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Paging Starman. Governor Barney Rubble on line one...

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by slappy4428, Nov 11, 2008.

  1. slappy4428

    slappy4428 Active Member

    Former MSU coach George Perles plans to run for governor of Michigan in 2010. No word if Ken Hoffman will be his chief of staff



    By CHRIS CHRISTOFF • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER • November 11, 2008

    LANSING – Former Michigan State University football coach George Perles says he’s done a lot to help people as an MSU trustee.

    Now, he wants to run for governor in 2010.

    “It was suggested to me by a number of people,” Perles told the Free Press today.

    Perles, 74, said he’ll form an exploratory committee to run for governor as a Democrat. He cited his experience as MSU athletic director and founder of the successful Motor City Bowl, post-season college game that’ll see its 12th year in late December.

    http://www.freep.com/article/20081111/SPORTS07/81111079
     
  2. Ben_Hecht

    Ben_Hecht Active Member

    He's done a lot to enable some bad head coaches, yes.
     
  3. GB-Hack

    GB-Hack Active Member

    Maybe its just me, but 74 now and 76 then seems rather old for a run at the Governorship, doesn't it?

    Wasn't this part of the argument against McCain?
     
  4. Clerk Typist

    Clerk Typist Guest

    "We need auto executives as tough as Jack Ham," Gov. Perles said in his inaugural address. :)
     
  5. slappy4428

    slappy4428 Active Member

    We need a state economy on steroids, much like my 1988 team...
     
  6. Starman

    Starman Well-Known Member

    Awesome. He'll serve four years, return ONE of the Big Three to solvency, swear eternal undying loyalty to Michigan, and then threaten to jump for a new contract offer from the state of Michoacan in Mexico.

    Michigan will double his salary to get him to stay, by the end of the term every company in the state will be bankrupt, starvation and disease will run rampant in the streets, and he'll resign in the midst of a Justice Department investigation.

    And 10 years after leaving office, they'll still be asking him how he thinks the state should be run. Any and all candidates for governor will be expected to answer the question of whether they can restore the tradition of his "glory days." ::) ::)
     
  7. markvid

    markvid Guest

    And Rich Rodriguez will deny being asked to run, only to declare candidacy 2 days later.
     
  8. JBHawkEye

    JBHawkEye Well-Known Member

    His first campaign promise will get the Motor City Bowl named as one of the BCS bowls.
     
  9. slappy4428

    slappy4428 Active Member

    Outstanding stuff... you forget the 24-hour rule and work hard, keep your mouth shut and good things will happen.
     
  10. doctorx

    doctorx Member

    Former head coach of the Pittsburgh Maulers, is he not?
     
  11. slappy4428

    slappy4428 Active Member

    Thought he was with the Philly Stars...
     
  12. Starman

    Starman Well-Known Member

    Yes indeedy -- he was the Rich Rodriguez of 1982, leaving the Steelers where he had been DC/AHC, although appeared roadblocked behind Chuck Noll from becoming head coach anytime in the next decade, to sign with the then-nascent USFL Philly Stars, who had yet to play a game.

    Then in December 1982, the Sparty job opens up (again. He had taken it and backed out at literally the last minute in 1980). He negotiates a deal with the administration, yet "forgets" to mention that he is under contract to the Stars.

    The owner of the Stars, Myles Tannenbaum, amazingly enough, remembers. He files suit against Perles for breach of contract, and obtains an injunction against him serving in any coaching capacity for MSU until he is released from the Philly contract. This comes as quite a shock to MSU, since Perles had told them he had a "verbal assurance" that Tannenbaum was OK with him listening to other offers. ::)

    MSU calls Tannenbaum and offers a pittance payment. Tannenbaum talks to his lawyers, who assure him they have Perles in a dead-bang binding contract. With the USFL at that moment probably even money to never play a game, the lawyers advise Tannenbaum to hang tough, to wring all the money he can get out of MSU.

    Since most if not all of Perles's prospective assistants are already on his Philly staff and must also be released from their contracts, that means MSU has an entire football staff of like one guy (a low-level holdover from the previous regime) with recruiting season heading down the home stretch.

    This situation continues for about five days before MSU realizes, "holy shit, we better pay these people off, or we won't have no football team this year," so they quickly write a check to buy out, in total, the contracts of Perles and his entire staff at Philly.

    The payoff is announced at $175,000, a pretty healthy sum for 1982, but in fact was closer to 10 times that (a truly astronomical sum for the time). The Stars promptly hire Jim Mora and become the dominant team of the USFL.

    Amazingly enough, a lot of people around Sparty land were shocked, yes shocked, a few short years later when Perles once again started developing selective amnesia about contracts he had signed, a convenient habit he passed on to his foster son, Nick Saban.

    In the fullness of time in 1994 Perles was fired for steering the football program into a crater and back onto NCAA probation, despite his incessant harping about how he was going to do things by the book, the right way, no funny business, no shortcuts, no cheating, no sir. Many times he claimed his contract contained a clause that he could be fired on the spot if involved in NCAA violations.

    Shortly after being fired (and replaced by foster son Saban), Perles filed suit against the university, seeking the entire amount remaining on all his contracts (endorsements, radio shows, camps, etc etc) on the grounds the NCAA had not found him personally responsible for the violations.

    So in the end, Perles ended up costing Michigan State University a couple million bucks in a lawsuit on his way out the door in 1995, just like he cost them a couple million bucks in a lawsuit on his way IN the door in 1983.

    Quite a bargain, four or five extra million bucks paid out in lawsuits. This in addition to the always-healthy salary he was paid in his actual tenure as head coach (he was never for one minute less than the fourth highest-paid coach in the Big Ten, mainly due to his repeated threats to jump to the NFL).

    At least for all that largesse, he won a whole heaping shitload of games (he managed to win 68 of 139 games during his tenure -- 68-67-4).
     
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