Patience can pay off with coaches
Does your favorite team need a little boost, specifically a new and improved coach in place of the guy who, though not a disaster, lacks the artistry, precision or passion needed to reach the highest level? Well, get started on Fire (Insert name here).com. Call a few radio stations. Blitz the front office with letters and e-mails. Hold nothing back.
The campaign will work. In fact, based on recent developments, you can assume that it will be a stunning success.
The moribund coach won’t lose his job. The hovering ax simply will make him better at it, or get him to prove how good he was all along. He’ll be transformed him into Bill Belichick or Phil Jackson. Better yet, he’ll become Tom Coughlin or Doc Rivers – who most recently beat Belichick and Jackson.
Together, this year’s Super Bowl and NBA Finals constituted a groundbreaking lesson in patience. The Giants and Celtics stuck with coaches who, to varying degrees, had gone stale in their jobs. Each ended up a champion, toppling a coaching Colossus to make it happen.
Apparently, a few Major League Baseball owners slept through the class. Three of them dumped their managers in the last week, all within a 72-hour window of Rivers’ vindication in Boston.
In the Bay Area, the Rivers-Coughlin tales should start to resonate around Labor Day, because both NFL coaches will enter the season as presumed lame ducks.
sfgate.com
6/22/08
