PLEASE DON'T say you're surprised. Anything but surprised. Disappointed, perhaps, that Nick Saban -- who finally built a winner at Michigan State -- will not be coaching there anymore. Saddened, perhaps, that the Spartans have to start over again.But surprised? Come on. Rumors about his departure had become a ritual with Saban. He was going to the National Football League. He was taking over the Indianapolis Colts. He was taking over the New York Giants. There were times when Michael Jackson's marriage seemed more solid than Saban and MSU.
The Wall Street Journal isn't usually a place for sports news, so I was surprised to find a picture of pitcher Tom Glavine on the front page the other day. Intrigued, I read the story, which proved to be about Glavine's plans for his death and his money -- or, better put, where does his dough go after he does?
WHEN HE was small, his mother watched over him.She'd say, "Don't go out without your shoes on....""Put something on your head, it's cold outside....""Make sure to take your vitamins...."Anthony Thomas listened, because he was a good son and good sons always listen. But deep down, he believed, as all kids do, that he was indestructible.Funny. Now it's his coaches who want to believe it. And they watch him almost as closely as Mom.
TEMPE, ARIZ -- Hey, it's hot in the desert. Things melt. Like your defense. Your concentration. And, apparently, your calculator.How else do you explain coach Bobby Ross deciding Sunday to go for a two-point conversion late in the fourth quarter -- when logic said go for an extra point?What was he doing? I know about aggressiveness. But there is no way, when you are down 23-19 late in a game, that you don't go for an extra point, pull within three, and hope a field goal ties it and takes you to overtime.That's Beginners Coaching. Or Math 101.
Mitch Albom writes about running an orphanage in impoverished Port-au-Prince, Haiti, his kids, their hardships, laughs and challenges, and the life lessons he’s learned there every day.
