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KRIEGER: More character, not characters, needed

By Dave Krieger, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published February 21, 2008 at 8:33 a.m.

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Broncos coach Mike Shanahan has taken chances of some questionable characters that have burned the team.

Photo by Dennis Schroeder / The Rocky/2007

Broncos coach Mike Shanahan has taken chances of some questionable characters that have burned the team.

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The NFL began its annual weeklong religious holiday in Indianapolis on Wednesday. No, not Super Bowl week. That's its annual weeklong orgy of excess. The religious holiday is the festival of weights and measures, also known as the scouting combine.

It has taken on a certain theological quality because it allows people to think they can make objective judgments about a player's chances of success. This is nonsense, but the certitude of numbers is addictive, especially in football, where a lot of positions don't lend themselves to helpful statistics. So important have these weights and measures become, something like 400 wretches are on hand to chronicle them this year.

The trend toward greater emphasis on the numbers - which accounts for a number of the Broncos' failed draft picks in this decade - comes despite the objections of two-time NFL executive of the year Scott Pioli, the Patriots' vice president of player personnel. You may recall that during Super Bowl week, Pioli said overreliance on numbers is the single biggest mistake personnel people make.

The reason for this is pretty obvious. It's much harder to measure instincts, work ethic, selflessness, responsibility, accountability and dependability with a stopwatch or tape measure.

These and other intangible traits - which the Patriots consider so important they don't allow their scouts to call them intangibles - are often aggregated under the heading "character." It's not a word you hear much out of the mouths of Broncos officials these days. Which may have something to do with the team's recent struggles.

In fairness, very few people in football talk about character anymore. There have been so many off-field incidents that a silent consensus seems to have taken hold: Football is a violent sport requiring uncommon aggression. You're going to get some sketchy characters.

Mike Shanahan has been taking his chances on sketchy characters for some time. In fact, enough of these risks have blown up in his face that it will be hard for any player to break into the top three on his flawed character hit parade: Dale Carter, Daryl Gardener and Maurice Clarett.

But when you hear players talk vaguely about qualities missing from the locker room last year, about a lack of commitment, you begin to wonder if Shanahan's gambles on athletic talent over character are sabotaging his team.

Take Todd Sauerbrun. Sauerbrun has a great leg and a roster of personal issues. This is no secret. When Shanahan signed him, he signed a punter with serious baggage. Normally, a punter couldn't get away with any baggage, but Sauerbrun had that leg.

You could measure how far the ball traveled. Shanahan wanted the leg, and he didn't much care about the rest.

So Sauerbrun gets drunk, goes off on a cabbie and a cop, embarrasses himself, embarrasses the Broncos and forces Shanahan to replace him when replacements are hardest to find.

Take Travis Henry. Shanahan was aware Henry had child-support issues. He claims he didn't know to what extent. It turned out to be nine children by nine women, which came out at a Georgia child-support court proceeding. Henry never expressed any regret. He just complained too big a deal was made of this. I was surprised how little a deal was made of it.

When healthy, Henry is a talented running back. This is what Shanahan cared about. I don't know how difficult it would have been to assemble the records the Georgia court assembled, but I didn't get the impression the Broncos tried very hard.

Does irresponsibility in one's personal life correlate to irresponsibility in a group, as a teammate? I'm guessing it varies with the case, but as part of an employee risk assessment, I would have to think it's not a trait you're looking for.

Take Javon Walker, although his only crime seems to be self-absorption. There was a time, early in Shanahan's tenure as head coach, when he got rid of high-maintenance, self-involved wide receivers and brought in low-maintenance character replacements. Couple guys named Rod Smith and Ed McCaffrey. They never wowed anybody at a scouting combine, but they worked out OK.

At the press conference last month where the Dolphins introduced their new coach, Tony Sparano, he mentioned he wants players with "character" five times. It made me try to recollect the last time Shanahan made a point of this as a factor in player selection. I couldn't.

The Patriots have found stars among players with pedestrian measurements by NFL standards, from Tom Brady to Tedy Bruschi. By contrast, the Broncos have found disappointment in a series of top draft picks with marvelous weights and measures. Every team is going to have some of both over time, but it is worth considering that if you don't emphasize character in the personnel selection process, you may not end up with as much of it as you need.

It's not just that the Broncos need to get away from a reliance on numbers that has produced too many disappointments since 2000. It's also that they have to care more about measuring the immeasurable. If you want intangibles in your locker room when the going gets tough, now is the time to look for them.

kriegerd@RockyMountainNews.com

Comments

  • February 21, 2008

    8:11 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    r8rh8r writes:

    I do think that Shanahan pays attention to chemistry, leadership, and cohesion--meaning character matters; however, I think that he feels a strong locker room presence by veterans is sufficient to overcome character issues. In the past, this has worked. This is at least partly because, in the 1990's, there was a multitude of hall-of-fame quality leaders in the locker room. Today, the Broncos don't have that luxury. They are thin on veterans but loaded with potential. Adding a volatile player to the group is a more dangerous experience. In Shanahan's case, I think this is on-the-job training. When has he ever lacked sublime talent and leadership in his NFL career before now?

    To his credit, Shanahan has taken a hard line on character problems in the past. He quickly cut his losses with Lee Flowers. The decision to not resign Mike Anderson was heavily influenced by his string of positive tests for Marajuana.

    I think that to get to the next level, every time takes chances on Bill Romanowski type players. The Patriots have gotten by with powder kegs like Dillon and Moss without consequence. When your organization is achieving the highest level of excellence, it galvanizes your organization against corrosive personalities. Shanahan is accustomed to galvanizing corrosive egos with achievement. Perhaps he's overestimated his teams the last few years.

    I think that the Broncos will be back on top in short order. Winning cures everything. We certainly have the talent to do that.

    On draft day, my knock on Broncos management has been their penchant for drafting by need rather than taking the best player. Last season, I desperate wanted Denver to take either Reggie Nelson or Michael Griffin. It was painfully obvious that Denver was going to be in trouble at safety this year. I agree that DE or DT was a critical need, but Jarvis Moss looks like a Reggie Hayward or Bertrand Berry in the making. If you develop a player and don't invest in them for the long term, you are just a farm system for someone elses franchise.

    In the first round, the Broncos should be looking for a franchise player, not a guy that makes the roster look complete. A historically deep Safety class has passed us by and now Denver is in worse shape than ever at the position. If they don't reach for the top safety in the draft this year (which I wouldn't advise), they can hold out 'til the second day to take a safety. There's not much there.

    ...maybe we'll sign Ken Hamlin.

  • February 21, 2008

    9:26 a.m.

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    Patriot writes:

    Shanny's use of the draft has been pathetic at best, this year will be no different, get ready for another year of mediocre play at best. Until Bowlen sees the stand start to hold fewer fans, Shanny will be his man to reduce to Broncos the Falcons level. Thanks Shanny!

  • February 21, 2008

    9:44 a.m.

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    Mike Noe writes:

    Dave Kriege will be online at 11 a.m. talking about this story and any other sporting topics. <a href="wolfm@rockymountainnews.com?Subject=Chat">E-mail">mailto:wolfm@rockymountainnews.com?Su... questions/comments </a>in advance and <a href="http://www.rockymountainnews.com/chat... the chat here </a>at 11.

  • February 21, 2008

    12:56 p.m.

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    Spider writes:

    Okay, so he liked the leg of the drunken punter and the running of a running back who thinks with the wrong head, but what did he ever see in Clarret. What a waste of a draft pick!

  • February 22, 2008

    1:44 a.m.

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    BillyBeer writes:

    Dave, while I agree with your assessment of Shannahan, insightful and on target, I take umbrage with you and the nation's "Patriots." Guess it is a reflection of what we have become or allowed as Americans. Character? Patriots? What sort of character guys do they have? Did they win due yo an overwhelming amount of talent? Great Drafts? Or is there more to this whole Spygate debacle that most of the NFL needs to sweep under the rug? The Broncos need more men; Smith, Davis, Williams, Lynch, etc. Not Moss, Bruschi, Harrison, etc.

  • February 22, 2008

    2:40 p.m.

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    GJrodburner writes:

    There is such a thin line between being a "keeper" and a "sweeper" in not just the N.F.L. but in our own everday jobs I have a real tough time as to what "character" really does mean. I've worked with men that were absolutely the best and the worst of what the defined working word of character means. Men that won my alegiance, but won it by how they did their job, not by how they ran their personal lives. Until the personal actions of an individual deter, or harm the work ethic of a good welding crew I have never let a man go because he messed up in his personal life. Good gravy, if I'd never been given a second (or third and sometimes fourth and fifth chances!) chance to grow up emotionally, and professionally, then what good is it to say you have compassion? Do I condone Travis Henrey's promiscuity? No I do not. Does this make me a better person than he? That will be decided at the end of our respective lives, not in the here and now. And that is exactly my point. If the actions are of such an egregious nature, and laws have been broken, then the state will step in and court will be convened and a verdict rendered. But if the character-issues of an individual only offend our personal view of self-responsibility, and should the Broncos have a given ethics plan planely stated in their hiring practices and contracts, then at the end of it all you get what you want and go beyond the rest of the baggage. I'm not going to say that all s#@t-birds morph into swans, but I would say that when a man decides to grow there needs to be time given for him to succeed. Maybe that is where the rub of it all comes into focus. How long will it take for a man like Travis Henry to find the internal fortitude and the mental toughness to take what he can do in a game and actually apply it to his own "everyday" life? That's a dilemma I face with certain men on my weld gangs, and the same problems that face the Broncos in hiring certain "baggaged" players too.