Perhaps the most astute analysis of Joe Biden's current situation comes from Canadian journalist Evan Scrimshaw: “You've probably never seen a sports team so obviously trying to fire their coach, and it's so obvious.”
Yes, the Democrats are a messy team, but they're not just any sports team. To really understand what Biden is up to, you need to understand a particularly American pastime: a sport in which aging coaches get stuck in their ways and often set their teams back years, not because they have the consent of the masses, but because the few people who can tell them to get out are reluctant or refuse to have the hard conversations. Joe Biden is now a college football coach in the final days of his term.
These days of what will likely be the last of President Biden’s term are eerily similar to the atmosphere surrounding a football program in a death spiral, whether because he dropped out of the race or simply because he lost to Donald Trump. A successful college program is like a successful White House in two key ways. First, those at the top know that loose tongues sink the ship. Second, maintaining the reputation of those in charge is paramount. A smoothly functioning White House only leaks information when it’s strategic. A strong college football program doesn’t leak every practice fight to the local reporters. Even if an assistant coach thinks the head coach made a string of terrible mistakes, he doesn’t tell everyone. Just as the president of the United States still has to get the public to vote for him, the head coach still has to recruit players.
But when a coach's tenure is irretrievably ruined, the first thing to get lost is message discipline. LSU's Ed Orgeron won a national championship in 2019. The program faltered over the next two seasons, and by October 2021, program officials were filling their press notebooks with stories of Orgeron's personal life falling apart and the coach making vulgar sexual remarks to strangers at gas stations. That's when LSU announced it would fire Orgeron at the end of the season. When it became clear that Auburn University wanted to fire disappointing head coach Bryan Harsin in 2022, it seemed like no one in Alabama was going to stop gossiping about Harsin's behind-the-scenes failings. Auburn finally fired the coach after some boosters tried to oust him months earlier.
Political reporters have never suspected that Biden's White House hierarchy or connections were leaky, a stark contrast to the backstabbing Trump years. One way I've heard Biden's team described is as “unbelievably tight-knit.” Another is “always extraordinarily tight-knit.” That changed quickly in the aftermath of the big, nasty debate. Biden's mental decline has become a topic that those who know him cannot shut up about, mostly under the guise of anonymity. Democrats have become increasingly comfortable calling for his resignation. The establishment Democrats who have come forward to make these calls are reminiscent of the Texas A&M University benefactor and trustee who called for head coach Kevin Sumlin's firing after the team's disastrous 2017 season opener. “My view is he should resign right now,” said a senior A&M official. Less than three months later, A&M fired Sumlin.
Whether it's a campaign under fire or a college football team losing too many games, the task of fighting gravity falls to the communications staff. The New York Times reported that Biden aides handed prepared questions to two recent radio interviewers, giving Biden a road map of what reporters would ask. It's a major journalistic breach for a radio host, but it's not uncommon in college football, where coaches typically make weekly radio appearances. The only tough questions they face on these shows are from disgruntled fans who somehow slipped through the call screener. (Who can forget when Clemson's Dabo Swinney got into an altercation with a fan known only as Tyler, a Spartanburg native?)
Faced with being unable to win games or move battleground state polls in his direction, the Boss chose to reframe leadership as a morality play. What if Trump was elected and Biden's dire warning about a second Trump term came true? “As long as I gave it my all and did the best job I knew I could, that's what this is about,” Biden says. The Tennessee Volunteers failed to compete for the SEC Championship under coach Butch Jones, but media reports of Jones' shortcomings did not explain his team winning another title. did Win. “They won the biggest championship,” Jones said in 2016. “It's a championship for life.” A year later, Tennessee fired its life-champion coach.
Biden can't be fired, considering he's already “won” the 2024 Democratic “primary.” Many legendary coaching staffs are also virtually unfireable, and their programs have paid various costs for their coaches' refusal to give up. Bobby Bowden built Florida State into a national powerhouse in the 1970s, '80s and '90s. Bowden was 70 when he won his second national title in 1999. He coached for another decade, but his work slowly dwindled, and FSU's recruiting efforts stagnated. The university could not officially fire Bowden, but ultimately had no choice but to vaguely push him out. “Fired might be a bit of a stretch,” Bowden said later. “It's not bad being kicked out. I was definitely kicked out. I only wanted to do one more year. Oh, I'm 80.”
Four years after firing Bowden, the Seminoles were back on top, and his replacement, Jimbo Fisher, led the team to another championship. Bowden was fortunate to have his next coach bounce back quite well, turning a 7-6 team around to a 14-0 record fairly quickly. The best thing a coach can do to his credit is not only win, but also hand over the team in a healthy state. The entire state of Nebraska worships former coach Bob Devaney, but only in part because Devaney took over a mediocre program and led the Cornhuskers to their first national titles in 1970 and '71. Devaney's legend was further cemented when he retired while the Huskers were still national championship contenders, turning the program over to his own assistant coach, Tom Osborne. Osborne later became a Republican congressman, furthering the fusion of college basketball and electoral politics.
Biden wants the world to believe that the pundits, not the people, have abandoned him. But a leader in distress is a leader in distress. Sure, some Michigan fans wanted Jim Harbaugh fired after a disastrous 2020 season, but Harbaugh not only stayed, but three seasons later became a national champion. Harbaugh's reputation was as the guy who couldn't beat Ohio State, and he turned that around by beating Ohio State three times in a row. Biden's reputation is as the guy in irreversible decline, and he can't turn that around. Biden's decision is to dump a program that can win without him, or, like Bowden against Clemson, hold on until the Orange opponent wins. he.
