Tuesday, January 20, 2009

If there are 10 mops, I'm going to grab one and start mopping

Many thanks to Coach Cooley for forwarding this story from yesterday's Chicago Tribune about new Bears defensive line coach Rod Marinelli, who went 0-16 as head coach of the Lions this season.

Coach Marinelli, who had a copy George Halas' autobiography with him on his way to the Senior Bowl this week, talked about his three seasons in Detroit:

"Failing, that hurts. We made mistakes. But I looked at so many positives. That's just how I am, how I see everything. I could get up every day and I just wanted to make people better, make sure we were preparing correctly. When you do that, all the other factors, they didn't hurt as much. The fits just weren't always right. Sometimes you think everybody's like yourself—you know, if there're 10 mops, I'm going to grab one and start mopping. But that's not always the case. Guys are looking at the next job, or egos. All those things are tough. [With the Bears] I want to re-establish myself as a good teacher, prove myself to these guys.