Coaches and the meaning of competition

By Tim Walmer

On the soap box. May I vent for a moment? I love sports, but every now and then I get the feeling things are a little out of whack.

For example, with state and federal budget crises fresh in everyone’s mind, this little item caught my eye: The University of Michigan is dropping a cool $40 million on new video boards for their football stadium. Forty … million … dollars – for new scoreboards. Given their team’s woes, fans hope they come with built-in Wolverine highlights.

Then there is a recent quote by Nebraska football coach Bo Pelini that got my middle-class blood boiling. I must say, one of my biggest pet peeves is when coaches answer criticism with blanket statements that fans and media “just don’t understand.”

In responding to a reporter’s question about his hyper-intense sideline persona, including the frequent sputtering, red-faced – and sometimes physical – dressing down of players and referees, Pelini said, “There isn’t a bad perception of Bo Pelini out there, I don’t believe. People know who I am, what I represent. When you deal with this politically correct society we live in today, where people blow things out of proportion, the people who are involved in athletics don’t get caught up in all that. That’s more for the media and people who have never competed a day in their lives."

That last phrase – “people who have never competed a day in their lives” – got my goat. To whom is Pelini referring?

Is he talking about the men and women who struggle every day to provide for their families in a down economy? Is he speaking of the millions of people who manage to perform their jobs without planting an index finger in the chest of the HR lady when they find out their benefits have been cut, or going berserk on their boss when he asks them to work a little late?

Or maybe he’s referring to the low-paid reporter who was merely doing his job when he asked Pelini – he of the $2.1 million salary – if his behavior was befitting Nebraska’s highest-paid public employee.

I love sports. But I hate it when people in sports overestimate their own importance. Bo, you’re the one coaching a game. Save yourself an aneurysm. The rest of us, out here in the real world, we’re the ones competing. Here’s to enjoying sports – and keeping them in perspective.

Second season. The NBA playoffs are upon us, and the Nuggets are in the party for the eighth straight season. Their finish as the Western Conference’s fifth seed means a first-round series with up-and-coming Oklahoma City. Denver’s late-season losses to OKC notwithstanding, this is as excited as Mile High hoops fans have been for the postseason in a while, and for good reason. The Nuggets are playing great team basketball and won some big road games down the stretch. Anyone who’s watched them lately wouldn’t be surprised if they made a playoff run. Can they beat the Spurs or Lakers if it comes to that? Probably not, but a first-round series win isn’t too much to ask of this loose, hustling bunch.

E-mail us your thoughts at twalmer@denverpost.com, and we may include them in a future column.