I have been pondering and going back and forth for several weeks now on how to structure this. It has been typed, deleted, re-typed, and debated. This is years of frustration watching first hand the effect this clown had on several players, so here is my manifesto:
Healy, et. al,
As I sat watching yesterdayâs Charlotte game against FIU, I found myself sympathizing with the many players whose body posture and energy reflected their loss of faith. Itâs a hard thing to lose faith. Itâs a hard thing realizing you have believed in the wrong thing(s). Itâs even harder when youâre a young man who has yet to become hardened by the let-downs and trials that serve to give older men that steely view. That being said, I also found myself relishing the fact that you were reaping what you sowed.
I remember the day you were introduced, with much fanfare, as the new head football coach at Charlotte. I was watching, optimistically, as you would soon play a major role in my sonâs life. As the press, boosters, administration gathered around with cameras rolling you gave a dynamic speech. You did a great job bringing the energy, hitting all the right notes. But then you started to say something akin to âI am blessed (sic) to have this opportunityâ and you stopped yourself. Some would argue you chose to deny, to play it safe. My gut tightened and I felt the heat on the back of my neck. My gut has never lied to me-it is God-given, it is my built in BS detector. Sadly, it was correct again.
While you turned the coachesâ room into a fraternity of your pals and patted backs and glad-handed people, you simultaneously conned amazing, hopeful young men and robbed them of the best years of their lives. They trusted you to do the right thing, they altered their lives by changing majors to meet your âscheduleâ, they re-upped believing you had their best interests at heart. Many fought the urge to look for another home. You were handed an incredible team- a team of football-smart, talented, loyal, incredibly hard-working young men. That team was turn-key, all you had to do was not screw it up. They took you to a bowl game year one!
But then the ego took over, you had to separate yourself from the legacy of Lambertâs boys. You started bringing in position players to take the place of guys that were good enough to take you bowling. While the nature of football dictates you have to keep your job as a player by outperforming, you chose to force your picks into positions even though they werenât of better caliber. I have not ever encountered a successful head coach that sat in film, team meetings, position meetings then took his assistant staffsâ eval. sheets, player grades and threw them in the trash and let (forced?) the coordinators put lower-graded, unseasoned, unproven players on the field. You took team leaders on and off the field and tried to strip them of their roles. Bad business model for sure but by gosh those newbies didnât have that Lambert smell, did they?! Oddly, though, the second one of Lambertâs men makes it big, you are right there making sure to stake any claim you can!
As time went on and the writing was on the wall for your position coaches, as they saw you were going to push the agenda you were, they started to leave. And, they didnât just leave, they leveled up! So, they were smart enough and talented enough for much larger, perennial programs but you couldnât let them do what they clearly did well for Charlotte?! The same is true of many of the players that chose to leave-mysteriously they were talented enough to get you to a bowl game, talented enough to play in other, larger D1 programs but not good enough for you (whose record just got worse and worse as those young men left) to play. Credit to you I guess for sticking to your guns, way to ride that ship to the bottom!
While the rumor mill is all abuzz that you have already been fired and we are just awaiting the official announcement, while I could be celebrating that fact, I am just saddened. I am sad for the young men who didnât get their chance, who didnât get a look, who poured their heart, soul, blood, sweat and tears into 49er football and got treated like so much garbage by you. Maybe you listened to the wrong people. Maybe (probably) you were in way over your head, maybe you are just a pawn in someoneâs game. I donât know. If life was just, you would personally pay for the lying, scheming, snake oil slinging BS that cost these young men so much. Losing this job is the easiest price to pay. You need to bear the weight of a hundred broken hearts, of futures sacrificed, of dreams unrealized because of your actions.
After all of this, my son says I need to forgive you. I donât know if or when that will happen. But what I DO know is that he is a far, far better man than you and I am blessed by God to have him . . . and so were you.