Author Archives: Kent Sterling

Indiana Basketball – names on jerseys immaterial to success or NIL monetization

How does this Isiah Thomas jersey look to you?

There are few things less important in life than the debate over whether names belong on the backs of Indiana Basketball jerseys, but the topic is raging again because of the inevitability players will soon be able to profit from their names, images, and likenesses.

Names on the backs of jerseys with enhance name recognition of basketball players, according to advocates for adding names.  Detractors cite tradition and the need to play for the name on the front of the jersey.

As a practical matter, there is no correlation between on court success and the name being sewn onto an area of a jersey impossible for the player wearing it to see.  If there was an inkling of proof a name helped a shooter make one more shot or snare one more rebound, I would would lead the charge for names.  There isn’t so – again – my emotional investment hovers at zero.

Indiana Basketball has replaced Archie Miller with Mike Woodson, lost three transfers, and added two transfers and two recruits.  Woodson is 63 and has never coached in college.  The team is entirely unproven, coming off a miserable 12-15 season, and fans and media are debating whether names should be affixed to the backs of jerseys?

If you need proof IU fans are insane, this argument serves as Exhibit A.

I have long been a traditionalist in terms of uniforms.  Change is usually driven by greed, and greed is repulsive.  Names on the backs of Cubs jerseys, particularly those that commemorate players from the 1960s and 1970s like Ernie Banks and Ron Santo are particularly silly because Santo and Banks never had names on their jerseys.

That stands as pretty good evidence that names on jerseys are of little branding value.  Banks and Santo are beloved as Cubs greats just as Isiah Thomas, Steve Alford, Calbert Cheaney, Victor Oladipo, and Jordan Hulls are among IU greats.  We know there names because of what they did on the court.  They would be no more famous had they worn their names over their numbers.

The only compelling argument I have heard in favor of names on jerseys comes from parents who are proud to see their names on their sons’ jerseys.  But if we allow parents to determine any course of athletic department policy – all is lost.  They are all irretrievably nuts.

When my son played at Loyola of Chicago, I was proud that his work ethic had given him the opportunity to play college basketball.  His name on the jersey meant nothing.  I was still a crazy parent, just not in that specific way.

After watching IU miss enough free throws to cost IU at least three losses and Miller his job, the last thing on my mind is whether Indiana put names on the backs of student-athletes.  Members of a teamdthat has failed to qualify for the NCAA Tournament for five straight years,  must have more important issues to occupy their minds than the style of jerseys with or without names.

To their credit, I have never heard an IU player campaign for names on jerseys.  At least I never paid attention to them if they did.  When your team ranks 300th in free throw percentage (as IU did in 2020-2021), you keep your mouth shut, work hard, and work to turn this historic program around.

Let lunkheads on social media spar about fashion.

2021 Colts Draft grade hinges on Odeyingbo’s ability to heal and disrupt

Dayo Odeyingbo was big, fast, and twitchy until he tore his Achilles. The quicker he heals, the better the 2021 Colts Draft will look.

Some years, the NFL Draft cooperates for a team, and other years it doesn’t.  For the Indianapolis Colts, the 2021 NFL Draft appears to be the latter.

It’s three years too soon to cast judgment on Colts general manager Chris Ballard and his staff for their weekend’s worknselecting seven players in the 2021 Draft, but we know two things about their haul for sure – of the first 126 players selected, the Colts got one who will contribute in the 2021 season.  Second, they did not get address their glaring need for a starting left tackle.

Kwity Paye may wind up being exactly the edge rush defensive end the Colts desperately need.  It was the top priority in this draft because without pressure, opposing quarterbacks carve up the Colts.  Paye may wind up defying the odds and helping win games as a game-wrecking rookie at a position that normally requires a couple of years to learn.  Fellow defensive end Dayo Odeyingbo, taken with the 54th overall pick, will be kept from doing meaningful work as he recovers from an Achilles tear suffered in January.

The Colts third round pick was part of the compensation for acquiring Carson Wentz from the Eagles, so nothing to look forward to there.  In the fourth, the Colts took a tight end who is said to have great feet and lousy hands.  Later they acquired a safety out of Florida named Shawn Davis, quarterback Sam Ehlinger from Texas, and in the seventh round a very tall wide receiver and stout guard from Penn State.

It’s very unlikely a seventh rounder assumes a key role on a playoff bound team or Ehlinger will see the field as a third quarterback behind Wentz and backup Jacob Eason.  That leaves the tight end and Davis as members of this rookie class who could help elevate the Colts roster into a division championship, and maybe a playoff run.

There is some talk that Ehlinger could perform as a Tayson Hill-esque hybrid.  Anything is possible, but Ehlinger’s 40 time was 4.8 – not bad for a quarterback – while Hill’s was a crackling 4.44.  Maybe Ehlinger is an improvement over Jacoby Brissett as a sneak artist on third or fourth and short, but coach Frank Reich is unlikely to split him out wide.

One piece of good news for Colts fans, Ballard ended his streak of selecting cornerbacks with slower than 4.5 40-yard-dash times in the second round of odd year drafts.

The bad news is the Colts do not yet have a starting level left tackle on the roster, unless owner Jim Irsay, Ballard, and Reich misrepresent reality when they tell us the other four linemen will remain as their positions.  They claim comfort with Sam Tevi, who signed as a free agent after starting for the Chargers.

Before you invest in hope that Tevi can do the job, it is instructive to know he ranked 30th and last by Pro Football Focus among all tackles with more than 1,000 offensive snaps last season, and second to last as a run blocker among all tackles who were on the field for at least one running play.  PFF is imperfect as a tool to grade play level, but not so flawed as to represent a good tackle as poor or vice versa.

Sometimes, a GM gets the draft, and sometimes the draft gets the GM.  God knows what this draft will look like in 2023, after Odeyingbo heals.  He and Paye could be bookend edge guys along the lines of Dwight Freeney and Robert Mathis.  They could lead the Colts to a championship – or they might not.

As Paye and Odeyingbo go, so will go the opinion of Ballard’s work in this draft in minds of Colts fans.

Colts Draft another edge – leaving left tackle a problem to be solved another day!

Does Chris Ballard covet pressuring opposing quarterbacks to the point he would jeopardize his own? I don’t believe so.

After watching the Colts draft edge rushers Kwity Paye and Dayo Odeyingbo with their first and second round picks in the NFL Draft, it is easy to look at the roster and wonder just what the hell the Colts are going to do for a starting left tackle.

Colts general manager Chris Ballard is a very smart guy, certainly bright enough to understand that left tackle is important enough to have a starter playing there.  That means that Ballard may have been playing possum through this entire process.  While we were watching film of Stanford’s Walker Little at Stanford in 2018, Ballard had other plans for left tackle.

One of two things must be true – the Colts already have their starter or they plan on signing Eric Fisher, formerly of the Kansas City Chiefs and one of the best LTs in football before he tore his Achilles.

There has been speculation that the Colts are very interested in the possibility of sliding Quenton Nelson three feet from the guard spot he has dominated for three years to left tackle. it is also possible that Braden Smith might flip from right tackle to left tackle.

Either would be a suitable explanation for why the Colts ignored their glaring need in favor of bulking up at a position already stocked with second round talent like Kemoko Turay, Ben Banogu, and Tyquan Lewis.  Granted , those three haven’t contributed as the Colts hoped, but they are still here.

The only problem is that owner Jim Irsay and Ballard are rarely if ever dishonest with the media and fans.  Any time either has been asked about Nelson or Smith, they have explained the potential downfall of such a move – damaging the quality of play at two positions.  And as far as signing a free agent left tackle, Irsay said it’s his preference to draft one as the Colts did with Tarik Glenn and Anthony Castonzo.

Is it possible Irsay and Ballard have been playing it cute and planned all along to fill the void with an internal candidate or Fisher?  I suppose it is, and I’m going to choose to believe that is exactly what happened because the alternative is too gruesome for me to bear – that Ballard’s draft calculus was flawed, and now he is in scramble mode to avoid trusting Sam Tevi to protect Carson Wentz‘s blindside.

It is also possible that Ballard had every intention of taking a left tackle tonight, but was unable or unwilling to pay the price to trade up.  Or maybe he felt the remaining left tackles were not worthy of being selected with any pick.  Maybe Ballard feels that forcing a bad solution today would only create more problems down the road.

As logical and productive as last year’s draft was with defensive tackle DeForest Buckner being acquired for the 13th overall pick, and Michael Pittman and Jonathan Taylor being grabbed early in the second, this one is the opposite.  Paye filled a need and was widely seen as the best edge in the draft.  Taking him a 21 was a fine idea.  But doubling down at edge with Odeyingbo, who is not quite four months removed from tearing his Achilles seems bizarre given the roster hole we have already discussed.

Maybe the offensive line comes together with Nelson, Smith, or Fisher anchoring the left side, and Paye and Odeyingbo combine for 15 sacks in 2021 as the Colts defense puts opponents on blast.  That would validate the work of Ballard as a mastermind.

If not for my belief in Ballard as a manager, I would think that was a substantially nutty supposition.  For the time being, I’m willing to listen to the advice I gave others earlier this offseason when they raised concerns about Ballard’s lack of activity in the free agent market, “Wait until the offseason is over to evaluate it.”

Okay, I’ll wait.  But the hole at left tackle needs to be plugged before Labor Day, or like Vito Corleone says in the meeting of the heads of the five families during The Godfather, “I’m going to blame some of the people in this (draft) room; and then I do not forgive!”

Chris Ballard is on the clock, but I trust he will get this right before it runs out.

Colts take no-brainer edge Kwity Paye – the real work of the 2021 NFL Draft begins tonight

Kwity Paye is the first Colts pick of the 2021 NFL Draft. So far – so good.

Now the draft gets interesting for the Indianapolis Colts.

Last night’s selection of a disruptive edge was always a given.  The Colts went into the draft with two needs – edge and left tackle.  The edge guys were certain to come off the board ahead of the LTs, so the Colts were smart to go edge in the first round.

The drama was always going to be whether the Colts would use their pick at 21 to take the edge of their choice, or risk trading back to slide up in the second round to increase their chances of getting a left tackle who can step in and start.

If that sounds complicated, it can be.  A draft is about two things – getting one dynamic player who takes you closer to a championship – and the aggregate value of all players taken in the draft.  Sometimes, one leads to the other, but occasionally one corrupts the other.

In previous drafts, general manager Chris Ballard has tried to put together deep drafts with multiple winning pieces.  Last night, he threw his chips in the middle of the table last night in hopes of getting that one dynamic piece.

Ballard said taking edge Kwity Paye at #21 was “an easy choice.”  What he didn’t say is how nervous he is going to be tonight as LTs come off the board prior to the Colts second round pick at #54.  Paye has the highest ratio of potential upside to downside among the edges in this draft, and if a quality LT slips to #54, Ballard will look like a genius.

Last night was the easy part, unless the Colts are planning on giving Quenton Nelson or Braden Smith a shot to start at LT.  If that’s the case, we will know tonight.  Taking a wide receiver or cornerback at 54 would clearly communicate Ballard’s belief that he already has his starting LT on the roster.  That would get him off the hook for standing pat at #21.

The calculus on moving down from #21 was whether the Colts could get similar upside at edge by sliding seven to 10 spots, while reaping enough in return to move up from 54 to 38-40 in tonight’s second round to get a potential plug and play LT.  When Paye fell, the Colts got their guy, and decided to roll the dice on #54.

That’s the fun of the draft.  It doesn’t end with the first round.  It rolls forward and forward and forward, and the decisions made yesterday have an enormous effect on today, tomorrow, next year, and beyond.

Not to pick on the Chicago Bears, but the deal to move up from #20 to #11 so they could grab quarterback Justin Fields was a direct result of blowing countless efforts to solve their quarterback issue.  Chasing mistakes is a dangerous business, and being unsuccessful in landing a longterm solution at QB since Sid Luckman’s retirement in 1950 has been paralytic for the franchise.  Mistakes today bring more mistakes tomorrow and on and on.

Through four drafts, Ballard’s greatest accomplishment has been mistake avoidance.  Minus a couple of clunkers at corner taken in the second round, the debit side of Ballard’s ledger is mostly clean.

We’ll see how Ballard did when the Colts take the field in September.  Right now, like all teams that selected someone last night, the Colts feel like they got better.