Training?

Football boot camp started at the University of Oregon after the holiday break, and a few players are paying the price.

The coaches are playing a dangerous game with the health of their players.

This nonsense better be resolved quickly, better not happen again, or I'll be forced to do something I've never even considered before--that is call for a coaching change right now.

I've never made the call after a losing season, because I've always watched Oregon play regardless of their talent level year in and year out, and it doesn't matter too much to me how a season goes.  Sure, I like to see the wins, but I don't go off the rails if the team loses and has a poor season like the one just finished.

But this is the sort of thing that pisses me off.

Football has enough militarism in it already without this kind of macho posing.  Working players until they get sick is beyond the pale.

It's plain as day what happened.  The three that ended up hospitalized were not in great shape coming in.  Anybody who has ever exercised knows you can't get it back in a day, or even ten. You must build it up slowly until you return to peak levels.

More importantly, the coaches leading those exercises have to be alert to what condition the individual players are in.  You can't herd them together and expect everybody to be on the same level, because that never happens.  There are way too many variables in the process.

What happened?   Under Willie Taggart and the new staff at Oregon the pressure is on to impress, indeed to keep schollies, to "do something."  These players were feeling something they shouldn't have, and an escape route needed to be there for them that wasn't a total threat to their careers and educations.  Some of the blame may be theirs, of course, but if the lax culture everybody is saying developed under Helfrich was problematic, what good is an adjustment to something plainly more dangerous?

Good lord, the game is dangerous enough as it is.

The strength coach is pushing people.  Fine, but Sarg, rein it in before somebody dies for a stupid game, not in a freakish play on the field but in your training facility where you supposedly have control of the proceedings.

I hope these players recover and can return to the team if they want to. If they don't want to, I would expect to hear the taunts of Oregon's worst fans, but as usual I say screw them.

UPDATE:  Oregon has suspended the S&C coach and WT has apologized.  Knuckleheads all over the internet are upset with the "pussies."


TS