Let me start off by saying I am a liar, I lied.
During your last job change where you may have been trying to negotiate a package or settle some legal issues or even hold out and play a little cat-and-mouse and try to get more money, didn't you hate it when the media was all up in your grill demanding to know what was going on?
I remember my last job. I am an engineer. The time had come for me to leave my job of four years and move on to another one. I was purposely not wanting my current, at the time, employer to know what I was doing. For one, it is my business if I decide to take a better paying job or even a job I like more, and no one gets to decide when I will do that or if they will allow me to do that.
Now, I realize that sanctimonious fans of other teams, beat reporters for newspapers, and bobble head dolls who yap into the camera at ESPN have a moral superiority over regular folk. They have an inherent right to know, or even determine, if a grown man will take a job or not.
They also have a right to know when it will happen and why it will happen, and that way they can determine if they will allow it or not.
Let me give you a reason for why I lied.
As I almost had my deal done and had just about secured a better job, I was going to give my notice and work out the last week and a half. Well, as I sat on the dock of the company I was employed at eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, up swarmed 19 news vans with lights flashing and people piling out with microphones in hand.
I almost choked. I asked them what the hell was going on, what is happening? They starting shoving microphones in my face, pushing me sideways and denting my lunch bucket. They were screaming at me and demanding to know if it was true that I was in talks with the engineering company on the other side of town.
I didn't know what to say, it happened so quick. Then I started to feel angry because I was hungry, for one, and secondly they didn't have any right to make any decisions for me concerning my job. They had the nerve to be very rude to me, asking why in the hell I would even want another job, was I a money whore, didn't I care about the job I already had, who did I think I was, etc...
That really ticked me off so I started screwing with them, just to get them going. I called them morons and said that I wasn't even thinking about taking another job, I loved my current job, leave me alone, let me eat.
They left after about an hour of just watching me eat. I had quit talking to them and just put my head down and tried to finish my lunch.
Guess what? All of them came back the very next day, and the day after that, and so on, and kept asking me the exact same questions again and again and again and again. I got an ulcer because I was trying to eat my food too fast just so I could run back inside and hide from them.
I just kept lying to them, and it was fun after a bit. Here were these arrogant people demanding to have a say in my future, demanding to be a part of one of my life decisions, demanding to know if I had, in fact, decided to take that other engineering job or not.
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5 months ago
So, did you take the new engineering job?
from 5 months ago
Yes, but the reporters still lurk outside in the parking lot trying to badger me about the decision.
5 months ago
Interesting. I have always maintained that when you take a job in the public spotlight, you are subject to scrutiny. You also are usually compensated for those inconveniences.
As a member of the press, I'm not one of those pushy media types. But it has its downfalls...I have missed some good quotes when I'm not aggressive enough with my voice recorder. I learned my lesson--either tread water fast, or get eaten by the sharks.
This year I'm wearing steel-toed boots. Nobody is pushing my around...but I'll still be nice. I swear!
PS...next time, order pizza for the press. We love free food and will probably fight over that while you escape from us!
hugs!
5 months ago
LOL. Thanks for the advice about the pizza, Lisa. It is good to hear you are not one of those pushy media types. Even though you say you are changing your ways, you still are determined to remain nice, that is wonderful.
I suppose I wrote this article to attempt to place normal persons in a state of mind where maybe they could understand what coaches sometimes go through. Even though coaches are paid large sums of money and seem to live extraordinary lives, they are still human.
It would appear that lines are crossed every year that used to not be crossed by reporters. The mutual respect between coaches and the hosts that feed on them and make a living off of them isn't as strong as it used to be.
Using Coach Saban as an example, it was overdone.
Very few coaches, if any, have ever held one job and one job only. In fact, the most successful ones have had 4-5-6 jobs, some even more. He certainly wasn't the first one to "lie" when asked about his job opportunities when hounded night and day for weeks/months on end.
Unfortunately, it would seem that a lot of the national outrage was not for simply leaving a job, but for leaving a job for Alabama. I fear that many newscasters, reporters, writers, etc... allowed their Archie Bunkeresque prejudices about the state of Alabama cloud their viewpoints. If it wasn't a witch-hunt, it was the closest thing modern day America has seen to a witch-hunt in about 300 years.
I wonder if any of them look back now and feel any remorse over how they behaved or are they so engulfed in self-righteous sanctimony and smugness that they are oblivious to how they seemed to rational people?
4 months ago
I can't argue with that. The worst ones are the ones who ask, "How did you feel when you found out your kid was run over?" I don't get that at all, not only because I am a parent, but because it ignores all levels of decency that are part of being a human being.
One of my fave parts of Die Hard was when John McLain's wife decks that obnoxious reporter. I never get tired of seeing that scene!
As far as as Saban, well, he at least had his is dotted and his ts crossed. (I can't say the same about Rich Rod, or maybe Michigan should take a look at hiring coaches w/o looking at their existing contract?)
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