MovieChat Forums > Year of the Bull Discussion > Predictable Unshown Epilog

Predictable Unshown Epilog

posted 20 years ago by jtrussell
13 replies | jump to latest

After seeing movies of this genre I often look on the internet to see what has happened to the protagonist after the movie. I did so with Taurean Charles. It was no surprise to see that he has been arrested for assautive offenses in Gainesville, FL, at least two times since his matriculation at the University of Florida, and convicted at least once. With the type of male role models to which he was exposed as shown in the movie, largely his coaches, his criminal behavior was a more sure bet than the ones that the gutter snipes in the stands of his high school games made on his performance on the field. Everyone in the community knew it was happening. Where were his principal and coaches when this activity was going on? Sadly, this is now expected in college athletics, but now it is shown in a high school as if it were part of the curriculum. How else could he be expected to turn out given the behavior of his coaches on the playing field, the practice field and in the locker room. The duality of the choices of Taurean Charles is blatantly shown when the film shifts, almost back to back,clips of the multitude of "Fs" and "MFs" thrown not only around the players but also at the players, with clips of the obligatory pre-game prayer.

The behavior of the coaches and other should be role models was the only unpredictable part of this movie. I played some high school football in Texas, a state not generally known for the gentility of its football coaches, and I played for some of the roughest. Jerseys were pulled at times, as well as face masks, but I never saw or heard of coaches striking and fighting with students the way these did. Yes, I did hear some "damns", "hells", and "shits" from my coaches infrequently. I did know of coaches losing their jobs for behavior significantly less egregious than that of Charles' coaches, etc. I have no doubt that this comment will be attacked on more fronts than I can at present imagine, but I want to address one preemptively. I know that these kids had heard and used language as rough or rougher than that shown by their elders, but that is not the issue. These men know this and should demonstrate better ways of behavior, not reinforce those that already exist. These men undoubtedly knew about the cash given to players, but did nothing about it. The principal tries to bluff his way through a supposedly serious reprimand of Charles and other athletes for a pizza stealing incident, but the film shows that they were never really held to account the way others would have been. My comments are not anti-coach or anti-innercity life in any way. Only anti these coaches and their ilk. I learned a lot from the coaches that I complained about at the time. Many of the people that endured high school sports with me are now coaches. Some of them are as tough or tougher than those in this film (however that sort of thing is measured), but they do not abuse their players physically or verbally.

Some may say that my notions are those of a high school player of the '60s, and that now kids are exposed to more and rougher treatment is expected, if not outright allowed. The contrary is true. My friends that became teachers and coaches must walk a considerably straighter line than our coaches. I like to believe and do believe that these men do accept the heavy mantle of role model for their players and are proud to do so. These men are winners on and off the field. I chose a different profession, but I would not hesitate these men being role models for children of mine.

The salient point of this overly long comment is that the only interesting, in a twisted sense, part of this movie is the behavior of the coaches and other corrupting adults. The criminal path down which Charles has begun was all too predictable.

"Every calling is great when greatly pursued."

[–] 20 years ago

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[–] jtrussell 19 years ago

Thank you for your response. I'll try to be more brief. It's been a while since I saw this documentary and wrote my comment. I believe that my point was that coaches getting into fistfights with student/athletes and relying on the most vile language I have ever heard a public school teacher engage in benefits no one. In Texas, where I grew up and live, the coaches for any high school sport must first hold a teaching license. The purpose for this requirement is not to make sure the coach can teach, but to, hopefully, weed out people in the public school coaching profession that do not know how to deal with the impressionable minds of their young charges; and, to reduce the risk of some schools pulling into the athletic programs street people and coaching "wannabes" who think that physical assault and vile language are the currency of coaching (the sort of conduct that, at a minimum, would draw multiple penalty flags for unsportsmanlike conduct, if the players emmulated their coaches behaviors).

Your statement to the effect that the coaches job at Miami-Northwestern is to prepare the "kids" for the next level of "FOOTBALL" is simply sad on so many levels. High school football does not exist as a "farm system" for college or professional football. If that were the case, all high schoot football coaches are doing an incredibly terrible job. Very few high school athletes go on to play their sport in college. Additionally, if preparation for the next level of football is the purpose of high school, taxpayers would revolt and school boards could not justify spending tens of thousands of dollars per year on the few, if any, students that progress to their sport in college. I would not want to be the one that had to explain to already over taxed people, that any portion of their tax money was being used merely to prepare a few students each year for college football. (And no, the revenue produced by high school sports does not come close to covering their costs.) The purpose of high school athletics is demonstrably not to prepare students for "the next level" of football. The economics of such an argument alone is sufficient to dispell that idea. Therefore, since it is not for that purpose, what is it for? It should be for the same purpose for which other aspects of public education exist -- to prepare people for life or to build character or to promote physical fitness, but not to prepare students of a career in football. And coming full circle, none of these objectives are best served by grown men engaging students in fist fights and behaving like gutter snipes.

I'm sure I was too "voluminous" again, but some people might read your comments and accept them at face value. Inadequately thought through comments deserve a comprehensive response.

Again, thank you for the response. I know that you reflect the views of, I hope, the few. I gave some real thought to your comments before responding, in order to attempt to see if there was any merit to your statements. I'm sure that you will afford me the same courtesy. (And if possible take the time to watch the conduct of the so-called coaches at the high school in question. Is that really the sort of conduct we want our children to be exposed to. Or to look at the situation another way, what would we do if a math, English, history or other academic teacher behaved in the classroom the way these coaches behaved in their "classroom".

"Every calling is great when greatly pursued."

[–] 19 years ago

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[–] 19 years ago

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[–] jtrussell 19 years ago

From this message I understand somewhat better the point you were attempting to make. If we can agree on the fact that the behavior of the "coaches" in the film is inexcusable, we have come a long way toward agreement. If you had left off your last sentence I could have stopped with my previous one. It's really a shame you had to bring race into the discussion. Prior to your message of today I had not bothered to consider race. Your point would have been much better taken if you had done the same. I have seen pitiful excuses for coaches and of high school athletes and human beings in general in all colors, just as I have seen outstanding role models in all colors. Yes, I did use the term role model. Maybe the coaches you know and admire don't worry about being role models, they worry about preparing kids for the next level of FOOTBALL.

If we could agree that the purpose of high school coaches is not to prepare high school students for the next level of football, which at least 95% of high school players will never see, then we probably wouldn't have much to disagree about. Having discussed the film with you this weekend, I have had a chance to remember the point of my original message. My primary point, about which we both seem to now agree, was that the behavior of some of the coaches shown was inexcusable. The second part of my primary point was that exposure to poor behavior and violence, particularly perpetrated by the men you should be able to look up to, leads to the poor behavior and violence that too often follows college athletics, without regard to the coaches or athletes color. I believe that I recall that your previous response to my message was something to the effect that coaches are not hired to be role models. Whether that's true or not, it is a fact. People have to have some basis upon which to model their behavior as they learn to become responsible adults. It's been a while, but my high school coaches were among my male role models, both black and white, and I'll bet yours were too. I hope that yours were mostly good people to look up to. I know that most of mine were.

Thanks again for the mental work out.

"Every calling is great when greatly pursued."

[–] 19 years ago

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[–] jtrussell 19 years ago

Agreed. You are obviously a gentleman and a scholar. Despite my criticism of some of the content, I too enjoyed the film. I don't particularly like war, but I like some war movies.

Perhaps through our enlightened discourse some users of this site will learn to disagree, without being disagreeable.

Enjoyed visiting with you.

"Every calling is great when greatly pursued."

[–] rascal9tx 19 years ago

As for the idea of high schools being farm systems for colleges, I agree - that's not what it's about. But also living in Texas, I HAVE seen situations in certain high schools where kids are brought into the district by their parents for the sole reason of playing for that particular team. I know of two different high schools who have "recruited" students for two different sports - both have won state titles in those sports. I wish this film had mentioned something like that. The coaches and principle of Miami-Northwestern said several times that their school was EXPECTED to win state every year. Schools like that are usually famous for recruiting their players, too. It's not like that particular neighborhood just breeds better football teams than other school districts. I blame parents more than anything.

"Sex is so overrated. Especially the way I do it." Do you know where this quote came from??

[–] jtrussell 19 years ago

If I understand you correctly, I couldn't agree with you more. I'm just not sure how what you have said addresses the point I was trying to make in my original posting. Of course there is recruiting in high school sports. It even goes on to the extent that different high schools in the same school district steal athletes from other schools. In one instance I know of a brother and sister who live in the same household. One played basketball for one school in a particular school district and the other played basketball for another school in that district. (As a side note, the brother now plays basketball in the NBA, but he had to go to a 13th year of high school prep school in Virginia because the school who wanted him so badly in Texas had not even begun to place him on a college prep program scholatically because they merely wanted to keep him eligible in high school. Again, I think we agree. My posting had nothing to do with this topic. But thanks for your reply.

"Every calling is great when greatly pursued."

[–] rascal9tx 19 years ago

No, it wasn't aimed at the original posting as much as other points you made during the thread. I agree - it's a shame.

"Sex is so overrated. Especially the way I do it." Do you know where this quote came from??

[–] blizz71 18 years ago

I also played some high school football in and I had 3 head coaches in two years. We had a freshman head coach but also answered to the varsity coach and then my junior year we had a head coach and 2 position coaches.

My freshman coach was a yeller and liked to drop F Bombs and embarrass you and the like and we went 2-7 that year with one of the wins being a forfeit. The varsity coach rarely yelled at the players, of course the refs were a different story, liked to talk to the players and rarely tried to embarrass them in front of everyone. That team went 7-3 and made the playoffs.

My junior year the coaches like to yell, some profanity, but would grab facemasks and occasionally slap your helmet. Not enough to hurt, but get your attention. That team went 4-6. So in my experiences the coaches that treat their players with the respect they deserve and treat them like men usually have more success.

[–] clogan8307 18 years ago

I think many of you are being overly sensitive when it comes to the profanity spoken by coaches. I live in the state of Georgia where fans are just as passionate about high school football as they are in Texas and Florida, with the only difference being that Georgia is a smaller state. I have heard language just as foul as anything spoken in the movie and the coaches who were using this language were mostly rural (not inner-city) high school football coaches.

I don't like the idea of coaches getting into fistfights with players, but other than that one little scrap and forcing Taurean to rush back into action after a scary neck injury, I didn't see any other physical abuse in the movie. The coaches yelled and slapped players on their helmets. I repeat, their helmets people! This is common in football at the high school level and upwards. If you think getting slapped on the helmet is some sort of abuse, then you're not tough enough to be playing football in the first place.

The great Paul "Bear" Bryant made his players practice for hours in the 100 degree southern heat. And basketball coach Bobby Knight uses worse profanity than anything I heard in The Year of the Bull. Knight has fought with a policeman, slapped the head coach of another team, made ignorant comments about women being raped, and thrown a chair onto the court during play. But he's considered to be a great leader of young men. My point is that I have no problem at all with the language these high school coaches at Northwestern Miami were using. It obviously works, as that team is almost always in state title contention.

The main problem I have with those coaches in the movie is not of a physical nature, but the fact that academics isn't as much of a priority with them. Even some of the college coaches there recruiting the players (some of which are very esteemed coaches and lauded for their leadership on ESPN) didn't seem to care about the academics as long as Taurean passed the SAT by hook or by crook. What good is it to send a football player to college when he's ill-equipped for the academics at these schools?

The language is irrelevant as far as I'm concerned.

Peace.

"The mind is like a parachute. It works best when it is open." - Rickson Gracie

[–] dack25 16 years ago

The coaches would cuss but I never heard our head coach drop an F-bomb and would never really harm anyone but we were just getting our first taste of winning so we were going to listen to the coaches and people that didn't quit.