11/21/24
January 06, 2015
SportsFilter: The Tuesday Huddle:
A place to discuss the sports stories that aren't making news, share links that aren't quite front-page material, and diagram plays on your hand. Remember to count to five Mississippi before commenting in anger.
Toronto Maple Leafs fire Randy Carlyle
posted by tommybiden at 01:26 PM on January 06, 2015
Leafs are a mess. Management has given big money and long term contracts to players of questionable character and commitment. Impossible to fix the situation by trade as there are no takers for floaters with long term high dollar contracts.
Doesn't sound like an ideal situation for any coach.
posted by cixelsyd at 03:19 PM on January 06, 2015
Leafs are a mess.
Eh, that's a bit of an overstatement.
When they had that 9-out-of-10 run back in November, nobody was saying they were a train wreck.
They have a winning record (21 wins vs 19 losses), currently hold a playoff spot, and they have some very talented players (Kessel, JVR, Bernier), some good young players (Kadri, Reilly, Gardiner), and decent role players. You can always teach someone to play defense (or use a scheme to enhance it), and it's real hard to score goals, but Toronto is 2nd in the league in putting the biscuit in the basket.
This is exactly the kind of team that could use a coaching change, much like St. Louis in 2011-12 before Hitchcock took over.
posted by grum@work at 04:44 PM on January 06, 2015
At a bowl game, the coach of Louisiana-Lafayette had a state trooper as his sideline security detail.
If you listed the Americans whose lives are so dangerous they need a government-provided security detail, I can't imagine a Sun Belt coach would be in the top million.
Can anyone think of an incident that prompted most college football coaches to get permanent sideline security? If fans rush the field after a game, a coach has dozens of players who would come to his aid.
posted by rcade at 05:46 PM on January 06, 2015
Jon Jones tests positive for cocaine, enters rehab facility.
posted by Bonkers at 07:46 PM on January 06, 2015
Can anyone think of an incident that prompted most college football coaches to get permanent sideline security?
Given the number of assaults by coaches, I'd say that the trooper is more likely there to protect everyone else.
But basically, it's a double perk. The coach gets to feel important, and some trooper gets to go to games. I'm not sure who pays for actual statie types (a friend of a friend was Hoke's sideline guy, but he was UM police), but I sure as hell hope it's the school.
posted by Etrigan at 08:09 PM on January 06, 2015
Seriously: Steph Curry.