Pants, dignity. On this we build our republic.
Overzealous coaching is something we understand. Stealing someone's pants outside the bounds of a friendly prank is not. Curt McKinney, coach of the Cincinnati rec league Midwest Marauders, is a pants-stealing, batshit-crazy bastard, according to one Aucherae Washington, a 10 year old booted from practice for walking down a hill during sprint drills at the Marauders' practice. The saga of a boy who lost his pants follows in brief (boxers, actually, but on with the story:)
The boy said his coach berated him in front of the other players.
"’You're too slow for the team, you're no good for the team,’" Aucherae said the coach told him. "He told me to take off my stuff and give it back to him, and he said, ‘While you're at it, take off my pants.’"
Aucherae said he complied with the coach’s order in front of his teammates and some parents and took a seat in the bleachers, wearing only a T-shirt and boxer shorts.
He said he walked to a neighbor’s house nearby because he didn’t want cheerleaders to see him in his underwear.
"He wanted a pair of pants," said neighbor Yvonne Workman. "He was upset, and he seemed like he was nervous and he didn't know what to do."
The coach has not been suspended because he has not been charged with a crime in the case, according to league officials. He should be, of course: the kid is ten years old, playing football for fun, and obviously mismatched with a zealot of a coach who stripped him of his dignity in front of his teammates before making him walk home pantsless at the age of ten. Remember that blogs are the little invisible words in between the lines of regular newsprint, and in this case, those words read: Oh my god, what a complete and utter waste of carbon this man is.
And if you don't think everyone in life wants a little dignity and a pair of pants at the bare minimum...then you, sir, are not part of this man's Republic of Awesome. Seek citizenship elsewhere.
HT: Odell51