You Don't Deserve Anything
Our instant gratification society seems to be getting too demanding of the "instant" part these days, especially in the sports world. Consider if you will:
Norv Turner, head coach of the Washington Redskins, 7-6 so far this season: fired
Jim Donnan, head football coach at Georgia, 7-4 this year with a bowl invite: fired
Paul Pasqualoni, head football coach at Syracuse, 10 straight winning seasons: the locals want him fired
Jerry Wilcox, head basketball coach at West Genesee High School, 121-56 in eight seasons at WG coming into this year: some of the locals want him fired
To bring you up to speed on why in God's name this quartet of coaches is either under fire or seeking employment, it's because simply they didn't win it all fast enough or recent enough. Turner unfortunately saw his employer get bought by a dot-com zillionaire and apparent Steinbrenner wannabe, Daniel Snyder. Snyder bought a ton of high-priced free agents (Deion Sanders, Bruce Smith, Jeff George, and Adrian Murrell to name just a few). However, Snyder also has a habit of cutting kickers every time they miss a field goal, a trend that left the Redskins with the venerable Eddie Murray (estimated age: 74) as the kicker, and Murray then proceeded to miss game-winning field goals two weeks in a row, leaving the Skins in their current 7-6 predicament. Well, considering Mr. Dot-Com bought this team to win a Super Bowl, that just wasn't good enough, so poor Norv got his pink slip today. Patience is not a virtue in the NFL, not when a Jacksonville or a Carolina can go from expansion to the conference title game in two years.
This immediacy has spread down to the college ranks if for no other reason than the fact that when you look at it, major college football is nothing more than the minor leagues for the NFL. They draft kids out of high school in hockey, baseball, and even basketball now, but thankfully that practice is not done in football, thus leaving the only real alternative. No, not the CFL (how do you adjust to NFL-caliber play when the field is 110 yards long and you can score points on something called a rouge). Not the arena league (Kurt Warner notwithstanding), and not NFL Europe. College football, my friends; how otherwise can you explain the multi-million dollar paydays for the major bowl games? Get that win-now-and-get-money attitude in them early. As such, Georgia and coach Jim Donnan was expected to contend for the SEC title and a Bowl Championship Series berth, and more importantly perhaps, a lot of moolah for the conference and the school. Donnan even got the dreaded "vote of confidence" from AD Vince Dooley, a guy who in his long career as Georgia's head coach learned a few things about muddling through disappointing 7-4 seasons. The Dawgs go 7-4, miss the big bucks, and Donnan also got his walking papers today. This is the same business where John Cooper can go 8-3, 9-2, or even 10-1 at Ohio State, but if the one loss is to Michigan, the callers flood the talk radio lines calling for his head. I understand Cooper is something like 2-10-1 against Michigan, but I don't exactly see the recruits or the fans streaming toward the exits over things like this. It's simple: most people are happy when their team wins 8,9,10 games consistently. Even a winning season and a bowl bid every year should be enough to please most people.
Which brings me to our good buddy Coach P. The fans want him gone because they are convinced that the team has consistently underachieved with him as coach. Yup, a .700 winning percentage is now underachieving, especially when the Florida States, Nebraskas, and Kansas States of the world are putting up .900-plus year after year. With Donovan McNabb, Syracuse won three Big East titles in a row, but could never do better than 9-3 and lost twice in the BCS, both games rather sordid affairs to say the least. Now with a quarterback situation that changes hourly depending on the fans' mood that day, those in the know in the media pegged SU as a 6-5 team in 2000. Now, there were those yay-hoos who said Syracuse, would go, oh, let's say, 8-3 (see column #4), but it's normal for fans' expectations to be higher than those of the media (more on that later). Thusly, when SU hit the mark and went 6-5, the media said I told you so, and the fans got up and left. Literally. As in before halftime of the Miami game, with the 'Canes up 23-0 and the Orange offense doing less than nothing. The crowd got up and left. Before halftime. Of a game on national television. Well, perhaps they have a point. Vote with your feet, that's an acceptable way of getting people's attention, probably more effective than the daily letter I see in the Sub-Standard, errr, Post-Standard calling for Coach P's imminent dismissal or banishment to Outer Mongolia, whichever comes first. OK, the fact that they didn't beat anyone with better than a 6-5 record and missed a bowl in an age when merely fielding a college football program might be enough to get you in a WhoCares.com bowl game is probably good reason to be upset. However, these people now have a problem with us normal people who just shrug off a 6-5 year and look forward to the next with optimism yet again. Since it's all about the money, they say, our continued presence at the Dome will never get them to their ultimate goal of getting P fired.
What we have is the "what have you done for me lately" syndrome, but it's really bad when it happens at the HIGH SCHOOL level. Consider the curious case of Jerry Wilcox. The guy is a Hall of Famer, one of the best high school basketball coaches Central New York has ever seen. And yet, and YET, I had the displeasure of reading post after post online from disgruntled fans/students/parents suggesting that it was time to toss the bear out with the bathwater. You see, after a 92-23 stretch in his first five years as coach, which included three Section 3 finals, two titles, and a state finals appearance, he's only managed to win 6, 12, and 11 games the last three years. It apparently only took two years of mediocrity for people to assume that's the way it would be every year. Remember when I said it was normal for fans' expectations to be higher than those of the media? The P-S says this edition of the WG basketball team has a genuine shot at a league title, and from what I saw in the opener last Friday I would have to agree. And yet, those posting online are pessimistic as anything, and they don't bother showing up at the games because they are so certain of the mediocrity they are predicting. There is one line that was repeated in those posts that just killed me, and yet the line may also sum up the attitude of Mr. Snyder, Mr. Dooley, and SU football fans everywhere: "We deserve better."
And so I issue the following responses to each respective person/group:
Daniel Snyder, you paid all that money for the team and for the free agents, and they can't put up more than 7 points in a must-win game. You DON'T deserve better, at least not until the end of the season, and while you're at it, get a kicker who isn't a member of AARP.
Vince Dooley, college football is about love of your school and tailgate parties and marching bands, not million-dollar paydays for winning big games. You DON'T deserve better. If that attitude were around when YOU were coaching, you would not have been around long enough to become a legend.
Disgruntled Orangemen Fans, see above. If you don't want to plunk down the money to go to a game as your way of protest, it's certainly justified and acceptable, but don't go getting upset at us Joe Normals who will buy the tickets because we want to go see a game regardless of how good they are.
Disgruntled West Genny Fans/Students/Parents, high school sports are not about winning championships, they are about building character and having fun. You DON'T deserve better; in fact, you DON'T DESERVE ANYTHING at this level. This is where you actually have to (gasp!) WORK HARD to get what you want. If it's true in the classroom, then it's true on the field or court.
Thank you very much, and for God's sake, just go root for your team.
Norv Turner, head coach of the Washington Redskins, 7-6 so far this season: fired
Jim Donnan, head football coach at Georgia, 7-4 this year with a bowl invite: fired
Paul Pasqualoni, head football coach at Syracuse, 10 straight winning seasons: the locals want him fired
Jerry Wilcox, head basketball coach at West Genesee High School, 121-56 in eight seasons at WG coming into this year: some of the locals want him fired
To bring you up to speed on why in God's name this quartet of coaches is either under fire or seeking employment, it's because simply they didn't win it all fast enough or recent enough. Turner unfortunately saw his employer get bought by a dot-com zillionaire and apparent Steinbrenner wannabe, Daniel Snyder. Snyder bought a ton of high-priced free agents (Deion Sanders, Bruce Smith, Jeff George, and Adrian Murrell to name just a few). However, Snyder also has a habit of cutting kickers every time they miss a field goal, a trend that left the Redskins with the venerable Eddie Murray (estimated age: 74) as the kicker, and Murray then proceeded to miss game-winning field goals two weeks in a row, leaving the Skins in their current 7-6 predicament. Well, considering Mr. Dot-Com bought this team to win a Super Bowl, that just wasn't good enough, so poor Norv got his pink slip today. Patience is not a virtue in the NFL, not when a Jacksonville or a Carolina can go from expansion to the conference title game in two years.
This immediacy has spread down to the college ranks if for no other reason than the fact that when you look at it, major college football is nothing more than the minor leagues for the NFL. They draft kids out of high school in hockey, baseball, and even basketball now, but thankfully that practice is not done in football, thus leaving the only real alternative. No, not the CFL (how do you adjust to NFL-caliber play when the field is 110 yards long and you can score points on something called a rouge). Not the arena league (Kurt Warner notwithstanding), and not NFL Europe. College football, my friends; how otherwise can you explain the multi-million dollar paydays for the major bowl games? Get that win-now-and-get-money attitude in them early. As such, Georgia and coach Jim Donnan was expected to contend for the SEC title and a Bowl Championship Series berth, and more importantly perhaps, a lot of moolah for the conference and the school. Donnan even got the dreaded "vote of confidence" from AD Vince Dooley, a guy who in his long career as Georgia's head coach learned a few things about muddling through disappointing 7-4 seasons. The Dawgs go 7-4, miss the big bucks, and Donnan also got his walking papers today. This is the same business where John Cooper can go 8-3, 9-2, or even 10-1 at Ohio State, but if the one loss is to Michigan, the callers flood the talk radio lines calling for his head. I understand Cooper is something like 2-10-1 against Michigan, but I don't exactly see the recruits or the fans streaming toward the exits over things like this. It's simple: most people are happy when their team wins 8,9,10 games consistently. Even a winning season and a bowl bid every year should be enough to please most people.
Which brings me to our good buddy Coach P. The fans want him gone because they are convinced that the team has consistently underachieved with him as coach. Yup, a .700 winning percentage is now underachieving, especially when the Florida States, Nebraskas, and Kansas States of the world are putting up .900-plus year after year. With Donovan McNabb, Syracuse won three Big East titles in a row, but could never do better than 9-3 and lost twice in the BCS, both games rather sordid affairs to say the least. Now with a quarterback situation that changes hourly depending on the fans' mood that day, those in the know in the media pegged SU as a 6-5 team in 2000. Now, there were those yay-hoos who said Syracuse, would go, oh, let's say, 8-3 (see column #4), but it's normal for fans' expectations to be higher than those of the media (more on that later). Thusly, when SU hit the mark and went 6-5, the media said I told you so, and the fans got up and left. Literally. As in before halftime of the Miami game, with the 'Canes up 23-0 and the Orange offense doing less than nothing. The crowd got up and left. Before halftime. Of a game on national television. Well, perhaps they have a point. Vote with your feet, that's an acceptable way of getting people's attention, probably more effective than the daily letter I see in the Sub-Standard, errr, Post-Standard calling for Coach P's imminent dismissal or banishment to Outer Mongolia, whichever comes first. OK, the fact that they didn't beat anyone with better than a 6-5 record and missed a bowl in an age when merely fielding a college football program might be enough to get you in a WhoCares.com bowl game is probably good reason to be upset. However, these people now have a problem with us normal people who just shrug off a 6-5 year and look forward to the next with optimism yet again. Since it's all about the money, they say, our continued presence at the Dome will never get them to their ultimate goal of getting P fired.
What we have is the "what have you done for me lately" syndrome, but it's really bad when it happens at the HIGH SCHOOL level. Consider the curious case of Jerry Wilcox. The guy is a Hall of Famer, one of the best high school basketball coaches Central New York has ever seen. And yet, and YET, I had the displeasure of reading post after post online from disgruntled fans/students/parents suggesting that it was time to toss the bear out with the bathwater. You see, after a 92-23 stretch in his first five years as coach, which included three Section 3 finals, two titles, and a state finals appearance, he's only managed to win 6, 12, and 11 games the last three years. It apparently only took two years of mediocrity for people to assume that's the way it would be every year. Remember when I said it was normal for fans' expectations to be higher than those of the media? The P-S says this edition of the WG basketball team has a genuine shot at a league title, and from what I saw in the opener last Friday I would have to agree. And yet, those posting online are pessimistic as anything, and they don't bother showing up at the games because they are so certain of the mediocrity they are predicting. There is one line that was repeated in those posts that just killed me, and yet the line may also sum up the attitude of Mr. Snyder, Mr. Dooley, and SU football fans everywhere: "We deserve better."
And so I issue the following responses to each respective person/group:
Daniel Snyder, you paid all that money for the team and for the free agents, and they can't put up more than 7 points in a must-win game. You DON'T deserve better, at least not until the end of the season, and while you're at it, get a kicker who isn't a member of AARP.
Vince Dooley, college football is about love of your school and tailgate parties and marching bands, not million-dollar paydays for winning big games. You DON'T deserve better. If that attitude were around when YOU were coaching, you would not have been around long enough to become a legend.
Disgruntled Orangemen Fans, see above. If you don't want to plunk down the money to go to a game as your way of protest, it's certainly justified and acceptable, but don't go getting upset at us Joe Normals who will buy the tickets because we want to go see a game regardless of how good they are.
Disgruntled West Genny Fans/Students/Parents, high school sports are not about winning championships, they are about building character and having fun. You DON'T deserve better; in fact, you DON'T DESERVE ANYTHING at this level. This is where you actually have to (gasp!) WORK HARD to get what you want. If it's true in the classroom, then it's true on the field or court.
Thank you very much, and for God's sake, just go root for your team.
posted by Dave | 7:23 PM
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