Jobs in Sports

A lot of times while watching a sporting event or discussing the world of sports with friends people claim that they can do an equal or better job than a coach, GM, referee, etc. For example, last night a friend of mine said that he could do the job that Yankees GM Brian Cashman has done so far this off season because essentially all Cashman has done is offer the most money to all the top free agents. More often than not this sort of rhetoric is directed at coaches. Everyone thinks that they are a prolific play caller because of their success against the computer in Madden. They get mad when their team doesn't make it on a 3rd and 1 and automatically proclaim themselves a better play caller than the offensive coordinator. Fans get mad at baseball managers for lots of decisions that they think they would be better at making like leaving pitchers in too long.

That being said, there are two jobs in professional sports that I am 100% confident that I could be given the reigns to right now and the subsequent teams and league would not suffer at all.

1.) NFL Replay Official



This might be the easiest job in sports. Only about 2-3 plays get reviewed every game. All you have to do is watch the replay from a number of different angles and decide whether or not the call on the field was accurate. You should literally never be wrong. People think it's a tough job because sometimes it's hard to tell what happened. But if you are unsure at all, you just say that there is no conclusive evidence and stick with the call made on the field. It's essentially a get out of jail free card, but some replay officials get too locked into interpreting what happened (without actually seeing it) just so they can make a decision. Some of the calls this year have been badd and I know that I could do an equal or better job right now.

2.) Boston Celtics Head Coach



Doc Rivers is a joke. In his tenure as the Celtics coach they had gotten progressively worse each year (win total dropped 12 games from year 1 to year 2 and 9 more from year 2 to year 3) until last year's title run. People in Boston were calling for his head because he is not a good coach, but now that they have 3 superstars and won a title, those same fans think he is great. He is irrelevant to their current success. Doc knows more about basketball than I do and because of that the Celtics might win 1 more game a year with him at the helm as opposed to me. Coaching this team is very simple. You don't need to be a doctor to figure it out. Constantly remind them how hard it is to repeat and that they have a bulls eye on their backs. Encourage tough defense. Offensively, get the ball to Garnett in the post, have Rondo drive and dish, have Paul Pierce slash, let Ray Allen shoot threes, and only let Perkins touch the ball if it's an offensive rebound. Oh, and put Scalabrine in when up 20.




These were the only two that I could think of off the top of my head. Any other suggestions? I'm sure there's plenty more.