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Winning Coach Has Clear Message

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By STEVE OTTO

sotto@tampatrib.com

Published: February 3, 2009

The Exchange Club meets at noon every Monday on Harbour Island.

The day after Super Bowl XLIII you could sit there and watch the rain blow in sheets across the Bay and marvel at our luck. Imagine the media coverage had the game and day been trapped in that gully-whomper.

Coincidentally, the speaker was Billy Turner, who just completed his 49th year of coaching football at the high school level around here. He is Hillsborough County's all-time win leader with 254. Technically, Billy is retired from the school system, but he still is the head coach at Chamberlain, where son Brian is the offensive coordinator as well as a teacher of students with disabilities.

Billy is old school. When Brian came onboard, he had to show his dad how to answer the hundreds of voice mails backed up on his phone. Some would think his values are old school as well. He admitted that the change he dislikes most is "that you can't play for the love of the game anymore. Even parents see high school football as only one more level their child has to reach."

"We don't coach kids to get them into the NFL or even to play in college," he says. "We want them to become decent, productive citizens."

It was good to hear a few words of sanity from the old coach after a week or so of unending hype and self-aggrandizing.

How 'Bout Those Browns?

Chip Diehl - or make that Brig. Gen. Chip Diehl, retired MacDill Air Force Base commander, or, better yet, new Grandpa Diehl, as of a granddaughter Saturday morning - says the real winners of this year's Super Bowl were the Cleveland Browns.

The general has this point:

"The Cleveland Browns are winners of the Super Bowl. In these economic times the Browns continue to support the great Americans who served and sacrificed for our safety and freedom. Sad part is we have a renowned VA hospital here with several severely wounded in recovery and rehab - wish we could get support for them since the game is here."

The NFL's Browns for several years have donated some of their allotment of tickets to wounded Marines. Forty Marines, injured in Iraq and Afghanistan, were flown in to enjoy the game.

The Super City

The bulk of e-mails and snail mail this week focused on a column about Tampa's quirkier sides and how we prepared for the Super Bowl.

"LaBelle's" e-mail said: "I am so glad he brought up the palm trees. I just mentioned here TBO that that ticked me off because they couldn't just beautify for the locals Tax payers ... they had to wait and plant those for Super Bowl. Also I hate that they call it Tampa Bay. ... Oops, am I not showing my game face? Now that is an insulting campaign. He that would be me forgot to mention how Mayor Pam Iorio doesn't do anything to clean the river, but spends a ton of money on a riverwalk."

Mike Williams writes: "When you wrote, 'There are a million stories here in the naked city,' you were closer than you realized. Has any other city sold itself out to glitz at the expense of its citizens? How many of us stayed home most of the week because we knew we weren't wanted?"

Keyword: Otto Graphs, for more of Steve Otto's musings.

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