From: rsmith@strobe.ATC.Olivetti.Com (Russ Smith)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.football.pro
Subject: Re: How Bad Is...?
Keywords: cardinals
Date: 7 Jan 93 20:35:57 GMT
Organization: Olivetti ATC; Cupertino CA, USA

In article <1993Jan7.181844.3794@lynx.dac.northeastern.edu> fvaughn@lynx.dac.northeastern.edu (Frederick Vaughn) writes:
>How bad an owner/executive/all-that is Bill Bidwill? Explain.

About as bad as is possible. He consistently has contract problems with
players, he consistently has annoyed fans, he has consistently blamed
the teams fortunes on the coach without looking at himself and the front
office. SOme examples:

In I believe 1973 Don Coryell drafts Terry Metcalf from Long Beach State
having remembered how Terry destroyed his San Diego State game while Coryell
was coaching there. Coryell, Metcalf and Bidwill go out to dinner to get
to know each other and lay the foundations for contract deals. Bidwills first
words to Terry "Terry, how do you feel about playing defensive back or
maybe wide receiver"? Coryell says "oh know, terry here is my tailback and
kick returner". Bidwill-"he is too damn small to play tailback in the NFL
you should have never drafted him". Not surprisingly at the peak of his career,
Metcalf jumped to the Canadian league in a contract dispute with Bidwill
and due to bad press over his tendency to fumble.

1984, the team is picked by some to contend for the Super Bowl, Luis Sharpe 
is holding out asking to be paid in line with other Pro-Bowl tackles, Bidwill
breaks off talks, Sharpe signs with Memphis of the USFL, even though at the
time the league was perilously close to folding(most players who jumped did
so long before Sharpe did). In the draft that year, they need a WR, so 
they are supposed to take Louis Lipps, Bidwill decided Lipps will cost too
much so instead they draft Clyde Duncan from Tennessee a guy with a rep as
fast, bad hands, bad pass routes. Lipps is one of the best rookies in the 
league that year, Duncan catches I think 2 passes the whole season(he
surprised Bidwill and held out the first 4 games of the season asking
for more money than Bidwill thought he was worth). Sharpe eventually
came back to the Cards was was worn out from a full year in the USFL
and was not much help, Duncan did not fill the 3rd receiver slot, and
the team missed the playoffs by one game. The next year drug problems
and salary disputes broke up the team.

Bidwill moved the team to Phoenix because they promised him like 15million\
dollars for the move plus luxury boxes, and he claims a new domed stadium.
Upon arriving he first jacks the ticket prices up to the highest in the 
NFL, then pisses off all Arizona Wranglers season ticket holders by saying
that they would not get first shot at season tickets as had been promised
prior to the move. Then he started complaining about the stadium, and Phoenix
officials deny promising him to build a new one with no cost to him. The 
team fills the stadium only halfway each game  to this day. Bidwill says
he is losing money even though he got all the incredible concessions to 
move there in the first place, Phoenix people hate him.

He fires Gene Stallings because he felt he was too popular with the fans
and the media(not my words but Bidwills) and hires Bugel. Only then did
he agree to hire a GM to run the team and the draft after Bidwills 
flunkee George Boone had screwed up most of the last 10 drafts.

Now with the team struggling he will again likely can the coach, hire
someone with an entire different philosophy and start rebuilding again.
The team has been rebuilding since 85 because the coach never lasts long
enough to finish and the next coach who comes in starts over in a new
direction.




Russ Smith
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"Chapeau means hat, oeuf means egg, its as if those French have a different 
word for everything!" 
                                        Steve Martin
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