Tank McNamara by Bill Hinds for January 26, 2022

“Kim Raisner only pawn in game of life.”

German modern pentathlon coach Kim Raisner is my second nomination for SJOTY (following Moshe Hogeg yesterday). She managed to get thrown out of the Olympics for her actions during the competition. As you can guess by the allusion, she was disqualified for punching a horse.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/aug/07/german-modern-pentathlon-kim-raisner-coach-thrown-out-of-tokyo-olympics-for-punching-horse-annika-schleu

I’m still trying to decide on my third nomination.

Being a player and being a coach are totally different things.

Aren’t all moments of clarity because they reveal the ugly truth we can no longer deny. At least you can always ignore them a little longer.

Identity politics here too?

I’ve never heard of an NFL owner that was not described as white. There’s an implicit assumption in her argument that a coach with pro playing experience will, on average, be better than one without. Are there any stats to back that up?

To me, what matters about a coach isn’t his race or gender, it’s his love for the spirit of the game and dedication to the team. That’s the true measure of a coach.

Perfect demonstration of the circularity of systemic racism. We don’t give coaching jobs to blacks because they lack experience. Blacks lack experience because we don’t give coaching jobs to blacks. And round and round it goes. That phony cycle may be breaking down, but it isn’t for lack of effort in trying to keep it up.

Heck, the old rule still applies: Winning is Everything.

Omar Vizquel

Donald Trump nomination for SJOTY – because he is such a jerk that he transcends all fields – Good ole’ orange 666 is an easy, deserving choice but …………….

Great players don’t necessarily make great managers.Ty Cobb was a rotten manager because he thought everybody should be “born with” great ability like him.

Way back when,Bill Russell coached the Boston Celtics and he was the logical choice.

“This moment of clarity is a bit uncomfortable.”

Not really. I cite the case of Matt Millen – world-class football player, but one of the worst football GMs in NFL history. Different skill set needed.

I’ll also point out that this strip implies that teaching (including coaching) isn’t a skill in and of itself, which, after the past two years, is more than a little tone deaf.

I just got scooped about mentioning Matt Millen, but I have a different angle. Millen, with NO NFL coaching experience and NO front office experience, was handed the Detroit Lions GM position, and held it for nearly 8 seasons while the Lions stunk up the league! He was finally fired in 2008 after an 0-3 start (BTW, the team went 0-16 that season). NO black man with no experience would have EVER gotten such an opportunity; it’s hard enough for black men WITH extensive NFL coaching experience to get a GM position. And therein lies the problem. It’s not some “woke” fantasy. It’s reality.

Details, Details.

Easy solution: get rid of racist owners.