When you can't win them all...

Here are the first three grafs of a story in today's Washington Post about the firing of a football coach:

The long, unusual tenure of Clay Helton, the 49-year-old head coach at Southern California, ended Monday afternoon when the school fired him two games into the season. It came more than 11½ years after his arrival as an assistant and almost six after his ascension to the helm. It left an opening at one of the country’s storied football programs.

Donte Williams, an associate head coach who coached USC’s cornerbacks, will serve as interim head coach, his first such turn in a career that has taken him through Nevada, Washington, San Jose State, Arizona, Nebraska and Oregon before his arrival at USC in 2020. He is regarded as an excellent recruiter.

Helton’s head-coaching tenure, long viewed as pretty good but not good enough, ended at 46-24. His 70th game became a flashing-lights loss to Stanford sound-tracked by booing in Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on Saturday night. Two late USC touchdowns window-dressed the score from 42-13 to a final 42-28, and the Trojans exhibited some of the same issues of football discipline that have plagued them in recent seasons.

I'm sure Coach Helton's tenure has not been perfect and I'm also certain that one loss, however embarrassing, was not the key factor in his being terminated so early in the new season. I also am well aware that USC has a long and storied tradition as a college football power and that expectations for any coach of that program are quite lofty. But the guy's teams managed to win two-thirds of their games, and many universities would be more than satisfied with that.

I often think about the near-impossible task coaches face. Win or lose, most eventually get fired. Win or lose, all coaches are being constantly second-guessed and criticized. Athletes, parents, and boosters all see the sport through unique lenses and no coach can possibly meet every need and make everyone happy.

This seems related to my thoughts on politics and government. Much like coaching, politicians and government officials will always be criticized and will always be second-guessed. Once politicians can accept that they will never receive universal approval, they can get on with making the best decisions possible, based on their philosophies and experiences. 

Coaching requires judgments and discipline and technical skill and interpersonal "genius," at least at the highest levels. There is also the reality that in most contests, one coach will be leading the losing team.

Even the best athletic coaches tend to get fired. Same with politicians. 

I honestly wonder why ANYONE would want to get into either career at this point in American life.