Aug
Buono faces life on the firing line
Courtesy Vancouver Sun:
Wally Buono views the world in shades of black and white, but not through a medium that’s black and white and read all over.
The coach of the Lions says he not only doesn’t read a newspaper, he has his communications staff delete articles from the Vancouver Sun and Province which arrive in his Surrey office through the CFL’s daily Internet clippings service.
“When I retire, I promise you I’ll subscribe to both papers, how about that?” Buono said Wednesday, explaining that he wants to shield himself and his family from some of the obsessiveness of professional sport in the 21st century.
Retirement certainly is an option that is being expressed these days by bloggers and sports radio callers as the league’s second all-time winningest coach struggles to right his 1-4 team. But you haven’t read or heard the suggestion from print, web, radio or TV commentators who scrum with the coach on a daily basis.
It’s hard to argue with 227 career wins and a 75-37-1 record as Lions coach since 2003, even though the Lions are at the pitiful Mendoza line with a . 200 batting average in 2009.
Still, the flak is coming fast and furious at Buono, who is being introduced to the What-have-you-done-for-us-lately? web world of Vancouver pro sports. The reward for the killing hours, the loneliness at the top and the pressures is having “Wally Bonehead” … “the coach who talks like Mother Teresa, but works like Tony Soprano” … compared to a “moron”, which describes the “moron” writing this piece who has gone “soft” on the coach.
One of the advantages of being Wally Buono, however, is that he’s also the general manager. And in the GM’s mind, the coach will be given more time to improve his coaching.
“The onus is on all of us,” Buono says. “We’re working hard to turn things around. We’re trying to resolve the issues. But the proof is on Friday night. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, ‘I’ve never, ever won a football game as a coach.’ At the end of the day, I’m on the sidelines. It’s the players who play that determine the degree of success that you have.”
Last week, at a pre-game media gathering in Hamilton, Buono spoke of football as being like armed combat, “a life and death” struggle typified by Saving Private Ryan, a bloody movie about the invasion of Normandy.
It could be viewed as another over-reaching statement by the coach, since his players won’t be looking down the barrel of an
AK-47 Friday night against the Saskatchewan Roughriders.
Yet Buono is fond of pointing out the intensity that separates football players and coaches from media and fans and how you simply can’t explain the experience to people who haven’t been through it before. Nonetheless, the coach maintains that he is persuadable and doesn’t have all the answers.
“I hope that anybody and everybody, even you guys [football media], can point out something that I’ve missed,” he says. “I’m an open-minded person. At the end of the day, it’s about winning. It’s not about yourself or your ego..”
A coterie of bloggers on Lionbackers.com, who have spent the past year advocating the move, felt a form of vindication this week when Buono decided to replace middle linebacker Javier Glatt and bring in JoJuan Armour because of the team’s lack of run-stopping ability. Buono won’t say if the web suggestion box affected his thinking in any way. But after being remarkably supportive of Glatt for so long, he finally decided to go with a more “athletic” option.
“It just wasn’t working,” he said. “Hopefully, by doing something minimal, it will have maximum effect. I guess we’re going to find out.”
His pact with the faithful, he knows, is fragile, especially in an age where fans feel entitled to their opinions and have so many public avenues to voice them. Certainly, in the span of one month, Buono has learned how caustic and rude Vancouver can be to a losing coach, though he admits his job can never be as tough as that hockey guy’s across town.
“I believe it’s a lot tougher on [Canucks coach] Alain Vigneault than it is on me,” he says. “Everybody wants a championship. Unfortunately, Alain Vigneault gets victimized for all the sins of the ‘70s, the ‘80s and the ‘90s. And that’s not fair. He’s done a good job. And coaching is never easy, especially coaching hockey players with guaranteed contracts. I respect what he does because he stands his ground, he has his principles, his methods and he doesn’t compromise because of pressure and expectations. He’s the guy out there everybody’s shootin’ at.”
Indeed, that is absolutely where he stands now. Welcome to the firing line, “Wally Bonehead.”
