Joy in trials?

IT'S DISAPPOINTING when players get in trouble and lose their opportunities to accomplish great things.

Without football, many of these young men (let's not call them "kids") would not have many opportunities to begin with.  Without football, many of these young men would be hopeful to graduate high school and get a job down at the local mill or supermarket, finding an entry-level position stocking shelves or lumber making slightly over minimum wage.  It's hard, respectable work, and it's all many of them could get until they were able to learn a skill or trade.

Football was a way up.  Even if the NFL wasn't in the cards, there's that college degree which opens up infinitely more doors than the high school diploma.  Sales jobs open up, managerial jobs become more attainable, etc.  It's an absolute unarguable fact that the college degree has value approaching an average of $1,000,000 over a lifetime over the value of a high school diploma, no matter the college... so there's always that, thanks to football.

But the devil lurks, and occasionally finds a willing target to destroy.  No one is immune from the pulls to be average... the great ones find a way to overcome it.  It is sad indeed when players find themselves in a situation that they never dreamed about on Signing Day, a situation with fewer hopes.

As disappointing as that is, it pales in comparison to the disappointment felt when other fans take pure joy in the personal failures of others.  It makes The Coach wonder what kind of a sick, twisted mind is elated when a player from a rival school makes a terrible mistake, negatively impacting that player's life and the life of his victim, and making ZERO personal impact on the elated fan.  If you honestly believe that your life has improved this week due to the personal failures of 4 players from Alabama, you need to examine your life in a very serious way and step away from sports for a while.

This includes Kevin Scarbinsky.  First of all, The Coach does not and will not ever read a Kevin Scarbinsky article.  Yet The Coach was told that he wrote something along the lines of "the players should be kicked off the team".  Well, no kidding.  Why President Obama hasn't yet nominated Scarbinsky for a Supreme Court Justice, The Coach will never know.  Surely, Coach Saban calls Scarbinsky in the middle of the night to ask for advice, right?

This also includes Alabama fans.  The Coach knows who you are, and he disapproves.  Yes, Auburn has had the "Felony Four", among many (many, many, many) others... but that doesn't make it right to feel good about their failures.  It's sad.  A story like Ken Alvis' is sad, no matter the school.  To believe otherwise, quite frankly, makes you a bad person in need of some love in your heart.

The only person that is allowed to feel a twinge of excitement about this situation is that one that now has been given an opportunity to "step up" into the role left behind by the guy who squandered it.  That's a player about to get more playing time, and a player about to get his scholarship.  For the rest of you idiots who live no more than a couple of feet above the sea level of your mother's basement, get a life.

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