Root, Root, Root Against the Home Team

Martz
Originally uploaded by jjactive2.

When I was living in Connecticut in fifth grade, our class went on a field trip to one of those faux-historic Old Towne recreations where you watch the guy with the big handlebar mustache dressed up as a cobbler hammer little pretend shoes and see that people in the 19th century squeezed large families into houses smaller than a Manhattan walk-up before adjourning to Ye Old McDonald's behind the gift shop.

I remember a butcher in Ye Old Towne showed us how sausage was made. I never ate it again.

In my career I've dabbled a little in writing about pro sports and I have friends in the sports media business. So the curtain has been lifted and I've seen The Great Oz--I know what some of these athletes are like as human beings and it's not always a pretty sight. But you also know that many good guys remain and so you can still root for the home team while--when you're not out doing your own activities--enjoying pro sports for the very real on-field drama they provide.

But this year I'm making an exception. I've heard enough stories from the bottom to the top of a certain NFL organization to be convinced that its head coach is just a miserable human being. So I'm rooting against his team--the St. Louis Rams--this year so they dump him.

It's hard to believe Mike Martz doesn't know how lucky he is to be earning millions of dollars while living in the la-la land that is professional sports. Will The Great Caesar be able to look into the eyes of the people he has stomped upon on his rise to the top during his inevitable plummet back to the bottom? Mike Martz: You have been Deactivated.