Comments on: Go Green Death!

By: Brinley

Brinley — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 19:59:46 +0000

In terms of a “joke”, the guy may have been joking in his email (still not confirmed), but as a whole, the email is legit and was in fact sent to all the parents in Scituate. The guy is actual parent and coaches soccer. He works on the trading desk at Eaton Vance. A coworker of mine has a child playing for that team and forwarded me the original email which I then forwarded to AMR.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 00:04:21 +0000

@Ryan & Dave for some reason I never even considered that this was joke – after reading it back, I think you’re right…it looks like a joke. Pretty funny, now that I think about it.

By: Dave L

Dave L — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 23:56:44 +0000

What’s interesting is that I’d heard a bunch about this on ESPN.com and NPR beforehand, talking about how he’d been relieved of his duty, etc. The quotes that they took out of it were pretty bad, and it sounded like the guy was a maniac.

NPR reported it as a funny little bit before their news, and they mentioned that he’d said the e-mail was meant as a joke.

Now that I’ve read the whole thing, I can say that I think it sounds like a joke, and a pretty good one. Obviously he didn’t know his audience (he rails against “sweat-xedo-wearing yuppies who sit on the sidelines in their LL Bean chairs sipping mocha-latte-half-caf-chinos” but that’s probably exactly who these parents were.

I think it’s funny. The guy has a lack of common sense but it does sound like a joke to me….

By: Ryan

Ryan — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 15:18:41 +0000

I find it hard to believe that this guy wasn’t obviously trying to be an entertainer. Green Death? High comedy. The competitive message is intact but the off-the-deep-end stuff is clearly a joke and that actually works to temper the seriousness. In a nutshell, he is simultaneously lambasting the pathetic coddling of our youth and satirizing the hyper-competitive, win-at-all-costs, fun-killing approach to sports and life.

Maybe I’m over-analyzing.

I want Vince Vaughn to play lead.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 18:33:11 +0000

@Zach I agree with you, but wanted the email to speak for itself without me injecting my own feelings. Most of the email I don’t disagree with actually – it’s just seriously over the top. He lost all credibility with me after telling parents what to feed their 7 year old girls – he wasn’t really a lunatic until then….that was then followed up the HGH joke, which is really just poor form.

I love the movie idea except they already did that movie – Mighty Ducks (I, II, or III) I don’t know which one. I guess it being on grass instead of ice completely changes things.

By: Zach

Zach — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 18:14:40 +0000

Wow. Awesome.

First off, as someone who has reffed 8 year old girls’ soccer – I think I’ve met this guy before – and it didn’t go well.

But secondly, and strangely, I don’t really disagree with him. He’s obviously insane and abundantly dramatic, but he has a point about not over-coddling kids. His last line is actually pretty cool (albeit a tad crazy), raising girls to be winners who will “stand up for their beliefs and challenge the status quo”. On a completely related note- we really are raising a generation of pansies who get trophies for everything and just expect life to be handed to them – and while this lunatic is obviously the other extreme, I think he’s on to something.

Thirdly, I hope this gets made into a Disney sports movie – I think the lead should be played by either Alec Baldwin, Rob Lowe, or Stephen Segal. Just please, not Dwayne The Rock Johnson…

Seriously, hey hollywood: prissy girls from an upperclass suburb get a surprise when their new soccer coach turns out to be an ex-army drill sargent with a pension for screaming and pushups. At first they don’t like him, but then he teaches them to be stronger people and they warm up to him just in time for the big game. At one point one of the girls is inspired by a practice and now has more courage with boys. Another girl stands up to her potentially abusive father. Also, one of the moms, likely of the main girl, has a crush on the coach, they go on a date and hold hands. Just when we think everything is perfect, the girls overhear the coach talking about something else, that they misinterpret as talking badly about them, but then this miscommunication is cleared up and everyone forgets it happened. In the end, they beat the boys team in some contrived scrimmage. Lastly, one of the girls who is uber-prissy turns a little tomboyish while the tomboyish girl is now wearing makeup. Throughout: hilarity ensues.

Roll credits. End.