🏈 Armchair sociology: the Packers and firing culture

"Arrogance and wealth have always gone hand in hand." [READER]( The Daily Reader January 30, 2024 The Green Bay Packers fired Chris Gizzi last week. I realize that news means nothing to most of you. But it relates to larger trends in civilization. Chris Gizzi was the Packers’s Strength and Conditioning Coach. As any Bears fan can tell you, the Packers are big and strong and hard to move around. So it sure seems Gizzi was doing a good job. But a key Packers receiver hurt his hamstring. That’s not surprising. Football is a horrifically violent sport. Guys are always getting hurt. They stop and turn on a dime. Hamstrings are always snapping. Yet, somehow it’s Gizzi’s fault because—you gotta blame someone. So they fired him. This is part of a larger trend sociologists call the firing culture. Actually, I’m the only one who calls it that, and I’m not a sociologist. Stay with me anyway. I blame the firing culture on several factors. Cell phones: they give us instant updates on everything, including sports injuries. Which leads to speculation about injuries. And knee-jerk blaming. Which leads to firing. Cause once you’ve blamed somebody for something, you gotta fire them. I also blame it on rich guys who think they’re so smart because they’re so rich. I realize arrogance and wealth have always gone hand in hand. But attitudes seem to be getting worse. Call it Trump envy. Follow me, folks, here comes more instant sociology. Trump’s career was boosted by hosting a television show where he fired people. Clearly, a lot of sports owners want to be just like Trump. I know what you’re thinking, Packers fans. You’re thinking, “Ben, the Packers are not owned by one megalomaniac rich guy. They’re a publicly-traded entity owned by their shareholders.” True, but their head coach—who, apparently, came up with the idea of firing Gizzi—thinks he’s really smart. I can’t blame him for thinking that. Sportswriters are always telling him how smart he is. He’s one of those coaches about whom sportswriters say . . . He’s playing chess while everyone else is playing checkers. Sportswriters love using the chess and checkers analogy. Even though many have never played chess and aren’t that good at checkers. Anyway, blaming the weight-room coach for a player's hamstring injury sounds like something a guy who thinks he’s playing chess while everyone else is playing checkers would come up with. I don't want you to think I’m picking on the Packers. Coaches are getting fired all over the place these days. The Milwaukee Bucks just fired their coach even though his team had one of the best records in the NBA. They then agreed to pay another coach $40 million to coach the team. Meanwhile, they’re still paying the coach they fired before they fired this last coach. So they’ve got three coaches—two of whom have been fired—on the payroll making millions and millions of dollars. It’s like the Bears insisting they need a new stadium even though we’re still paying for the one they already occupy. Which only encouraged the White Sox to seek a new stadium, even though we’re still paying for the one they built just 30 years ago. I’ll stop before I go on an extended riff about how there's always more money for new baseball fields or football arenas or coaches or weight-lifting guys. But never any money for, say, affordable housing in Englewood. Whoever came up with this system should be fired. 🎙Listen to [The Ben Joravsky Show]( 🎙 [The Secret Hours]( the latest thriller from British author Mick Herron. Arionne Nettles on the new movie musical version of [Mean Girls](. [Ben Joravsky]( (from July 2023) on the Delmarie Bears plan. [Best of the Ben J. 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