After having enjoyed as enjoyable a playoff season as any in sports history, former Dolphins Head Coach Brian Flores dropped a boulder into the lake that is the National Football League. Brian Flores filed a class-action lawsuit against the NFL accusing the league of having racist hiring practices. With the league, three teams were named in the 58-page lawsuit—the Dolphins, the Broncos, and the Giants regarding interviews with the Broncos and Giants and his firing last month by Miami.
Basically, there are huge allegations in this lawsuit, one of which is obvious, the other is as insidious. The fact that Mike Tomlin is currently the only Black head coach in all of the NFL is stark evidence that the NFL’s claims that it is concerned about diversity and fairness is a bunch of crap. The “Rooney Rule” that requires every team with an open coaching position interview at least one minority candidate is just a box to be checked off as the owners hire their favorite white man.
Flores claimed the Giants had interviewed him for a head coaching role only to fulfill the Rooney Rule. The suit alleges the job was already promised to another coach before his final interview. The difference is that there appears to be evidence. Text messages between Flores and his former boss Bill Belichick reveal Belichick mistakenly congratulated the former Miami coach on landing a job with the Giants that was actually promised to a different coach with the same first name. When asked to confirm who the text was meant for, the Patriots’ head coach corrected himself, saying he intended to text another former Patriots assistant Brian Daboll, not Brian Flores. “I fu**ed this up. I double checked and misread the text. I think they are naming Brian Daboll. I’m sorry about that,” Belichick wrote to Flores.
Flores claims that a similar scenario occurred when he interviewed with the Broncos for a head coaching job in 2019. According to the lawsuit, then-Denver General Manager John Elway and others arrived late for his interview and were apparently hungover. The Broncos released a memo of their own, stating, “Our process was thorough and fair to determine the most qualified candidate for our head coaching position.”
It has been said that the NFL is a plantation; treating the players, 70% of whom are African-American, as assets, not people. Yes, they are paid very well, but considering the punishment they risk every time they step on the field and the potential long term health issues, this is a matter of respect. To interview with no legitimate chance of getting the job, it is disheartening; it is soul crushing; it makes you angry. I can empathize with these Black coaches are going through. I have been unemployed twice in the past five years, one time for 17 months, I interviewed with several major financial institutions in the Chicago area and I was under the impression that the choice had been made, but they had to have a minority interview. In one interview, I was told before I left that perhaps there would be positions open in another section of the organization. Needless to say, I never applied for any positions with them again. If I was a Black coaching candidate, I would rather that there were no Rooney Rule, not wasting anyone’s time for an interview for a job that I will not get, no matter how well I do; just how white candidates only get a fair shake.
Worse is that with the NFL making business agreements with sports gambling sites, Flores’ allegations lead to a problem with the integrity of the game itself. In the lawsuit, Flores claims that Dolphins owner Stephen Ross attempted to bribe him to lose games after he was hired in 2019, and tried to pressure him into recruiting a “prominent quarterback” at the end of the 2019 season. Flores refused to tank and when he refused he was allegedly cast as the “angry Black man” who was difficult to work with. The alleged incidents with the Dolphins led to his ouster; Flores was fired from his position as Head Coach on Jan. 10 despite recording the Dolphins’ first back-to-back winning seasons since 2003. (It should be noted that former Browns Head Coach Hue Jackson said that he was offered money for losing games.) According to ESPN, the Dolphins claimed, “The implication that we acted in a manner inconsistent with the integrity of the game is incorrect.”
Flores knows that he will probably never get a coaching job in the NFL, especially a head coach. “I understand the risks. And, yes, it was a difficult decision, and I went back and forth,” he said of filing the lawsuit without having a coaching job. “And like I said, I love coaching. I do. It’s something that I’m passionate about. It brings me joy. I love helping young people reach their potential and become the best versions of themselves. I’m gifted to do that.” Flores said he told the two teams with which he interviewed for their head coaching jobs that he was going to file the lawsuit. He called the lawsuit “bigger than coaching.”
There is no way to ignore the way that the NFL treated Colin Kaepernick. Yes, the former QB got money in litigation with the league, but he has never played another game in the league. The league says that it will aggressively combat Flores’ charges but the numbers are the numbers. After the season, there were seven head coach openings, so far three have been filled and all have been white men. One thing that has always been a bone of contention between the league and the players is that Commissioner Roger Goodell often acts as though he is the Sheriff to control the players, particularly players of color. However, if you look at the NFL Offices and there is diversity with lots of minority and women in the league offices, but Roger Goodell works for the 31 owners (the Packers of course are publicly owned). He has no power to tell his bosses who to hire.
Finally, if you’re a player for the Dolphins or Browns, what does it say that they will openly tank, and the league knows about it. The willingness to pay coaches to lose games goes against everything that players are taught from Pop Warner football all the way to the NFL. What does it say that the owners think that you and your teammates as not very good; further undercutting the ability of the coach and the team and other players who go out there and are working hard and trying to win? Back to the beginning, what does it say that the games may be fixed in return for future prospects?

Like many other people in the Chicago area, I was very happy to see 49er (and former Chicago Bear) kicker Robbie Gould put through a 45 yard field goal as time expired to defeat the Green Bay Packers last evening. Locally, there is always dancing when the Packers get beat; Facebook and Twitter are alive with jokes and puns, and Packer fans react with “you’re just jealous” replies. This year however, the controversy that has surrounded quarterback Aaron Rodgers has brought a lot of the rest of the country around to some Packer hatred (and the omnipresent State Farm commercials haven’t helped).
But why? Other than Rodgers, do we know any of the Packers? As an Northwestern alum, DL Tyler Lancaster and Dean Lowry are also alumni who I watched play and cheered in Evanston. The President of the team, Mark Murphy was the Northwestern Athletic Director for 16 years. I don’t know them, or the other players on any of the teams. Except for Rodgers, I can’t say anything about the Packer players or coaches. I met Reggie White once – very nice man, RIP.
So what is it? Easy, it’s the fans that people really hate. Very seldom do you see people like the other team’s fans. I’m not just talking about the drunken louts, of which there are plenty at every sporting event(or concert, etc.). I think that while close proximity is certainly a factor (you don’t often see rivals who are hundreds or thousands of miles away), but the main factor is perceived arrogance. To Bear fans, Packer fans are ignorant hicks who have nothing better in their lives than to lord their dominance over the Bears at every opportunity. To Packer fans, Bear fans are big city losers who, while they have Chicago, they are jealous of Packer success. There is some truth to both: there are Packer fans who are bumpkins with a need to show up the big city @$$holes. Bear fans have shown their boorishness toward Wisconsin (in fact, I believe some criticism of QB Justin Fields is racial in nature); and yes, there is jealously, not of record, but the fact that the Packers don’t have an owner who can embarrass them like a Jerry Jones, or continue to delude themselves with thoughts of competence like the out of touch McCaskeys.
It’s mostly fans that create the animosity and teams that win frequently get a lot of the hatred (what fun is it hating teams that have sucked for decades like the Detroit Lions and the 1970-1994 Northwestern Wildcat football team). Alabama wins national championships frequently, so while people don’t have any great love for the University of Georgia, everyone outside of the state is happy. Duke basketball was a powerhouse, and many people still have the Blue Devils. No one particularly cared about the New England Patriots until Bill Belichick and Tom Brady came along (although I must say that Brady, with his all-American image and lifestyle advocate does bring personal animosity of which I am not immune).
I think however that tradition also plays a part. The Packers and Bears are the oldest rivalry in the NFL. Long term success breeds a permanent expectation that their team will win. Michigan and Ohio State fans are a little worse than other teams because they are so accustomed to winning, they just think that its obvious who the winner will be. (Of course, there is the other side of that coin, fans with an inferiority complex like Michigan State. The in-state poor sister to Michigan, they come into Evanston more entitled than the other two schools. To me, they are the worst.)
We cannot mention tradition and obnoxious fans than the New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox, until recently the Montreal Canadiens, and of course, Notre Dame. Twenty-seven World Series titles have spoiled New Yorkers, whose arrogance has spread to the other NY teams in all sports. By the same token, twenty-five titles which made the French-Canadian fans expect to win every year. However, having not won a title since 1993 and a fair amount of mismanagement in the front office have brought their fans back to earth. Fans had a fair amount of sympathy to the Boston Red Sox during their championship drought of 86 years between World Series titles. However, after they won in 2004 and 2007, the Red Sox Nation became as entitled as their New York neighbors (along with the entitlement about the Patriots at the same time).
Of course, there is no fan base more entitled than Notre Dame. Having won 11 consensus national championships, all of the bluster about Rockne and the echoes of the championships make them the most hated bunch in sport in my opinion. Expecting to be in the national championship discussion every year no matter their talent or the power of other schools – their fans feel like they deserve a spot in the College Football Playoff by divine fiat despite the fact that the Irish haven’t won a national championship since 1988. It’s bad enough that the alumni and the university are bad, but it’s the bandwagon fans who are worse. Growing up in Chicago, there are a lot of fans who are die hard Domers, just for the fact of being Irish (even though the teams are predominantly African-American now). May of these people could be accepted into ND if all they had to do is spell the name of the school and we gave them the N-O-T-R-E. As passionate as my distaste for the Packers is, it is nothing close to my loathing for Notre Dame, which is very hard with all of the Black players and now, a Black head coach who seems like a good, competent man.
So, what is my point? Why have I brought this up? I don’t know exactly – I have good friends who are Packer fans and as I’ve had to watch them gloat when they won, here was a chance to give it back to them. Some times it gets into asshole territory, but then again, wasn’t I being an asshole rubbing in their disappointment?
Maybe my point is: does being a fan gives us an outlet to be assholes – no matter who we root for?

To be a Chicago Bear fan, it helps to have a short memory, which is what Chairman George McCaskey and President Ted Phillips are banking on. Being the owner of a Chicago sports team is no blueprint for popularity. Jerry Reinsdorf, principal owner of the Bulls and White Sox at least brought multiple championships to town, but to many, he will always be the man who blackmailed the State of Illinois to get his new stadium or move to Tampa. The Ricketts family are headed by a father who is one step short of David Duke. Rocky Wirtz was the toast of Chicago with three Stanley Cup titles, but the scandal of allowing, covering up for a pedophile video assistant has taken some bloom off the team’s reputation.
I’ll say however, that there is no franchise perhaps in all of sport that has shown mismanagement to the level of the Chicago Bears. One Super Bowl title, 36 years ago; one other appearance; a 12-4 record just four seasons ago and two 8-8 seasons before the bottom fell out in 2021. A team that has identified one good quarterback (who couldn’t stay healthy) since Sid Luckman retired in 1950. Lots of great linebackers and running backs have called Chicago home, but in the high octane 21st Century NFL, the Bears have come up short at the most important position in sports – NFL quarterback.
We have to lay it all at the feet of the McCaskey Family. Matriarch Virginia is 99 years old and has nothing to do with the day-to-day management of the team. It is Chicago’s misfortune that she and her late husband Ed McCaskey sired two boys who were more blue blood than monsters of the Midway. First, Michael became the CEO after founder George Halas’ death. Ivy League schooled, aloof to the point of sheer condescension, Michael made Richard M. Daley a hero just by refusing to pony up for a new stadium. By the time Soldier Field was reconfigured, the Bears had to put up more of their own money than any ownership group that didn’t build their stadium alone.
Michael was despised by the blue-collar fans, and so he stepped down to allow his brother George to take over. It appeared that he wasn’t as stuck-up as his brother. He talked about being disappointed in under performance. He didn’t come off like Michael did. Unfortunately, this past year, he has proven to be as tone-deaf and out of touch as any owner in any professional sport. First of course was Pace trading picks to move up one spot in the draft to take Mitchell Trubisky. Trubisky was a question mark, playing only one season in North Carolina. He was big, had a good arm, but would he develop. Nagy was hired to do just that, as he was the quarterbacks coach for Patrick Mahomes. Speaking of Mahomes, Pace will always be remembered for passing on Mahomes, and in what should have gotten him fired, he never even met with DeShaun Watson who had led Clemson to two College Football Championship games, winning one. How can anyone completely ignore even talking to a talent like Watson?
Last season, the Bears beat up on bad teams to eek to an 8-8 record and an undeserved playoff berth. The Saints routed the Bears, and I for one, think that the team would have been better off if they hadn’t made the playoffs. They would have had a better draft position and a softer 2021 schedule of opponents. The fans wanted change, but McCaskey and his lap dog Phillips held a press conference to announce that Head Coach Matt Nagy and GM Ryan Pace were given another year to show “progress.” The fans shrugged their shoulders and hoped for better.
The 2021 football year showed promise when Pace traded up again to draft Justin Fields, quarterback from Ohio State, but Pace had also wasted money on Mike Glennon, Nick Foles, and this year Andy Dalton. Nagy, who did not improve Trubisky, did very little to better Fields. Dalton was promised the startong job before Pace was able to get Fields, and the rookie was supposed to watch for a season, but Dalton got injured and Fields was pressed into playing. (I’ve always said that the most popular athlete in Chicago is the backup quarterback.) Lots of people are down on Fields because of poor performance, but I have asked for years whether the Bears would be comfortable with a Black, mobile QB? First, they gave Fields no snaps with the first team in training camp and when Fields did start, at Cleveland, the game plan was still suited for Dalton, who is about as mobile as an old refrigerator. I have also said that being a first round QB in the NFL is as much about scheme as team. It was obvious all season that the offense was not suited for Fields and the talent level on the offensive line was lackluster.
By the middle of the season, chants of “Fire Nagy” rang in every Chicago stadium, especially Soldier Field. Kids even chanted it at Nagy’s son at a high school basketball game he was playing in – easily the winner of the Philadelphia Fan Classless Award. Nothing showcased the disfunction of the Bears more than the week of Thanksgiving. With a Turkey Day game against the Lions coming, a Pulitzer Prize winning reporter wrote that he had it on good authority that Nagy would be fired after the Lions game win or lose. The special teams coach was blindsided as the first person from the team to address the media, then Nagy came out to say that the report was “incorrect.” The whole thing could have been put to rest if McCaskey or the team had come out immediately and said that the report was untrue. Instead they said that 24 hours later with McCaskey addressing the team to say that it was untrue (to our knowledge – I’m willing to bet that the report was correct but the embarrassment of having it leaked turned the Bears into deer in headlights).
As the Bears’ season staggered to its end, Nagy was obviously toast. The big question would be whether this would be a total clean out -firing Nagy and Pace and even Ted Phillips. There were reports that Pace would be retained, or bumped up to a non-decision-making position, but Nagy and Pace were tied together by steel rope: Pace hired Nagy; Pace provided the talent on the team, good and bad. Firing one while keeping the other would be foolish.
As expected, Nagy was fired this morning – no shock. The fans held their breath to see if another shoe would drop. A few minutes later, it was announced that Pace was also fired. A Zoom news conference was announced for 1:00 PM. It was on the radio, so I listened to about half. It started well, at first. In his opening remarks, McCaskey paid tribute to the late ESPN reporter Jeff Dickerson. But instead of stopping there, he used Dickerson’s son Parker as a means to transition to chastising the Bears fans who booed Nagy during his son’s high school playoff game.
Then McCaskey called out former Bears center Olin Kreutz and Bear broadcast analyst as a liar. For context, Kreutz told a story about the time the Bears organization offered him $15 an hour to serve as a consultant for the offensive line with Harry Hiestand back in 2018. That story was brought up to McCaskey, who could have easily dismissed it as something he wasn’t going to get into. Instead, he said “I’ve learned over the years to take everything Olin Kreutz says with a grain of salt.”
Initially, one of the few good things to come out of the press conference was that the new GM would report directly to McCaskey, not Ted Phillips. However, Phillips will still be involved in GM search. McCaskey was asked why Phillips will be involved, and he essentially said it has to do with him trusting Phillips and the fact that he’ll be negotiating the contract for the new GM.
Seven years ago, the Bears management admitted that they weren’t football minds, so they brought in veteran football front office man Ernie Accorsi to consult on the hire This time, the same rules apply – Bill Polian would be brought in the help with the search. (By the way, Polian lauded the Bears on their hiring of Pace – not a good track record.) What I know about leadership is give the impression of competence, give people confidence that you’ll make a good decision. Not McCaskey who stated “I’m just a fan, not a football evaluator.” Which would be fine if he was going to bring a “football guy” to Halas Hall to oversee the next GM, but that’s not the case, as McCaskey said he’ll be responsible for not only picking the next GM, but he’ll be the one the GM reports to.
The press asked some really tough questions and one that was particularly pointed was how he’s been evaluated by the organization. McCaskey said that ownership and the board of directors want him to remain in his position. The only problem is, those people include his mother, Virginia McCaskey, other family and Phillips, who works for him. In other words, nepotism reigns as his job was saved by his Mommy.
Having been a fan of and following the Bears for 50+ years, I have to say that this was another red-letter day for the McCaskeys and another bad one. George proved today without any doubt that he is just as out of touch as his brother was. There are other organizations where the ownership is involved in the football operations, but many of these owners run companies that they didn’t inherit, have had to learn how to deal with people, and surrounded themselves with people who will help keep them from making PR blunders. George McCaskey, who has run nothing but the family business, obviously has a high opinion of himself. It’s too bad it’s not justified by results.

Many things have changed during/because of the pandemic, but fortunately, music carries on and while I didn’t buy as much music as in past years, there was still more than enough to fill a best of list:
10. Foo Fighters – Medicine at Midnight: yes, they are the 21st Century’s Bad Company (2nd best band to come from some other band/label), this short catchy disc of songs was, I hate to say it, needed during the pandemic days. While I usually hate when songs get overplayed, the hooks in “Waiting on a War” never got it off my radio/iPod. Do they belong in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? I’d say no, but if you’re letting ABBA in, all of the rules are gone.

9. Sting – The Bridge
Speaking of a band leader with magnificent pop music sensibilities, Sting returned after toying with Broadway and other dabbling. It’s not as energetic and great as Sting’s album with Jamaican reggae star Shaggy, but it is a measured, mature album. The Police are dead and while we grieve, we still get a moderately interesting Gordon Sumner.

8. Jam & Lewis – Volume One
The producers behind Janet Jackson and so many others released their first album as stand-alone artists. I guess one would expect well produced songs, especially some tender ballads, and on that this record succeeds. However, as a big fan of The Time, I was disappointed that there wasn’t one all out jam on the record despite an appearance by Morris Day. One would think The Time sounding Bruno Mars hit would have allowed for one funk anthem Like “The Bird” of “Jungle Love.” This remains one slickly produced, beautiful R&B record.

7. Prince – Welcome 2 America
Recorded in 2010, this was supposed to be Prince’s release that year but the Purple One shelved the entire record for reasons known only to him. This is the first complete album released posthumously by Prince’s people and it was a very solid record on funky tunes with harder lyrics that fit right in with the times in which we live.

6. Elvis Costello/Others and the Attractions – Spanish Model
At first, I was resistant to listen to, much less buy this unusual project. Costello and Argentinian producer Sebastian Krys got together with the musical tapes from Costello’s impressive second album This Year’s Model and Krys invited numerous Spanish-speaking artists from around the world to place their voices with the band recording. What happened was a very interesting hybrid that didn’t make one long for the original, but it became something totally different and unique.

5. Little Steven and the Disciples of Soul – Summer of Sorcery Live at the Beacon Theater
It doesn’t seem that a year can go by without Springsteen consigliere Little Steven being on this list. Yes, this is the second live album of the past four, but the concerts have such life and energy and a rock and roll fever that this record brings us up to speed with live versions of the most recent studio album and drops in lesser-known oldies that you may or may not know. No matter – it sounds like everyone is having one helluva time, making it very hard for the listener not to join in.

4. Matthew Sweet – Catspaw
Here’s another regular on my year-end lists. Matthew Sweet creates melodic songs of love, loss and longing, but with a more rocking edge than Sting or even the Foo Fighters. Here is another collection of pop/rock songs that showoff his songwriting and musicianship.

3. Los Lobos – Native Sons
The second-best bar band in the world released an album of covers celebrating the Los Angeles sound of their home town. Taking turns on songs by the Blasters, War, the Beach Boys, Jackson Browne and many others, the band stretches out on songs consistent with the originals but making each song their own.

2. Bruce Springsteen & E Street Band – The Legendary 1979 No Nukes Concerts
Admittedly, these concerts were held in the heat of the fallout from having seen the band in 1978 and still amazed by the power of their performance. The best bar band in the world was filmed for the first time despite Bruce’s reticence in being recorded. This wasn’t a full 3-hour show, but the entire show hd been filmed. Using today’s technology, the film was cleaned up as much as possible and gave us a 90-minute sampling of the brashness and energy that was generated by the E Street Band before the release of The River album. This gritty urban period remains my favorite of Springsteen’s.

1. Gary Numan – Intruder
The debt owed to Numan has been acknowledged by Trent Reznor and Nine Inch Nails, which has given Numan the ordinance to record harder, less pop songs that sound a lot more like NIN than “Cars.” I can’t really explain it, but since this list is of the records that I listened to the most, here it is.

Well, that’s the list for this year. Let’s hope that more progress will be made on Covid-19 and its variants, which still hold the world by the throat. Let’s hope we hear more new music recorded and live in 2022.

I know that the title isn’t the exact quote, but I don’t think that pride is enough to capture the attitude involved here.
I wasn’t paying attention last night, until this morning when I read the amazing – that Jacksonville had fired Head Coach Urban Meyer. I was not surprised that Meyer got fired; I was surprised that Meyer got fired now.
Meyer has been a disaster every place he’s coached. Yes, there were two national championships at the University of Florida. Numerous players arrested during his time at Florida. Meyer “retired” because of health reasons and the ultimate BS – “going to spend time with my family.” Like so many coaches before, he was leaving town before the posse arrives – the NCAA. Plus, the Sporting News wrote an article about Meyer created a toxic environment. He wasn’t too sick or stuck around his family by retreating to ESPN for a season, but then the Ohio State Head Coaching position opened up, and the previously starved Buckeyes and Big Ten Conference neither of whom had won a national championship since 2002. Meyer had won titles before and he is an Ohio boy – raised in Toledo, went to Cincinnati. The team won a national championship, but he wasn’t able to stay because of Meyer’s support against spousal abuse allegations against assistant coach Zack Smith.
Then he was hired by Jacksonville of the NFL, a great job because the Jaguars held the first pick of the 2021 NFL Draft which was used on Trevor Lawrence. That all happened as expected but the problems began after that. Meyer started by hiring a strength coach who had been fired by the University of Iowa for abusing Black players. After a couple of days, the assistant was fired.
Then he was fined $100,000 by the NFL for violating practice rules during organized practice. The straw that should have broken the camel’s back was the incident in October. After a Thursday night game, Meyer did not fly home with the team,he flew to Columbus where he said, he was having dinner with his family. Now that’s a little strange, putting yourself above the team, but OK, it was a longer week. Instead, Meyer was filmed in the bar named after him appearing to grope a young woman not his wife. For those of you who don’t remember, Meyer is a devout Roman Catholic.
He should have been gone then, but Owner Shahid Khan publicly reprimanded him, saying that Meyer needed to earn the trust of the team and fans. The Jaguars continued to lose, currently at 2-11, but meanwhile, Khan was reportedly taking the temperature of the team’s attitude. This week, former kicker Josh Lambo accused Meyer of physical abuse, claiming the Meyer repeatedly kicked his leg during warmups in the last preseason game. That, and stories of abusive behavior by other members of the team forced Khan’s hand, who fired Urban Meyer. His 13 game tenure ties Lou Holtz and Bobby Petrino for the 4th shortest head coaching tenure in NFL history.
It is obvious that Urban Meyer thinks that Urban Meyer can do whatever he wants, and college coaches come very close to wielding this type of power, but it always seems that hubris brings them down somehow: losses, scandal, NCAA violations, criminal behavior. I believe that I wrote here that this was a bad idea – a dictatorial coach, no matter how successful cannot act that way with professional players, many of whom actually make more money the even a head coach. I just knew that his act wasn’t going to fly.
Where now for Urban Meyer? I think he is radioactive for any head coaching position in major college or NFL football. There’s too much baggage. I don’t believe that ESPN, CBS or any of the networks will want to hire him for the same reason. Will some second-tier school who need to appear to build a winner and put fannies in seats take a chance on Meyer? In 2-3 years, probably, and you can just see the stories about redemption and making a comeback. I don’t think he will – I think he remains too stubborn and egocentric to ever really admit he was wrong about anything.

Hagar The Horrible cartoon many years ago – Hagar breaks the 4th wall and speaks directly to the reader “Friends are good, but friends come and go. Now take an enemy – a good enemy lasts a lifetime.”

Everyone should know that I have no love for Notre Dame. Anything that brings shame to the Golden Dome and Touchdown Jesus makes me very happy, and just a few days ago, Brian Kelly left the number 6 football team in the college playoff rankings to take big money from LSU. So, ND needed at least an interim head coach and a permanent one, and they have taken a bold step – hiring current Defensive Coordinator Marcus Freeman as the replacement.
Freeman is 35 years of age; this is his first head coaching job; and has only been at ND for one season. Freeman is a former Ohio State linebacker who spent four years in the DC position with the Cincinnati Bearcats. Kelly brought him this year when the former DC left to be the head coach at Vanderbilt. Notre Dame moved quickly to keep Freeman and offensive coordinator and former Irish QB Tommy Rees because Kelly was offering almost all of his former staff a raise to come join him at LSU. Freeman is reportedly a great recruiter, which is of course important. Also, it is a message to the Playoff Committee this year, saying that you can’t disqualify ND because there will not be chaos on the bench.
So far, the reception has been uniformly positive. Athletes, recruits, alums, former players, fans, and boosters all rallied around him. Player after player posted supportive messages and photos for Freeman on Twitter, recruits told reporters that they would decommit if he wasn’t the next head coach, program alumni hosted a Twitter Space titled “Marcus Freeman is the next head coach at Notre Dame,” and the call from fans on the message boards was unanimous.
I however, am skeptical. I remember Tyrone Willingham, the first Person of Color to be head coach at Notre Dame. I never thought the school, fans, boosters embraced Willingham. Hired in 2002, his first team went 8-0 and was the first ND team to win 10 games in a season. ND tailed off at the end of the season, losing to rival USC to get knocked out of the playoff, then lost to North Carolina State in the Gator Bowl 28-6. The 2003 team went 5-7, then the 2004 team went 6-5 and as soon as the season ended, he got fired, the first coach to be fired that quickly at South Bend in history.
I was happy that ND weren’t as good, but there was a small part of me that felt horrible for Willingham. My mother and grandparents were sports fans, but also instilled in me an attitude of always rooting for Black people in high positions to do well. After Willingham, ND went to more white men – Charlie Weis, former OC for the NFL’s New England Patriots and the team did not improve; then Kelly, who is the winningest coach in ND history, even more than Knute Rockne. The 20+ year national championship draught, and watching the Irish get stomped when they did get into the playoff made me very happy. I don’t want them to win this year either. Like Nick Buoniconti who celebrated when the last undefeated NFL team got beat; I celebrated the moment that there was no chance for ND to win a championship.
Perhaps Freeman will be do the trick. As I’ve always been confused by, there’s still a lot of Irish people who root for ND despite the fact that most of the players are young men of color. Now, with African-Americans at head coach and many players being the same (as well as an Asian assistant at ND also), will I change my opinion and start to, if not root for them, at least not hate them so much? A great deal of the time, my dislike for teams are as a result of their fans. I have no great feel for Michigan State, but I hate them because their fans are the most obnoxious in the whole Big Ten (yes, worse than Ohio State and Michigan, because of the inferiority complex they have against Ann Arbor). The boosters aren’t going anywhere; many alums are obnoxious; they will get props in national rankings just on tradition, and I have a solid 5+ decades of hatred aimed at South Bend. It will take more than Marcus Freeman to change my feelings, but like I had when Willingham was Head Coach, there is a part of me that will harbor a little less hatred than usual.

The landscape of college football keeps getting stranger and stranger. Players can receive some money as part of their scholarships; athletes have control of their likenesses and can sell them; conference memberships are swirling around like the ball on a roulette wheel; the transfer portal is more important than recruiting if you want to build a winner.
Now, the coaches have started their own version of the transfer portal – winning, established coaches are being lured away from programs where they have had success to programs desperately wanting to become national championship contenders. Traditionally, coaches of major programs stayed put until they stopped winning, or retired (or were driven away by scandal). Woody Hayes, Bo Schembechler, Joe Pa, Nick Saban – these guys were (are for Saban) kings of their programs and ruled them. Even now, coaches usually stay where they find success. However, there’s money to spend and schools are spending it.
First it was announced that Lincoln Riley is leaving Oklahoma to go to USC in a deal reportedly worth $110 million. USC is reportedly buying Riley a $6 million home in Los Angeles and giving him 24/7 access to a private jet. USC, once a national powerhouse under John McKay and John Robinson and even Pete Carroll before NCAA rules violations drove him to Seattle of the NFL, have been nonentities for several years now. No longer even considered in the Top 25, USC has been a doormat for Notre Dame and others for years now. What better way to make a big splash (and put fannies in seats at the same time) than to go out and get a nig time coach.
Speaking of Notre Dame, Coach Brian Kelly did the unthinkable – announced via text to the school, that he would be leaving for LSU and a reported 10-year, $100 million contract. Press accounts around here stated that the university was “stunned.” I bet they are. This year’s team is on the brink of being in the National Championship Playoff after losses by Ohio State, and a tougher than expected 4 OT win by Alabama in the Iron Bowl against Auburn over the weekend. Honestly, if ND makes the playoff, they will get bounced again and fairly badly by either Georgia or Alabama, and perhaps even Michigan. Still, you don’t leave when your team is still in the hunt.
More shocking to Domers – no one leaves Notre Dame. You can hear them saying “this is the elite job in the nation.” Where else can you be ranked all year no matter what your recruiting class is like, you’re your strength of schedule, or the fact that you aren’t in a conference. Notre Dame is always ranked unless they really lose 3-4 games or more. This season’s team survived close games to Florida State (in OT), Toledo, and Virginia Tech and lost to Cincinnati. ND seems to have caught fire in recent games, but honestly, they are in contention because of tradition, and they fact that they travel well (sell lots of tickets).
Kelly, the winningest coach in ND history despite never winning a national championship, knows that being in a conference is more important now than ever, and the big dog of conferences is the SEC. Alabama and LSU have won 4 of the last 6 national championships with only Clemson of the ACC breaking the string twice. Oklahoma and Texas are joining the SEC in 2023, making the conference even more powerful. Kelly now leads one of the big teams in, arguably, the biggest conference in the sport. (Of course, Riley could have stayed at Oklahoma and been part of the SEC in two seasons, but alas…).
To Notre Dame fans however, no coach leaves ND; you either win or ND fires you. That is the elite mindset of the alums, boosters and worst, traditional fans. I’m sure that many of them are apoplectic today realizing the Kelly is leaving. However, I have long wondered if the ND job is all its cracked up to be. It’s not the higher paid position; recruiting is much harder than back in the day; but the scrutiny is like being an NFL coach – you are headline news all over the country. No one will let you forget that ND hasn’t won a national championship since Lou Holtz walked the sidelines.
Again, this is just the latest chapter in the strange, ever-changing world of college athletics. More changes are coming, we just don’t know what they will be yet. Maybe with the win or else attitude will get Pat Fitzgerald to change offensive and defensive coordinators who are not generating solid results.