Conversing with Idiots

Youth level or HS level?
At the YOuth LEvel its real easy. Parent contracts, they violate a provision, junior plays elsewhere. Fist day mandatory parent meeting with everything laid out transparent, no sugar coating.
HS my guess is a much more complicated issue, another reason I will never coach anything but youth football LOL.
BTW had the vocal grandparent of an 8 year old kid ( worst player on team) that our offense wasnt what they ran in the "NCAAs" , that it was old time Nebraska stuff was holding his grandkid back LOL. We were doing the kid a favor just getting him on the field.
I just laughed and pointed out the President of our opponent and told grandpa to go talk to him because he was going to have to find a new place to play next year. Told grandma not to bring grandpa around to any more games, if he did show for him to either stay in the car or quitely watch from the endzones or move to another team now. No debate, just go away.

actually was referring to bull-headed colleagues
("spread just won't work with white kids!"- "If you don't slant in the 4-3, you're running it wrong" - "You should change your offense every year depending on your kids" - "We can't cut block because our Oline isn't any good" )...but good advice so far.

Though, I have to say, I am less and less tolerant of the "....when I was in high school.." openers to conversations. It is like a road-map to idiocy. TONS of Uncle Rico's out there..........and coaching.

LOL- I hear you brophy. More than a few of the fellows I've worked with become GURUs the second they pick up a clip board. Doesn't matter if they ever coached or not; they all have a Waterboy-esq green notebook with all of the answers.

Best one this year (thank God it didn't come out of our staff..)- "Of course they're going to run the football; the running backs aren't good enough to pass protect."

Second best one this year (once again, not from our staff)- "We're going to man up and come with 6 all the time this year; we're just not fast enough to play zone defense."

We have two complete morons on our staff that are given credit (any credit is way more than they deserve) because one won a JC national championship (finished his career at a DII loser program) and the other played in the NFL. They have no concept of how an offense or a defense as a whole works, yet they voice their moronic opinions, which have the weakest foundations of "that's how I like it" or "that's how we did it when I played at...", as freely as the wind blowing through your hair in a convertible.

I nod and stand there or walk away, if appropriate. I can't really do anything. If it is in a meeting where no players are around and they suggest something, I let them know what's up.

The reasoning behind that one; in zone coverage, you have to be fast enough to get TO A ZONE and then COVER A RECEIVER IN THAT ZONE. Man coverage, you only have to cover the guy. ;D

Personally, I just write off that kind of stuff. I don't bother arguing as I'm not going to change their minds about it anyway. If they want to go out and put their own brand of "genius" on the line; let them. They'll be in for a couple rough lessons.

I am always open to new ideas and input; as long as they presented in an intelligent manner. How it works, how we teach it, why it's effective and MOST IMPORTANTLY; WHAT IT'S WEAKNESSES ARE.

But if you just make a blanket statement ("Cover 2 is the worst coverage out there") I'm going to ignore the next stretch of words out of your mouth.

no comment

Hard to do when the mo-ron in question is the head honcho; harder still when the idiocy is institutional.

Case in point: My employers at the Department of State are testing out some possible new evaluation criteria for rating the performance of my fellow Foreign Service Officers. The new proposed criteria include this little gem:

"Fact-based decision-making: Skill in gathering, managing, and critically analyzing information in order to make sound decisions."

Hallelujah, I cried, the millennium is upon us: The State Department is switching to reality-based diplomacy!!!

Wuckfits. All of them.

What scares me is they are just now getting around to it? So previously making sound decisions through fact seeking was optional? I'm scared for my country (unless you can honestly say it's not the gool old US of A which would let me sleep a bit better at night)

Normally, this isn't a problem because it is a limited engagement and I just ignore folks like this.

HOWEVER, when it is a post-game beverage session......well, shoot, now I'm inclined to be an audience, because.......well......I mean.......quanity remains in the DRAFT!


Usually, this is a great time to break out the napkins, but nothing kills a good buzz like someone arguing the world is flat even though you can clearly outline the contrary on paper



"yeah, but.........when I was a player, ya just line 'em up and TELL them we're gonna run here...and jes whip yer tail"

"Coverage & front!? What are you talking about....you don't have to worry about what coverage you are running because they don't really throw the ball!!

(remarking that a colleague actually called a nice game [kept the defense off balance and moved the ball], but still lost by just getting out-athlete'd)
"Yeah, but that's just stoopid - you can't run the spread with white boys....you have to run the wing-t"

i explained a while back a situation i was in 3 yrs ago (for only one season). guy gets the head job aftyer getting fired from a previous job (in the same city) because he won about 5 games in 4 years. we are talking about such a loud, moronic, no-knowledge having buffoon... that only about 20 kids would join the team. he screams like an idiot at the referee about things that he is totally wrong about, etc. first game of theseason he lines up in a formation which has 5 men in the backfield (i warned him repeatedly it was illegal, but he wouldnt listen.. he insisted he had created a great new offensiv e formation.).. and the referee warned him when we first lined up that it was illegal and he has to move a man up.... he refused and the ref gave us a flag. next play.... same formation, another flag. now hes screaming at the referee, making a complete idiot of himself... and i just walked to the end of the sideline by myself. next staff meeting, we were preparing for an option team. he proposed that we play cover 1 and have our outside force player on the quarterback. when i asked him who would be left to take the pitch man, his reply was "well, they probably wont pitch it anyway". i then asked if i could be sent down to coach the freshman team, because if i had stayed on that staff i would have killed him.

Reminds me of a HC a few years back who told me to "let them score so we can get the ball back" when we were losing 21-10 near the end of the game.

Remember the #1 rule of coaching:
"Never argue with an idiot, people watching might not be able to tell who is the idiot."

looks just like me when i was in junior high ... lol
... on the flip side, the db looks like me when i was in high school .. haha

quote from my wise grandfather:
"never wrestle with a pig, cus you both get muddy and the pig likes it."

I'm the dumb guy on our staff but I am smart enough to keep my mouth shut!

amen..that's me too