Every professional sport in the United States, to include the pseudo-professional ranks of big time college sports, goes through a coaching purge. From the mid-point of a given season through the end of the post-season, a bloodbath of firings and forced resignations envelopes the profession of coaching. Behind the scenes, millions of parents with children on pee wee and high school teams are currently demanding the very same pound of flesh from the volunteers (or near-volunteers given what high school coaches make) who guide the kids. In 21st Century America, the notion of fault has become all-consuming; the line between genius and stupidity is rarely more broad than the impact of a bad bounce.
This is not an article begging for sympathy and compassion in relation to professional coaches with massive contracts. The price of failure at that level should be termination; but when? How long should it take for a pro coach to establish his personnel and philosophy? How long should it take for a player to grow and mature into his profession? The fortunes of many coaches are decided by the shallow learning curves of their young players, leading me to wonder how many of us would like our decisions and work habits when we were 20-something to be fodder for national news. In short, this is an article about perspective, timing, and the nature of success.