[CBFF] Long goodbye -- chicagotribune.com

[Jim Ferolie]

You're really reading a lot into a third-hand assessment of someone's 
character.

Matt Wilhelm was quoted as saying that Rivera told them Grossman was kind of 
a mental midget, that if they hit him a few times they could rattle him. If 
you're reading that as stupid, you're focusing too hard on the words and not 
enough on the connotation. His point was that Rex was not mentally tough. 
That, Tom, can definitely be fixed, and I think we saw it in the second half 
of the season.

I still don't believe it to be accurate, in fact, but it was probably true 
enough at that point in Rex's career -- vulnerable simply due to the 
overwhelming criticism that had been sent his way over the past year -- that 
it helped Rivera make his point to the linebackers.

You forget that not everyone is as concerned about accuracy as we are. 
Sometimes healthy fiction is good for motivating people who aren't thinking 
outside of their own boxes. "Stupid" is repeating outside the locker room 
what the linebackers coach told his unit in a meeting.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tom Shannon" <tshanno at gmail.com>

> On 1/1/08, Tom Shannon <tshanno at gmail.com> wrote:
> >But you can't fix stupid.
>
> Rex might be a lot of things, but stupid ain't one of them.  That's
> the kind of characterization I reserve for the Ryan Leafs of the
> world.

I can only repeat that Ron Rivera disagreed (though I don't think he had
anything as bad as Ryan Leaf in mind).  Rivera wasn't invested in the guy.
Angelo and, to a lesser extent, Smith and Turner are.  That tends to blind
you to a person's failings or convince you that you can fix or work around
them.