Stop Obsessing Over Coaches!

[Henry Sugar]

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=easterbrook/070109&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab3pos1

Today's TMQ is really pretty interesting.  The lead of the article is an view of the national obsession with coaching.  While the slant of the article is towards football coaches, I certainly noticed quite a number of things that appeared to align with comments about Crean.  Specifically, views on how much a coach can motivate a team, how much money a coach makes and how people tend to think they are smarter than the coach.  (There's even a nice gambling tip buried midway through the article.)

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Beyond money, there's an increasing sense that having top coaches is essential to the well-being of a city, college or high school. Coaches, especially football coaches, have never been a hotter commodity. Why?

Let me propose that the current national obsession with coaches reflects these themes:

• The illusion of control.
• The abdication by politicians and intellectuals of the father-figure role.
• The exaggeration of insider knowledge.
• The illusion of special motivational ability.
• The winner-take-all of modern economics.
• The Walter Mitty daydream.