larry cox

Soccer Match_USA-Thailand Hi Stuart, Hope your day is going well. Love your show. Very informative with enough laughs thrown in to keep it fun. I want to address the soccer match and the comments you had on the blowout of Thailand. I agree with you that the celebrations should have subsided after it got past (8) goals. But, I want to share something with you that Lou Holtz said in an interview and I think in his book. I mention this since I think you have Coach Holtz on your show on occasion. If I’m wrong my apologies but the message still applies. Back in the early ‘70’s Coach Holtz was coaching William & Mary and Bobby Bowden was coaching West Virginia. I’m not quoting Coach Holtz word for word but the story he shared went something like this: West Virginia was beating William & Mary pretty good at halftime and went on to win the game pretty handily. Coach Holtz was a bit upset after game because he felt that Coach Bowden run up the score in the second half of game. So, at end of game Coach Holtz run out to congratulate Coach Bowden. When Coach Holtz got to Coach Bowden he stated “Coach, I thought we were friends, why would you run up the score on us like that. Coach Bowden shook Coach Holtz’s hand and told Coach Holtz, “that is your responsibility Coach, not mine”. Coach Holtz said he never forgot that statement from Coach Bowden and it helped shape his career from that point forward. He realized that he had no idea if Coach Bowden was trying to “run up score”’. Coach Bowden was probably playing his 2nd and 3rd string players the whole second half. But he also realized if you don’t want to get embarrassed in a loss then don’t lose. As we know both coaches are 2 of the best of all time. In American football, you have to play as hard as you can regardless of the score. You let up and you risk injury. Sometimes the 3rd and 4th team players are better than the other teams starters. At some point Thailand quit. It may have been after it was 2-0 or it may have been before game started. The USA team should have laid off the celebrating after scoring once it got out of hand but they practice half their life to score one goal in the World Cup. Celebrating can be curtailed but playing your best at all times is always the only option. Regards, Larry