There’s a term in the entertainment industry for when something becomes a comically bad shell of its original self. They call it “Jumping the Shark.” It originates from the later seasons of Happy Days, when the show had run so low on ideas that they had Arthur Fonzarelli, while still wearing a leather jacket, strap on a pair of water skis and literally jump over a shark.
Why is any of this important? Because Sunday Mike Zimmer’s game management officially jumped the shark. Sure, he’s been putting out pretty bad episodes for a while now. We’re talking about the guy who seems intent on giving up a record amount of points in the last 2 minutes of the half. This is the professional coach who called back-to-back timeouts in a crucial moment. But still, Sunday afternoon against the Ravens was the moment that Mike Zimmer’s metaphorical football Fonzie officially hopped on it’s skis and headed for the ski jump.
After twice blowing a 14 point lead, Zimmer watched his team score with close to a minute left in regulation to bring the game within a point. The Vikings then found themselves in a often discussed situation. Play for overtime? Or play for the win? Zimmer chose overtime and got it.
So what’s the problem? The problem doesn’t lie in Zimmer’s decision to play it safe in a moment when most would have chosen to be aggressive, but rather in his reasoning.
When pressed about the decision in his postgame press conference Zimmer said he opted for the tie because “they have a heck of a kicker, still had over a minute left and 3 timeouts.”
Excuse my non-Happy Days type language, but what the hell are you talking about? It doesn’t matter if the game is tied or you’re up by 1, if their kicker makes a kick they win. The two concepts almost literally have nothing to do with one another. Basing a game-changing decision on that thought process is bewildering. It’s so out of touch with even the most basic game management concepts that it makes Mike McCarthy look like a Vince Lombardi-Bill Walsh combo. This isn’t just jumping the shark, this is jumping the shark and then the Fonz takes off his skis, the shark slips them on, hops behind the boat, and jumps back over Fonzie.
Maybe they would have gone for it and lost. That’s not the point. I honestly don’t have an issue with him playing for overtime. It’s just simply the reasoning. As the head coach of an NFL team in his 9th season that can’t be your reasoning for such an important decision. It can’t.
I suppose there’s a chance he was just flustered and not ready for the question. I guess it’s possible that he had a different reason and didn’t want to throw someone else under the bus. But, if we’re being honest with ourselves, it’s more likely that we’ve let a show we used to love go on for far too long.
