A Duck Flies East

Mike Bellotti announced today he would resign as Athletic Director at the University of Oregon to take a broadcasting job at ESPN. He said he missed football and this would allow him to stay in the game. What he DIDN'T add is that it would allow him to do so without the pressures of recruiting and midnight calls from the Eugene police.

I've always had a lot of respect for Coach Bellotti. He conducted himself with class and helped build a once-atrocious program into a perennial contender. He was consistent and prepared and well-spoken. He was organized and unfailingly gracious with the media. He handled the pressures of the job and a public spotlight with dignity. He won more games than any other Oregon coach in history.

Athletic Director never seemed like a good fit for him. Oh, no doubt he was bright and capable enough to do the job, but I never felt it fully captured his interests and energy. He missed the sidelines and the rush of game day, buried in paperwork and obligations. An athletic director is a schmoozer and a glad handler, a wrangler of big-money contributors and a wheeler-dealer behind the scenes. Coach B wanted to call the plays. Standing by and cleaning up the messes didn't suit him. Altogether he spent 21 years at Oregon. He will always be remembered and respected.

Telegenic, intelligent, knowledgeable about the game, he's a natural for ESPN, and will enjoy his new role. If he relaxes and trusts his gifts, he'll shine there. He'll be a refreshing change from the no-nothing talking heads and ex-coaches still bitter over their last firing. He'll speak with more authority and less of an agenda. People, even fans of his old rivals, will readily see he's likable and loves the game.

Many are speculating the ESPN job is a mere precursor to a return to coaching in a year or two. "It's in his blood," they say. "An offer will come along and he'll get the itch to be on the sidelines again, making the decisions, building a team." Arizona State might be a likely destination. Another old coach who can't resist the next job, Dennis Erickson, has had two losing seasons in a row after a 10-win campaign in his first year. Boosters are chaffing and the grumbling is growing louder. Coaching is a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately world.

John Canzano, the shrill-voiced sneering whiner who writes sports columns for the Oregonian, speculates that Bellotti might wind up succeeding Chip Kelly at Oregon, should Kelly take an East coast job, be tempted by the big money in the NFL, or tire of answering questions about why his players can't stay out of jail. Idle and irresponsible speculation is Canzano's stock in trade. He's never met a rumor or an innuendo he wouldn't publish as fact. Last year he predicted the Ducks wouldn't win six games. They won ten, but he still hasn't apologized. You'll never hear him say, "I was wrong." He just moves on to the next half-baked pronouncement.

Tomorrow in the paper he'll no doubt harp on what a loss this is to Oregon and how the program is now in disarray. Never mind while Bellotti was their he publicly derided him with nasty innuendos and self-serving diatribes, even pulling his wife and family into the argument. Family is off limits. If you want to talk about the halfback's arrest, or the punt on fourth and one, that's one thing, but a man's wife is none of the paper's business.

As a game analyst and studio commentator the Coach will have none of these worries. He can fly into town and do his job and play golf on Sunday morning. The losses won't gnaw at him and the boosters won't second guess. He'll earn a good living, fly first class and have a great seat for every game. It sounds like a good life. I wish him well, and I'm sure most Duck fans do also.