The coddle-fication of american youth

So it seems the trend this year in NFL coach is the young, relatable type. The idea is, you can hire these young, dynamic personalities who can better relate the young 20 something NFL stars. The coach can be their buddy, helping them to adjust and giving them the nurturing and loving support structure that's required for all our professional athletes. Gone are the grumpy days of belicheck and parcells, and welcome the lovable scamps. This year's superbowl is gonna be the dream matchup of this kind of coach, both smith and dungey have more of a reputation as "player's coaches," they get along with the players, and get alot out of them too, but aren't known for their strategic game planning abilities.

This reminded me of an article I read awhile ago, I think it was in Time, of manager types complaining about the latest round on new hires, most notably, my generation, us. They say that we are most emotionally needy group of hires they've seen, needing constant reassuring that we're on the right track and doing a good job, and that we don't function without a great deal of guidance. Oh well, as long as pro-athletes suffer the same emotional hangup as the rest of us.

Notes from Martin Luther King Day

I remember in high school, when I used to do winter track, we would always have practice on martin luther king day. It wasn't so bad of a practice, we would start generally late and just hang out for a few hours, I think mostly the coaches felt we needed to practice any time we could, with no real idea what we should be doing. Every year there was a martin luther king tribute breakfast going on in the high school cafeteria, and somehow my coach was able to sneak us in. So there we were, 3 kids clutter around a table in our sweats with a bunch of mostly older black women in there sunday best. Also, after franklin high won the state title in football my sophmore year, a local church was having a huge martin luther king day service, and they invited our team as, well, i guess, successes of the community. It was the first time I had to wear a tie, and the hour before I was searching the encyclopedia to see if it had instructions on how to make a half windsor. I loved that service, it was quite lively. I hope I'm not using too much of a hyperbole that the civil rights movement was the greatest act of christian activism in america for the past hundred years. As martin luther king said:

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; "and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together."

This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with.

With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

wait, on the other hand

Rob and Amber from Survivor said the Patriots would win, so, as I always listen to reality tv stars, I guess I hafta pick them.

Round 2

I don't seriously like any of the underdogs this week, both the colts and the seahawks played lousy last week, but the other team played worse. Supposedly Philly was supposed to be riding high into the playoffs, but man, that wasn't the best showing against the giants. Their defense can't stop much, and it's still Garcia back there. Then there's the Pats Chargers game, I could see the Pats winning it but I wouldn't necessarily pick them to win. Genius coaching only takes you so far, and as long as the chargers have a somewhat aggressive offense, they can do some damage. I mean, Leon Washington was able to run well against the pats defense, so i expect tomilinson can do a bit better. Although, I can't see the chargers winning a close game, so if they win, it's gonna be by about 10. Man, I guess that's it, I thought I would have some non-football thoughts, but maybe soon.

I've been ready for lots of football

I've been in a little of a football overload this past week or two, I suppose it's because new years fell on a Monday. Think of it this way, from Saturday, December 30 to Monday, January 8th, we'll have only two days without a BCS or NFL game. And yes, I have been watching it all. The highlights:
1. the Fiesta Bowl: Oh yes, courtesy of a national day of mourning on tuesday, I was able to stay up and watch it to the bitter end. Man, this thing played out like a game of Madden. Every play was another trick play, heck, I think the last 3 scores for boise state came on a hook and lateral, direct snap to the running back after the quarterback went in motion, and a statue of liberty. I think it was the mid-nineties maddens where the fleaflicker was unstoppable. Also, for awhile they didn't have the quick dump to the reciever pass, so if my defense was always field goal block they couldn't do nothing.
2. the Texas Bowl: So I went with my parents to the texas bowl in houston. I reckon most of you have never been to a bowl game, it's an odd atmosphere. Before the game all the fans mill around in front of the stadium, like every other tailgate experience I suppose, but this time it's everyone. I mean, everyone's in for 2 days or so, so there's nowhere else to be in houston except in front of stadiums. And the fanbase was pretty evenly divided. These were nice kansas state fans with us, so there wasn't much, ah, jawing. But if this was say, michigan and ohio state coming in a bowl game, that place is gonna be torn apart. Rutgers dismantled the team, the score doesn't quite show it, but they could have easily won the game by 40. The kansas state fans were cute about the whole thing, down by 20 some points in the fourth quarter, and they still try their hardest at creating noise for the defense. Rutgers was winning by only 4 and the only noise was sarcasm.
3. There's a rumor floating around Pete Caroll's thinking of the coaching job for the Arizona Cardinals. yes, I need this to happen.
4. The Jets, in the playoffs. I didn't believe in them the whole way, we're number 5 baby! Let's hope bellicheck is keeping a huge injury on tom brady under wraps. Things could get unpredictable if testeverde takes the field.
5. I read a semi-interesting book called the blind side, one part discussion on the rise of importance for left tackles, and one part the story of a poor kid from western memphis rising into the white world and getting into college. The final thrust of the book is that college football is blind to a large untapped talent pool that doesn't possess the necessary learning ability or just plan knowledge on how the college system works to play beyond high school. The thing that really got me was what he hinted at, just this, well, scummy world of college football. Now I'm hungry for the great muckraking book on college football, all the payoffs, all the scandals. And there's another thing, the book tries to make the point that the college opportunity is good for the kids. Well, it's partially true. But the fact remains that graduation rates hover below 50% for these big-name football programs meaning most of these kids who get scholarshipped in don't actually receive any kind of college education, they're just isolated to special majors and classes that keep them academically elligable for their 4 years, then drops them out the winter of their senior year. The small fraction of kids that do make it into the pros only have about 3-4 years of earning potential in them. I mean, if we're looking for sports as a solution for poverty, well, that's ridiculous.