The Josh McDaniels caper

Football fans know Josh McDaniels. He's currently the offensive coordinator of the New England Patriots. The guy that calls the plays for Tom Brady and Co., and reports to head coach Bill Belichick.

Even before the Pats lost the Super Bowl, most everybody thought McDaniels was headed to the Indianapolis Colts to assume the head coaching duties (Chuck Pagano having been fired on New Year's eve), immediately after the game. It appeared to be a done deal.

Indeed, the Colts had even announced the hire and scheduled the usual press conference to trumpet their latest and greatest field general.

But not so fast.

Evidently, McDaniels changed his mind at the last second. That's his prerogative, of course, but it sure caused an ongoing uproar. People are sniping at McDaniels and the Patriots from every direction.

Yet nobody seems to know just exactly what happened to cause this to occur. Some speculate Pats owner Robert Kraft offered him a hefty raise and/or promised him the head coaching position in Foxborough when Belichick steps down/retires. The latter is signed for another year, and might just hang around as long as Brady does. Or not. Another mystery.

Thing is, a raise itself wouldn't explain it if money were the only thing in play. In this day and age any head coach, especially a new one, would receive upwards of $5 million bucks a year. No way is a coordinator going to paid anywhere near that. So in effect, if we can assume that while McD got a raise in the short run, he actually took a sizable pay cut in the long one. Odd.

Few would doubt the Patriots are very much contenders to go right back to the Super Bowl next year. To that end, the wise guys in Vegas have them as the favorite, odds-wise.

And the Colts aren't a very good team. True, they didn't have the services of quarterback Andrew Luck, out with an injury all year, but it's no sure thing Luck can turn a 4-12 record into something respectable either. Nor is it a certainty he'll ever be as good as he was before after fully healing from said injury. The jury most definitely remains out.

It should be noted that even if McD had taken the Indy job, this wouldn't be his first go-round as a head coach. In 2009 he was the head coach of the Denver Broncos who went a mediocre 8-8. The following year they were a miserable 3-9 when he was fired mid-season.

Could there be some dirty tricks/bad blood afoot here? Possibly. Let's not forget the Colts organization were leading the "deflategate" charge against Brady and the Pats just a few short years ago. Whether it had merit or not is debatable, but it was an embarrassment to the Pats in any case.

It could well be Kraft saw a chance to get back at them. Screw them out of their head coach at the last second. Of course, that is only one of many theories, none of which have been proved or disproved to date. The public at large may never know what happened and why. It's not like the Pats did anything illegal and could be subpoenaed to testify regarding same. And if there's anything more secretive than that Kim guy in N. Korea, it's the inner workings of the Patriots.

We should also consider that McD took a page out of his boss Belichick's book with this little caper, only not quite as drastic. Back in 2000, Belichick had signed on to be the NY Jets head coach, officially, but only one day later, abruptly resigned. One could logically ask, why bother going through the interview process and signing the contract to quit the very next day? Very strange. Did Kraft, even way back then, make Belichick an offer he couldn't refuse? Eighteen years and eight Super Bowl appearances later, including five victories, it's pretty tough to argue Belichick didn't make the right decision. But it stunk at the time.

Regarding McDaniels, many are outraged, including Tony Dungy, a former head coach of the same Colts, who was quite successful. But TD needs to shut up. He's been out of the game for quite a while and is just an analyst (talking head) of late. His opinion doesn't count any more than a guy on a bar stool somewhere.

But here's the kicker. If indeed McD is in line to replace BB when he finally steps down, he'll inherit a team that is likely without Tom Brady. Take him away and the Pats might get quite ordinary in a hurry. In that regard, his move doesn't make a lot of sense. He turned down big bucks to stay with an unsure future at best. Yes, he has a wife and kids, and moving them from the Boston area to the Indianapolis area would be a hassle, but coaches (and athletes) do that all the time.

However, there's another detail, quite blatant, that nobody seems to have considered yet.

Think what you will of McDaniels and/or the Pats/Kraft, but the bottom line is this mess is entirely the fault of the Colts.

How so? Any prudent business person (or lawyer) will tell you coming to a verbal agreement is a good thing. But a contract is not a contract until the parties have signed on the proverbial dotted line.

Evidently the Colts had signed off on it and assumed McDaniels would shortly as well. A mere formality. But it's foolish to announce a done deal to the world when it isn't officially done yet at all.

That little formality came back to bite them in the butt. They remain without a head coach and have to start the process all over again. Ouch.

Then again, though he's under contract, it's not a certainty either that Belichick will return for another season. He could walk away as well, immediately elevating McDaniels to the head coach of the Pats. Maybe that was part of the Kraft deal. Another unknown, but some are speculating it might be the case. We'll find out when training camp starts next year, if not before.

In the end, though many may disapprove, what McDaniels did is just another day of business. He exercised one of his options.

But he better hope things work out well with the Patriots, because the other 31 teams in the NFL probably don't think too highly of him right about now. And like he changed his mind, so could Kraft regarding his future employment. Ya never know. Ask the Colts about that. That scenario would leave McDaniels out on an island somewhere.

Perhaps in a way, it would be fitting. What goes around -- comes around sometimes.