Mike Vrabel's Racial Litmus Test
- Fred
- 5 hours ago
- 3 min read
This is from our article: Stephan A Smith is Right in 2022:
"Earlier in the week, Celtics Coach Ime Udoka was suspended for a year for having an extra-marital affair with a Celtics employee. AND? That was my initial reaction: I'm not saying Udoka shouldn't face repercussions. What I'm saying is that you fine him and keep matters in-house, or you just outright fire him. Suspending a coach for a year and then embarrassing him seems really petty.
Then I saw Stephen A. Smith on ESPN:
“Because I got news for you, America. There’s plenty of white folks in professional sports that’s doing their thing. And I say that not complimentarily, I don’t see the information out about them. Why we talking about this now?”
Yesterday, New England Patriots coach Mike Vrabel was caught red-handed with a female writer from the New York Times. Dianna Russini was suspended almost immediately. Coach Vrabel?
On January 21, 2007, the New England Patriots lost the AFC Championship Game to the Indianapolis Colts, 38-34. It was the Patriots' 4th AFC Championship in 6 years.
About a month later, the New York Post ran with the headline: COACH SUGAR DADDY. Apparently, Patriots coach Bill Belichick had a mistress and was paying her a substantial amount of money to keep her on the side.
Before the Post story, Belichick had grumbled that he worked 100+ hours a week and sometimes slept in the office. After the story broke, sportswriters rolled their eyes when he complained about spending too much time in his office.
But Belichick's job was never really on the line. He was a great coach, winning a lot of games, in his prime. Being fired for having extramarital affairs seemed limited to bad coaches or new coaches with no track record.
From Rick Pitino to Bobby Petrino, affairs generate headlines at ESPN, but don't necessarily lead to terminations. There are lots of variables to be considered, like won-loss record, what part of the country you represent, or whether you have the full support of your owner, front office, or university.
Just a year ago, the coach at the University of Michigan, Sherrone Moore, was terminated for having a very highly publicized extramarital affair. But the timeline of what the Athletic Director knew, and when, was a bit fuzzy as it appeared that Moore may have kept his job if he had beaten Ohio State and vaulted the Wolverines into the college football playoffs....
But he didn't.
And the words of Stephan A. Smith echoed in my head.
But you know what, I don't know every college or pro coach in the country, so I googled the term:
"What college coach lost a lot of games but was a good citizen?"
AI responded: "Watson Brown holds the record for the most college football coaching losses in NCAA history (136-211-1). Despite his record-setting losses, he was widely regarded as a solid coach and honorable man, managing difficult, rebuilding programs at various universities including Cincinnati, Vanderbilt, UAB, and Tennessee Tech."
WHO?
Do I expect Mike Vrabel to be fired?
Oh, no.
No. No. No.
Why am I so confident that Robert Kraft will be lenient and let Vrabel keep his job?
Bill Belichick got his happy ending too. He is currently dating a young lady 49 years his junior as coach of the University of North Carolina.
And he's smiling more in the last year than at any time I had seen him in my entire life.