In the last week Mike Leach, coach of college football program Texas Tech, was fired from the school due to inappropriate rehabilitation methods he forced a student athlete to participate in following a mild concussion the player had suffered earlier in the week in practice. Apparently Leach forced the receiver to sit in an equipment shed and on another occasion in an electric closet that was adjacent to the squad’s practice field. Assistant coaches on the staff were responsible for monitoring the injured player and they are being accused of not allowing the young man to sit down or rest during the recovery period.
Now I will not completely slam Leach, who was fired earlier in the week for the strange decision, but it appears to be a case of a coach overreacting to a player that was getting under his skin. Leach claimed that the athlete was stored in the equipment shed because the doctor expressed the athlete’s need for a damp, dimly lit place to rest. Well I am sure the doctor never said it would be good to force him to stand in an equipment shed against his will, but regardless of the facts the act seems like it was the idea of a madman. Then again Leach is well known for dressing up skeletons in his school office with pirate costumes (obvious proof of a madman).
But the coaching move can only be topped by one other man who was also clearly insane. Rodney Dangerfield’s character Chester Lee, from one of the greatest soccer films of alltime Ladybugs, once forced his stepson to cross-dress in order to play for his girl’s soccer team simply because he wanted to win the league championship in order to impress his boss.
Dangerfield’s coaching move was not only immoral, greedy, and cunning, but it also made me realize that there are not many good movies made about soccer.
