Two and adieu for Turner Gill

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As we fully get our arms around

the holiday season, let us take a moment to observe the true

season: open season on coaches.

In the college

football ranks, schools waste little time bringing down the curtain

on a coach’s tenure at old “State U.” They too know that the money

from fans and boosters will quickly dry up if the coach is given a

vote of confidence or brought back for another season if he is not

winning. Therefore the falling of the ax takes place not long after

the last helmet is put away. Some go away with a nice package. That

is an indicator that they just wanted him out no matter what the

price and time left on a contract.

That would be

the case of Turner Gill, formerly of Kansas. Gill had done an

outstanding job as a head coach at little-known Buffalo. (Yeah, I

didn’t know they had a football program either let alone Division

l.) After being passed over for several high-profile jobs, the

whisper was because he had a wife who happened to be white, and you

know how some of the good old boys view that.

Let’s fast

forward to the University of Kansas who had just dispatched their

coach and was looking to make a splash in the Big 12. The Jayhawks

decided to take a chance on Gill at the behest of their president

who happened to be an African-American female. Jackpot.

One

problem. Gill did not win. He only won five games in two years

before he was let go on Sunday. I should add that Gill will be paid

for the rest of his contract and that adds up to about $6

million.

Here is my

question. How many times have you heard of a Division l football or

basketball coach getting fired after two seasons if there was no

scandal involved? Answer? NEVER .

So why did one

of less than 10 African Americans who have coached Division l

football get fired?

There is

something about college football that does not allow equal footing

for black coaches. It’s hard for them to get hired and obviously

easier to fire them. It is bad enough that they have to grovel to

get a near mission impossible in the first place as they take jobs

that have already been labeled “no win situation” and yet they are

expected to produce the miracles that their counterparts before

them could not pull off.

There is

something real wrong here and it has more to to do with not winning

enough football games.

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Who

knows these Rams?

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I am reminded

of the song “Who Knows” by the great Jimi Hendrix who would have

been 69 this week. The same can be said about the St. Louis

Rams. Who knows and at this point, who cares.

Let’s start

with who knows first. They have an embattled coach and general

manager who together are staring right down the barrel of a

lager-caliber weapon. The record on the field would indicate that

options may be explored soon.

That brings me

to the man in the middle. Stan Kronke bought the Rams last

season. He has been a minority owner since they arrived. To fire

and hire a coach is just one of many decisions, and he has a lease

issue to address with the city next year – not to mention fielding

calls about possible relocation to Los Angeles and/or

London.

Big decisions

by a big man. A man, I might add, none of us knows after all these

years of being involved with the Rams.

That brings me

to my question. Why is it that we have some in St. Louis who want

to give us the impression that they know what Stan Kronke is

thinking when they do not even know the man or anyone who

does? Kronke is a private man and avoids the media as well as

anyone we have seen.

Kronke has give

one interview in the last year and that was to Bernie Miklasz of

the Post-Dispatch. You can count the other times he has spoken

publicly since he became part of the ownership group on one

hand.

So again, who

knows Stan Kronke? No one.

I do not have

to know Stan Kronke to know he has a big problem with this football

team. Too old, short on talent and hobbled by poor drafts along

with poor coaching decisions would cover page one of his

problems.

This team will

be hard-pressed to get anyone to buy into 2012 being a season they

should invest their time and money into. Then again, who knows what

Stan Kronke will do? NO ONE and leave it at that.

Two and adieu for Turner Gill

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