Coaches are wary of publicly criticizing members of their fraternity.
Hitting another coach is frowned upon. Worse in the eyes of this fraternity, though, would be calling out a coach for hitting another coach. That’s more taboo than running up the score or using a timeout near the end of a lopsided game.
So, it’s no surprise coaches were not among the folks who called for Michigan basketball coach Juwan Howard to receive a harsh punishment or even be fired after he hit Wisconsin assistant Joe Krabbenhoft in the head after a game Sunday.
In most lines of work, taking a swing at someone would get you fired on the spot. Sports are weird, though, and don’t follow the same set of life rules. Howard’s smack is the latest incident in a line of coaches getting into fights.
Howard became miffed after Wisconsin coach Greg Gard called a timeout to strategize after Michigan continued to full-court press in the closing seconds of a lopsided Badgers victory.
Gard wanted to explain himself to Howard in the handshake line, and he grasped Howard’s elbow to hold him up. Howard said afterward he didn’t like Gard touching him, but he swung at a different coach.
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Howard’s smack set off a melee between the two teams.
I can’t relate to Howard being so irked by Gard’s timeout holding him up on the job for an additional two minutes that he thought taking a swing at someone was appropriate.
But coaches empathized with the situation.
“I’ve made a lot of mistakes as a young coach. I did,” Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said. “I got myself too emotional, and it comes from being competitive. It really does. I’ve had a couple well-documented incidents that, honestly, I wish looking back wouldn’t have happened.
“I have great respect for Juwan Howard. … In the heat of the moment, there are things we all would like to do differently.”
Barnes’ most notable flare-up occurred while he was Clemson’s coach. Barnes and North Carolina’s Dean Smith got face to face in a shouting match in front of the scorer’s table after Smith took exception to a Clemson player’s foul of Jerry Stackhouse.
Like Barnes, Auburn coach Bruce Pearl refrained from putting Howard on blast.
“The coaches didn’t handle it as well,” Pearl said. “I’ve been in those situations. I’ve made mistakes. And nobody’s pointing any fingers.”
Michigan State coach Tom Izzo said the Michigan-Wisconsin incident “bothered” him, but he added that he felt bad for Howard and Gard.
“I hope for everybody’s sake, more than the punishment that’s dealt, I hope the lessons have been learned and we move forward,” Izzo said.
The lesson here is that a coach who’s a popular alumnus and took his team to the Elite Eight last season can take a swing at someone at work and retain his job.
Howard received a five-game suspension and a $40,000 fine. His suspension ends before the postseason.
If Howard was an unpopular coach who had won one-third of his games at Michigan rather than two-thirds, I suspect he’d be unemployed today.
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But Howard is hardly the first coach to fight someone and retain his job.
Legendary Ohio State football coach Woody Hayes had a history of aggression, but he wasn’t fired until after he punched an opposing player in the throat during a game.
Former Buffalo Sabers coach John Muckler hit a heckling fan after a hockey game. His penalty from him amounted to a three-game suspension and a $10,000 fine.
Threats of violence can be part of a coach’s workday, too.
John Chaney once got so angry about John Calipari working the officials during a Temple-UMass game that Chaney interrupted Calipari’s postgame news conference, charged at his coaching counterpart and vowed to kill him.
Chaney never delivered on his threat, and when he died last year, Calipari mourned the loss of his “dear friend.”
One of the most infamous coaching fights featured two guys on the same sideline. Former Houston Oilers defensive coordinator Buddy Ryan became so perturbed by offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride’s play-calling before halftime of a 1994 playoff game that Ryan punched him.
Ryan showed little remorse, saying later that Gilbride should be selling insurance, not coaching football.
USA TODAY’s longtime NFL columnist Gordon Forbes wrote that Ryan’s punch would cost him what little chance he had at landing a head coaching gig.
Oh, but not so fast. Ryan had a puncher’s chance.
A month after punching Gilbride, Ryan became the Phoenix Cardinals’ coach.
So, should Howard have been fired for smacking Krabbenhoft?
I’ll just say this: Coaches have been fired for less. They’ve also been promoted after doing worse.
Blake Toppmeyer is a SEC Columnist for the USA TODAY Network. Email him at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @btoppmeyer. If you enjoy Blake’s coverage, consider a digital subscription that will allow you access to all of it.
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George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism