And Ewing, after all the years of being blamed for every team failure, may be willing to acquiesce.
Integral to those teams' failures has been his performance.
Call it a revival by the Jets' defense, which minimized another round of special-teams failures.
From special-teams failures to blown coverages on defense, many Giants are responsible for their 5-7 record.
That it came on special teams made it all the more miraculous in a season nearly sunk by special-teams failures that were responsible for two losses.
The idea of championships as the ultimate expression of athletic success has gained a firm grip on the basketball psyche in recent years, bolstered by former greats, like Karl Malone and Charles Barkley, who continue to be held to account for their near-misses and their teams' failures.
Still, despite the teams' failures, Dolan has shown fierce devotion to Sather since hiring him as the Rangers' president and general manager in 2000; Dolan once exhibited the same loyalty to Scott Layden and Don Chaney, the former president and coach of the Knicks, who were fired in December and January.
They were clustered in a prominent part of the 82,500-seat stadium, so the empty sections made the teams' failure to sell out glaring.
SAN FRANCISCO--The summer Olympics only come around every four years, and for elite athletes vying for a spot on their national teams, failure to qualify can be crushing.
Even privately, they see the team's failure as a failure of leadership on their part, and they act quickly to correct it.
Yet rare is the moment when the Boss looks in the mirror and blames himself for the team's failures.
