Coaching ethics today

[Smiley]

In light of the recent firings of the Texas Tech coach and the K State coach has the legal implications today set the governing standards for what a coach can and can't do anymore.

Bear Bryant
Woody Hayes
Bobby Knight

Would they all Hall of Fame coaches be fired today based on the appreance of mistreatment of their players? I hear that TT was worried that somebody would sue the school. Too bad as I liked watching Texas Tech offense and saw the 60 minute piece last year on their coach.

[chuckroast]

Just fact checking here....Mark Mangino was the former coach at Kansas University, not K-State. Folks around here would consider them fightin' words.

But, to your point...didn't Bobby Knight get in trouble back in the '90's for throttling a kid and didn't Woody Hayes get fired for his punch?

[cody.wms]

Jim Leavitt, at South Florida, apparently punched one of his players in the face. Tons of witnesses around, but its still "under investigation."

so it still depends on who you are, and what kind of pull you have.

[Tobias]

I suspect Leach got fired as much for challenging the school’s authority to suspend him than anything. That was plain stupid in my opinion. What did he think the school would do?

He may have gotten fired anyway for abusing a player, but trying to defy the school by taking his case to court was a bonehead move.

[BengeBoy]

I personally don't have any trouble firing a football coach for doing things to students that I couldn't do in my workplace, either.

[Ray]

Coaches have always had to step pretty far over the line to get canned, but it doesn't seem that different today. Bobby Knight, Woody Hayes, and Frank Kush all come to mind as prominent college coaches in the 70s who got fired for abusing players. I'm sure there were a lot of lesser coaches who got the axe that I can't remember because they weren't so prominent. Like I won't remember this Tech guy in a few years. Those guys got fired for less than putting a sick kid in solitary or whatever the Tech coach is supposed to have done. I think they should fire 'em, they have, and they still do.

-Ray

[Climb01742]

what leach did was idiotic on so many levels. you don't treat an injured player that way. you don't treat a concussion that way, not with all the new heightened sensitivity to concussions. you don't treat a kid with a father who works for espn that way. you don't treat a kid with a cellphone who can video the room you put him in, then post it on youtube that way. you don't treat a college president that way. but he sounds like so many coaches, in particular football coaches. take the ego a my-way-or-the-highway coach, add the macho, violent nature of football, and you get some real a-holes. you can why so many good players would rather play for a guy like pete carroll at usc.

[djg]

Just fact checking here....Mark Mangino was the former coach at Kansas University, not K-State. Folks around here would consider them fightin' words.

But, to your point...didn't Bobby Knight get in trouble back in the '90's for throttling a kid and didn't Woody Hayes get fired for his punch?

Bobby Knight got in trouble? I thought he just took some time off from coaching to meditate and work on his yoga and then moved to Las Vegas because he was such a huge Wayne Newton fan.

[Lifelover]

The problem is the media today and has nothing to do with coaching ethics.

When you break it down, what Leach did to this kid did absolutely no harm what so ever to the kids physical health. He had seen a doctor and was in no immediate harm as long as he did not have another head trauma. Locking his candy ass in a closet may have been the best thing to do.

If he wasn't a spoiled rotten brat, raised by a pansy ass dad or this had happened before the days of instant media coverage, there would be no story at all. The girls that run the university just don’t want to deal with any drama and felt that they had to act.

Leach will be paid his due and will be more successful in the future than the TT football program.

Maybe more info will come out that proves me wrong, we shall see.

[BumbleBeeDave]

College football coaching and "ethics?" That's an oxymoron.

I don't think things have changed a bit. Do whatever it takes to win as long as you don't get caught.

BBD

[Tobias]

College football coaching and "ethics?" That's an oxymoron.

I don't think things have changed a bit. Do whatever it takes to win as long as you don't get caught.

BBD
Dave, when it comes to big-time big-money college sports I’m also a cynic, but I try to avoid generalizations because there always seem to be exceptions that prove us wrong.

Just look at the difference between Leach’s handling of an athlete with a concussion (maybe a PITA kid but one nonetheless) and Urban Meyer’s handling of the Tim Tebow concussion. One locks the student in a dark room as punishment and the other stays behind and spends the night in a hospital with the athlete and his family. The difference is like night and day.

If I were the parent of an athlete I know which of the two men I’d want coaching my son. I know that because Tebow was better known his concussion would have been scrutinized by the press to a greater degree, which may have made Meyer give him special attention, but somehow I doubt Meyer would ever lock a student athlete in a room as punishment. I think he takes his responsibilities seriously. In retrospect maybe too much so considering his reported health issues caused by stress.

[Climb01742]

Just look at the difference between Leach’s handling of an athlete with a concussion (maybe a PITA kid but one nonetheless) and Urban Meyer’s handling of the Tim Tebow concussion. One locks the student in a dark room as punishment and the other stays behind and spends the night in a hospital with the athlete and his family. The difference is like night and day.

If I were the parent of an athlete I know which of the two men I’d want coaching my son.

Or daughter. amen. couldn't agree more. it's the coach's character that matters, because he/she will deal with players of many characters.