Today marked the culmination of a related concept, sports schadenfreude. I can't remember anyone's firing --with the possible exception of Donald Rumsfeld's-- ever pleasing me more than that of Charlie Weis. Coaching at Notre Dame alone is enough to make me sports hate a man. Coming from Belichick's nest of arrogance (especially during the era when the Pats owned the Colts) made it even worse. And his ridiculous comments upon his arrival to South Bend turned Weis into the Sauron of sports. Now that he's been axed, I couldn't be happier. Everything I read about it is making me giddy. This Jon Chait post was delightful. This Gene Wojciechowski column has me smiling like a crazy man. This list of the classic quotes from Weis is just fantastic.
The powers that be in South Bend their work cut out for them if they want to top Weis. I suggest this man.
6 comments:
I think Mike Price would probably be willing to step up to the plate. And speaking of college coaches, how big of a prick is Mark Mangino? Forget all the relativist "every program has its hardasses" bs - that guy shouldn't even be coaching the ladies of the Bada Bing.
What was familiar, and disturbing, about the Simmons column was the part about the Yankees. I rooted with great vigor for the (metaphysically irrelevant) D-Backs in '01 and the (now almost as hatable) Red Sox in '04 - teams I would normally disdain - but found myself unable to muster the appropriate revulsion this year. I certainly would have preferred for the Twins and Phillies to have won (the Angels, who cares) but it just wasn't the same. Not only that, part of me also rooted for A-Rod's postseason redemption. As Simmons might say, I will now wrap myself in a pro-Zetas narcomanta and go for a leisurely stroll through Uruapan.
Yeah I felt the same way, but I assumed it was more because of distance than anything. Both those Yankees losses earlier in the decade were just great; Mariano blowing the save, ex-Cub Mark Grace starting the rally, just classic moments in sports hate. Nothing like that any more. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that most athletes (outside of WRs) are becoming more vanilla. Then again, maybe not. Speaking of WRs, whatdya think of Hines Ward's comments on Ben R?
Mangino would be great too, those stories are really awful. Assuming they're true, that is. I guess too awful for him to have any chance at the job. Actually, it'll be interesting to see where Notre Dame goes now; the NFL coordinator hotshot is discredited, the established coach from another mid-level school didn't work...where else can they go?
I think ND will go for a nice Catholic boy in the person of Brian Kelly. Seems like both a safe and solid choice, and is definitely interested. And you can't argue with his recent record - as much as I hate to say it, I foresee a victory at Pitt on Saturday, leading to a chance at an undefeated season and a whole lot of national exposure.
As for Hines, well, that was some stupid s*** to say, 'specially to Bob freakin Costas. A few people have correctly pointed out that it reflects a combination of a) players STILL somehow not getting it about concussions and b) the fact that there really is, and probably always will be, a bit of wariness in the Steelers locker room when it comes to Big Ben's injuries. He established quite a strong pattern of injury embellishment early in his career that will be very hard to shake, and the fact that it was "headaches" - something basically unobservable - that caused the change of status last week probably stirred some of those memories in Hines. Either way, that was some severe dumbassery. He doesn't even really have the "I'm just mad about losing" defense since he seemed so generally laid back during the interview.
Nonetheless. Hines Ward is one of the ten most loved Stillers of all time and if he doesn't get into Canton within the first three tries da 'Burgh is gonna mobilize a posse and zone blitz the entire press voting corps.
"He established quite a strong pattern of injury embellishment early in his career that will be very hard to shake"
I didn't realize that. Were the headaches concussion related? He's got like three or four on his record, right?
Yeah, I think this was number 4 including the one from the motorcycle crash. None of those was questioned, but plenty of other supposed maladies have been. It happened as recently as the Super Bowl! This article gives a good summary toward the end:
http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=3894263
The Ravens game was different for several reasons, obviously, and concussion-related headaches are certainly plausible, but that's the background.
Yeah I remember some of that with Cowher, and I'd forgotten about all the motorcycle fallout. I dont remember him saying he played the Super Bowl with broken ribs.
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