The expansion Tampa Bay Buccaneers of 1976 and 1977 were the worst team in pro football history, which is why and how they lost their first 26 NFL games. At one point during his time as the Bucs’ head coach, John McKay, who was always quick with his sardonic wit, said this about his team’s execution:
“I think it’s a good idea.”
It was funny in context, and given McKay’s history with quips, nobody took it seriously. It was not meant to offend; like most of the things McKay said during the Bucs’ first two seasons, it was meant to keep the pressure off players who found the constant futility frustrating.
There are people who can tell a joke, and people who can’t. Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly, who tried his own version of this bon mot after his team came back to beat Florida State in overtime Sunday night, appears to be one of the latter kinds of people.
— no context college football (@nocontextcfb) September 6, 2021
Dallas Mavericks head coach Rick Carlisle also gave it a shot once.
So… back to Kelly. Even those familiar with the McKay quite were a bit gobsmacked by Kelly’s… uh, execution of it.
uh.. what do we think of Brian Kelly's humor attempt? it's a twist on an old one liner, saying his whole team "should be executed." but this is '21.. yeah I don't think it works. It was a resilient W in very tough environment.
— Chris Fowler (@cbfowler) September 6, 2021
Kelly tried damage control after the fact, in his own special way.
Brian Kelly just now: "It's an old John McKay quote. I was kidding. I was being tongue-in-cheek. … It wasn't funny? I was making a joke about it. It was taken serious. Are you people crazy?"
— Adam Rittenberg (@ESPNRittenberg) September 6, 2021
We have to see the whole thing in context. Again, John McKay was a fan of gallows humor, and he used it liberally to keep things light when his Bucs team was historically awful. Brian Kelly is generally a humorless coach who really loves to scream at his players and coaches on the sideline, which does not give him the benefit of the doubt. At all.
Kelly is also in charge of college kids who do not have a union, and who are generally powerless in the face of their coaches, while McKay’s NFL players at least had the benefit of that. Perhaps he should consider that before trying to channel the spirit of McKay in the future.