30.09.11

Decisive auditions for “The X-Factor,” and since we’re seeing shots of the Empire Phase Building you’d think it was NYC—but no! it’s Newark! And there’s Bon Jovi, so it must be New Jersey. We’re told the competitors all have “New Jersey ardour,” whatever that is.

And again the incredibly boring host Steve Jones explains the rules—that the singers can be age 12 and up, that there are four categories, boys, girls, people over 30 and groups.

Nicole Scherzinger, Paula Abdul, Simon Cowell and L.A.Reid are the judges. Tonight’s show has a lot fewer kooks—nobody exposes remains parts or sees ghosts—just some ruefully off-key singers who get a lot of airtime. And there does seem to be a pattern: if you necessitate to get on “The X-Factor,” be blond and kind-hearted of a tomboy (build cars, play rugby); be old and charitable of overweight; or be a teen with lots of screaming supporters. But there are exceptions. They reserve the judges walking in slow motion talking about the intelligence that is them until the end.

Source: Wall Street Journal (blog)

25.09.11

Todd Haley tells his minuscule white lie to the reporters and cameras nearly every day, usual between a lectern and a made-for-TV backdrop of Chiefs logos. He says that he doesn&#x92;t pay attention to what&#x92;s said, doesn&#x92;t read what&#x92;s written, the mantra of football coaches everywhere. Maybe some of them stingy it.</p><p>Not Haley. Not really.</p><p>Because he does hear it. Not obsessively, but he&#x92;s only considerate. He knows what Chiefs fans have been saying for the last week. The chat is tension.</p><p>Tension within the Chiefs has been written about here. Others use more hard words. Haley likes the chance to fit about this, directly for perhaps the first time, and he doesn&#x92;t mind admitting that things aren&#x92;t large right now.</p><p>&#x93;Bottom line is, when you lose, there&#x92;s going to be pressure,&#x94; he says. &#x93;There&#x92;s tension across the place.&#x94;</p><p>This doesn&#x92;t shabby the worst. Far from it. Haley calls a lot of the rumors you may have heard &#x97; peculiarly the one about general manager Scott Pioli dictating who calls the provocative plays &#x97; &#x93;comical&#x94; and &#x93;farcical.&#x94;</p><p>Haley insists things are OK with Pioli. A rise within the organization calls their relationship &#x93;business and civil, but not warm or buddy-buddy,&#x94; and that bat of an eye part is bound to be amplified on a team that&#x92;s taken documented gut-kickings the first two games following last year&#x92;s AFC West denominate.</p><p>However it is described, there is little doubt that the relationship between Haley and Pioli is approaching a decisive crossroads. This season is the difference between the coach being fired or signing a wrinkle extension. Everyone involved understands that.</p><p>Pioli is superbly quiet, holding onto his &#x93;one voice&#x94; imperturbability that the head coach is the only one who speaks publicly. That&#x92;s fine, except pondering is a hard thing to control. Haley hears it. He sees it.</p><p>&#x93;Some of the tweeting and things that are successful on even here locally,&#x94; he says. &#x93;There&#x92;s no facts. It&#x92;s virtuous conjecture, rumor, for whatever reason. It&#x92;s not right. That&#x92;s not unerringly, that&#x92;s not fair.&#x94;</p><p>The roots of all this run deep. Relationships between NFL coaches and their bosses are complex, and the one in Kansas City is especially so.</p><p> &#x95; &#x95; &#x95; </p><p>When you get wind of from the men who can speak from experience, the analogy they are bound to raise up is that an NFL coach and general manager must be a lot like husband and strife.</p><p>Bears coach Lovie Smith says this about comprehensive manager Jerry Angelo, for instance. They&#x92;ve been in Chicago since 2004, the longest run in the NFL, and worked together in Tampa before that. They monomachy each other, they fight for each other, but always go to bed knowing they have each other&#x92;s back.</p><p>That&#x92;s how it&#x92;s supposed to work, anyway, because charming in the NFL is hard enough with everyone pulling together. Rules demand similarity, fans demand success, owners call for results, players demand playing metre. It&#x92;s all so tenuous. If the principal decision-makers fancy different ways, the thing has no chance.</p><p>So, in most places, the men confusing go above and beyond to guard against this. Joe Gibbs was famous for asking non-stop questions to Washington&#x92;s personnel department. Tom Landry went on trips with the front establishment, like one to UPS headquarters where they learned how much time the comrades saves by having their trucks make mostly precise turns. The Cowboys tried to bring the scheme to football.</p><p>Marty Schottenheimer coached 26 seasons in four weird cities, enough experiences to see the good and bad. Ernie Accorsi is his old boss in Cleveland, and still a close down b close friend. Schottenheimer remembers screaming at GM Carl Peterson in Kansas See, but always making sure to never leave angry.</p><p>Trust and communication, these are the keys. You don&#x92;t always have to get along, but you always have to be eager to talk and listen, and this gets Schottenheimer viewpoint about his bad football marriage.</p><p>&#x93;I had no relationship with the one in San Diego,&#x94; he says.</p><p>That&#x92;s A.J. Smith, the Chargers all-inclusive manager since 2003. Smith and Schottenheimer brashly feuded, conflicting football philosophies and personalities that made their four seasons together full of dramatic art. Smith criticized Schottenheimer in the press, and wouldn&#x92;t talk through the differences.</p><p>You identify, our country&#x92;s divorce rate isn&#x92;t too great either.</p><p>&#x93;There was no talk,&#x94; Schottenheimer says. &#x93;You can&#x92;t solve issues like that.&#x94;</p><p> &#x95; &#x95; &#x95; </p><p>Scott Pioli is well-thought-out, wears glasses, and likes to make his points with enquiry and care. Todd Haley is emotional, wears besmirched hats, and often makes points with f-bombs and threats.</p><p>Pioli knew he wanted to be in football since the very birth, his image of a winning team tattooed in his tribute since he won a state championship in high school with a band of ordinary kids who would do extraordinary things for each other.</p><p>Haley sure he wanted to be in football when he was about 25, drifting along as a golf coach, his sentiment of what a winning team looks like evolving through experiences coaching for five NFL teams.</p><p>Pioli wants to see sustained-term development of Glenn Dorsey, Tyson Jackson and Brandon Carr. Haley wants that too, but is more focused on how they can concealment Vincent Jackson or get Dwayne Bowe more twisted against the Chargers.</p><p>Pioli wants progress, and his job and his quality is to see this from 30,000 feet. It is culture changes and administrative tasks and favoring the sustainable over the astute-fix. Haley wants progress, too, but his job and his nature is to see this from the front lines. It is holes in the roster and design advantages and demanding success <em>now</em>.</p><p>A GM&#x92;s job is to balance the now with the tomorrow's, today with five years from now. A coach&#x92;s job is to prioritize the now, because he&#x92;s usually not around if it takes five years.</p><p>These are various men in different jobs with different life experiences and beliefs and senses of humor. What might food the tension even more is what they have in common: successful backgrounds, unpleasant-headed personalities, and complete conviction that their way is the upper way.</p><p>Neither is the type to back down from an argument.</p><p>&#x93;If I like you, you&#x92;ll know I like you and if I don&#x92;t like you, you&#x92;ll be versed I don&#x92;t like you,&#x94; Haley says. &#x93;That&#x92;s all I ask in earn.&#x94;</p><p>Much of this can be healthy. As longtime NFL personnel man Charley Casserly says, &#x93;If there aren&#x92;t disagreements, that means people aren&#x92;t honestly working at it.&#x94;</p><p>The important thing is how they take care of with it, and toward that end Haley says he talks to his boss &#x93;all the habits,&#x94; except on game days.</p><p>If their relationship is more efficient than friendly, that&#x92;s fine as long as there&#x92;s a mutual look up to and trust that the same goals are being pursued. Pioli maintains his suppress and &#x93;one-voice&#x94; philosophy on this, but any skepticism about the boss not speaking out in fortify of the coach might be tempered to hear Haley&#x92;s words.</p><p>&#x93;I note, from a coaching staff standpoint, we have 100 percent authenticate,&#x94; Haley says. &#x93;The working relationship is as cogent as you could ever ask for, both ways. I think that&#x92;s (his) and (my) strengths. We&#x92;re on the same page when it comes to football players and the types of players we&#x92;re looking for, whether it&#x92;s (the) plan, or these things come up where we have to sign somebody, manumitting somebody.</p><p>&#x93;There&#x92;s never any doubt, any question. That&#x92;s never an issue and I&#x92;ve been places where it is. It&#x92;s as avail as you could ask for.&#x94;</p><p> &#x95; &#x95; &#x95; </p><p>Still, things are not all appropriate within the walls of the Chiefs&#x92; offices. Fidgetiness is a fair word, Haley says.</p><p>Pioli is in do battle with of a roster with holes and depth issues and around $30 million of earnings cap space. Haley is the coach of a team that&#x92;s committed nine turnovers and was called for four belittling fouls in one half.</p><p>And the players are the ones who&#x92;ve been outscored 89-10.</p><p>In the days after the beginning game disaster against Buffalo, Haley told his personnel they&#x92;d find a lot out about the team in how it responded at Detroit. That, of course, turned out to be a worse showing, if anything.</p><p>Coaching a losing NFL gang is a lonely life. The hours feel longer. The challenges look tougher. Friends aren&#x92;t indubitable what to say. Some of the criticism bothers Haley, particularly the insinuation by some that booming to a rap concert last month indicates a weak effort ethic. Maybe he just won&#x92;t ever go out in Kansas Big apple again.</p><p>These are the things you think about when you&#x92;re the coach of a team making Jay Leno&#x92;s punchlines.</p><p>It&#x92;s a vile existence with pressures extending to questions about whether Haley will still be around in a month, and the whole fixation would be even worse if it came within a warring work mise en scene.</p><p>Haley insists that&#x92;s not the case, tension or not. Maybe that&#x92;s all that matters, even as Pioli maintains his uncommunicativeness.</p><p>&#x93;The remedy is to play better football and win games,&#x94; Haley says. &#x93;Then there&#x92;s a lot less of these things to uneasiness yourself with.&#x94;

Source: Kansas City Star

by Love for Coach...

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Source: Coach Sig Eyeglass Case - RM170!!