Coaching Crazy.....

This football season sure has seemed to focus on the coaches more then any other time that I can remember, and not always in a good or flattering way. In fact, it would make you wonder why anyone in their right mind would want this job?

In the college game we have had big name coaches fired (Charlie Weis), let go before their time (Bobby Bowden), leave for the NFL (Pete Carroll), go to court to keep their job and fail (Mike Leach), resign for health and family reasons and then rescind all of it 24 hours later (Urban Meyer), and just in the past week one coach leave a high profile program after only one year at the helm to coach another high profile program and was only able to have a one minute press conference at the old job because there was concern about the reaction to his move (Lane Kiffin). Plus we had the normal hiring, firing, resigning, and jumping to other schools that seems to happen every off season.

On the professional side, it has not nearly been as strange, but they seem to be in the news for one reason or another each week. We have had the crazy on field decisions (4th and 2 anyone?), the replacement of a coach’s play calling duties by someone who was calling Bingo games in a senior center a week prior, then that same coach fired at 4am in the morning the day after the season ended. One was given a contract extension, then blew the division and a week later the playoffs to their most heated rival, while that rival coach’s job, which seemed to be on the ledge, was actually saved and extended because of those particular games.

Another picked up his new star quarterback at the airport in his own personal vehicle, then during the season seemed to lose the keys to the team to that same quarterback because the star didn’t want to leave a game.

Then for the topper, we have a coach who was supposed to get his year end review almost ten days ago, but has been told it is postponed indefinitely as of now. That wouldn’t be so bad, but there are now reports that the owner is actually interviewing new coaches before meeting and firing his old one (got to love Al Davis).

All of this has to make you wonder if you have to be a little crazy to want to coach football on either the college or professional level? Maybe, but all that craziness gets washed away whenever a coach gets that Gatorade shower and for them that makes it all worth the insanity.