01-29-2023, 01:15 PM
So much of today's sports focuses on analytics. We all want to look at the numbers to see what we can discern about the play of our favorite teams. Many fans are even paid subscribers to premium PFF content in order to be able to digest even more numbers. Organizations go through a mountainous amount of analytics in order to determine who they should draft. Numbers ARE important. However, numbers don't tell the whole story. There are some things that lead to the success of some teams that are much harder to measure.
I read a book about three summers ago called INTANGIBALL . It was written by baseball writer, Lonnie Wheeler. It is primarily a baseball book but what Wheeler talks about applies to any sport. In his book, he writes that players who work hard, set good examples, mentor other players and create a positive clubhouse atmosphere can make teams better in ways that are easier to see than they are to measure. Wheeler calls these types of "unmeasurables" environmental intangibles.
According to Wheeler, these environmental intangibles lead to winning games, and they can't really be measured by analytics. In an interview about his book, Wheeler was asked about these environmental intangibles. He said," Mostly, it's the things that people can't see that may go on in the dugout, in the offseason, in the clubhouse. It's players, by whatever means, making other players better through counsel, through example, work ethic. It's a social thing. It's players rubbing off on each other, playing well with others, creating a culture and atmosphere that is conducive specifically to winning. It's not necessarily creating a kind and gentle environment where everybody's getting along and having a good time. Sometimes, what's required is some tough love or some harsh words."
Ladies and gentleman, I present to you my theory on why I believe the Cincinnati Bengals are a notch above other NFL teams. Sure, they have a talented roster , which includes some of the better skilled players in the league. But there are other very good, or maybe even better, rosters in the NFL. What seems to set this Bengals team apart from everyone else is something that can't be measured by a PFF number.
We can all see the situational intangibles that this team shows evidence of on the field--- Chase knocking Shaq Lawson into the air on a block to help free a lane for a Mixon run, , Jesse Bates sprinting at top speed from across the field to knock Huntley out of bounds just shy of the goal line, Markus Bailey sprinting downfield during the Fumble in the Jungle and knocking hard-charging Mark Andrews to the ground, Germaine Pratt not giving up on a play and stripping Kelce of the ball for a crucial late-game turnover.
Harder to measure are the intangibles that affect a man's heart. Joe Burrow and Zac Taylor are two guys like we've never seen here before. And they are perfectly paired together at just the perfect time for the Bengals. It's a "Universe" thing--- a marriage made in Bengals heaven. They have totally changed the culture of the locker room from one that used to expect to find a way to lose games to one that EXPECTS to win every game they play.
And not only that, but Taylor and Burrow are MASTER psychologists. They know just what to say and do to get their players and teammates to buy in to this "team first, " all -for-one, one-for-all, mantra. I don't now that I have ever seen a professional sports team with a better cohesive and more positive team chemistry that this Cincinnati Bengals team. Burrow and Taylor have subliminally messaged, or programmed these guys into believing they are the best in the world at what do and that this team can achieve anything it wants. The team thoroughly believes the message.
If our beloved Bengals win their second consecutive AFC championship this evening and hoist the trophy named after the founder of the AFL and late owner of the KC Chiefs, AND do it for the second consecutive year on the Chiefs' home turf, I submit to you, friends, that, as much as anything else, the reason for this success will be the intangibles.
The nation will see the great throws by Burrow, the determined runs by Mixon and Perine, the YAC by Chase and Hurst, but what they won't see is what drives these men to go above and beyond the ordinary, and into the realm of the extraordinary. Team chemistry is a real thing. We saw the stark difference between the team chemistries of the Bengals and Bills last weekend AND we witnessed the demonstrative results. One team had the energy and drive and intestinal fortitude to fight through the elements, the pressure, the emotional loss of teammates to injury, and other adversities to take it to another level. The losing team lacked that drive because it lacked the intangibles.
Win or lose tonight, I am very proud of this team and I am thankful for the joyous ride we've been taken on once again. Taylor and Burrow have ushered in a new era in Bengal football. I think we fans will look back in a couple decades and view this time as the Golden Age of Bengal football. These will be remembered one day as the "Glory Days."
If we win tonight, you, unlike most of the nation, will realize that talent can only take you so far. To reach the pinnacle of success and to perform at a peak level in the biggest and and most pressurized environments you must be blessed with what can't be measured by numbers. You must have the intangibles. We all know from watching this team on the field and in the locker room that it is overflowing with intangibles.
Watch again, tonight, as the Bengals show evidence of the unmeasurable , but ever so vital and impactful , and often overlooked, IntangiBALL.
Comments????
I read a book about three summers ago called INTANGIBALL . It was written by baseball writer, Lonnie Wheeler. It is primarily a baseball book but what Wheeler talks about applies to any sport. In his book, he writes that players who work hard, set good examples, mentor other players and create a positive clubhouse atmosphere can make teams better in ways that are easier to see than they are to measure. Wheeler calls these types of "unmeasurables" environmental intangibles.
According to Wheeler, these environmental intangibles lead to winning games, and they can't really be measured by analytics. In an interview about his book, Wheeler was asked about these environmental intangibles. He said," Mostly, it's the things that people can't see that may go on in the dugout, in the offseason, in the clubhouse. It's players, by whatever means, making other players better through counsel, through example, work ethic. It's a social thing. It's players rubbing off on each other, playing well with others, creating a culture and atmosphere that is conducive specifically to winning. It's not necessarily creating a kind and gentle environment where everybody's getting along and having a good time. Sometimes, what's required is some tough love or some harsh words."
Ladies and gentleman, I present to you my theory on why I believe the Cincinnati Bengals are a notch above other NFL teams. Sure, they have a talented roster , which includes some of the better skilled players in the league. But there are other very good, or maybe even better, rosters in the NFL. What seems to set this Bengals team apart from everyone else is something that can't be measured by a PFF number.
We can all see the situational intangibles that this team shows evidence of on the field--- Chase knocking Shaq Lawson into the air on a block to help free a lane for a Mixon run, , Jesse Bates sprinting at top speed from across the field to knock Huntley out of bounds just shy of the goal line, Markus Bailey sprinting downfield during the Fumble in the Jungle and knocking hard-charging Mark Andrews to the ground, Germaine Pratt not giving up on a play and stripping Kelce of the ball for a crucial late-game turnover.
Harder to measure are the intangibles that affect a man's heart. Joe Burrow and Zac Taylor are two guys like we've never seen here before. And they are perfectly paired together at just the perfect time for the Bengals. It's a "Universe" thing--- a marriage made in Bengals heaven. They have totally changed the culture of the locker room from one that used to expect to find a way to lose games to one that EXPECTS to win every game they play.
And not only that, but Taylor and Burrow are MASTER psychologists. They know just what to say and do to get their players and teammates to buy in to this "team first, " all -for-one, one-for-all, mantra. I don't now that I have ever seen a professional sports team with a better cohesive and more positive team chemistry that this Cincinnati Bengals team. Burrow and Taylor have subliminally messaged, or programmed these guys into believing they are the best in the world at what do and that this team can achieve anything it wants. The team thoroughly believes the message.
If our beloved Bengals win their second consecutive AFC championship this evening and hoist the trophy named after the founder of the AFL and late owner of the KC Chiefs, AND do it for the second consecutive year on the Chiefs' home turf, I submit to you, friends, that, as much as anything else, the reason for this success will be the intangibles.
The nation will see the great throws by Burrow, the determined runs by Mixon and Perine, the YAC by Chase and Hurst, but what they won't see is what drives these men to go above and beyond the ordinary, and into the realm of the extraordinary. Team chemistry is a real thing. We saw the stark difference between the team chemistries of the Bengals and Bills last weekend AND we witnessed the demonstrative results. One team had the energy and drive and intestinal fortitude to fight through the elements, the pressure, the emotional loss of teammates to injury, and other adversities to take it to another level. The losing team lacked that drive because it lacked the intangibles.
Win or lose tonight, I am very proud of this team and I am thankful for the joyous ride we've been taken on once again. Taylor and Burrow have ushered in a new era in Bengal football. I think we fans will look back in a couple decades and view this time as the Golden Age of Bengal football. These will be remembered one day as the "Glory Days."
If we win tonight, you, unlike most of the nation, will realize that talent can only take you so far. To reach the pinnacle of success and to perform at a peak level in the biggest and and most pressurized environments you must be blessed with what can't be measured by numbers. You must have the intangibles. We all know from watching this team on the field and in the locker room that it is overflowing with intangibles.
Watch again, tonight, as the Bengals show evidence of the unmeasurable , but ever so vital and impactful , and often overlooked, IntangiBALL.
Comments????
"Knowledge is preferable to ignorance. Better by far to embrace the hard truth than a reassuring fable. "
---CARL SAGAN
---CARL SAGAN
