Editor’s Note: A few readers have suggested Missy Shafer’s comments were merely a light-hearted joke. I was not present when she said them. I am reacting to reading them in print. I have searched for the video of them, I have not found it. If you have a link, please email me: damon.amendolara@cbsradio.com. If she thinks the press and fans were fair to her husband, then it was lost in translation and I have no problem with them. The “You can’t win with a 5th-string quarterback” comments though, cannot be perceived as a joke. That suggests her husband got a raw deal, which I completely disagree with. -DA¬†
* * *
I know these are emotional times for the Shafer family. I respect any spouse who will defend their loved one. But Missy Shafer’s comments are ridiculous. Bud Poliquin quoted her as saying, “You won’t have him to torture anymore. Now, you can torture the next guy.”
Torture huh? You consider this torture, Mrs. Shafer? Your husband made $1.3 million per season for three years. So before taxes, your family banked approximately $4 million since 2013. To coach football and answer questions at press conferences. This is torture?
For that $4 million, your husband delivered 14 wins. That means for every victory, Scott brought home about $285,000. Which is about twice the annual income of some of the¬†extremely fortunate households that came to support the Orange over back-to-back disgusting seasons. I’m sure the Shafers live in a beautiful, big house. With beautiful, nice new cars. And all the bills paid, and educations paid for, and no one scrambling to make ends meet for the holidays, or keep the lights on, or put food on the table. These are a lot of things that many people find torturous. Wasn’t it Scott Shafer that once reminded us not to blow football out of proportion? That it wasn’t ISIS, so we should keep things in perspective? Missy seems to be a little melodramatic.
“You can’t win with a fifth-string quarterback,” Missy also apparently said. Which she might be right about. Although Urban Meyer seemed to find a way to win a national championship with his third-string QB. Not that anyone on the SU roster is Cardale Jones, but Scott also seemed to have problems winning with a first-string quarterback. And first-string everything else. That’s the rub.
Again, I understand this is a raw moment for the Shafers, and I’d love to have my wife go to bat for me as well. But if dealing with the sharks of the cutthroat Central New York press (insert sarcasm font) for millions of dollars was such torture, maybe the Shafers should’ve been shown the door out of town before this. It’s a one newspaper city, with a pretty even-handed SU media. It’s not tabloid-ish, it’s not a culture of sports talk screamers, there’s no gotcha journos looking to cream the school. Yes, some fans booed. Some wanted him gone. But most just didn’t show up. There’s more apathy than anger. You notice those 30,000 empty seats at the Dome yesterday?
Torture? What exactly does Missy Shafer think it would be like to be the wife of Chip Kelly right now? Mark Richt? Steve Sarkesian? You think that might be a little tougher than clicking on Syracuse.com on Sundays and seeing the win-loss record?
Torture. That’s great. I wrote about this the day Shafer was canned. Everything about him is Painesville, Ohio. Some of that is great. I think he’s genuinely a good guy, I think he’s pretty honest, he cares about his players, and he wanted to turn this thing around. He seems to have a solid family, and two pleasant children. But as he snapped at critics, and overall seemed to lose control of his emotions by the end, it proved he was in over his head. Tortured by the media and fans? Maybe the family would be more comfortable at Painesville High.
I’d have one question for Missy Shafer if she felt this was such a torturous experience.
So how do you think the fans felt?
Posted: Damon Amendolara
