We've heard this all before: Colts' Ballard reflects on the past season and what's to come
Indy's GM knows it's now or never -- reach the playoffs or find another job.
Honestly, what can Chris Ballard say at this point that will quell the public discontent with his team and his tenure? What can he possibly say that will inspire fan confidence in his ability to lead the Colts after nine years without a division title and five years without a playoff appearance?
The Colts general manager had his annual post-season availability with the media Thursday and engaged in his annual practice of hara kiri, falling on his sword as we’ve become accustomed. I honestly could have cut-and-pasted my columns from the previous four post-mortems, same basic questions, same basic answers. Yes, Chris, we know: It’s not good enough.
Now tell us what you’re going to do about it.
There were a few statements he made that struck me. Let me share those quotes and add my take on each.
“Had long meetings with Carlie (Irsay-Gordon) prior to the Houston game,” Ballard said. “We met three or four times, couple of hours for each session, kind of diving into everything we do. And, like, the No. 1 question she asked me was, `Do you still have your juju or shimmer to do this?’ It was a fair question…But I told her unequivocally, I have not lost my shimmer, juju or confidence, whatever you want to say it is, even through all of the struggles we’ve been through, I feel like we can still get this team to a place where the city is really proud of it.”
My take: What in the hell is shimmer? Is that like mojo, which is a close cousin to juju (I think)? What evidence is there that Ballard ever had the mojo or shimmer or juju? He’s hit some homers in the draft, (Shaq Leonard comes to mind) but the bottom line remains, he’s struggled to find answers at quarterback and edge rusher, the two most important positions on the field. After all the draft capital he’s used to select edge rushers, what makes Irsay-Gordon or anybody else believe that Ballard is the guy who’s finally going to get it right? (Remember Ben Banogu?) After all the quarterback boondoggles since Andrew Luck’s, are we foolish in believing, as Ballard does, that Daniel Jones is both the short- and long-term answer?
