Jed York is addressing the media following the decision to fire Trent Baalke and Chip Kelly, and it was mostly cliches, but he at least offered up some semblance of honesty with a couple responses.
The first was when he was asked who would be in charge of this process, and if he would be hiring a president of football operations kind of role. York said he would make the ultimate decision on both the head coach and general manager roles. He said he would consult people inside and outside the building, but ultimately he would make the decisions.
The most honest answer came after multiple questions as to whether he should be the one making these decisions. Someone asked if he was competent enough to make the decisions, and another person followed up on that. In both instances, York said there was nothing he could say that would make people feel better and that it comes down to actions. He repeated the cliche, but then he offered up something that will rub people the wrong way, but is a fact of life in the NFL:
“I own this football team. You don’t dismiss owners. I’m sorry that that’s the fact and that’s the case, but that’s the fact.”
That’s very much the case, and even though he didn’t actually do anything to earn ownership of the team, it is his and his parent’s team. It sucks, but that’s life.
A little bit later, someone mentioned how other teams have a president of football operations and the owners stay out of football decisions. York responded saying, “I don’t make football decisions.”
The problem with that statement is that while he might not make roster decisions, making the decision on the GM and head coach are the ultimate football decisions. I get that hiring a football operations head would still be a “football decision,” but hiring an executive to implement their own philosophy over everything would be a big difference from making the decision to hire both the GM and coach.
Jed York still does not seem to get it.