MH3 Coaching, Football, Life Lessons, Opinion, Sports

Joe Pa

I apologize if you think I blog too much about football.

It’s a fair critique by the way, but I’m a big boy, I can take it. My thicker-than-usual skin on this subject matter was incubated through countless years of advice from my parents. You see, this football obsession was started at an early age and I was appropriately counseled by my folks to not put all of my eggs in a single metaphorical basket. They were right… to an extent.

But critique or not, it is nearly impossible to avoid blogging about the passing of the winningest major (U.S.) college football coach of all time, especially given the pigskin-related headlines that dominate the news. The Super Bowl contenders have been chosen. Planning for the 100th Grey Cup is well underway. Coaches are being hired, fired and re-hired, on both sides of the border. Plus, the whole horrific Sandusky allegations are rolling towards trial. (I have taken into consideration the request of the university’s interim president and stopped calling it the Penn State Affair. It really was the alleged evil of one sick individual, as opposed to an institutional crime. Unless we find out the institution’s level of complicity is higher than any of us grossly unimagined.)

The topic at hand, of course, is the sad farewell we must give Joe Paterno, who died last weekend at age 85. Continue reading “Joe Pa” →

MH3 Coaching, Football, Life Lessons, Living Life, Opinion, Sports

Game Over?

It was a cruel irony for me to be in Pittsburgh on the weekend when the Penn State scandal erupted.

Sunday, some pals and I were indulging in being immersed in American football culture and lapping it up. It was a scene right out of a bad Tom Cruise movie. Me and the boys sitting in a greasy spoon/bar/hangout – aptly called Locals – on the South Side of the Steel City, quaffing beers and devouring all day breakfast.

The TVs were showing every afternoon game imaginable, with our attention focused on the Bills getting t-rexed by the Jets. Most of the bar was clad in black and yellow, in anticipation of the Steelers’ evening clash with the hated Browns… err, Ravens!

But between Cruise sightings (he was actually in town filming a movie, which I am pretty certain isn’t the sequel to All The Right Moves), and Ray Lewis -bashing, our talk turned solemn to the scandal erupting in not so ‘Happy Valley.’ I could not believe what I read online. No one could.

It has gotten even worse as the week has unfolded. I don’t need to rehash what has been said in a thousand places. But I do need to share my thoughts with you. Because they are sad ones. Continue reading “Game Over?” →

MH3 Coaching, Football, Life Lessons, Living Life, Opinion, Sports

Sideline Act

I think we need a law to ban idiotic parents from attending their kids’ sporting events.

My rant today is partially due to me being a recent victim of a parent’s heckling. So maybe I should just grow a tougher skin.

The back-story is this. 2011 will go down in my calendar as the proud time period when both my sons started playing tackle football. It’s been a riot. The first day of workouts. The first day in equipment. Their first games. Their first tackles (which took a little longer).

The kids have had a chance to play in Ivor Wynne Stadium and at the Rogers Centre. The former is the home of a professional football team. The latter is the burial ground for Jimmy Hoffa, Jimmy Key (after he was unearthed form Exhibition Stadium in 1985) and Cleo Lemon.

They play in an organization called the North York Grizzlies. It’s run by a very dedicated group of volunteers and has an enthusiastic bunch of smart coaches. Our organization isn’t as big or massive as Niagara, Burlington or Hamilton, which possess massive house league feeder systems – but we are competitive.

As a parent, I have questions for the coaches and the odd ‘complaint’ about playing time. They might have interpreted it as more than odd, but overall I try to go out of my way to thank, praise, motivate, and interact with the coaches. No one is paying them to teach my prodigies this amazing sport, so I am very grateful for their hours of volunteerism.

However, what I have discovered is that I may be in the minority. Actually, scratch that – I know I am in the majority, but boy does this organization have a very vocal minority who aren’t as grateful as I am. Continue reading “Sideline Act” →