In case you did not hear, noted scholar, orator, and football genius Nick Saban has accepted the Head Coaching Position at the University of Alabama.
This followed the typical course of completely ridiculous events: A school that is in a bad spot and needs a big-name solution quickly is throwing a hysterical sum of money ($32 Mil) at a coach that loves being wanted (think Larry Brown), is extremely overvalued thanks to his incessant insistence of his own importance, and ultimately proves once again he stands for nothing. Nick Saban is another coach that ironically is coming back to the "college game" - a place where he can "affect young people", "play a team-first style of game", and really "plant his roots" in a college town because his "heart loves this kind of lifestyle."
What a total joke. For once, I actually agree with someone who writes for ESPN. (However, realize that someone at ESPN only feels this way because they were being "disrespected", not because they actually stand for much of anything themselves.)
Before I continue about this, however, I want to show you a great video.
Okay, where to begin? First, I feel horrible for the children in this video. This is child abuse. Secondly, in case you can't figure out what this is, this is a home video of someone who actually drove out to the longest strip of pavement they could find in Tuscaloosa, AL (a.k.a. their regional airport) and waited until Nick Saban's plane landed. They then cheered the landing of the plane, and proceeded to waste valuable energy on stroking Nick Saban's inflated ego even more, by making him feel like a great guy.
Forget football for a second. There's probably over 100 people in this video. Possibly much more. They cheered for Saban's plane landing. These people are all "touched", I think. Of course, then I realized that in Tuscaloosa, behavior like this isn't even considered weird. I would bet 2000 people in Alabama went home that night cursing the fact that they couldn't make this landmark event. Who would really want to live in a place where they could be surrounded by these morons?
Oh wait. I know who. Someone who would love to be worshipped by stupid people.
Which takes me back to Saban. Which goes along with the Forde article that I linked to. Which goes along with my feelings on the state of sports and business, laws of contract and everything that probably goes along with it. I can't take this anymore. I hate how people can just stop honoring contracts they sign. If you are performing your duties as an employee, your employer cannot terminate your contract (unless you signed something that allows that, you dumbass). This is the whole idea of a contract: you are making an agreement with another party, you are exchanging services, and the contract is the binding element that allows both parties to be assured that they will not be violated in said agreement, because doing so would result in punitive action. However, people just seem to just be able to leave their end of the contract whenever they want, and there is nothing that can be done about it!
Coaches leave in the middle of a contract.
Players stop performing (holdouts) until they "get a better contract".
But it doesn't stop there. The same crap happens in the board room, director's office, sometimes even the sales floor. And it isn't just the fault of the employees - Unions strike, but employers also lockout, infringe, and (in sports at least) try to make up "diminishing value" clauses in contracts, etc.
It's all a sad, pathetic farce. You know what? I am so tired of sports setting this example. Coaches and players getting signed to contracts that are too long for either party's interests, just to stroke the ego of the player/coach or make them feel they are being compensated for his/her "true value". Sure, you want to be paid fairly, and an employer doesn't want to waste money paying someone who doesn't deserve it. But hey, tough. It should be that if you sign a contract, that it is actually binding. If you are paid to play professional baseball for $350,000 a year, and you signed a contract to be paid that for 3 more years, you should be paid that, period - no matter how good you get. Even if you "should" be getting $5 million in two years. You signed the contract. Wait until it ends, and then only sign something that is to your liking. And teams/organizations: if you tender an offer of 5 years to a player that will probably only be good for 3, I hope the player never lets you buy out of that thing. I also think that "diminishing returns" should be illegal. If a business violates the terms of its contract, it should be held legally responsible to exceed the terms of the contract sevenfold. If a player/employee tries to strong-arm his/her way to a better deal, while under contract, they should have to pay a penalty and go back to work under the terms of their agreement. You shouldn't be allowed to hold out, because it should be illegal for any other team within a professional league/identical profession to hire a player/coach who has violated the terms of his/her contract.
But, no. Unions negotiate "salary arbitration" as a part of "collective bargaining agreements". Ownership negotiates "franchise player" rules, initial contract length requirements and other ways to legally retain the services of an employee without just compensation. Now, you can't quite relate the sports world to the rest of the real world (because of the concept of trading), but other than that, there's not a big difference.
And what do we see? A bunch of people looking for workers, but publicly deny pursuing any (Check every time there is a free-agency/coaching vacancy issue with a team in sports, the General Manager/Pres. never will admit to talking to anyone about filling the position. So strange!) - many people looking for better contracts, but never admitting to it (See Saban, Brown, Francione, Butch Davis, Dennis Erickson, Gary Barnett, Phil Jackson, etc. etc. etc. - all of which were "not going to be coaching" at the places they ended up coaching at), ownership ponying up huge sums of money and time to appease fans, only to wish they hadn't done so later (Think Frank Thomas' "diminishing returns" stipulation, Manny Ramirez being pedalled constantly, etc.) and players deciding to go back on their word because they feel slighted (think T.O., T.O., T.O., oh wait, I can't think of another example as big as that douchebag's).
Oh well, legally I know nothing will change to end this insanity. Until then, all we can do is know this:
People who want out of their contracts do not value their own word. They should not be trusted to come through, and lack integrity and commitment. No matter what they say, nothing is more important to them than themselves. Words mean nothing to them, and you can only judge them on their actions. There are very real, very serious reasons why contracts can be terminated: Sickness, family tragedy, crime, business failure, a call to duty, or even unthinkable circumstances like death. Every person who has to leave a duty they agreed to perform for one of these various reasons should feel insulted every time some slime ball decides to blow smoke up everyone's collective ass when he opens his mouth, then goes ahead and does whatever he wants to do because the law is forgiving enough to allow it - and cross-eyed half-wits from Alabama and boo-ya's from Bristol are "touched" enough to celebrate it.
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