The Good Side of Sports...

It certainly has been difficult to not have seen the shakings out at Rutgers University in New Jersey. Head Coach Mike Rice was fired by Rutgers President Robert Barchi. Also let go was Athletic Director Tim Pernetti. The actions came after Barchi viewed a tape of practices where Rice berated his players and threw basketballs at his players. Again the balls were thrown not tossed.

One would think that an assistant coach would step in to put a stop to these actions but it seems that Jimmy Martelli was filmed doing his best impersonation of his boss. Martinelli resigned when his actions were brought to the forefront.

Coaches can use negative reinforcement to get their point across but this was over the top. Rice was forced to sit out three games and fined $75,000 earlier this season after Pernetti saw the tape. It would seem to me that the President of the school would want to see the tape to get a better understanding as to why the basketball coach was suspended and fined but apparently he didn’t want to see it at that time.

Of course, when he did see the tape all hell broke loose and Rice was fired and the world got to see a very ugly side of a basketball coach under pressure to win. I’m sure that many of these kids have endured far worse in their growing up years but someone who is entrusted to mentor young men and shape them into leaders certainly found a very obscure method one that usually trickles down to hate and discontent in the long wrong.

I’m not sure how much anger management someone needs to go through in order to be allowed to coach again but who knows some team that really needs to turn around a program may just seek him out. If that happens you can be sure that someone will be hired to police and observe Rice’s practices and game activities. We haven’t heard the last of the fallout because the School President is also on shaky ground. Stay tuned!

This past week we saw the retiring of Detroit Lion kicker Jason Hanson. Hanson the former Mead Panther and WSU Cougar defied the odds by being the Lions only kicker for 21 years. In that same amount of seasons the Seattle Seahawks had eight kickers some for only a game or two but eight total.

To his credit Hanson was willing to play all of those years for Detroit and not test the free agent market. By doing this he showed an unsurpassed loyalty to a perennial losing club but Hanson did his best to try to kick the team to victory.

After his senior season Hanson, Drew Bledsoe and several other Cougars came to Ritzville at the request of the DARE program to talk with students about staying off drugs and staying in school. That night they played teachers and local coaches in a fun game for the community and to raise money for the DARE program. I’m sure most people knew that Bledsoe at 6’6” would be pretty good at basketball but who would have thought that Hanson was good too.

Jason Hanson was an all-around athlete who lettered at Mead in soccer, football and basketball. The one thing I noticed was just how nice of a guy that Hanson was and is. Apparently WSU had a good recognition as to who should be representing their University with the youngsters and the public.

It’s going to be interesting this year because for the first time in 21 years Jason Hanson and his family will have to figure out where they will be going for Thanksgiving Dinner since he was working on the Detroit Lions home field hoping to get a chance to kick an extra point of field goal.

Hanson has played opposite of some of the greats of the game as well as some from the Lions including Barry Sanders who retired far too soon for the Detroit faithful. Guys like Hanson will be missed because of his dedication to team no matter how their season was progressing. He always went to work to make every kick a winning kick.

As bad as sports can seem to be at times it is guys like Jason Hanson that remind us of all what is good in sports. A better team player would be hard to find.