Syracuse was defeated at home by Louisville Friday night in a game that saw Syracuse look out of sorts at multiple times. After the game, Syracuse head coach Scott Shafer made some awkward references to ISIS when asked about the emotions that run through his head at times when things are not going so well on the field.
Frustration? Despair? Nah. Shafer says life is good because he gets to coach football while others are getting heads cut off by ISIS. Wait, what?
“I’m the luckiest guy alive,” Shafer said. “I see ISIS is out there cutting people’s’ heads off. The real world has some major problems, major problems... To me, life’s pretty damn good. I’m so lucky to be getting to field these kinds of questions.”
Skip ahead to the 2:10 mark of this video...
We get it. Coaching college football by far is less important than the issues facing the real world out there in our country and beyond. This is probably not the best way for a coach to get his point across given the sensitivity of the topic going on right now. Then again, Shafer is not one to make use of a filter too often. Shafer got into a little heat for his comments regarding weather conditions in Atlanta when he was on a recruiting trip as well. Shafer called Atlanta soft-nosed this past January, when the city was crippled by a lack of planning to handle a rare ice storm.
As a general rule of thumb, coaches should probably avoid making any references or comparisons to wars, national tragedies and other forms of conflict going on to defend a position or opinion. It may make sense, but it just comes off as cringe-worthy.
