dan hawkins rocks

Add another item to the list of great sports rants of all time. In response to an anonymous letter from a parent (more on that in a bit), Hawkins snapped and delivered what can only be called a classic rant. It's not on the level of the thundering Bobby Knight's Purdue speech, but I'd say it's up there with the unforgettable outbursts from Jim Mora and Herm Edwards.

And, as both Mora and Edwards were, Hawkins is right. He's trying to turn around a Division I football program in a tough conference, and his guys are whining about how much time off they get in the summer? Wow. You're getting a free ride from the school and a chance to play the game you love at a big-time level, and you probably don't even have to show up to classes because you've got five tutors making sure you pass exams you don't even know about, and you're moaning about not getting that third week off to begin the summer. Freakin' pathetic. Well, fellas, I hate to break it to you, but if you don't land a pro football career then you'll be lucky to get three weeks off in a year. And with your work ethic, you'd better get used to surviving in the real world because you have less than a snowball's chance in hell of getting to the NFL.

Yeah, and about that parent's letter. Just thinking about that ticks me off and I'm not even remotely close to the situation. I don't know if the kid put his parent up to it or not, but if he did then that would make them both that much more pathetic, the kid for getting someone else to do his dirty work and the parent for letting an obviously immature kid call the shots. I'll assume it was the parent acting out of "concern". How the heck can that jerk not avoid meddling in something that is very clearly not his/her business and not see that such meddling is only going to bring about huge trouble? Amazing...wait, this is 21st century America so such behavior is no longer extraordinary. What a fool. I'll say straight out -- and I can say it because I know y'all read this -- that if either of my parents jumped in the middle of my life and did something that incredibly stupid and disrespectful they would have not heard from me for a long, long time. Thankfully that never happened. To that extent. That I'm aware of.

After hearing that, Dan Hawkins is a guy I'd play for if given the chance. He's there to mold players into winners, not coach down to their level. Isn't the point of a coach to raise the level of his players, both as athletes and as adults? Of course. If not then why the heck is he coaching? And I think much more highly of Hawkins for going off like that. Now I can't say I'd have liked it so much when I was fresh out of high school, and given my inability to tolerate NROTC I most certainly wouldn't have, but that's another difference age makes I guess. And that's where mentors like coaches -- real coaches like Dan Hawkins -- fill the gap.