This is an open letter to all of the high school, junior high
and club coaches that we have. Your job has always been difficult
and it just got tougher. For a long time, the assumption has been
that Vince Lombardi is right.
“Winning is the only thing.” So, it does not matter how you win
if you win.
This is an open letter to all of the high school, junior high and club coaches that we have. Your job has always been difficult and it just got tougher. For a long time, the assumption has been that Vince Lombardi is right. “Winning is the only thing.” So, it does not matter how you win if you win.
I had a friend who coached Little League baseball in Tulsa, Okla. He had the son of one of Lombardi’s players, Don Chandler, on his team. This winning is the only thing parent threatened to take my friend out behind the schoolhouse and teach him a lesson, just because the man’s son was not getting enough playing time.
Parents make your job harder.
I watched part of a recent Monday Night Football on ABC. In a game where Denver lost at Cincinnati, Denver’s right tackle George Foster threw a cut block on defensive tackle Tony Williams. The block broke Williams’ left ankle and likely ended his season. It was obvious that this was not necessary. John Madden made the comment that the block was unnecessary. Neither player would have been involved in the play, which was not even close to them. But then, winning is the only thing and this was “not against the rules” according to an NFL spokesman.
If this is the model of winning behavior, what do we expect from our youth? Your job gets harder.
This past weekend, we were shown players and fans attacking each other in an NBA game between Detroit and Indianapolis. It all began as a hard foul with 15 seconds left in and a 15-point lead. It escalated into a shoving match on the floor carried into the stands and involved both players and fans.
While the NBA handed down some “severe penalties,” it can also be faulted for not doing more earlier. Pacer Guard Ron Artest, was in the middle of it all; the first to go into the stands. This is the same Ron Artest who asked for a month off to be able to promote his new rap album. He gets the rest of the year off to do that now. It is the same Ron Artest who needs a 10-second delay on televising Pacer games to blur out his use of obscene gestures to the fans or anyone else he cares to share them with.
Yes, your job gets harder every day because a talented player like Artest is allowed to get away with almost any behavior in a game where money rules and winning is the only thing.
The day after the NBA meltdown in Detroit, we had a similar incident at a Clemson-South Carolina football game. Yes, there was a lot of emotion. It was South Carolina coach Lou Holz’s last game and Clemson was delivering a drubbing. It took police about 10 minutes to restore order as fights started, stopped, and then started again. It is unclear from the news coverage images where this began, but I say that it did not begin on the field last Saturday.
One more time, your job has gotten just a little bit harder.
Oakland has become famous for fans. They throw cell phones from the seats. They shower the players with beer, ice or whatever they can throw. But that is not as bad as the father and son in Chicago who ran onto the field and attacked an opposing coach. Both had been drinking. And it is easy to allow fans to get off the hook on the excuse that they had been drinking. With player salaries so high that owners need to squeeze every dime from every source, they will continue to push the sale of alcohol.
But I remember games at Wrigley field, sitting in the right field bleachers and relaxing with a brew. I especially remember a game where the score was 8 6 with both starting pitchers in the game. It is hard to blame a pitcher for dropped fly balls in the outfield. Besides, Drysdale had the highest batting average on the field. The cheers were right out of the Bronx. But, I do not every remember a fan deciding that is was somehow OK to take their frustrations out on the players.
Yes, I often wonder why you continue to coach when your job has gotten so difficult. Between parents, fans, pro and college goons masquerading as players, we do not make it easy for you. We give lip service to the idea that team sports build character and cooperation. We give lip service to the image that effort and perseverance mean something. But sports are the ultimate reality TV show, The Friday Night Lights are shining and Winning is the Only Thing.
Then we ask our young people to go to Iraq and play by the rules and we are astounded when prison guards step over the line or a young Marine shoots an unarmed, wounded enemy. Maybe we get what we deserve. Maybe there is hope that you fans, parents, players, especially you coaches, can turn this around. Then again, maybe I am just out of touch with these times.
“I find I have a great lot to learn, or unlearn. I seem to know far too much and this knowledge obscures the really significant facts, but I am getting on.” – Charles Rennie Mackintosh
