The Effect of Affect

I just watched one of the worst NFL games I have ever seen.  It was the game between my Philadelphia Eagles and the Dallas Cowboys.  Normally I have a bit of a sour taste the day after the Iggles lose to the Cowboys (consequently when they win it's feels pretty great, so there is a balance), but today it's worse.  It's worse because I have to admit they deserved to lose the game, they played like they were tranquilized.  The offensive line apparently thought they were playing that other kind of Futbol and decided that actual physical contact with the defense was against the rules.  Demarco Murray, ex-Cowboy and the one player who seemed to actually give a hoot about winning this game, had three defensive linemen in his face a half a second after he got his hands on the ball, almost every time he got the ball.
Normally sure handed receivers were dropping balls and Sam Bradford was getting pounded.  Bradford, I'm afraid, is not a very good selection to play quarterback for the Iggles, not because of skill set mind you, but because he gets this really stupid look on his face when things are going poorly.  It's sort of deer in the headlights crossed with flatulence in an elevator, let's just say the aesthetics of "the look," aren't going to play really well with Philly Phans.  Call it Jay Cutler syndrome, in Philly, as in Chicago, if you are losing you are not supposed to look slack jawed and stunned, you are supposed to be angry.  Donovan McNabb had the same tendency, to sort of go blank when the going got tough, Philly doesn't like that.
So there is actually an even bigger problem that Bradford's "Duh" face, it's that Chip Kelly, the coach, has the same thing happening, with the slightest tinge of smugness, when, as they say in Philly, "he ain't got nuthin' to be prouda." (Grammar fairy, please forgive me for putting that in writing).
Do you want to know the coaches who Philly has loved? Dick Vermeil, who wore his heart on his sleeve and basically burned himself completely out to lead the Birds to the Superbowl.  And Buddy, I will punch a dude in the head, Ryan (father of Sexy Rexy and sasquatch analog Rob).  Andy Reid, who won them a bunch of NFC East titles, got them farther into the playoffs than they had been since Vermeil, and then, at long last, got them to the big show, who made them a perennial contender if not always a favorite? Too boring, too Mormon, get that walrus outta here.  My point here is that the wrong affect on the part of a coach in Philly is every bit as problematic as an actual losing record.
For the first two seasons of Kelly's tenure, there have been enough fireworks to distract the phanatics.
It's hard to hate a guy when his system is racking up 45 points a game and leaving opposing defenses in a shuddering heap by halfway through the third quarter.
But lose a few like the one last night?
Buddy you'd better grow some charisma.
I would offer that perhaps this tendency to judge people by their demeanor is not confined to football.  We can be too easily taken in by charlatans that proclaim things loud and with fervor, and at the same time can reject, out of hand, ideas that are presented in too bland and practical a manner.  We want to be "sold."
Look, all of us have probably been talked into buying something we didn't need, or that was just plain junk.  We distrust charlatans, but we're inherently vulnerable to them.  Often times we will forgive a "personality" more readily than we will a stoic demeanor, and this is not necessarily a good thing. I don't know whether Kelly's innovative football plan is ever going to lead us to the promised land.  It can look amazing and it can look terrible.  I'm not sure yet which one is true, but I'm looking at this thing like a microcosm for how we make decisions.  I generally think we're way too obsessed with immediacy and not interested enough in looking down the pike a bit.
By way of contrast, I offer the other Pennsylvania based NFL franchise, and my second favorite team, the Pittsburgh Steelers.  Believe me there are days when I wish I had been born on the other side of PA and could just wholeheartedly root for the Steelers, because they are so much easier to like.  First of all they win Superbowls, second of all they don't change coaches every ten minutes.  They have had three coaches in my lifetime: Chuck Noll, Bill Cowher and Mike Tomlin, that's it, that wouldn't get the Cleveland Browns through two seasons. None of those guys has exactly been a cult of personality, and all of them had some tough years.  Cowher had to set his considerable jaw and stick with a defense first, ground and pound style of football through all those years when Bill Walsh and the "West Coast offense" were throwing it all over the yard.  All of them were tough, stoic guys, and all of them are pretty much loved by the Stillers nation.  All of them also have Superbowl rings.
Substance, is a word that comes to mind.  So does stability.  We live in a world where it's too easy to jump off the bandwagon, these things don't always get a chance to grow, in football or in real life.
So let's not panic Philly Phans, all the games can't be that bad, and if they are, hey we will get an awesome draft pick (and probably a new coach, cue the sorrowful music).