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| From the 'blue and orange' to 'orange and blue' |
Although
considering that many don’t think Smith deserves that much praise for his
eight-year stint as Bears coach (he lost the Super Bowl to those overgrown hick
Hoosiers down in Indianapolis, after all), I wonder if any success he has in
Champaign, Ill., won’t amount to much.
FOR
IT WAS announced Monday that the guy who recently lost his job as coach of the
Tampa Bay Buccaneers is employed again – he signed a six-year deal with our
state’s alleged flagship university to coach the Big 10 football program that
is considered by many sports observers to be the equivalent of the Chicago Cubs
of college football.
At
$21 million for those six years, it has been pointed out that Smith will be the
highest-paid person on a public payroll in Illinois – although it also seems he
will be getting less money than he was for coaching Tampa Bay.
So
much for our society’s priorities when it comes to compensation.
Although
I’m also sure that if Smith manages to make Illinois relevant again when it comes
to college football, no one will begrudge the pay Lovie will receive in coming
years.
BESIDES,
I’M SURE some people are going to say (only semi-jokingly) that Smith will have
to live in Champaign, Ill. (or perhaps Urbana?), and that the deserves to get
something in return for being compelled to live in that central Illinois
community.
Although
I’d wonder what he’d wind up spending his salary on – there just isn’t that
much to do in the college town community.
Particularly
since Fighting Illini football often gives off the aura of something small-town
based that nobody living outside of Champaign really cares about. Particularly
if someone in question went to college elsewhere. Our alma maters create more
interest than anything happening in Champaign.
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| Fighting Illini football most definitely lacking in legacy |
I
wonder at times if Michigan or Ohio State have more fans in Chicago than the
Illini?
CREATING
INTEREST IN Illinois football within Chicago could be Smith’s greatest
achievement. Taking into account he was once an assistant coach for a Super
Bowl-bound St. Louis Rams team, it makes me wonder if he could help spur interest
across the whole state.
Could
the University of Illinois seriously become the team all of Illinois roots for –
and could even become the unifying factor of all those Chicago Cubs and St.
Louis Cardinals fans who couldn’t ever envision having a rooting interest in
common!
If
Lovie can really achieve that, then our sports fans may start to respect him in
ways that his Super Bowl appearance didn’t accomplish.
But
the bottom line is a win – he’d better bring a Rose Bowl victory (or perhaps even a Bowl Championship Series
title) to the Land of Lincoln, or else we’ll think of him as just another part
of a string of failed coaches who took the reins in Champaign throughout the
years.
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