Monday, Roanoke, Virginia

Sports has become an enterprise of expectations. Who should win and by how much? The results are critical. But not just to please the partisan fans.. Sports are not simply a distraction or an idle curiosity. Big bucks are involved. We expect you to win and those others to lose this game. And we expect to have the final score be what we expect the score to be! Money is at stake.

And the money at stake is not just the gamblers’ stakes. Game results and season outcomes determine coaching jobs and salaries, school prestige and student applications, stadium ticket sales and fan loyalty. The pressures are felt up and down the food chain, from the University administrators down through Athletic Directors, Head Coaches, Assistants, athletes and the parents. It even affects teenagers and adolescents, along with their ambitious parents, with dreams of becoming millionaire, professional athletes themselves.

Because in America dreams quickly morph into expectations

And expectation inevitably becomes entitlement

Given this unbearable burden of stress radiating throughout the system, when things do not go as expected, as we demand and feel we’re entitled to - somebody must pay.

This morning, two men in particular are feeling the glare of thousands of fans and critics for the unraveling of their programs’ righteous weekend expectations. Today is a bad day for Charlie Weiss at Notre Dame and Lloyd Carr at Michigan. The failures of their teams are being interpreted principally as their personal failures.

When Appalachian State University comes to Ann Arbor and, in front of over a hundred thousands home town fans, beats beats you in your own storied stadium, well…that just cannot be ignored. And when Georgia Tech beats you like a dirty rug right in front of Touchdown Jesus, there is explaining to do.

At a time when we feel impotent to make political representatives bend to our will, we can turn our wrath on coaches. Because in this case, the public pressure does what we cannot do to Congress, the President and all the other leaders who let us down - cwe can ompel them to perform or get the boot!

So Crabby Face Lloyd and Weeble Body Charlie might both be on the phone to their agents this morning putting out feelers for a television analyst position at the end of this season.