Indianapolis Colts GM Chris Ballard addressed the Josh McDaniels beef and isn’t here to mess around.
Josh McDaniels burning the Indianapolis Colts is one of the more stunning third act twists we’ve seen in football over the last few years. On Tuesday morning it sounded like McDaniels was going to accept the Colts head coaching job, but by the end of the day he had backed out.
Chris Ballard, the Colts general manager, was left holding the empty bag and was forced into an impossible situation. Assistants had already agreed to jobs on McDaniels staff — one that will never exist. Indianapolis needs to find a new head coach, and Ballard is the one who has been forced to grab the bull by the horns and pilot the ship out of icy waters.
On Wednesday morning, Ballard called a press conference to address the situation and he didn’t pull any punches.
Ballard wasn’t messing around. He dove right into the meat of things and called out McDaniels for taking the cowards way out (my words, not his but there’s room for that line to be blurred).
That’s not unfair of Ballard to say. He was left high and dry after McDaniels gave him his word that a deal would happen. Football is a business, and it’s clear that a selfish decision was made but Ballard is taking it in stride.
The best part of his press conference was when he mentioned that the Colts-Patriots rivalry was back on.
It’s a rivalry that has involved everything from two Hall of Fame quarterbacks to deflated footballs. Now it involves a coach backing out of a job in the eleventh hour and a general manager who now has a chance to steer the team back on track against all odds. Jim Irsay owns the Colts in legal terms only now, the team belongs to Chris Ballard now.