The Drama Continues

The saga of Chan Gailey ramped up again today, even as the NFL had the day off. First, Gailey was officially eliminated as a finalist for the Pittsburgh Steelers job, which leaves a clear path for Assistant Coach Grimm....................... Meanwhile Brian Schottenheimer withdrew his name from consideration as the next Miami Dolphins head coach. The significance? Well, in some circles it is believed the job was down to Gailey and Shotty. If so, then there aren't many other guys left. However, Jim Mora was spotted on video coming out of the Dolphins facility taking his 2nd interview. In addition, Chargers assistant Cam Camerson is believed to be getting his name in the mix............................ Meanwhile, REALLY bored people are tracking the Dolphins' personal jet, which has made 3, count'em 3 trips back and forth from Miami to Dekalb Peachtree airport, including landing at approximately 4:45 pm tonight in ATL. You have both Gailey and Mora shuttling back-and-forth. You have to wonder if they flew together................ and who got the aisle seat.


So the Steelers are out, and the Dolphins are looking like a VERY strong possibility. The AJC - Mark Bradley in particular - are already throwing Coach Gailey under the bus. You know, my range of emotions has been pretty varied during this whole process. At this point, here's my position - Georgia Tech doesn't deserve Chan Gailey. I know, sounds nutty and the haters will roll their eyes. But there is enough pettyness, enough shortsightedness, enough short-term thinking, and enough selective memory by enough fans that we just don't deserve a good ball coach like Gailey. He deserves better for what he's doing in one of the most challenging jobs out there.


My general feeling these days is that too many Georgia Tech fans are generally hypocritical. They want to hold up the academics in a borderline arrogant way, somehow indicating how we are "special", yet expect to win as much as the top teams in the ACC on a regular basis. Here we are in a season where we just played for the ACC championship and the Gator Bowl, the program is headed in a positive direction and the fanbase in general has no higher satisfaction level at all. The haters want to tout how the ACC was down. Well guess what - Georgia Tech wasn't. We didn't fall - we capitalized. There's hope.


But in the end, Coach Gailey really gained no more support this year from the fanbase. The supporters keep supporting, and the haters keep hating. He deserves better. Not sure he'll get that in Miami. Not sure he'll get it anywhere. Frankly, I'm not sure in today's culture that it even exists anymore. Two groups of people can look at the same biography. One group will look at his tenure at Pitt / Denver / Miami and see success. A different group will see failure. People see what they want to see. That's just today's sports culture and coaches have to have thick skin.


Either way, this thing is going to come to a head within days.......................