December 3, 2017

Fred Grimm

The Sun Sentinel

500 E. Broward Blvd. 

Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33394

RE: How dare they pay a coach for failing? Some comments on your award-winning homage to Harriet van Horne, the Queen of Lachrymosity [“Another lash on the backs of the poor!] in the glory days of the pre-Murdoch New York Post when Schiff and Wechsler kept us apprised of the latest Republican outrages as outlined in your Op-Ed column in today’s Sun Sentinel. And God Bless Coach Bear Bryant.

Mr. Grimm,

It’s easy being an ink-stained modern American Liberal when it gets down to “nut-cutting” time, “lick-log” time in mixed company, if you prefer. Something is either “fair” or it isn’t. Once that determination has been made, one made much simple by removing the thinking portion of the decision equation, the rest is easy. Fill in the blanks, paint by the numbers, no?

[Jeff Bezos had his net worth increase by $20,000,000,000 in one day last week. That is a prima facie case of “unfair” but since he likes to stick a sharp stick in the Trump’s eye so modern American Liberals will withhold judgment.]

How “unfair” is it for the University of Florida to give fired coach Jim McElvaine a $7.5 million-dollar golden parachute when inner city Moms, usually women of color, with children destined to be feral teenagers who could have been helped by the salubrious effects of Midnight Basketball but were denied access to a Ritalin clinic because of the lack of public transit to serve those neighborhoods filled by people who are “unlucky in life’s lottery. Don’t forget that these gallant ladies are constantly abused and victimized by the siren-call of low prices at Walmart. It must be Hell!

Anyway, and listen up you horse’s ass. It was in his contract. Both parties agreed to it. There was no duress, no subterfuge, no Luca Brasi holding a gun to someone’s head. One solution to the existential “unfairness” of it all would be to do away with scholarships, followed quickly by getting out of the TV contracts. Naturally, there would be no charge for tickets. Only Florida residents could play for the Gators. Saturday day games would start at 8:00 AM before the afternoon sun gets too hot. You may want to take a peek at the University of Chicago, Johns Hopkins University, and New York University as example of athletic powerhouses changing directions 

As to Coach Bryant…when he began to win championships by the bushel he decided that he would be paid one dollar less than the chancellor of the university. When the Bear got a raise, everybody got a raise.

That was “fair” wasn’t it?

Kevin Smith