EVERYTHING
FOR YOUR FAMILY
KID
QUIPS
During last July’s 5.8 earthquake, 3-year-old Bronwyn told her 1-year-old sister, “We’re going for a wiggle.” READ MORE
Editors Note
|
||||
|
Should you follow college athletics, the latest in the bloated world of coaches has been splashed across the pages from local newspapers to Sports Illustrated. One of those stories - new University of Alabama Coach Mike Price being fired before he gets to coach his first football game - hits close to home. Price is 57 now, which means he was 28 or 29 when he took his first major college assignment nearly two decades ago, as a wide receivers coach at Washington State University. I know. I was there as a little-considered, underweight, determined wide receiver. The Mike I remember was a breath of fresh air among a coaching staff that, to my recollection, seemed to yell more than teach. One of the phrases that then-Head Coach Jim Sweeney often used - it is sweetly ironic today - was this: "Have a little pride, have a little integrity!" Mike was youthful, enthusiastic, and most important, fair. He knew I wasn't going to get the Cougars into the Rose Bowl (years later, he gained fame by taking the team to the hallowed game twice as head coach). He understood that you need reserves who will give everything - even if it is not much in the talent department. And, oh yes, don't shame the university. Like getting caught in a strip joint. Like Mike recently did. In the lengthy coverage of this affair, someone wrote that college head coaches are caught in a conundrum: They oversee young athletes who are adults acting like little children and expecting adulation. And the coaches, often a state's highest-paid public servant, don't answer to anyone. If they win, they are gods. If they lose, they move to another job within a too-close fraternity (compare this to politicians who never seem to go away). And, sometimes, they lose touch with reality. They aren't teachers anymore; that dream started flaming out way back when Knute Rockne's plane dropped from the sky. They are celebrities, and, as we know, celebs often act badly. I like Mike, but he played dumb. According to published reports, he recently went to Pensacola, Fla., to a PGA golf tournament where he appeared in the celebrity pro-am that precedes the event. He ended up in a strip club, dropped several hundred dollars on drinks and, himself drank heavily. And, while at the golf course the next morning, a young lady charged $1,000 from his hotel room for food to go. He paid the bill. Price disputes some of this; he is planning to file a lawsuit. The thing is, I like Mike. So, apparently, do a number of other people who believe he shouldn't have been fired. They talk about the outcome not fitting the crime. I say, send him away. Someday, one of my sons may play college ball. And as much as I like Mike, he'll never be one of the kids' coaches, because, unpopular as it may seem, I'll want a guy who is a mentor, a role model. Just like Mike was, back in 1974, when he took under his wing a scared teen-aged wide receiver who tried really hard to just do good. |
||||
RSS Subscribe
Digg This ArticleSEARCH THE SITE
