Building relationships, making commitments

. . . and packing a bag

So Luke Fickell was pondering his exit more than a month before he made it official. Says so right here, in a story on SI.com, quoting Madison.com about Wisconsin’s pursuit of Fickell:

Cincinnati beat visiting East Carolina 27-25 on Nov. 11. Fickell interviewed the following morning. Wisconsin AD Chris McIntosh had been negotiating with Fickell in-person (for) weeks.

"McIntosh took steps to keep quiet his pursuit of Fickell," The article stated. "Former UW athletic director Barry Alvarez said Sunday that McIntosh told him he had 'been hiding in cars, I’ve been flying in planes and changing the tail number so nobody could track me.'

Well, isn’t that clever. To the jobs of fund-raiser, glad-hander and employer of new coaches, add this to an athletic director’s must-have skills: Undercover operative. Maybe McIntosh could consider a CIA gig now.

It’s not so bad. I mean, consider this: New UC coach Scott Satterfield was said to be interested in the South Carolina job after only a year as head coach at Louisville. He was seeking a soft exit long before he got one.

And let’s face it, you really don’t want a head football coach at a place like UC whose highest ambition is to coach the Bearcats forever. By the way, does anyone really believe Fickell and Wisconsin somehow magically connected a week or so ago?

This won’t be a rant about loyalty. Loyalty is a quaint anachronism, especially in big-time college sports. As long as disloyal coaches don’t preach loyalty to players eager to believe, there is no issue. Talking from both sides of the mouth isn’t uncommon in quasi-am sports. It’s practically a job requirement.

It’s disheartening to think that Luke Fickell was plotting his departure a month before it occurred, though, when his team was still in the mix for a conference championship and a New Year’s Day bowl. What was he telling recruits then? What was he demanding of his players? How does a guy give 100 when some of his mind is elsewhere?

Could you do that?

Many moons ago, I was offered a job with the LA Times. After a few days, I decided not to take it. Those few days were nothing but a distracted mess. We like to think we’re all professionals. We’re also human.

No one should begrudge Fickell his choices. He earned them. Everyone should be thankful he stayed as long as he did, and left UC football better than he found it. Just remember. . .

When a coach uses words such as “commitment’’ and “trust’’ and talks about “building relationships’’ — when he takes it to the next level and breaks out the F-word (Family) and uses it to describe his wife, kids and football program — you have one move to make, and that’s for your coat.

Now, then. . .

BEST OF LUCK TO KEVIN HUBER, let go Monday by the Bengals. As classy and pleasant a guy as you’ll meet. Home-grown owner of an accomplished 14-year career, and a left leg as good as any for more than a decade as a Bengal. Hopefully, some team will sign him. Regardless, great guy, great career.

STICK TO SPORTS. . . So the Washington Post uncovered a picture of Jerry Jones, while researching a series of stories about the NFL’s poor record of promoting its Black coaches to top jobs. It’s 1957 and Jones is in a large group of white boys seen blocking Black kids from entering an Arkansas high school.

Jones was 14.

From that we get this, the lead paragraph from a story in the Atlantic magazine:

If you’re wondering why, in professional football, so few Black coaches get hired and Black players struggle to be heard, you can learn a lot from a 65-year-old image of Jerry Jones. In a 1957 photo published late last month by The Washington Post, the future owner of the Dallas Cowboys, then 14, stood among a group of white teenagers who were blocking six Black students from desegregating his Arkansas high school.

A 14-year-old kid in a 65-year-old picture is the font of all understanding when it comes to explaining the NFL’s problem in this area.

Haha.

I would suggest that not only is this a wildly misleading take, but it’s grossly unfair. Not only to Jones, but to the cause of getting better opportunities for Black coaches.

It’s a Gotcha moment, meant to antagonize.

Let’s back up. I’m white, which to a degree does disqualify me from passing judgment on this. I have no idea what it was like then, or is like now, to be discriminated against based on my skin color.

But to cite that photo as proof positive of the NFL’s hiring bias is damaging to all sides. It trivializes the larger issue. It suggests that we as a nation have not grown since 1957. We have.

It posits that Jerry Jones at age 79 is the same person he was at age 14, and thus should be scorned and looked upon with suspicion. How does that further the cause of more Black coaches getting head coaching jobs?

It doesn’t. It’s a knee-jerk overreaction to an ancient photo of a child. Can we please find more useful targets for the outrage?

BREAK OUT THE NEW BOBBLEHEADS, REDS. You’re gonna need ‘em.

Shortstop Trea Turner and the Philadelphia Phillies agreed on an 11-year, $300 million contract Monday. That followed a two-year, $86.66 million contract given to right-hander Justin Verlander by the Phillies' NL East rival Mets. (SI.com)

What the story should say:

The mega-deals involving two of Baseball’s best players doom yet again the title chances for teams not currently printing money in their basements. In places like Cincinnati, Pittsburgh and Kansas City, the championship-seeking part of the 2023 season is over. Hope loses again. Thanks for coming.

TUNE O’ THE DAY. . . Best tune off best Allmans album. Duane and Dickey, people. Can you feel it?