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The number of superstars who traded a uniform for a suit and actually got better is still at one and holding.
That would be Jerry West, an all-universe NBA player who became an even better executive, first in Los Angeles and now at Memphis. West made that segue 23 years ago, helped put eight more championships in the Lakers' trophy case alongside the one he claimed as a player.
The latest former
great to move into a front office is Dan Marino. On Monday, the most prolific
passer in NFL history took Dolphins owner Wayne Huizenga up on an offer to win
the Super Bowl trophy he couldn't bring Miami as a player.
Since Marino had no experience and the job he filled -- senior vice president
of football operations -- didn't even exist until he showed up, more than a
few people were suspicious. And one of them asked Huizenga whether Marino, who
has been working as a TV analyst, was destined to be more than a figurehead.
``Here's a guy who's on CBS and HBO and making four jillion dollars a year to work there,'' the owner shot back. ``He's not going to quit a job like that to come here for somebody to say it's just a figurehead job. This is serious business here.'' Tickets
If so, Huizenga is taking a decided risk with some of his jillions.
It's still too early to make a judgment on the budding front-office careers of two other NBA superstars-turned-suits, Larry Bird and Isiah Thomas, but not on Michael Jordan.
For a guy who thrived on competition, the drudgery of office work bored him from the start. Jordan served as the Washington Wizards' president of basketball operations from January 2000 to October 2001, and the only slam-dunk personnel move he made during that stretch was convincing himself to put a uniform back on.
He judged talent by instinct more than research and dreamed of transforming the franchise with one bold stroke, instead of several smaller ones that would make the Wizards better incrementally. Like most men of action, he hated homework and waiting around for the phone to ring. Like all great players, he never learned how to deal with others' shortcomings.
That's why it's no coincidence that the players who return successfully to the sidelines as coaches or the front offices as bosses were usually better students than athletes. Of the nine current NFL coaches who played in the league for at least a season, only four were regulars and none has entered the Hall of Fame without buying a ticket first.
The last player to merit a plaque in Canton and win a Super Bowl as a coach was Mike Ditka, and that was with the 1985 Bears. The last great player to turn the trick as an executive was Baltimore's Ozzie Newsome, another Hall of Fame tight end who turned out to be even smarter and more patient than he was tough. Even so, Newsome spent nearly a dozen seasons learning the ropes with the Ravens before he got to hoist a Super Bowl trophy.
Whether Marino adapts to life in the front office nearly as well remains to be seen, especially since no one outside the Dolphins is clear on how he'll spend his time. Huizenga retained his player personnel boss, Rick Spielman, and his coach, Dave Wannstedt, and while they will report to Marino, he will still report to team president Eddie Jones.
``I'm back home again,'' Marino said, as if that was all that mattered. ``I love everything about this place.''
Well, not quite everything.
Wannstedt was the coach who helped nudge him into retirement a few seasons back, and Marino is already on record saying he wanted Damon Huard to replace him at quarterback instead of Jay Fiedler -- who still has the job. Plotting revenge may fill up part of Marino's work schedule, but he better be about more than that.
``Always in the back of my head was that I never did get a chance to win a championship,'' Marino said. ``Maybe there's a way I can help contribute so we can get that.''
He can't trade the suit back in for a uniform, so here's hoping Marino is a quick study. Guys blessed with that much talent rarely understand why the rest of the world sweats the small stuff -- and even then, they do so slowly and usually only grudgingly.
Another front-office hire in a different town this week made a much smaller splash, but it spoke volumes about how winning teams are constructed. Former Bulls general manager Jerry Krause, ridiculed in Chicago for his rumpled appearance while riding Jordan's coattails to six NBA titles, was hired by the Yankees as a special assistant for baseball operations.
Before joining the Bulls, Krause worked as a baseball scout for four different teams, but that experience wasn't what caught owner George Steinbrenner's eye. What impressed the Boss was the opposite of glamour.
``I have always considered Jerry Krause the quintessential `gym rat,' and I mean that in the most complimentary way,'' Steinbrenner said. ``All he does is work, work, work.''