Jim Mora Tries to Save His Job with Revisionist History

The trials of life are supposed to lead us to greater heights. I like how Scottish crank Thomas Carlyle put it: "Adversity is the diamond dust Heaven polishes its jewels with."

When adversity comes to Seahawks head coach Jim Mora, he reacts by uttering nonsense, blaming others, and, lately, trying to rewrite history. He's no jewel. Unless you're talking about nose gold.

Mora, with his hat pulled low after Sunday's loss. If I were him, I'd try to hide too

After an ugly loss to one-win Tampa Bay on Sunday, in a game even the Bucs coach didn't think his team could win, Mora was in full backtrack mode.

"We were a four-win team last year," Mora said in his post-game media remarks, adding in some finger thrusts for effect. "Let's not lose track of that folks. We were a Four. Win. Team." (Actually he said "four team win," but we know what he meant.)

Funny, I seem to remember thinking that Mora was never going use 2008 as an excuse. I wonder why I would've thought that?

"I'm ready to officially shut the door on 2008 and never talk about it again."--Seahawks CEO Tod Leiweke, January 2009.

Oh right, that's why. Mora's first press conference as Seahawks coach, when he, GM Tim Ruskell, and Leiweke told fans to forget about the '08 debacle and gird up for a run at the playoffs. Said Leiweke: "We believe we're gonna regain our winning ways, the excitement in this building is real, and you're gonna feel it every game next year."

Said Mora in that January press conference: "Every single year is about winning the world championship."

Said Mora after Sunday's game: "We had a chance to double our win total."

Huh?

Mora then: "We're not going to rebuild."

Mora now: "We're in the stages of trying to build something that was broken."

Wha?

Mora then: "We're going to develop a scheme that fits our players."

Mora yesterday: "It takes time to come up with schemes that work for your players."

Zuu?

Hasselbeck: No hat, no blame game

Perhaps Mora was shielding us from the truth (aka, lying) in January. Maybe he knew that the Seahawks didn't have the talent, and that his schemes wouldn't work right away. In that case, why is he blaming his players?

Alternately, maybe Mora really did think that the Seahawks had the talent to win, and that his schemes would work. In fact, the players suck, and the schemes suck. So why hasn't Mora taken responsibility?

To see how a real leader handles adversity, you just had to wait at the presser until Matt Hasselbeck took the podium. Hasselbeck made his share of mistakes in the game: a foolish lateral attempt recovered by the Bucs and four interceptions. But three of those interceptions were on passes to Deion Branch. Branch fell down on the first, leaving the ball for a Bucs defender. Did Hass try to shift blame to the hopelessly inept Branch? Not a chance.

"I just feel like I let a lot of people down today," he said. "It's my fault. It's on me and I'll improve." Now there's a jewel.

I'll leave it to the Bible to sum Mora up: "If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small."