When the Atlanta Falcons somehow managed to let a Lombardi Trophy slip through their hands and into the clutches of the New England Patriots with an epic collapse in the Super Bowl, one of the first people to receive the bulk of the blame was, naturally, head coach Dan Quinn. Following the loss, Quinn sought advice from some professional coaches for advice on how to recover from such a disaster.
Among those on Quinn’s call sheet included Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll, Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr, San Antonio Spurs general manager R.C. Buford, and Cleveland Indians manager Terry Francona. That is quite the collection of coaches who have both won and experienced painful defeats in their own professional careers. Considering the painful emotions carried by Quinn following the Super Bowl, he needed to hear from these people to get his head straight ahead of the 2017 season.
“When you have the disappointment at the end, you’re not over it, you’re past it, but it’s OK to let it fuel you where you can to go,” Quinn said, according to ESPN.com. “That’s where I’m at.”
Why contact the people he did?
Well, Kerr’s Golden State Warriors blew a 3-1 lead in the NBA Finals last summer, if you recall. Francona’s Indians blew a 3-1 favor in the World Series last fall. It was quite a run for blowing sizable leads in the championship, and Quinn’s Falcons kept that trend going. Quinn had previously texted Kerr following Golden State’s collapse against LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers, so Kerr returning the favor was only fitting.
Carroll was Quinn’s former boss when Quinn was a defensive coordinator with the Seattle Seahawks. The Seahawks won a Super Bowl and came within a mere yard of winning a second before inexplicably passing the football instead of handing off to Marshawn Lynch at the goal line against the Patriots.
“I wanted to make sure when I get a chance, whether it’s our sport other sports … to share and learn and gain perspective on how you handle a team and how you handle the players, how you handle the relationship between the owner, GM and head coach or manager,” Quinn explained. “Those are topics that come up.”
Time will tell if Quinn can rebound in 2017 after one of the biggest collapses in NFL history, but he certainly received some advice from some good sources this offseason to help guide him back on the right track. What he does with it is now in his hands.
[ESPN]
I’ll never be “over-it”. I hope Shanashit dies in a car fire. The “Offensive Genius” that ran the ball 4 times holding a 25 point lead….. Before he dies in a car fire, I eagerly await him failing miserably in San Fran.