COACHING MISBEHAVIOURS……ON SUPERBOWL SUNDAY!
COACHES ARE SUPPOSEDLY ROLE MODELS FOR (USUALLY) YOUNGER CHARGES, ALLEGEDLY THERE TO SET GOOD EXAMPLES OF LEADERSHIP, SPORTSMANSHIP, THE ABILITY TO LOSE GRACEFULLY AND GET UP OFF THE FLOOR — SEE COACH JEFF RULAND AFTER IONA BROKE ITS 22-GAME WIN STREAK LAST NIGHT WITH A WIN OVER RIDER. WHAT A GENTLEMAN DURING THE HARD TIMES AND TRIBULATIONS OF THAT LOSING STREAK….
OCCASIONALLY (TOO OFTEN?) COACHES GET FRUSTRATED AND LOSE THEIR GRIP ON THE AFOREMENTIONED QUALITIES, AND, ONE SUSPECTS, REALITY ITSELF. THERE ARE MANY EXAMPLES OUT THERE IN THE LAST HALF CENTURY (LAST YEAR?) OF COACHES WHO HAVE LOST IT, AND PAID FOR LOSING IT.
ONE RECALLS A DECADE OR SO AGO, A HOCKEY COACH AT QUEEN’S, TRYING TO ROUSE HIS GOLDEN GAELS TO A LEVEL OF FEROCITY THAT MIGHT MIRROR IN OPPOSITE THE TEAM’S RECORD, “TO PLAY AS IF YOU WERE GOING INTO [THE OPPONENTS] HOMES AND RAPING THEIR WOMEN,” OR SOMETHING TO THAT EFFECT.
ONE RECALLS BOBBY KNIGHT, INDIANA BASKETBALL COACH WHO WAS MORE POWERFUL THAN THE STATE GOVERNOR, LEAVING TAMPAX IN A PLAYER’S LOCKER, WHEN THAT PLAYER WASN’T TRYING HARD ENOUGH, ACCORDING TO KNIGHT (AND THAT WAS ONE OF KNIGHT’S LESS OFFENSIVE SINS).
THE QUEEN’S COACH WAS FIRED, KNIGHT STAYED ON, FOR ANOTHER SEVERAL YEARS BEFORE FINALLY THE INDIANA U PRESIDENT DECIDED THAT ENOUGH WAS ENOUGH (THE ENOUGH INCLUDED SLAPPING AND CHOKING HIS OWN PLAYERS WHEN THE TEMPER ROARED….).
THE FOLLOWING EXAMPLE STRIKES ME AS SIMPLY LUDICROUS….BUT CONSTRUCTIONS OF PHALLOCENTRIC MASCULINITY, ONE SUSPECTS, REMAIN THE MAJOR WEAPON LEADERS OF MEN IN GROUPS (I CANNOT SEE A FEMALE COACH SAYING THIS…..) BRANDISH TO CALL FOR GREATER EFFORT AND TESTOSTERONE OUTPUTS. HERE IS A FITTING VIGNETTE FOR SUPERBOWL SUNDAY.
COMMENTS, OF COURSE, WELCOME. YES, THERE MAY BE A MOVIE FORTHCOMING…..
Basketball: Nutty order costs coach his job
A Leeds, Maine, high school basketball coach was fired after telling his players at halftime to reach into their pants to “check their manhood,” administrators said. Leavitt Area High School principal Patrick Hartnett said coach Mike Remillard told the varsity boys Jan. 23 that “tonight’s game was about who had the biggest (male genitalia) in town. He then required his players to all stand up and put their hands down their pants and check their manhood,” Hartnett said in the statement, which was read to school board members Thursday.