Well, if the commenter I received is correct, I have received a comment from (apparently) another coach in Frisco, TX, who, by the comment, appears to be at least as big an asshole as the coach referred to in the Reilly article.
(And I hope both coaches read this.)
Let's understand something before I dissect this comment: The kids involved are EIGHT YEARS OLD. (Correction: Entering the third grade, not the second.)
Comment quoted and italicized, response mine...
"At least Coach Miller didn't stoop to your level to use profanity to get a point across when he didn't have something intelligent to say."
Frankly, spewing profanities in his face would probably be about the level of mentality which would do two things:
1) I fear this is probably the way he addresses the kids who he believes have neither the killer instinct or the athletic ability to belong on the football field (and, hence, in your Holy Football State of Texas, really amount to anything as men in many of your communities)
and 2) This probably is about the only way to get through to this idiot how completely asinine, arrogant, and damaging this kind of a stand is.
Again, sir, these boys you are attempting to pound into the ground for the Holy Altar of Football are EIGHT YEARS OLD. You could literally kill a kid with this kind of an attitude, especially with the kind of training camp you probably would put them through!
But you don't care, sir, because, to you, you need to find out who's going to be a man and which kids are going to be forced to cower in the fetal position to get a menial job once they squeak out a diploma in ten years, right?
"Teaching kids teamwork and work ethic at a young age is what turns older kids into coachable kids at a later age."
So basically we're going to equivocate "work ethic" with three two-hour practices (in pads!) a week, and a schedule around games that not even my HIGH SCHOOL used to do!
You're beating these kids into the ground, sir. What you are effectively calling more in the name of "work ethic" and "teamwork" is CHILD ABUSE.
How many of these bodies are going to be able to take that pounding (not to mention "Timmy's First Concussion") so that they can start to be groomed (as Reilly notes later) to be the only relevant people in your "Friday Night Lights" communities, right?
Look, bub: I've seen what happens in the name of football in this country. We just went through exposing one of the supposed few "good college programs" as a front for pedophilia and child rape. If this is the public face of what your programs are doing to these 8-year olds, I don't want to know what goes on privately!
What you are trying to form these kids into are machines -- and I would not want to know what those kids are going to do with the kids who don't make it when they go to school together, since people like you probably will view the ones who don't make it as "defective", if not worse!
"The only "ridculousness" about this article at least is the fact that you don't know the whole story and resort to profaninty and obscenities to get your point across when Coach Miller was trying to coach success."
Liar.
He's not trying to coach "success".
In fact, at eight, the only reason scores should be kept is to determine which team gets the ball at any given time in the game.
THESE -- KIDS -- ARE -- EIGHT, SIR!!
EIGHT!!!!
What Coach Miller (and j'accuse on you for the same) is trying to coach is this beatdown mentality that football is instilling on a lot of communities and players.
You're basically making excuses for this guy in a culture where football and concussions (and their related violences) has become an accepted price to pay for our entertainment.
I'd almost accuse your league of having shady characters betting on the games too, but ESPN hasn't gotten around to looking at that like Outside the Lines did in Florida last year.
What he's doing is basically trying to winnow the lessers from the greaters, and that's out of line at eight years old.
"Coach Miller is a great coach and a better Dad....."
You're a liar on at least half that front, and I'd say it to him if I saw him face to face. If he treats his child like he treats his football, you'd be lying on the whole statement -- and I don't like the chances of being proven wrong on that regard!
A "great coach" is a teacher, a leader, and a man worthy of respect. You MIGHT, from me, get "leader" from me, but not the other two, based on that disgraceful e-mail.
"and his kid may be reading this since he knows how to "google" something -- so, have a little class and a little respect and know the entire story before you decide to become an expert on something that you most likely know nothing about."
"Most Likely"? But I'm a little smarter than most of the football-worshipping robot-sheep you get to cater to in Texas or in much of the rest of the country!
In fact, I'll say this openly: If he's got a son, I hope to Hell he's a good football player, or Coach Miller might be addressing his son in much the same way I address Coach Miller in my previous post (and you as well, here!).
To me, Coach Miller is trying to weed out those who are going to spend the next ten years in your community bullied, abused, and effectively driven out of most meaningful opportunities in favor of "The Few, The Proud, The Football Players".
THAT I have a strong objection to, especially when the kids in question are, again to get the point across, EIGHT YEARS OLD.
"The PERSON "offended" by Coach Miller's email has every right to not want to instill teamwork, hard work and the value of sportsmanship to his son if he likes."
WOW.
So if I don't beat the eight year-olds into the turf to see who gets up and is a man rather than a pussy, I don't teach teamwork, hard work, and sportsmanship...
WOW.
In words which have been used at me many a time: "You really are an asshole!"
THESE
KIDS
ARE
EIGHT!!!
EIGHT!!!!!!
EIGHT!!!!!!!!!!
Get it in your head that these kids are still growing, still forming, and would like to have "fun"... (A foreign concept only mentioned ONCE in that e-mail, sir!)
This lunacy your hero seems to want to instill on his little bullies and preferreds is the reason that seven of the 19 parents quit that team the moment they got the e-mail.
"You, my friend, have no right to put this spin on a story like this the way you did......"
I have as much right to put a "spin" on the story as you have to question that "spin".
"Classless on an entirely different level, and it's people like you that can only be heard by blogging posts like this, who hide behind a computer screen, who will never know the value of what it's like to be taught at an early age what hard work/teamwork/and dedication is......"
Because I didn't get beaten into the ground for Your Holy Altar of Football.
Maybe I didn't play the game, sir, but I had three brothers who did!
At least one was an All-Conference Lineman, so he was at least locally decent!
I watched as that brother came home from the equivalent of your training camps -- 16-17 years old, no less -- puking his guts out because the coach was trying to get him into shape.
I shudder to think what you put those 8-year olds through, sir, in the name that you believe that is the only way you can teach teamwork and dedication. I doubly shudder to think what the ones who succeed will be doing to the ones who fail over the next ten years as well, with the full encouragement, support, and cover of the community!
Son, you are a first-class Grade-A idiot who is probably as dangerous to the kids who will be put under your charge as Coach Miller is to the kids put under his charge.
And I would say it to your face too, if I weren't the better part of 1000-1500 miles away. (Unless they arrested me first for trying -- and similar to that has happened before!)
But this is Texas. Everything's bigger here, right? Don't Mess With Texas, right??
"and THAT, my friend, yes, even at 8 and 9 years old is what's fun."
You're a threat to those boys.
Period.
