One might imagine (at least, I have certainly always imagined) that being CIO for a professional sports team, particularly one of the most successful teams in the NFL, might be a pretty exciting job. So when Computerworld interviewed CIO Patricia Curley of The Kraft Group, owners of the new england patriots, you better believe I ate that right up... but came away from it with the distinct impression that my job is more exciting than hers.

Indeed, although she is quite polite about it, it seems as if Curley is saddled in one of those terrible CIO positions where the boss goes out, has lunch with a pal who either uses or has invested in some cool new tech startup, and then comes back into the office, sated and pleased, and says, "Say, Curley, I think this Product X is pretty good stuff... go pick one up and make it work here." This though Product X runs on an entirely different operating system, duplicates a system already in place, and will cost far more than the function it fulfills will generate in revenue. This is the price one sometimes pays for working with the rich and powerful; neat new toys do not always a stable system make.

But that's just one possible take on a few choice passages in the article. Having been in that position myself, I may be predisposed to reading it into the situations of others. Personally I think that a good CIO position involves being the one that other executives come to for solutions rather than with them. But she says she loves the job and I'm all in favor of people enjoying what they do. Still, it seems a little reserved, and, well, boring.

One wonders if the cheating scandal early this season has made Curley reticent about discussing her role or the team; this 2005 article seems considerably more detailed and more interesting, a far cry from this response to the question "Can you talk about the systems for the Patriots?":

"Well ... no. One of our security tenets is that the less we talk about it the less we expose."

Sounds like it could have come straight from Belichick, doesn't it?