Mark McGwire, Lane Kiffin and Chicago's "Search" For New Coaches
Here's my take on this morning's (and yesterday's) headlines:
- Mark McGwire finally came clean and admitted he used steroids and HGH throughout his career. With McGwire returning to baseball as the St. Louis Cardinals hitting coach, it was only a matter of time before he would have had to address the steroids issue publicly and apparently he felt it was in the best interest of his career (both past and future) to admit his wrongdoings now. This news should be in no way surprising to anyone; it was clear McGwire, like most players during that era, was using some sort of performance enhancer. And for what it's worth, I appreciate players coming clean when it comes to this issue. McGwire joins the likes of Jason Giambi, Andy Pettite and Alex Rodriguez, all players who admitted using steroids and have since been forgiven. Sure their supposed reasons for taking illegal substances can be questioned but the fact they owned up to their mistakes, although mostly long overdue, matters to me. I have little respect for guys who act like positive steroid tests or strong accusations carry no weight (I'm talking to you, Roger Clemens and Sammy Sosa). I do, however, have two issues with the McGwire situation. First, how can "Big Mac" honestly say these substances did not help him hit more home runs? While steroids do not help improve hand-eye coordination, they certainly help build muscle and, stay with me, more muscle = more power = more home runs. Secondly, I am sick of this stupid steroid dance we are all performing. It feels like every three months or so we are talking about a new "superstar" testing positive. Remember, there are still another 100 or so names on "the list" that will be leaked out over time. Either there needs to be a big "coming clean" event (televised on ESPN of course) where hundreds and hundreds of players are in a big banquet hall and take turns admitting their steroid use or there needs to be a weekly show where one or two names are revealed. That way there will be an end date in sight - at our current pace, steroids users who played in 2001 will be talking about their use in 2037. Either way would be better than our current system. But for now, I'm glad McGwire did what he did and hopefully more players will follow suit soon.
- Lane Kiffin left his job at Tennessee after only one season to take the head coaching position at USC. I understand why he made this move: although Tennessee is a top program, few (if any) universities are as elite in the college football world as USC. Kiffin was also an assistant at USC so familiarity and comfort had to be a factor. That being said, Kiffin appears to be a guy who does not know what he wants and is completely selfish in his actions. Just look at his past few years: hired as Oakland Raiders head coach in 2007, leaves after one season in 2008 to join Tennessee only to leave one year later for Southern California. It's hard to blame Kiffin for fleeing Oakland - that place is a black hole. But to dump Tennessee, and more importantly, all the players he recruited through trust and respect after one season is ridiculous. Tennessee will be better off without Kiffin because a guy like him is easy to see through and will struggle to build a program. But looking ahead, how does USC expect their current players to trust Kiffin? Players in the locker room, particularly the younger ones, will be skeptical of Kiffin's true intentions and year one may be very rough. Sure, top recruits will still go to USC but they are more likely to do so because of the program as opposed to the coach. That to me sounds like a recipe for disaster.
- The Chicago Bears are still looking for offensive and defensive coordinators. Ten days ago general manager Jerry Angelo assured fans they would have no trouble getting top coaches because Chicago is a great destination. News flash: right now, it's not. The reason is simple: Lovie Smith is on the super-hot-seat so any coach who joins the team may be looking for a new job come 2011, maybe sooner. Add in the fact that Lovie Smith has a history of throwing his coaches under the bus and the Bears may not be able to get anyone with any sort of competency to take these jobs. So I offer a solution: hire two more "yes" men to "coordinate" these units, muddle through another 7-9 season and clean house in January of 2011 to make room for Bill Cowher. Unfortunately, something tells me the Bears will find a way to screw this up, just like every first round draft pick and free agent signing.
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