Monday, January 08, 2007

Just Win, Baby

It's the time of the year for football coaches to sit down, move over, change jobs, or retire. Here in Oakland, Art Shell is being relieved of his duties after winning just two games this season. The team's owner, Al Davis, is looking to hire their fifth head coach in the past eight years. After compiling the worst record in professional football, who could blame him?
Or maybe, just maybe, the problem isn't the coach. Maybe the problem is higher up. The fans continue to show up and buy the black and silver tchotchkes. The players keep showing up for games. But the grumbling is getting loud enough to hear, even in the cheap seats.
President Pinhead is doing some shuffling too, installing two new commanders for "The Troubles" in Iraq, substituting them for generals who had qualms about a fresh buildup of U.S. troops in the war zone. This occurs as a Democratic controlled congress heads back to work, with an eye toward making things more difficult for the carte blanche changes that have taken place for the past few years. More money, more troops, more casualties, more excuses. We keep buying the yellow ribbons, the troops keep doing their job, we all watch the human cost continue to mount. Pinhead is firing the coach when the game plan doesn't seem to be in doubt, more like the idea of playing the game at all.
Perhaps Al Davis could take a page from Pinhead's book. Maybe if the Raiders were allowed to play with a few more men on the field, it wouldn't matter who the coach was.

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