Ballard interview
 

Just had the opportunity to hear the Lamey show he does every Monday after a game...it starts with an interview with Chuckles and then includes other reporters, etc commentary and ends w/fan Q&A. Today immediately after Chuckles did his normal song and dance (no, nothing new) Ballard was his special guest. There are a couple of things I thought you all might be interested in:
1.the message was 180 degree different than what Chuckles had just spewed. Ballard was clear that this record isn't acceptable and that "you are what your record is". Also, in emphasizing accountability he started with himself by noting that were mistakes he's made that he wishes he had a do-over on (but he didn't say what those were). Although he made it Crystal clear he's not satisfied he was optimistic about the future and spent some considerable time talking about specific individuals who are building blocks for the future....he spoke in specifics about what he's seen that he likes but in sum the people he called out include: Brisset, Bashir, Mack, Doyle, Rigoberto, Hooker.....there were 1 or 2 others but can't recall who they were
2. RE Luck, he basically reiterated what we've discussed here. Andrew wants to heal and he wants to play. It's not proceeding as quickly as anyone hoped/expected and they will do whatever is necessary to get him better and back. No timeline and no pressure for this season.
3. He didn't call out coaching either positively or negatively other than in the most general sense of Everyone needs to do better. There was one exception...when he was going through this list of players he recognized for individual great efforts/building blocks for the future he specifically noted Tom Mcmann. He gave him complete credit for finding Rigoberto and convincing him that he was a stud (and then developing him to perform).....wouldn't be surprised to see him retained during the great coaching purge we are all looking forward to
4. Re trades, see my post in the VD thread.....in short he's not shopping anyone.

Oh yeah, he was really positive on what he's seen from Hairston......

Fuck Chuck, don't want to hear anything that comes out of his mouth anymore.

I hate seeing him on the sidelines... throwing stupid challenge flags. I swear the ref had a hard time keeping a straight face when he went through the details of chuck's successful challenge...

I'm 100% certain that Chuck thought that meant we got the ball.

Ballard is in a tough spot. Too early to make conclusions about him.

This organization has been destroyed from within by Irsay losing his mind and letting the game and business side pass him by. Pagano is not a good head coach and while he may be a good person (I don't know), it should have been obvious when he was interviewed that he doesn't have the personality to be head coach material. I said that 3-4 years ago. And as bad as Pagano is at being a head coach--and he's really bad--Grigson was 10x worse at G.M. How Irsay could hire a nobody who failed so inconceivably bad at his job and was hated by everyone in the organization, everyone in the media, and everyone in the NFL, is so utterly beyond me.

The worst part is these guys, Grigson, Pagano, and ultimately Jim Irsay, failed to protect the franchise. Jimmy hired a yes-man and a happy-days clapper so he could meddle and call the shots from the owner's box. And he gave directives to spend all the money on shiny toys instead of building offensive and defensive lines. Year after year in the Andrew Luck era they were content to make do signing guys like Phil Costa as free agent JAG lineman, and think yeah that was all going to work out.

Andrew Luck was the most hit QB in the league year after year, and now his shoulder and arm are dead.

And Grigson and Pagano could have and should have been fired two years ago. But they weren't. Pagano could have and should have been fired last year. But he wasn't. This organization is a ****'ing mess and I don't know why anyone who didn't need a paycheck would ever want to play here right now.

If you're Ballard, how the hell do you walk into all of that? He's in a no-win situation.

That was one of the most fucked up explanations by a ref I have ever witnessed. Still don't understand what the fuck he was saying.

Jerome Boger

It started before that. Irsay gave into nepotism when Polian's son got more involved. I'm going to assume some of the better scouts left the organization as the picks got worse.

I think it was called incomplete pass. Pagano challenged that it was incomplete, this making it a fumble. So the ref said it was a successful challenge in that it was a complete pass and fumble, however we recovered the fumble out of bounds thus it was still CIN ball.

The look on pags face when he realized what happened was priceless. A total pagano moment.

Okay, thanks. The way you explained it makes sense. The ref and Pagano looked liked fucking dumbasses.

I was confused because I didn't know what the call was on the field.

I figured it out, but it was an odd call all around.

I also didn't know you needed two feet in bounds on a fumble recover, like with a catch.

Desir was shocked at what happened, so for once I can't blame him for not getting in bounds. He almost just lucked out and made a good play for once.