Sunday Afternoons in the Fall

Anyone that knows me is aware that I look forward to Sundays in fall and early winter to sit down and watch some NFL football. Since the Redzone TV channel was invented, making it possible to watch parts of all games being played without any effort, I have found myself mesmerized at times. Right about now, I am thinking of ways to fill my Sundays with alternate activities this fall as I really doubt a full NFL season is likely due to this ridiculous lockout. At a time when so many people are unemployed, underemployed, or simply struggling in this horrible economy, how dare the owners AND players be as greedy as they appear to be.

Perhaps a plan would be to lower ticket prices, reduce the cost of parking and food (perhaps allow patrons to bring in their own affordable food), reduce salaries to realistic numbers and basically downsize the whole product. If players were paid less I suppose ticket prices could drop too so how about showing some respect to the vast majority who cannot afford to attend an NFL game? As it stands now, games will not be paid and the employees who work stadium events will be laid off', food vendors will lose a ton of money when they don't have games to send their products too, nearby hotels and restaurants will suffer, etc.

Now the NBA (which I tuned out years ago) has followed suit. In the past, after a work stoppage, fans eventually flocked back like nothing ever happened. This time could be different as people tend to soul search a bit more when things are not going so great for them.

Random Thoughts

As I sit here past midnight, unable to sleep, my thoughts turn to some of the random matter keeping my brain fired up way beyond bedtime. My first gem is who in the world would list as their resume objective : Emperor of the universe, master of cheese? Second, the Governor of NJ thinks it is a good idea to house fledgling charter schools (rent free I might add) inside already struggling public schools in the city of Newark. Third, how can the U.S. government not find a way to curb fuel costs before it contributes to a resurgence of the recession and causes more unemployment? Fourth, who among us hard working citizens will be willing to shell out huge dollars to support the greedy players and owners of the NFL in the future? As an aside, I feel terrible about all the staffers of the various teams who are being laid off. Fifth and finally (I think), I wonder how the AT+T purchase of T-Mobile could possibly be allowed considerring the ultimate impact on consumer costs and job losses that it will create.


Oops! One more thought to share: Imagine all the jobs that would open up in sales and marketing if cable television companies were allowed to compete within a territory rather than only fighting with satellite services!

ETC.

~ Why are governors across the U.S. beating up on education? Pennsylvania is actually thinking about reducing funding to it's 18 public universities by 50%. I believe it is time for the Supreme Court to get involved and do some investigative work.

~ Japan is certainly in a very difficult situation at the moment but they have some of the best engineers in the world living in their nation so I expect a thorough and efficient recovery.

~ On a related note, P.E.'s in our country should see an upturn in consulting work as every inch of our infrastructure will likely be closely inspected in the immediate future.

~ The economy is still a gigantic roller coaster and I think employment statistics will reflect this ride for at least a few more months.

~ Proprietary education is getting some negative treatment by the media once again. Please investigate your options with an open mind but do not believe every news article you read.

~ I am making alternate plans for Sunday afternoons this fall even if the NFL's players and owners reach an agreement as I am furious at their willingness to ignore our awful economy.

Marching Right Along?????

February showed a little positive energy until the last week or so and splat, we are back into doldrums again. Could it simply be that our economy is still struggling to recover even though certain politicians and media types are calling this period post-recession? Perhaps the unrest in the oil producing countries which has created absurd fuel prices here is at fault (President Obama, time to start pumping some of our huge reserves into the system). Do you think the rather unorthodox governors in states like Wisconsin and NJ are actually stunting the economy? Maybe the impending lockout of players by NFL ownership is at fault. The whole Madoff mess obviously has not been forgotten either.

Whatever the cause is, I would really like to see some level of stability in our employment market and the economy overall. Feel free to share your thoughts at any time!

Public Perception

After watching too much football of late, I am deviating from the norm today to look at how the public perceives people through some personal observations dealing with college football coaches.

Urban Meyer has been highly successful where he has coached and I think the University of Florida would have been happy to keep him around for many decades. Last season he had some health issues and almost stepped down. This season, he found himself tired and missing the time he should be spending with his wife and 3 children so he resigned. Rumors have him doing some part-time work for ESPN but nothing at anywhere near the magnitude of a D-1 football program. He put his family and health ahead of his ego and preserved his future if he ever wants to return.

Dave Wannstadt was a fiery NFL coach who came back to his roots to coach at the University of Pittsburgh. While there, he forced several touted recruits (Joe Flacco-now an NFL QB for one) out to make room for his style of athlete. Most of his work backfired and now he is publicly stating he is angry at Pitt for forcing him to resign.

Pitt's new hire, Mike Hayward, came with only 2 unimpressive years as a head coach at a smaller school but with lots of talk about improving the discipline, GPA's, and dress codes of his players. Less than 3 weeks after being hired, he spent a night in jail before posting bail on a felony charge of domestic aggravated assault. Pitt fired him a few hours later.

George O'Leary was hired several years back to revive Notre Dame's slumping football program after some successful years in the Big 12. He was fired a few weeks later for falsifying his resume and has struggled to regain respect in the coaching world taking low paying assistant coaching jobs before making his way to the University of Central Florida.

Finally, there is Joe Paterno who just completed his 45Th season as head coach at Penn State, 60Th overall at PSU. 'Joepa' has never changed one thing about his approach to coaching, always putting integrity of himself, his staff, his athletes, his family and the university ahead of winning. Albeit a tough loss yesterday, he has taken his teams to 37 bowl games in 45 years. His graduates have become classically trained musicians, noted surgeons, politicians, corporate presidents, educators, and yes, football coaches and athletic directors. Those who got in trouble got a second chance but he strongly adheres to two strikes and you are out.

These contrasting stories could easily transfer to any profession. As 2011 begins, I urge you to take a good hard look at yourself and make sure you represent the type of person you really want to be!

NFL

I read yesterday that the head of the NFL Players Union was discussing lockout scenarios for the 2011 season. Granted, there are some issues separating players and owners right now but how could either side even think about shutting down one of the few things bringing in revenue in this country right now? The incredible salaries paid to players, the ridiculous money spent on new stadiums, the overwhelming extravagance poured into TV broadcasts (saw this up close last week) all seem out of place in our current environment. My feeling is that any sort of shutdown by the NFL, which will lead to layoffs of support personnel and lost revenue for a myriad of industries, will result in a dramatically smaller and much less dynamic league if and when it returns.