Quote:I totally disagree. From all accounts Blake's teammates look up to him as a leader, and watching him talk he's a natural born leader. I fail to understand how you don't see this in him. Forget about former coaches... Blake would never throw a current player or coach under the bus, and I often see him taking blame for stuff that's so not even close to his fault.


 

Look, Blake has issues and I don't deny that, but his ability to lead men is not one of them.

 

I base that statement largely on his not owning the decision not to go to California last off season for supervision and instruction and then throwing his former coach(es) under the bus about it after this season was over when he was facing increasing amounts of heat for his performance as the season went on.  Leaders don't do those sorts of things. "Forgetting about former coaches" is convenient for those defending Bortles, but it's just as relevant to me as discussing current coaches and colleagues to the media.

 

Of lesser relevance, but still noted in my book is that he rarely if ever seems to get on his receivers for anything that might be their fault.  A real leader in my book takes ownership for his short comings and even for things that are not necessarily entirely his/her fault, but also demands that those around him also strive for excellence.  There is a distinction though about getting on them on the field and in the moment or one-on-one behind closed doors versus throwing them under the bus to the media.  Maybe he's doing this one-on-one with them behind closed doors, but I can only form my opinions from the information that I can gather.  I get the sense that Bortles is more interested in being buddies with his teammates than in striving for and demanding excellence.

 

Lastly and largely inconsequential if it was the only issue is the fact that he just doesn't seem comfortable in post game press conferences to me.  He has this nervous tic about touching his face and head with his hand when answering questions.  Sometimes he does it more than others.  I've seen him do it just a handful of times in some interviews and I've seen him do it 15-20 times in some interviews that are as short as 3 minutes.  Maybe it's correlated with losing because we've done too much of that for a long time. Once you notice it, it's hard to unnotice it.  It's not a confident look.  True leaders of men generally don't have body language issues in interviews.  I get the sense that he has very little interest in being there in those moments.  I can't imagine he has this tendency when he's just hanging with his boys or whatever, but maybe he does.  Even so, bad body language wouldn't lend itself to inspiring much of anything in your work colleagues in my opinion.  At any rate, I'm just not sure how you get "natural born leader" from him when you see him speak publicly.  I either get nothing from him or I get a lack of confidence from him.  He is often jovial in interviews, but that has little to do with being a leader of men to me.

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