Is There A Work Lesson In All This Brock Purdy Stuff?

Yea, but we also don’t need to make a big thing about it.

I need to start with two caveats.

(1) is that it annoys me to no end when people try to take lessons from sports and apply them to the business world. There are some applications, without a doubt. But to think some middle manager is suddenly going to channel Bill Belichick is ridiculous. Nick Saban isn’t a “product marketer” or “Assistant Operations Chief” for several reasons. People do have ceilings. Could a product marketer take some lessons from Nick Saban’s overall approach? Of course. But the way business journalism is written is often a bridge too far on these topics.

(2) The Purdy example might not be the best one out there, because for a lot of the year, the 49ers were going with Trey Lance (unproven), Jimmy G (thought to be washed up), and they were generally still winning. Then again, maybe that proves the point I’m trying to make.

What’s that point?

We need to focus less on individuals, and more on creating the right system.

Brock Purdy was not a bad quarterback in college by any means. Here are his stats:

That 2019 season (sadly Iowa State only went 7–6) was pretty sick, though: almost 4,000 yards passing, and a 3-to-1 TD-INT ratio. He actually had a pretty nice duel with Jalen Hurts, who he’ll face this Sunday:

Now, you look at Kyle Shanahan (coach of the 49ers) and maybe you see some bad stuff: he was the offensive coordinator when the Falcons choked in the Super Bowl to the Patriots, for example. He’s the son of a long-time, two-time-Super-Bowl coach, so maybe you think nepotism. He lost a Super Bowl himself a few years ago, to the Chiefs. He’s clearly a good coach, but he hasn’t quite “scaled the mountain” yet.