Back to Exponent Menu Printer Friendly Page   EDITORIAL Friday, December 03, 2004 Coach’s dismissal gives some insight into America’s psyche A little-noted footnote during the recent northern Ohio hubbub over the resignation of Cleveland Browns coach Butch Davis came in a radio report from the Browns’ training camp during Davis’ last futile days. It seems that the embattled coach, who resigned Nov. 30 after four less-than-successful years at the helm of one of the National Football League’s oldest franchises, was spotted leaving the training facility one night during his final week at 9 p.m. Despite his having arrived there about 6 in the morning, this was cited as clear evidence that Davis had lost his drive to be a winning coach. A reporter remarked that a 15-hour work day was clearly nowhere near the dedication needed to bring the Browns back to their once-proud status in the league. Argue as one will about Davis as a coach – and there seem to be few Browns’ fans who did not either admire him a great deal or loathe him entirely – but the reporter’s comments say a great deal about American society beyond one’s interest or lack thereof in sports. There were reasons enough to fire Davis for his failed tenure with the team, including a 24-36 record over four seasons and highly debatable draft choices that have left the Browns in a sorry state. Less debatable is the reality that the Browns suffered an inordinate amount of injuries to key players and lost innumerable games in the last minute or in overtime in the Davis era. He failed to win, which is the bottom line in the NFL, so he had to go. What cannot be denied, however, is that Davis shared a quality with every other head coach and assistant in the league: a willingness to devote the kind of hours to a game that few among us are willing to put into any endeavor. It is difficult to work up a great deal of sympathy for these men, many of whom earn in the millions per year for their labors. One might even, for a moment, admire the human spirit that drives such coaches to put the efforts of their best years into watching endless hours of film and traveling ceaselessly as they seek to build successful football teams. Certainly the sport has millions of followers across the country and even overseas who would never question the necessity of such single-minded devotion. Unfortunately, the cost of such dedication in human terms also cannot be denied. Failed marriages, emotionally distant offspring, high rates of alcoholism and substance abuse, even nervous breakdowns are all by-products of such efforts to grab the brass ring in the great American chase for the grand prize. For all the pleasure that sports franchises bring to a city and its fans when things are going well, one has to ask how much it all means in the long run. The nation spends hundreds of millions on its sports teams each year, making the athletes and most coaches wealthy beyond measure, while America’s social problems escalate. The sports world itself has come under scrutiny, with matters reaching the point where some athletes and fans seem barely able to keep a veneer of civility intact at many events. Aside from its ties with organized gambling, we have nothing against pro football per se — especially in a year when a team just across the Pennsylvania border has a very good chance of winning the Super Bowl, a result many in northeastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania would surely embrace. But what happened to Butch Davis and every other coach in the college and professional ranks who fails to achieve the top prize in their sport, despite expending effort few among us would be willing to make in any endeavor, tells us something about Americans as a people. We celebrate the glitz, we love the glamour, we like a winner. We just do not care much about what happens to those who pay the price for that success, or the failure to achieve it, along the way. — Lou Jacquet/Editor   Back to Exponent Menu Printer Friendly Page   Other Articles of 2004   Democrats’ consideration of modified abortion stance welcome   Coach’s dismissal gives some insight into America’s psyche   Arafat’s death an opening, but Middle East peace remains elusive   The presidential campaign: ‘A pox on both their houses’?   150,000 and more put aside scandals, embrace beacon of hope   When Catholic schools close, parents must shoulder some of the blame   Jews, Christians respect one another across great divide of faith   Latest ‘civil war’ pits defenders of marriage against courts   Civility in short supply as nation faces a barroom brawl   Catholic publications ‘speak truth to power’ nationwide, up north   Past Articles From 2003