Bill Polian's been on my happy list this week for the kindness he and the organization showed John Gill. However, despite the fact Polian seems to have a soft spot for certain people, whenever he holds a press conference, or goes on a radio show, I get nervous. The reason I get nervous is because Polian has an embarrassing tendency to say stupid things that serve only one purpose: To piss the wrong people off.
I cannot stress this enough (and apparently I need to keep stressing it because people now think I'm some sort of Polian hater), Bill Polian is a master at building great football teams. However, as a communicator, or as a spokesman for the entire Colts organization, he isn't very good.
Case in point, Polian's interview with Jim Rome today.
For whatever reason, Polian decided that The Jim Rome Show was a good place to start yapping about the Colts offensive line, the very same unit of players Polian threw under a bus following the team's loss in Super Bowl 44. From PFT:
"Well, I don't know until we get some real action under our belt," Polian said. "I think we have some players there who are capable of playing pretty well."
Polian also explained that the team struggled with the running game in short yardage and goal-line, pointing to the failure to convert a third-and-one play late in the second quarter as a "glaring weakness" in the Super Bowl.
Polian also said that the Colts "didn't pass protect as well, particularly in the second half, as we are used to seeing." He said it's something that can be corrected by technique and personnel.
Now, I haven't heard the entire interview because in order to access previously recorded clips for the Jim Rome Show, you have to pay $29 bucks. I'm not doing that. Nothing Jim Rome does is worth $29 bucks. So, because I cannot hear the entire interview in its proper context, and because PFT has a habit of slanting quotes to make them fit within a pre-determined narrative, it would be unfair to jump all over Polian for these select comments.
However, one point I'd like to raise is this: WTF happened to "the past is prologue" Bill?
When asked seemingly the exact same questions by reporters during his end of the season press conference back in February, Bill snarled at the gallery and kept repeating "the past is prologue" when asked pretty general questions about the Super Bowl. The press conference was embarrassingly painful to watch. Some six months after the loss to the Saints and almost two weeks into training camp for the 2010 season, it's now that he's answering questions about the Super Bowl?
If there ever was a time to say "Hey, the Super Bowl was last year, we're focused on this year," now is kind of that time. When Jim Caldwell is repeatedly asked about Super Bowl hangovers, he answers simply that the team is just focused on practice.
Again, past is prologue.
For some reason, Polian deviated from the team talking points and decided to open up to Jim friggin Rome, of all people. It just doesn't make any sense. Again, I'll state this one more time, just in case people didn't read it the first 500 billion times I wrote it, I love Bill Polian as the "football guy" for this team. As a "team spokesman," he drives me absolutely crazy.