Sipple: Osborne says society's increasing vitriol impacts coaches

[husker_99]

I am sure Coach Osborne is quite correct. Not only is society, in general, a great deal more disgruntled and angry... but now, with the internet, with other forms of electronic communication available to express that anger... well, no doubt it is much tougher now than before to be any public figure (be it a coach, a politician, an almost anything...)

Any public figure will hear every persons angst towards them (justified or not) since there is no filter between the disgruntled and their keyboards.

20 years ago you may have wondered whether people were down on you and your performance... now, with the electronic social media.. there is no need to wonder... they are and they have said so... repeatedly.

Coach Osborne didn't get taken to the woodshed like Bo seems to, 2 games out of the year. Osborne always had his players ready to play and a game plan. If he did get beat badly it was simply because the other team was better. It wasn't a lack of preparation on his part like Bo. In fact I would be for Bo if all these losses were close like the UCLA game.

 

[Red Stripe]

Osborne almost left for Colorado in the late 70's because the seat was getting warm and he couldn't beat Oklahoma. Revisionist history and folks thinking the good 'ol days were better. I don't buy it.

What I don't appreciate is Bo and Tom constantly coming down on the fans for what ails their football program. The fans are not the problem. Bo's sideline antics, belittling his players, lack of recruiting, buddy hires and poor coaching are the problem. This is yet another smokescreen. Why you people continue to defend Bo is beyond me. The mentality seems to be that Tom can never be questioned for his decisions, and if you do question them you are a bad fan. I refuse to accept mediocrity.

 

[Count 'Bility]

Osborne almost left for Colorado in the late 70's because the seat was getting warm and he couldn't beat Oklahoma. Revisionist history and folks thinking the good 'ol days were better. I don't buy it.

What I don't appreciate is Bo and Tom constantly coming down on the fans for what ails their football program. The fans are not the problem. Bo's sideline antics, belittling his players, lack of recruiting, buddy hires and poor coaching are the problem. This is yet another smokescreen. Why you people continue to defend Bo is beyond me. The mentality seems to be that Tom can never be questioned for his decisions, and if you do question them you are a bad fan. I refuse to accept mediocrity.

When the hell did this happen?

Oh boy, youre one of them arent you?

 

[flatwaterfan]

Tom's a smart man and I think he's right about the money and the internet. Those certainly are contributing factors.

 

[Hedley Lamarr]

Who else is ready for January 1st?!?!?!

 

[Flood]

The internet has certainly changed things.

I work in a small field, an offshoot of TV and radio broadcasting.

My little field has a few hundred actual performers. But we have, seemingly, hundreds of thousands of critics. And they are VERY loud. They can recite every error, count every lapse, and add up every miscue. And they do. There are websites and forums devoted to the worst (and to be fair, the best) of what we do on a daily basis. It is enough to drive me crazy. I built a career on one side of this fence, with only myself to critique my work, but now have to live in a world where people I have never met can blast me straight to hell with no thought at all.

I feel for Bo. And I think Tom is close in his thoughts, but he has no clue just how much the microscope burns in the last decade or so. In Tom's era, there was only the newspaper and maybe the sports report on local TV. It is so different now.

I was, once, the man behind the curtain in my field, no one knew my name, much less my city or address.

The internet changed it all. Since the internet, I have occasionally, no kidding, received hate mail over my supposed lack of performance in certain jobs.

Some of you may be curious, so I will tell you. I am a voiceover artist. I record movie trailers, radio promos, and network TV spots. And, believe me, there are fans out there who will GUT me if they are not happy with how I intoned their favorite movie franchise or TV series.

I cannot even IMAGINE what it must seem to Bo. I am no one, no one, at all, and people I never met castigate me over a single syllable. To be a coach at NU, especially the HEAD coach . . . I cannot imagine.

Not sure I would take a job like that, regardless of how many millions they could toss at me.

Best wishes to you all, and be careful what you wish for.

Flood

 

[Landlord]

I am sure Coach Osborne is quite correct. Not only is society, in general, a great deal more disgruntled and angry... but now, with the internet, with other forms of electronic communication available to express that anger... well, no doubt it is much tougher now than before to be any public figure (be it a coach, a politician, an almost anything...)

Any public figure will hear every persons angst towards them (justified or not) since there is no filter between the disgruntled and their keyboards.

20 years ago you may have wondered whether people were down on you and your performance... now, with the electronic social media.. there is no need to wonder... they are and they have said so... repeatedly.

Coach Osborne didn't get taken to the woodshed like Bo seems to, 2 games out of the year. Osborne always had his players ready to play and a game plan. If he did get beat badly it was simply because the other team was better. It wasn't a lack of preparation on his part like Bo. In fact I would be for Bo if all these losses were close like the UCLA game.

He did, actually, but even if he didn't, wow, Bo Pelini isn't as good as Tom Osborne, the greatest coach in college football history. Bring out the pitchforks.

 

[irafreak]

Food for thought....how many other jobs are you a year or two away from being fired?

 

[flatwaterfan]

The internet has certainly changed things.

I work in a small field, an offshoot of TV and radio broadcasting.

My little field has a few hundred actual performers. But we have, seemingly, hundreds of thousands of critics. And they are VERY loud. They can recite every error, count every lapse, and add up every miscue. And they do. There are websites and forums devoted to the worst (and to be fair, the best) of what we do on a daily basis. It is enough to drive me crazy. I built a career on one side of this fence, with only myself to critique my work, but now have to live in a world where people I have never met can blast me straight to hell with no thought at all.

I feel for Bo. And I think Tom is close in his thoughts, but he has no clue just how much the microscope burns in the last decade or so. In Tom's era, there was only the newspaper and maybe the sports report on local TV. It is so different now.

I was, once, the man behind the curtain in my field, no one knew my name, much less my city or address.

The internet changed it all. Since the internet, I have occasionally, no kidding, received hate mail over my supposed lack of performance in certain jobs.

Some of you may be curious, so I will tell you. I am a voiceover artist. I record movie trailers, radio promos, and network TV spots. And, believe me, there are fans out there who will GUT me if they are not happy with how I intoned their favorite movie franchise or TV series.

I cannot even IMAGINE what it must seem to Bo. I am no one, no one, at all, and people I never met castigate me over a single syllable. To be a coach at NU, especially the HEAD coach . . . I cannot imagine.

Not sure I would take a job like that, regardless of how many millions they could toss at me.

Best wishes to you all, and be careful what you wish for.

Flood

Interesting job?. How does one get into that business? (My condolences by the way)

 

[robsker]

Osborne almost left for Colorado in the late 70's because the seat was getting warm and he couldn't beat Oklahoma. Revisionist history and folks thinking the good 'ol days were better. I don't buy it.

What I don't appreciate is Bo and Tom constantly coming down on the fans for what ails their football program. The fans are not the problem. Bo's sideline antics, belittling his players, lack of recruiting, buddy hires and poor coaching are the problem. This is yet another smokescreen. Why you people continue to defend Bo is beyond me. The mentality seems to be that Tom can never be questioned for his decisions, and if you do question them you are a bad fan. I refuse to accept mediocrity.

Well... Bo does have performance issues to be sure. That said, I believe the point is that now, in the internet era and in a culture of complaint and wild entitlement, every flaw (real or perceived) will be all over the social media regarding a coach (or any other public figure) and it must be very, very disheartening to have your every move critiqued and hashed out by people who do not know you. To be a coach now must be a very painful thing (or a politician, or any public figure... or even semi-public figure as Flood can attest to).

Heck... being a college football player must be a difficult thing too in that you sign up to play for your favorite college, give your all, and people on the internet post repeatedly that you suck. That was not the case 20 years ago. As a player and as a coach, now living with constant criticism (justified or not) is part of the package... a package that is a new package that your predecessors did not have to content with.

 

[Count 'Bility]

Osborne almost left for Colorado in the late 70's because the seat was getting warm and he couldn't beat Oklahoma. Revisionist history and folks thinking the good 'ol days were better. I don't buy it.

What I don't appreciate is Bo and Tom constantly coming down on the fans for what ails their football program. The fans are not the problem. Bo's sideline antics, belittling his players, lack of recruiting, buddy hires and poor coaching are the problem. This is yet another smokescreen. Why you people continue to defend Bo is beyond me. The mentality seems to be that Tom can never be questioned for his decisions, and if you do question them you are a bad fan. I refuse to accept mediocrity.

Well... Bo does have performance issues to be sure. That said, I believe the point is that now, in the internet era and in a culture of complaint and wild entitlement, every flaw (real or perceived) will be all over the social media regarding a coach (or any other public figure) and it must be very, very disheartening to have your every move critiqued and hashed out by people who do not know you. To be a coach now must be a very painful thing (or a politician, or any public figure... or even semi-public figure as Flood can attest to).

Heck... being a college football player must be a difficult thing too in that you sign up to play for your favorite college, give your all, and people on the internet post repeatedly that you suck. That was not the case 20 years ago. As a player and as a coach, now living with constant criticism (justified or not) is part of the package... a package that is a new package that your predecessors did not have to content with.

But it also teaches them a very important life lesson that you have to continue to do what your heart says. What you know is right for you/your program regardless of what folks on the outside say or think. You have to know that voices on a message board or 12 cannot be allowed to affect the important things. Once you sellout to that, youre as good as dead. A person has to know that they have to stick to your guns. Stick to your principles. That's where the true guts are.

 

[hskrpwr13]

But it also teaches them a very important life lesson that you have to continue to do what your heart says. What you know is right for you/your program regardless of what folks on the outside say or think. You have to know that voices on a message board or 12 cannot be allowed to affect the important things. Once you sellout to that, youre as good as dead. A person has to know that they have to stick to your guns. Stick to your principles. That's where the true guts are.

I'm glad somebody brought this back to the coaches. My perception is that Bo fails in regards to keeping the "Internet" at a distance. I always get the feeling when he gets snarky with some in the media, that he seems to be responding to the Internet posters/bloggers and not just the one asking the questions. I think he (and perhaps others associated with the program) take the Internet negativity too seriously/personally when for many of us, its simply a place to vent (misery loves company). There's Internet negativity that surrounds other successful programs. Do these other programs constantly harp on the media/Internet negativity like those in/surrounding our program seem to?

Again, just my humble perception.

 

[zoogs]

A coach succeeds or fails on his own merits. Can't blame it on the fans, of all things. Callahan rightly gets the blame for the team quitting on him in 2007 - can't dismiss it as a team collapsing under the weight of some of the most horrific and vicious negativity that I've ever seen surround this program.

 

[mnhusker]

Food for thought....how many other jobs are you a year or two away from being fired?

I had a Management job in retail and when things went well we joked "Another Month of Job Security" we were not serious of course but a bad year or so would mean an end. FWIW I don't think my comaprison makes the leap to big time coaching. Had I failed my employer did not need to weight a multi-million dollar payout against simply letting me go.

 

[mnhusker]

When I saw the 1 to 2 year comment I also thought it is probably the same today. Performance wise perhaps the institutional expectations have not changed much, but fans now have a louder mega phone due to all of the outlets so that is what coaches need to deal with. Maybe the first million is to deal with your bosses and the other millions are compensation for dealing with fans. This is a multi-media age so you need a smart coach and a rock star all in one.