks players are angry with Pete Carroll today. But in the end they will continue to respect him because in the heat of battle he had all their backs.
Darrell Bevell did not have Ricardo Lockette’s back in the heat of the moment. He gave an “honest” answer at the wrong time.
It’s true that coaches occasionally call out players in public as a motivational ploy, but the time to do that is not right after a guy just helped his team lose the Super Bowl. Darrell Bevell may have been upset in that moment but as a coach and a leader he should have swallowed his pride and taken the blame.
In that moment, Bevell should have heeded the example of Pete Carroll, the guy who helped him become a respected offensive coordinator. He should not have heeded the example of Brad Childress, a guy who never won anything and left Minnesota as a laughing stock who commanded zero respect in the locker room.
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