The Luckiest Man in Sports
"We've
become so desensitized to violence that we see all the time, that we're
actually blaming the victims now. I'm watching the news the other night, and
some guy gets killed by a stray bullet while he was pumping gas at a gas
station. And they interviewed an eyewitness, and the eyewitness said, `He was
at the wrong place at the wrong time.' And I'm like, `Wrong place at the wrong
time?' Where the fuck do you go when your tank is on `E,' Chuck-E-Cheese?"
-Comedian Nick
DiPaolo
Three weeks ago,
Bill O’Brien was known as the coach who yelled at Tom Brady during one of the
Patriots games. Now, this Irish drunk (stereotyping saves time people) is the
head coach at Penn State and is the luckiest man in sports. He was at the right
place at the right time.
Many believed
that Joe Paterno would die before stepping down as head coach. Paterno was
untouchable. Students would riot if the winningest college football coach of
all time was fired for his team’s performance. Florida State faced heavy media
scrutiny when they forced Bobby Bowden into early retirement, and Bowden didn’t
have the tenure in Tallahassee than JoePa did in Happy Valley. No one at the
school would have the balls to dismiss the PSU coaching legend. In 2004, PSU
officials suggested Paterno step down after a dismal five-year stretch. Paterno
told them to hit the bricks and ended up winning the Orange Bowl the next year.
He’s Joe Paterno. He’s old, he’s loyal, he is Penn State football.
That all changed
once the Jerry Sandusky scandal came full circle. Once it hit, Paterno’s
coaching career was over. Paterno offered to step down at the end of the year.
School officials didn’t want to wait that long and fired him immediately.
Replacing a legend would have been tough enough. Replacing a legend at a
tarnished program makes it nearly impossible. Despite the football team being
clean, the shadows of Sandusky loom large. Recruits started backing out of
their PSU commitments. Penn State wasn’t exactly a hot spot for the top college
coaches to begin with. The team was always a contender in the Big Ten, but
hasn’t been a national title contender for years. While Pennsylvania and its
surrounding areas offer lots of football talent, five-star recruits from Texas
and Florida preferred to go to school in the south rather than freeze in
central PA. It wasn’t as if Nick Saban would have taken the job if available a
year ago.
Penn State knew
it had to be creative with its coaching search. They looked at several current
PSU assistants, some established coaches with experience, and some current head
coaches over their two month search. Getting Mike Munchak to leave the
Tennessee Titans was far-fetched despite his ties to the school. In his first
year, Munchak almost led his team to the playoffs. Not many NFL head coaches
quit to coach in college. Also, Chris Petersen has turned down better
opportunities to stay at Boise State, so it was somewhat unrealistic to think
he’d come to Happy Valley. At the end of the search, Bill O’Brien was the man
chosen to lead the Nittany Lions in the future.
Why do I think he
is the luckiest man in sports? First off, if Joe Paterno would have retired
scandal-free this year (completely possible as he was diagnosed with lung
cancer shortly after his firing), Bill O’Brien would not have been the head
coach. While I stressed it wasn’t the perfect job earlier, it wasn’t the worst
job in the world either. The scandal did scare some candidates away. I don’t
believe O’Brien would have ever gotten to the point where he won over the
decision makers if Penn State wasn’t in the news recently for all the wrong
reasons. Now, O’Brien, with no head coaching experience, is coaching a Big Ten
program and received quite a nice pay raise to do so. Also, there will no
immediate pressure for O’Brien to win. Penn State needs to rebuild its image
more than anything right now. It needs to wash the stink off of this scandal as
soon as possible. O’Brien just needs to run a clean program, free of diddling
kids in the shower. It won’t be the end of the world if Penn State wins four
games next season. It’s more important for the program and the school to get
back on track. I’m not saying the pressure won’t eventually be there. 3-9 won’t
cut it in 2017, but right now, the key is to get everything back to normal.
Plus, I am sure PSU did a very thorough background check on O’Brien. I am sure
they knew how fast he was going when he got a speeding ticket in 1987. Even if
he fails as a head coach, he can always be an assistant somewhere. Assistant
coaches of Bill Belichick are always in demand. If he succeeds, we already know
Penn State has no issue keeping a coach around for a long, long time.
Bill O’Brien went
from a no name assistant to head coach of a storied college program in less
than a year. Even though LaVar Arrington and Brandon Short do not approve (by
the way, both these guys should shut the fuck up), the PSU school board is
happy and O’Brien really can’t fail. Right place, right time.
-Written by Marcus Boyd
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