WPost Email: Jansen, Arrington Watch Helplessly

[MTK]

SC, have you ever overexaggerated something?

Like having a bad day at work and complaining to a co-worker that you're having the worst day of your life today? Obviously having a bad day at work isn't the worst day of your life.

Or how about when you're really hungry and you might say to someone you're starving, of course you're not really starving in the true sense.

I think you're looking too far in to this and taking him too literal.

[sportscurmudgeon]

Matty:

Since I listen to LaVar on WTEM just about every Monday afternoon (I miss it when I'm out of town), this is not unusual for him. Everything is the "toughest thing he's ever had to endure" and every loss is the "worst in my life".

The problem is that LaVar is like the little boy who cried wolf; he's losing his credibility as a font of reason. And in the vast majority of cases, leaders need to be reasonable. That applies to sports teams and to real life. Leaders who are irrational tend to be "cult figures" - or worse - who usually do not lead people/organizations to glorious ends.

Examples of irrational leaders might be:

Jim Jones
David Koresh
Adolf Hitler
Charles Manson

Obviously, the Redskins need leadership but they need leadership of the rational kind. And LaVar is spending his "rational coins" fast and furious...

[MTK]

Originally Posted by sportscurmudgeon

Matty:


Examples of irrational leaders might be:

Jim Jones
David Koresh
Adolf Hitler
Charles Manson

How exactly did you get these guys worked in to a comparison of leadership styles with LaVar Arrington, who is just a football player as you say?

A little bit of an irrational comparison in my opinion, or perhaps an overexaggeration?

[SmootSmack]

Yeah I don't get how you compare LaVar to Hitler, Manson et al.

[joecrisp]

LaVar takes losing to heart. In this day and age where you see losing players laughing and chatting it up with the opposing players after a game, it's good to see that LaVar has a real emotional investment in the outcome of the game, and he takes it personally when he sees opponents having fun at his and his teammates' expense.

I think any ultra-competitive person knows how much it hurts to lose; how it can make your blood boil to the point that you feel like you could explode [/exaggeration]. LaVar's expressiveness about that pain and anger naturally takes on a hyperbolic tone by virtue of how much he really cares. I think that's a positive thing, and I hope his teammates feel the same way.

Heck, Dick Vermeil cries all the time, but I don't think you'd find anyone in the organizations he's been associated with that would say he's an irrational or poor leader. That kind of passion is precisely what makes a leader great, in my opinion. It inspires a passionate response in those around them.