Mathis: Caldwell needed more flexibility
"He was a great guy, but I just think his hands were tied, to be honest with you," Mathis said. "He didn't have the flexibility to do all that he wanted to do. However you want to take it, that's just the truth of the matter."
I wish we knew all the behind the scenes stuff on this. It's nice that Mathis can be honest about this but without providing specifics, this just gives people license to throw out all sorts of conjecture as truth. Did Caldwell really want to bench Painter? Go for 16-0? etc. etc. Now all the journalists (and BBS) can use this quote to further their own goals.
@psvirsky Which Phil Richards does in that article. Just amazing how bad the coverage is. Implying that Polian is responsible for the Caldwell firing because he forced him to play Painter...Seriously, how can those journalists miss the mark so entirely and consistently? First, Caldwell isn´t fired because of 2-14, but because of the specifics of his job he didn´t have a good grasp of. Secondly, I love that kind of irresponsible speculation, where you know that´s what you´re doing, but you add in a "we might never know" to cover your bases, and voilà, no problem here! And third, even after being fired, there´s nothing Bill Polian can´t be blamed for. I´m tired of him being treated as the boogeyman.
