Tanks take 11/02/03

[NJTank]

Knowing When to Hang It Up

Retirement is an issue faced by everyone in professional, and colligate sports every player and every coach even the best of all time will have to face this tough decision sooner or later. For many it's a touchy subject, as their love of the game and desire to compete is hard to shake. While the lifestyle in which you receive million dollar salaries is hard to give up.

The key is knowing when you are no longer at the top of your game. If you were once the best player at your position, becoming just another player could be an embarrassment leading to earlier retirement. However, sometimes it goes beyond that and great players become mediocre to average, to even sub par that is when you know an athlete or coach has stayed around too long.

One of the clearest examples of this was when Willie Mays was finishing up his career with the New York Met in 1973. Mays had a terrible season that year, hitting just 1 Home Run, while hitting a career low .211, as falling down in the outfield when going after a fly ball in the World Series is the lasting image of Mays final year.

This year we have seen several similar circumstances of Mays falling down again, this time it came in the NFL as Emmitt Smith made his return to Dallas with the Arizona Cardinals last month, when Smith, the all-time leading runner in NFL history, rushed for negative yardage, suffering a shoulder injury in the process. Following the game a tearful Emmitt broke down into tears, you could almost hear the regret of not retiring in his voice as he talked about see his daughter play soccer.

Too often the natural high of excelling on the field is hardest habit to break. The same hunger and desire that made Emmitt Smith the all-time leading rusher is the same hunger and desire that leads him to play past his prime.

Inside there is also a desire to show up your former team, and make them regret letting you go. Just like Emmitt Smith will always be a Cowboy, Joe Montana will always be a 49er, Joe Namath will always be a Jet, John Unitas will always be a Colt, and Franco Harris will always be a Steeler. However, each finished their career with other teams trying to hang for one more moment of glory. However, with the exception of Montana who took the Chiefs to an AFC Championship game they were all miserable failures. In fact both Unitas with the Chargers in 1973 and Namath with the Rams in 1977 did not even complete the season, as both were benched midway through the year never to play again.

We like to see our heroes go out on top, although he played well with the Washington Wizards, their is almost an air of regret surrounding Michael Jordan's final 2 seasons. Especially when one considers how his previous retirement after hitting the 1998 Championship clinching shot in the final second of the 1998 NBA Finals. It was a Hollywood style ending to arguably the one of the greatest careers in pro sports history. However, more often then not careers end in failure, which made Jordan's years in Washington a disappointment.

At the same time we like to see player ride of in a blaze of glory like John Elway winning Super Bowl XXXIII MVP in his final games, we are often perplexed and disappointed when someone calls it a career earlier like Barry Sanders. Often we are left wondering what more could he have done if he continued his career? What records would he hold? So much so there is almost denial about his career really being over. In fact every year people still wonder if Sanders will be back. However now that he has sat out 5 years all talk of an amazing comeback is all but gone.

Ultimately one must balance what they have left, with their desire to play, their physical health, as they battle age. With improved conditioning many players can still be active past 40. However, at the same time the team he plays for must balance their current abilities with their memories of greatness in the past.

Once a player reaches 40, loyalty must end, as memories wont help you win games in the present or future. The way the Utah Jazz handled the end of the Stockton-Malone era was perfect. Neither has the ability to get the Jazz far in the playoffs any more, and once Stockton decided to retire it was clear that it was time for Utah to rebuild, so they allowed Karl Malone to walk away through fee agency. Malone appears to have some skills left even though he is 40. However, on a rebuilding Jazz team he would just have been in the way, as he grew frustrated with the losing. Signing with the Los Angeles Lakers gives the Mailman a chance to bring home a championship ring, while still being productive on a team full of all-stars, where he dose not have to carry the load, and thus giving him the best shot at success.  

Sometimes it is handled wrong the Chicago Bulls completely destroyed their dynasty by letting everyone go after the 1998 season. The Bulls deserved a chance to stay together until they no longer won. If the team had remained together perhaps Jordan would not have retired following the 1998 season, as his comeback showed he still had the desire to play. Who knows how many more titles the Bulls could have won, but they deserved the right for everyone to find out.

The perfect ending is rare, and more often a player knows when it is best to go. Roger Clemens just completed a solid season for the New York Yankees. However, at the age of 41 he can no longer go more the 7 innings, and it is the right time for him to cal it a career. Clemens has expressed a desire to pitch for the Olympic team, next year, which will be a terrific epilogue to a great career, but it won't be the same as pitching in the majors, so he could easily pull it off. However to expect him to complete another long season in the Majors is too much, even for the best pitcher since 1969.

While players' skills diminish, sometimes a coach can lose his touch, and needs to be replaced. Ultimately even the greatest coaches have an expiration date. Sometimes it comes when the players change around him, and simply the coach needs to just move on, and bring his successful formula to another team. Sometimes players just need another voice in the locker, as the coach's words are no longer having an effect on a team that he has been around him for a number of years.

Either way a change must be made in those situations. It for the best for everyone's sake. It appears as if that might be the case in Pittsburgh as it looks as if the Steelers need a new voice, after a sluggish 2-5 start under Bill Cowher. There is no denying that Cowher has had a successful tenure in the Steel City. However, a change should be made following the seasons for the benefit of everyone involved. A new direction is clearly needed for the Steelers, while Cowher will greatly benefit having a new situation around him, as change of scenery will make him again appear as one of the top coaches in the NFL.

Sometimes not even a change of scenery will help a coach, as just like with a player physical skills diminishing, over time the game will pass a coach by. There is no greater example of this then in Penn State, where the Nittany Lions are suffering through perhaps their worst season since Joe Paterno took over as head coach in 1966. It will also be the 3rd losing season in the last 4 years for Joe Pa, who up until last week was the winningest Coach in Division 1-A history. However, along with mounting losses Paterno was passed by Bobby Bowden of Florida State. Chances are he will never catch Bowden again.

The failure of Joe Paterno does not mean he is not one of the greatest coaches of all time. Nobody can ignore his 2 National Championships, which could have been 6 had the Nittany Lions not been looked over in the polls despite undefeated seasons in 1968, 1969, 1973, and 1994. However, at 74 Paterno now looks lost as he paces the sidelines and argues regularly with referees. At the same time a perception that Paterno gives sonority too much consideration ahs prevented the blue chip recruits going to Happy Valley as they did in the past.

It's time that Joe Paterno does the right thing and retires. If he announces his retirement now the rest of the season could be a victory tour as he receives applauds form the fans in Happy Valley where he served for nearly 40 years of great memories. However, if he chooses not to retire then Penn State, must not be afraid to fire him. Firing a legend is hard, but all good things must come to an end eventually, and Penn State has to make the move, for the sake of the future, and Paterno who the longer he stays risks tarnishing at least part of his legend much in the same way that Willie Mays did when he fell down in the World Series.

  Hero of the Week: The NFL, with wildfires raging through out Southern California last Sunday it became apparent playing the Monday Night Football game between the Miami Dolphins and San Diego Chargers in San Diego as schedule became impossible, as smoke filled aired, made conditions unsafe, while the stadium itself was being used an evacuation and rescue staging area. Rather then cancel the game and complicate everyone's schedule the NFL decided to move the game to Tempe, Arizona. With in 24-hours the NFL was able to move both teams, and all of the television equipment 366 miles to Tempe. When in Arizona rather then charging admission and risking an empty house on Nation Television all tickets were given away for free, and it created a party atmosphere as people lined up for blocks to get in, as people who can't afford to get into a game normally got in. At the same time the NFL urged the fans to donate to relief efforts for the wild fires, and raised over $200,000, making it a good night for all involved, while once again demonstrating why the NFL is the most popular and best run professional sports league in the world.

Geek of the Week: Kobe Bryant, even though all the latest news surrounding the allegations of sexual assault have seemingly been his favor, Kobe must understand he is under a microscope of suspicion. Which is why his mean spirited criticism of Shaquille O'Neal looks so bad. Shaq did criticize him a day earlier. However, his criticism only surrounded Kobe's play on the court. Bryant, on the other hand decided to attack Shaq's weight, acting career, as well as his childish nature, as the same time he reaffirmed his desire to become a free agent. When the heat is on sometimes it is best to be quiet, and the just lay low, until you are all clear. Sadly Kobe does not realize this and it makes him come off real bad, and in this case its well deserved, through out this entire trial Kobe has not laid low, and this will have a greater negative effect then the trial itself if he is found Not Guilty, as it will keep the charges in people's minds forever, weather he is guilty or not.

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[Saintsfan]

John Elway's retirement must go down as one of the most glorious. To end up at the top of your game like that and to realise you have seen the best you are gonna see, and know at that moment to leave is  a fantastic feat of timing and of knowing yourself.

There is something quite sad about a former greattrying to relieve those glories just one more time. However we end up forgetting those moments in the long run. Jordan will always be associated with the Bulls, which personally, unless he buys the Bulls, is I think what makes his efforts to buy an NBA team so sad.

[zer0dotcom]

I never fully understood why Jordan bought a part of the Wizards. I understand that he wanted to be an owner in some capacity, but you'd think that the first choice and best fit would have been with the Chicago Bulls.

As for Elway, I won't forget how he went out, Two Consecutive Superbowls to his credit,a nd passed up the oppertunity to go after the ever ellusive Three-pete.

As for Mr. Kobe; the best thing for him to do is to find himself somewhere where he can't be heard and deal with his legal problem. It does neither him nor the Lakers any good at all by attacking his teammates at this point, it makes him look childish and is totally what he does not need right now when his entire life is being scutinized.

[Discrim]

i'll say this: Pat Riley looks like he chose the right time to go...not on top, but he figured it was time...he was probably thinking that last year too.  

i'll say this too...grant hill keeps getting injured since signing with the magic.  ya think someone's trying to tell him something? ::

speaking more of knowing when to hang it up...knowing when to throw it out...thank you Mark Cuban for disposing of the eyesores otheriwse known as the Mavs thirds...now if only he'd buy the Stars and dump Mooterus

and here's a way i saw my HS' old varsity coach go out...he was only the school's second head coach ever(longtime assistant under the original coach, took over in 95 i believe), and was the head man for four years.  anyway, the year after he stepped down as head coach he stayed with us for one more season as an assistant...the year after that i started the season on JV, and after one play, i happened to glance at one of the refs...and it was the old coach!  (no, he didn't call BS penalties in our favor, he called a fair game, we ended up losing)