Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Angels and Wolves

Last week Albert Pujols signed a gia-nor-mous contract to play baseball for the LA Angels. This week Chris Paul and Dwight Howard are in the headlines for possible trades in the NBA that will gain them more money and a better chance at winning a championship in years to come. Next week employees will either be elated or mad because they did or didn't get a Christmas bonus that met or did not meet their expectations.

I'll admit it: I work to get paid, too. Most of us are that way. A few people don't need the money. I do.

The question I ask today is not whether a person should be paid or not. Every worker should be paid and should earn that pay. Professional sports stars generate more revenue for their teams than most of us do for our employers. That's why they get paid so much more than I do. Is Albert Pujols more valuable to the Angels than I am to Cross Road? Please don't answer that! But you get my point, don't you?

This afternoon, Arkansas State University will introduce Gus Malzahn as head coach of their football program. Coach Malzahn is coming from Auburn University where he helped the team win the NCAA National Championship last year as the offensive coordinator. He has won Arkansas high school football championships on two levels. He's been successful everywhere he's been. Up until today he has always taken a pretty big pay increase when he's moved from school to school.

But not today. I've read that he will take as much as a $500K cut to come to ASU. That's not a commentary on AU or ASU but it say a lot about Gus Malzahn. There could be more to the story, maybe much more, but based on what I know now I will say that Malzahn cares more about being the head coach of his own program than a highly paid coordinator somewhere else.

I'll guess that within five years he will make another move that will pay him the big bucks. I'm OK with that. I wish him well.

Malzahn is a committed Christian. I hope he is able to impact the lives of the students and athletes in Jonesboro. His predecessor Hugh Freeze did. A consistent Christian witness will do more for the futures of the young men and women at ASU than a winning football program will. What excites me is that they will get both.

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