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freddyg12 · 02-14-2008, 11:44 AM

I was initially upset after reading this article, what Skins fan wouldn't be?

But upon reading these posts & thinking about it, I think a couple of things stand out:

1) Byner was well liked but was he too much of a 'players coach?' Portis seemed to develop his own rules, maybe Byner catered too much to him. They need to take a new approach w/Zorn at the helm. He's got to let players know that he's in charge, and Stump will help him. If anything leftover from Gibbs needed to go it was Portis' self-guided practice habits & game substitutions. Maybe Byner was a bigger part of that than we realize.

2) The Skins had an offer on the table but he didn't sign it initially. Then when he wanted to the offer wasn't there. This just sounds unfortunate to me. It is eerily similar to Monk's deal - no deal debacle when Norvelle came to town & replaced a living legend w/Henry Ellard (who was damn good) et al.

The real issue is, why did he have a shorter contract than the others? I'm sure they have their reasons. I hate the way this went down, but maybe it is just JLC giving a very personal opinion as some here have said. I respect JLC's work a lot, but he is personally affected by some of these decisions, so it's not unreasonable to say that he's being more subjective than usual.

02-14-2008, 11:44 AM	#33
freddyg12 Playmaker Join Date: Feb 2006 Posts: 4,540	Re: Byner says goodbye to DC. I was initially upset after reading this article, what Skins fan wouldn't be? But upon reading these posts & thinking about it, I think a couple of things stand out: 1) Byner was well liked but was he too much of a 'players coach?' Portis seemed to develop his own rules, maybe Byner catered too much to him. They need to take a new approach w/Zorn at the helm. He's got to let players know that he's in charge, and Stump will help him. If anything leftover from Gibbs needed to go it was Portis' self-guided practice habits & game substitutions. Maybe Byner was a bigger part of that than we realize. 2) The Skins had an offer on the table but he didn't sign it initially. Then when he wanted to the offer wasn't there. This just sounds unfortunate to me. It is eerily similar to Monk's deal - no deal debacle when Norvelle came to town & replaced a living legend w/Henry Ellard (who was damn good) et al. The real issue is, why did he have a shorter contract than the others? I'm sure they have their reasons. I hate the way this went down, but maybe it is just JLC giving a very personal opinion as some here have said. I respect JLC's work a lot, but he is personally affected by some of these decisions, so it's not unreasonable to say that he's being more subjective than usual.