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klaatu
08-02-2006, 01:41 PM
Ok.. I didnt quite know where to put this ... so it ends up here. i got this off of a Sports Site ... but it deals with the Prez ...
Is this writer right or wrong in his asssessment ...before you enter (leave your Bush Hate or Love at the door)

When exactly did NFL coaches get bigger than the president?
By Mike Freeman

Anyone who has spent five minutes around certain NFL head coaches could not have been shocked to hear that Nick Saban, the uptight and ferociously focused leader of the Miami Dolphins, blew off a recent dinner request from the President of the United States.


Nick Saban's got more important things to do than dine with the President.
After all, it is no secret that some NFL head coaches are self-important, self-centered, clock-watching psychos who rarely depart from their insular world of X's and O's. When some coaches hear the words "crisis in the Middle East" they think the middle linebacker from Eastern Kentucky tore a knee ligament. A good movie to them is watching film of an offensive tackle perform a pancake block.

If Saban was making some sort of a political statement by punking POTUS, that actually would have been kind of cool. But that is not what Saban was doing. He basically told the president: Dude, I'm too busy. Catch me later. That would be remarkably funny, if it wasn't so awfully highfalutin of Saban, and so typical of an NFL coach.

At times coaches seem more out of touch with the real world than Lindsay Lohan.

Many coaches in professional football -- and increasingly college -- have always acted like they are better than us, smarter than us, more complete than us. That style of obnoxious behavior is increasingly getting worse. As their salaries and power grow, their humility shrinks.

Training camp is a tedious mess of redundant planning and constant practice of the same pedantic plays that were executed in minicamp, and the camp before that, and the camp before that. Saban is simply one of those coaches who enjoy counting jockstraps and playbooks the way Captain Queeg once inventoried strawberries. Blowing off Bush is just another form of this control, albeit an exotic one.

Coaches too often act as if they are creating Ben-Hur, when they are only coaching Ben Roethlisberger.

By the way, how exactly do you blow off the most important man in the world? How does such a conversation go?

"Hey Nick, it's the president."

"President of what?"

"It's Bush."

"Didn't you just sign with the Saints? I can't talk to you. That would be tampering."

"No. President Bush. Just wondering if you wanted to grab a bite to eat there buddy."

"You mean, now? During training camp? Are you crazy? Do you know we only have 843 practices left until the season opener?"

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"Ah ... OK. Got this little Middle Eastern thing going, so whenever you can fit me in buddy."

"Let's see, Mr. Clinton, I can..."

"You can call me President Bush, by the way."

"Let me glance at my schedule here real quick President Clinton. I can fit you in between the Oklahoma drills and the seven-on-sevens. How is lunch from 1:07 to 1:09?"

"Two minutes for lunch?"

"It's good practice for the two-minute drill. What'd you say your name was again?"

Seriously, who do some of these coaches think they are?

You mean the leader of China can find time to meet with the president but a football coach cannot? World leaders and diplomats and Space Shuttle captains can pencil the prez in their BlackBerry, but a football coach is just too busy?

Hate Bush if you must (he seems to be as good a president as Gheorghe Muresan would be a runway model) or love him. Either way, can we get a little respect for the office of the presidency itself, please? Just asking, that's all.

Saban epitomizes the self-important NFL head coach. The sharp elbows, the disdain for the press, the swagger of someone who has ingested too many elixirs from college presidents and team owners who constantly tell him how great he is. And Saban is hardly alone in possessing a supreme-being complex. He is on a long list of NFL prima donnas -- not all head coaches are like this, but enough are -- with high blood pressure and low social skills as they micromanage the micromanagers and think what they do is the equivalent of creating a new type of nuclear fusion.

The next eight-hour night of sleep Jon Gruden gets will be one of his first. There is the extreme rigidity of Tom Coughlin. Joe Gibbs once slept in his office almost as much as he did his own home. Bill Parcells has the social skills of a python with bad allergies. There are coaches who feel it is beneath them to speak with fans and the press.

I will always respect a great many coaches because most I have encountered are good, decent men who have learned to tone down the arrogance, particularly some of the lower-level assistants. They also have a tough job. Coaches have to deal with an increasing number of athletes telling them: "You run the damn wind sprints, fat boy. I'm going home."

Coaches get fired regularly and divorced at high rates. The stress and pressure can blow their lives apart. I don't feel sorry for them; I know that firefighters, police officers and soldiers face life-threatening situations on a daily basis and get a fraction of the pay. It still does not erase how coaches are roasted hourly in the pressure cooker that is the NFL.

The head of the NFL Coaches Association, Larry Kennan, once told me that stress among coaches is "worse now than ever before."

Yet some of the actions of coaches are more about conceit than stress. Bill Belichick is the smartest and most-talented coach the NFL has ever seen because he created a dynasty in the salary-capped, me-first era of professional sports. He's better than Lombardi, better than Paul Brown, better than Noll. Yet his quarterback, Tom Brady, one of the elite stars in all of sports, misses three training camp practices and Belichick offers no explanation. Why? Because he can. Because he's uptight. Because he can be full of himself. Because he thinks it is his duty to hold back information from the public.

More coaches are behaving this way. That is not a good thing.

When asked by reporters covering the Patriots training camp would he meet with Bush during training camp, Belichick responded, "It wouldn't be very high on my list right now."

The fact Bush even has time to meet an NFL coach for lunch seems astounding. There's like, you know, a war on.

Still, 'ol George made the call, and Saban blew off POTUS. Just imagine the seismic shift in the size of Saban's already sizeable ego should the Dolphins coach actually win a few games.


http://cbs.sportsline.com/columns/story/9582317

maineman
08-02-2006, 01:46 PM
I would not accept a dinner inviation from that dull asshole...I cannot imagine why anyone else should feel compelled to.

Beefy
08-02-2006, 01:47 PM
Not that big of a deal. If he invited me to dinner during the Puyallup Fair, I'd decline.

Damocles
08-02-2006, 01:48 PM
It was probably sometime when they realized they made far more money and more people in the US paid attention to their decisions than they do the President's... That was when they began to realize they had more importance than he...

:dunno:

OrnotBitwise
08-02-2006, 01:49 PM
My gut reactions are, in order:

1) That's damned funny. Couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

2) We are, as a people, too deferential to the President, whoever it might be at any particular moment.

In other words, I think that the article's auther needs to loosen up a bit. So Saban turned down an invitation to meet the President. So what? Good for him, if he really does have too much to do.

klaatu
08-02-2006, 01:50 PM
Seriously? You would not accept an invitation to dinner with the Prez.. at the White House.. and possibly a a stay over in the Lincoln Bedroom?

Damocles
08-02-2006, 01:53 PM
Seriously? You would not accept an invitation to dinner with the Prez.. at the White House.. and possibly a a stay over in the Lincoln Bedroom?
I would have, even with LBJ or Carter... Of course I wasn't alive for LBJs and too young to make such decisions with Carter. Oh, I know. I would have with President Clinton and with Bush... Even if I don't really like them.

OrnotBitwise
08-02-2006, 01:53 PM
Seriously? You would not accept an invitation to dinner with the Prez.. at the White House.. and possibly a a stay over in the Lincoln Bedroom?
I can't speak for anyone else but I might. It depends on the circumstances . . . and the president.

klaatu
08-02-2006, 01:53 PM
As the author of the article says ... The Ofice is bigger than the man... The Office of the Presidency is what has been dissed ....

OrnotBitwise
08-02-2006, 01:55 PM
As the author of the article says ... The Ofice is bigger than the man... The Office of the Presidency is what has been dissed ....
I disagree. Or perhaps I think it needs some dissing . . . .

klaatu
08-02-2006, 01:55 PM
I would have, even with LBJ or Carter... Of course I wasn't alive for LBJs and too young to make such decisions with Carter. Oh, I know. I would have with President Clinton and with Bush... Even if I don't really like them.

Same here ... be it Carter, Clinton, Nixon or whomever ...

Damocles
08-02-2006, 01:56 PM
Shoot! I took time off work, actually cancelled appointments, to go watch Clinton speak once...

maineman
08-02-2006, 01:57 PM
Seriously? You would not accept an invitation to dinner with the Prez.. at the White House.. and possibly a a stay over in the Lincoln Bedroom?

not this president.... seriously.

robdastud
08-02-2006, 01:57 PM
I would not accept a dinner inviation from that dull asshole...I cannot imagine why anyone else should feel compelled to.


i would, id have him bring the beer... (among other things) he's the president he could get mad good stuff!

Damocles
08-02-2006, 01:57 PM
not this president.... seriously.
John Elway dissed Clinton so he could play golf... :D

Beefy
08-02-2006, 01:58 PM
Seriously? You would not accept an invitation to dinner with the Prez.. at the White House.. and possibly a a stay over in the Lincoln Bedroom?

Well, if he bought a couple of tubs from me to make up for the missed time on the floor I would. But I'm not really all that star struck by the office.

robdastud
08-02-2006, 01:59 PM
As the author of the article says ... The Ofice is bigger than the man... The Office of the Presidency is what has been dissed ....


oh please.. dramarama

klaatu
08-02-2006, 01:59 PM
not this president.... seriously.


Just to clear up whether or not it is a partisan issue .. would you have dined with Reagan?

klaatu
08-02-2006, 02:02 PM
Well, if he bought a couple of tubs from me to make up for the missed time on the floor I would. But I'm not really all that star struck by the office.

I wouldnt call it star struck ... I would call it a fascination with the Office and its historical significance. How could you be so into Politics and then lay this rap on me?

robdastud
08-02-2006, 02:03 PM
Just to clear up whether or not it is a partisan issue .. would you have dined with Reagan?


Reagan killed too many americans for me to have dinner w/ him.

Beefy
08-02-2006, 02:04 PM
I wouldnt call it star struck ... I would call it a fascination with the Office and its historical significance. How could you be so into Politics and then lay this rap on me?

Hot tub season is a big deal. It's literally 1/3 of my annual income during the 4 week fairs. Any other time I would dine with the mofo, but during the puyallup? That's a tall order. I use the analogy because the coach is in his equivilent to my fairs.

robdastud
08-02-2006, 02:08 PM
beefy does that job ever get you dates?

klaatu
08-02-2006, 02:09 PM
beefy does that job ever get you dates?


Figs maybe.. but not dates .. right beefy?

Beefy
08-02-2006, 02:09 PM
beefy does that job ever get you dates?

Never. For getting into the ladies beds, I have the worst job on the planet.

robdastud
08-02-2006, 02:11 PM
i woulda thought it would be easy. w/ a job like that.

Beefy
08-02-2006, 02:14 PM
i woulda thought it would be easy. w/ a job like that.


It would be easier if I was a full blown carnie than as a hot tub guy. Shit, I'd have better luck working the funnell cake booth.