How’s everyone’s weekend going? Thanks for spending a portion of it with the Six.
A few weeks ago, I wrote a lede column in the Six about youth sports. About how the abundance of choices in the rocket ship exploding youth market is both a blessing and a curse.
Parents, more than ever, must be practical and contentious in decision-making. An infinite supply demands it. Folks on the supply side could do a better job in guiding their eager-to-buy customers down a path best suited for the health and well-being of Jason or Jessica, not for extracting the most dollars from a family over a lifetime. In a perfect world, public and private coaches would all get along, roast marshmallows together under a full moon and develop a virtue-spinning youth sports flywheel for the greater good of humanity.
But we don’t live in that world. There are too many expensive dreams to chase and marketers happy to sell them on that dream.
We also live in a world with unintended consequences for paying for those expensive dreams.
High school sports should always be about participation and experience, with valuable distinctions between winning and losing. Winning opens up opportunities but losing is where kids learn. Sheltering young people from failure cuts them off from critical learning experiences.
Public school administrators are paid very handsomely to steward these learning experiences. But they are the ones often enabling the loudest, dumbest voices in every gym and on every field across America: emotional, unrealistic parents.
An article written by an Ohio sports writer went viral this week. The article lambasted the state of high school sports and how many good coaches are leaving the profession due to dysfunctional conditions created, in large part, by parents and weak-kneed administrators.
The open-letter missed an important dynamic often at the center of these circumstances––race and protected classes––but hit the mark with this point:
I think it is time for school boards to give up power over high school coaches. Stick to doing what is best for the academics of a school and leave the athletic side to the athletic administration. When an Athletic Director is blindsided by the firing of a coach, there is a problem. And when the school board declines to hear from a coach, twice, there is an even bigger problem. And when the school board entertains off-the-wall parents and gives in to their every demand, we have an epidemic because now parents are entitled and believe they should get what they want.
Bingo. The author is making the argument for how parents are gonna parent. All it takes is one or two rotten apples to spoil the good vibes of a season. But administrators can stop them in their tracks with a simple response to pleas that land directly into their email box or voice mails:
My job description does not include coaching basketball. If you are unhappy, talk to the head coach. I’m sure he/she discussed this with you at the parent’s meeting before the season? Thank you and enjoy the rest of your day.
Ignore the vitriolic social media posts. Parents threaten lawsuits all the time but rarely follow through with them. Call their bluff.
When problems arise, it can almost always be traced back to a school board member, a superintendent, a principal, a busybody administrator, taking that phone call, responding to that email and, thus, indulging the parent and sticking their nose where it doesn’t belong. For all the time and effort education bureaucracies spend discussing “processes” and “systems” they tend to ignore them when it comes to unhappy parents.
High school sports will be just fine. There are still plenty of great coaches in the profession with strong support. But the next time there is a story about a coach leaving or “retiring,” be skeptical.
There’s more to the story behind that departure. And it probably isn’t pleasant.
Let’s proceed with the Six.
1. NASCAR Races In Chicago Over July 4th Weekend.
No July 4 weekend plans? What about Taste of Chicago? If heading to Grant Park for the annual event, you’ll instead…be stopped by street closures and parking restrictions well before even reaching the location. And Taste is in September this year. Why? It’s been bumped by NASCAR. Billed “Chicago’s Street Race,” the two- day event (July 1-2) expects to draw “50,000 daily attendees” and “contribute to an estimated $113 million in economic benefit to Chicago,” according to this article from Book Club Chicago. We’ll just have to wait a few more months for our BBQ turkey legs and slices of Eli’s. Or go watch the race and outdoor festival around it, which political shenanigans aside, will probably be pretty cool.
2. Lost Submarine: How Did The Contraption Work?
News directors at our state-sponsored corporate media outlets got a diversion from Trump Indictment coverage this week. Crazy story: a submarine carrying five passengers imploded near a believed Titanic wreckage site. Discovery of the wreckage came days after crew members lost contact with the vessel. The story became a fodder for our culture war currency––the now-deceased owner of the vessel was “woke” and didn’t find white dudes “inspirational” or how the tragedy is poetic justice for men everywhere who take unnecessary risks; sometimes those risks lead to fabulous discoveries and sometimes to untimely deaths. Whatever. Five people lost their lives and that sucks. But I was curious as to how this “vessel” worked. USA Today published a graphic-heavy revealing the ins and outs of the watercraft and how the contraption is powered by a Logitech F710 game controller. A game controller!
3. Have You Been To The Library Lately?
We can add public libraries to what has changed about our modern world—and not for the better. As this piece from The Walrus explains, some libraries have become a magnet for random violence, people with nowhere else to go, and mental health episodes. A public library is no longer mainly about books. It is a welfare state in microcosm, a place where people go to fill in online applications for government assistance, a shared space for work and study, a place to warm up and use the toilet (guilty many times over) without being required to buy anything. To be a librarian is a bit like being a bartender: “Some bars have a quiet clientele. And some are nasty and violent.”
4. Nebraska County Seizes Millions From Passing Through Motorists.
Gobsmacked by this article from a Nebraska television station. Law enforcement of a small county in Nebraska—population of 17,962—has systematically raked in a fortune by pulling over drivers on always busy Interstate 80, finding cash, alleging that the funds were suspicious, compelling drivers to surrender the money under threat of arrest and then keeping the proceeds under asset forfeiture laws. Seward County alone is responsible for a third of all civil forfeiture cases in the state of Nebraska, with 90 cases in the past decade, producing $7.5 million worth of revenue for the county in just five years. That’s quite a haul and no one has successfully challenged in court this seemingly shadowy form of highway justice.
5. Yellowstone Creator Does Whatever He Wants.
Hollywood is in the midst of a writer’s strike with no end in sight. One of the sticking points for writers––other than concerns future shows will be conceived by Chat GPT––is preserving the institution of the “writer’s room.” Television shows are supposed to be collaborative ventures, and everybody wins when there are multiple creative minds at work. One exception to this doctrine is the smash hit series “Yellowstone.” Each episode of the now five seasons-long show is written by one man, Taylor Sheridan. “(He) writes scripts like you or I have a cup of coffee,” says a producer in this long profile of Sheridan from Hollywood Reporter. And yes, “Yellowstone” is coming to an end but Sheridan will not be lying in a hammock sipping high end hooch—a spin off is in the works (with Matthew McConaughey as star) and the business “Yellowstone” will keep Sheridan busy––and very wealthy––for a mighty long time.
6. Musk Challenges Zuckerberg To Steel Cage Match.
The World According To Elon took an amusing turn this week. The culturally ubiquitous Twitter Chairman challenged fellow billionaire tech entrepreneur Mark Zuckerberg to a steel cage match. Maybe Musk sees seven-to-eight figure ad buys for the streamed fight? Zuckerberg seemingly agreed to brawl his rival. While the fight deal details get sorted out, my thoughts turn to famous steel cage matches in history between, you know, professional wrestlers. My pick: Hulk Hogan vs King Kong Bundy from Wrestlemania II. This mid-80’s match was The Hulkster at his convulsing, roided-out peak, inside the magical Blue Steel Cage. A classic.
Thanks for reading everybody and have a great rest of your weekend.
Have a suggestion for The Sunday Six? Send email to jonjkerr@gmail.com.