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James Schneider's avatar

1) I thought this was gonna be a lot more shitting on Urban Meyer, and am thus disappointed. You SHOULD mean to pick on Meyer!

2) I'm not sure this is the fix you imagine it is. Do you think Ohio State players would have wanted to fire Zach Smith? Do you think even in the case of Chuba Hubbard and Mike Gundy, that Hubbard would've wanted Gundy fired? As you say yourself, "'successful college football coach' is a position almost exclusively occupied by horrible people." I think players are willing to put it up with some horrible people if they remain successful! This is particularly true in sports, where continuity is generally an advantage.

3) It's interesting to think about the power NFL players have relative to CFB players...and I don't really know the answer! Do NFL players have much more power than CFB players? Because my instinct is to say that the only real way out is to unionize and pay college players, but even that is probably incomplete...

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John's avatar

1) Gotta save stuff for future posts

2) Successful college football coaches are exclusively evil in large part BECAUSE they are not accountable to the players. Right now the choice is "Play for an asshole who at least wins" or "play for some other asshole" so obviously players are willing to play for guys like Zach Smith and Mike Gundy. But if you had a more democratic process, then you'd have some non-asshole coaches who would be successful.

3) Yeah, unions aren't the whole answer because the NFL has a union and doesn't have this. Most unions don't really have the power I'm envisioning, but it should be a goal that they strive for!

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Josh's avatar

What precisely are you advocating? Your conclusion ("Giving them absolute power over their underlings is just asking for the kind of abuse Doyle is accused of, no matter how much vetting you do") and some supporting statements (e.g., "Giving them the ability to reprimand or remove their boss would balance out the power disparity and create a fairer and more equitable work environment for everyone.") are weaker than the title or this sentence ("The obvious solution is simply to empower all workers to pick their bosses, including football players.")

And recall elections seem like a potentially apt comparison, though I suppose the coach is managing the players more than representing their interests.

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John's avatar

Recall elections could certainly be part of it. I'm not sure you can make precise prescriptions that would apply to all workplaces, but in general I'm advocating that power in any workplace (or sports franchise) be held democratically, among all employees, instead of being vested hierarchically in a single boss or management more generally.

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