Robservations: ‘Daddy-Ball’ a problem on every level
In an Associated Press story which hit the wire Thursday, Archie Manning has allegedly approached the San Diego Chargers and asked them not to select his son Eli with the No. 1 pick in this weekend’s NFL Draft.
According to the story, the Chargers’ GM got a call from Eli’s agent, who said Eli’s daddy wished they wouldn’t take his son at No. 1.
Archie, according to the agent, thinks the New York Giants “would be a better fit” for the younger Manning.
I guess, when you’re projected as the No. 1 pick in the NFL Draft, you might just be good enough for your daddy to decide which team you should play for. But if you’re really that good, does it matter who you play for?
If I recall, the Colts weren’t exactly kicking the stuffing out of the rest of the league when they signed Eli’s brother. And I wouldn’t think of the Indianapolis market as the end-all, be-all of high-dollar endorsement opportunities.
But Peyton, as much as it pains me to say it, earned his keep — and his multi-million dollar contract. And he earned it without daddy’s help, and without any whining about which team he wanted to play for and which squads he wished wouldn’t take him.
The whole situation smells, if you ask this columnist. It smells fishy, it smells like egos trying to influence a team away from doing what’s in its best interest.
But it smells familiar, too.
You see apparently, even at a sport’s highest level, “Daddy-Ball” still reigns.
I don’t know about you, good reader, but I’m sick to death with hearing tales of confrontations between coaches and parents. And just when you thought you’d heard the last story, here comes another one to just burn you up even more.
In the last couple of weeks alone, every time we turn around at your local sports desk, someone else is hitting the door with a story which usually begins, “you wouldn’t believe what happened at the ____ game today.”
The storyteller goes on to describe some incident where a player’s parent or parents get in the coach’s face, telling that coach how he or she should be doing his or her job.
And when I think about how bad those stories are, I shudder as I realize how many other incidents like this are out there that no one ever hears about, on every level from college and pro to coach-pitch.
What happened to the good old days, when a coach coached, a parent parented and a player played? What happened to the days when rules and lineups were set, and they weren’t questioned?
Ask any coach who’s been out of the game for 10 years or so, and I’ll bet they’ll all agree they couldn’t handle the way kids — and parents — act these days. And still we wonder why programs struggle to meet their past levels of success.
If you look at it long enough, you’ll find often times the answer isn’t on the field. It’s in the stands.
And before you ask, don’t bother inquiring about who these parents are. That’s not important.
The real question is, who do they think they are?