Fire the Coach!

Whose fault is it when a sports team fails?

Most men I know--regardless of whether they're game fans--would have an easy time with the answer: "It's the coach's fault." Most women I know would have a more nuanced view of the matter.

Either way, the reality in high school, college and professional sports today is this: the male view predominates, i.e., the coach's head gets chopped when a team turns in poor to mediocre player stats and amasses a poor win/loss record over a season or two.

Thus, I feel for Mississippi State head football coach Sylvester Croom, who's in his fifth year at Starkville. His Bulldogs have been lackluster this year; last year they were pretty impressive. During today's 45-0 rout of his team by the Rebels of arch rival Ole Miss, Coach Croom may have seen signs popping up among State fans calling for his head. "FIRE CROOM NOW!" one of the signs read to TV audiences in the South.

Ironically, a similar hue and cry went up after the Ole Miss vs. State game in 2007. Only then, it was the Ole Miss coach who was on his way out. Never that popular with fans or players, Coach Ed Orgeron sealed his fate the moment he called for a play that lost the annual Egg Bowl game for Ole Miss and won it for State--a play many fans and analysts have said was either the coach's anger at players and fans (implication: he threw the game) or an evidenced lack of coaching skills and strategies.

In any case, Orgeron was out almost the next day, thus paving the way for Ole Miss to bring in Coach Houston Nutt, then of Arkansas and now a Mississippi Rebel extraordinaire. He and his fired-up team and fans are light years removed from the firing mode these days.

Sylvester Croom should be so lucky at State!

The Money Mantra

"Throwing money at the problem isn't the answer."

How often have those of us in education and other tax-supported public services in America heard that stingy, rotting proposition over the past 40 years. It has become a mantra, in fact: a self-fulfilling prophecy of tight-fisted, mean-spirited money men and women for whom building fast profit and hoarding gigantic wealth are far smarter and more glamorous than spending their fair share to help meet needs of ordinary men, women and children who form the fabric of society.

For the better part of my 45-year career as an educator and teacher advocate, the "can't throw money at it" mantra was what peers and I heard anytime we campaigned for modest tax increases to meet crisis situations, e.g., ordering new textbooks, lowering class sizes, repairing leaky ceilings, improving salaries, buying computers, upgrading practice equipment, or seeking more academic freedom in which to engage our students. Nope. Can't do it. Wouldn't be prudent. On and on to the point of gagging fatigue every time we heard the "money isn't the answer" reply (and not incidentally, it seems, almost invariably accompanied by "teachers are the problem" attitude).

Serves 'em right, this "can't throw money at it" crowd. Now they're blowing their brains out, falling on their golden swords and eating greed for breakfast. Unfortunately, in so doing, they're also soaking us modest taxpayers for gazillions, once the dollars, francs, marks, rhiyals, rubles, yen, and (especially) the yuans are counted. Which counting continues worldwide as we write.

So is throwing money at it the answer? With apologies to Bill Clinton, I guess it depends on what the meaning of "it" is. For me, "it" in this case is Greed personified and--sadly--magnified and dignified by an undereducated, barely insightful American press and daily broadcast corps.

Proof, perhaps, that we teachers needed better textbooks, computers and academic freedom in which to teach that generation of students after all!

Regaining Stride

To faithful readers, thanks for checking in and reminding me I haven't posted entries on NN&V's recently. I fancy the following as reasonable excuses:

Traveling to and from Maryland to be with friends, returning to Mississippi to campaign and vote in an historic presidential election with its surrounding local politics, adopting prayer as a "best practice" during a scary, working period of personal financial decisions, rehearsing with the Mississippi Chorus for holiday musicals and taking time with a Baltimore friend who came here for a five-day visit have kept me unusually busy during the last four weeks.

Look for posts to begin anew soon. Please stick with us as we try to find our stride again.

Thanks for reading!