UConn Coach v. The Blogger

I should probably preface this blog entry by saying that I am a huge sports fan (hey, I'm from Buffalo... it's required!) and I have the upmost respect for professional and college athletes, coaches and staff. However, I also think that most sports stars are grossly overpaid.

The UConn men's basketball coach Jim Calhoun exploded at blogger Ken Krayeske at a press conference last year. Krayeske asked Calhoun about the fact that he is the highest paid state employee in Connecticut when state employees are being forced to take pay cuts due to the failing economy. Calhoun's arrogant and insensitive answer really bothered me. In the time of an economic recession, shouldn't someone who is earning millions of dollars take a little pay cut so that those less fortunate have an opportunity to make a living? I don't deny that he's successful and works hard, but so do people with lower profile jobs. I found Calhoun's explanation that he "wants to retire" to be especially troubling. Lately, fewer and fewer people are able to have that luxury. There are people starving to death and living in poverty around the world. For him to imply that he needs millions of dollars to have a comfortable retirement is sickening and insensitive.

I respect the fact that Krayeske had the ambition and nerve to ask a question that quite frankly needed to be asked. While he enjoys a freedom that mainstream journalists don't have, he probably should have gone about asking his question in a different way. Personally, I think that I am less confrontational than Krayeske is, so I absolutely would have worded the question differently. I would have said something like, "In a time when there are budget cuts all over the state and many are struggling financially, do you think that your salary also should have taken a cut like others' have?" And then I would have expanded on there based on what he said. However, based on the Youtube clip of Calhoun that I saw (I don't really know anything else about him- I'm not a UConn fan), I don't really think that there was a way that you could ask him that question without him exploding and acting like a pompous jerk. He seemed to have a very arrogant and confrontational personality so there probably was no way to ask the question without him getting upset.

However, it was a question that needed to be asked. I think other sports figures need to answer the same question.