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Nothing Personal but ...I hope O'Brien Fails in NFL

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by qtlaw, Dec 27, 2013.

  1. Batman

    Batman Well-Known Member

    Always hate the "HE LIED TO THE KIDS!!!" argument, because it's stupid and flawed. Basically, the people who make this argument are saying that accepting a coaching job is like being in the mafia. Once you're in, you're in and can never leave. Well, guess what? Every coach is going to have players he doesn't stick around for. Even Bobby Bowden, Joe Paterno and Eddie Robinson had guys they didn't see all the way through. Unless the coach stays in a job until the day he drops dead, there's going to be people he "lied to."
    Coaches are hoboes with a whistle. It's the nature of the profession, on every level. They're hired to be fired, and take one job with an eye on the next one.
     
  2. Mizzougrad96

    Mizzougrad96 Active Member

    Harbaugh did it. Saban did it. Spurrier did it. Petrino did it. Carroll did it.

    If you play for a top head coach in college there is almost always a chance they'll leave for the NFL.
     
  3. 3_Octave_Fart

    3_Octave_Fart Well-Known Member

    Petrino was a different case, though.
    He used each job as a way-station while he looked for the next, bigger one.
    I think we have all worked with an asshole like this at one point or another.
     
  4. outofplace

    outofplace Well-Known Member

    Great. Then don't lie and say otherwise, especially when trying to convince kids to commit to a toxic situation like Penn State.
     
  5. jr/shotglass

    jr/shotglass Well-Known Member

    This exactly.

    Don't know if you've heard much from O'Brien, but the man commands a room. He is singularly impressive.
     
  6. Mizzougrad96

    Mizzougrad96 Active Member

    I've heard that about him. I've never met him, but you can always tell that with certain coaches, when they walk in, you could hear a pin drop. I remember when Mike Tomlin was an assistant in Minnesota, one of the beat writers told me, "You can just tell when you talk to him that he's going to be a head coach." and then when I talked to him at the combine, it was like, "Wow, I completely see what he's saying." He had this presence about him that you don't see very often.

    I'm not sure it's completely a respect thing, because I've covered a lot of coaches who were very well-respected and they couldn't command a room like some of these guys can. Spurrier had it. Bobby Knight, Saban, Parcells, Belichick, Shula, to a lesser extent, Shanahan...
     
  7. Mark2010

    Mark2010 Active Member

    Glad you're catching on. I had to learn that lesson the hard way.
     
  8. jr/shotglass

    jr/shotglass Well-Known Member

    You get that vibe from O'Brien, too. His speaking appearances, if you ever catch him speaking to his team, it's like a highlight moment from NFL Films.
     
  9. Baron Scicluna

    Baron Scicluna Well-Known Member

    In this day and age, if kids don't think their coaches are going to leave, then they're being pretty naive.

    But like I said, I wouldn't have a problem with it as long as the kids are able to do the same exact thing. Maybe not for extra pay from the school themselves, but if another school had boosters who wanted to offer them autograph opportunities and a house for mom, well, why not?
     
  10. old_tony

    old_tony Well-Known Member

    If players want their coach to stay they should play just shitty enough that he won't get opportunities elsewhere, but just good enough that he won't get fired.
     
  11. shockey

    shockey Active Member

    herm Edwards is very much the same. he didn't have great success as a head coach but, boy, is he ever a charismatic presence. by the end his introductory news conference with the Jets in 2001 I was ready to run through a wall for him.
     
  12. BDC99

    BDC99 Well-Known Member

    How do you know what promises he has made? And as I said, he believes he is going to be there for the long haul, but if a better job comes along (and it was well known from Day One that he would eventually go back to the NFL), then he has every right to take that job without being criticized for it. If he had bolted after last season, I would have had more of a problem with it because he would have left the program in the lurch in the middle of the crisis. But the kids have no illusions that they will definitely be playing for the same coach for 4-5 years. If that was the case, then like Batman said, no coach would ever be able to move on. Why are we allowed to move on to a better job but the coaches are criticized for it. There ARE situations where coaches deserve the criticism, but this is not one of them.
     
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