A wise man once told me that the hardest thing in sports is managing the careers of stars when they fade, when they’re no longer as fast, strong, or sharp. Like Johnny Unitas, the great Baltimore Colts quarterback who struggled in San Diego. Or future hockey hall of famer Jaromir Jagr, who went to Calgary instead of leaving the NHL and then suffered the pain of being cut. Or, of course, Willie Mays. Or just about every champion boxer.
But watching Biden’s final campaign for president reminds me that the same can be said about any legendary politician. Like Coach Rob, Biden has been passionate about something for more than half a century, maybe most of his adult life. teeth He served as a New Castle (Delaware) County Councilman throughout his career and was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1972 at age 29, one of the youngest senators ever to serve in the Senate. He was subsequently re-elected six times and served as Vice President for two terms.
And now, just as Coach Robb has rejected his offer to resign and pleaded for just one more appearance to finish what he started on his own terms, President Biden, with his gaffes mounting and looking tired and weak, is doing the same.
“Whether I’m playing sports or whether I’m playing politics, I always have a tendency to just keep going and not stop,” Biden said at a news conference last week.
It’s painful to watch, and it reminds me of how journalists described the final season of baseball great Mays, who died last month, but couldn’t stop watching at age 42, or 81 — Biden’s age in baseball years.
Mays was past his prime at the time, batting .211 with the New York Mets, but the team made it to the 1973 World Series. The most memorable moment, unfortunately, came in the ninth inning of Game 2, when Mays missed second base while trying to advance from first to third on a Rusty Staub single. Mays then tripped and fell. “Rather than embarrass myself, I stopped myself,” Mays said after the game. “I don’t know why I missed the base. I think I was trying to do two things at the same time: look at the ball and touch the base.”
In the bottom of the ninth, playing in center field, Mays lost sight of a fly ball, slipped and fell face-first to the ground, but couldn’t catch it. The ball became a double. “Ten years ago, he would have put that ball in his back pocket,” Curt Gowdy told the television audience.
Biden is now like Mays in center field for the Mets.
“It’s shocking to say this,” actor George Clooney wrote in a New York Times op-ed last week, “but the Joe Biden I sat with at a fundraiser three weeks ago was not the ‘big’ Joe Biden of 2010. He wasn’t even the Joe Biden of 2020. He was the same man we all witnessed at the debates.”
“Stagnation” was a word used multiple times to describe last month’s debate between Biden and former President Donald Trump, two years shy of his 80th birthday.
The thing is, Biden isn’t the first officeholder who seems to have stayed too long on one term or one campaign. Trump, too, has made public gaffes and lost his train of thought, whatever that may be. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) was an often-disorganized speaker on the floor until her death last fall at age 90 after 60 years in office. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), 82, announced in February that he was stepping down as the longest-serving Senate Majority Leader in history after twice freezing on camera while speaking in public. McConnell is one of four octogenarians in the Senate; Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) is 90; and there are at least six U.S. House members in their 80s.
As the last century drew to a close, Coach Rob was the winningest coach in college football history. He began coaching at Grammy, a historically black school in Louisiana, in 1941. He won one black college championship after another. He saw 11 presidents take office in the White House. He sent over 100 players to the NFL and inducted several into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
But no one can escape Mother Time. In the mid-1990s, Coach Rob, who was in his late 70s, lost more games than he won. His program was also under NCAA investigation for recruiting violations. Four players were accused of rape.
The Governor also suggested it was time for Coach Robb to retire, but Coach Robb successfully lobbed for another competitive and winning season in 1997. His Tigers won the same three games as the previous season.
Doug Williams, the most decorated quarterback in the league, was selected to replace him, but Coach Rob, who was 79 years old at the time, was determined to run out the clock.
Robb continued to go to work. Williams was given a trailer in the back of the building where Robb’s office is. Williams told me last week that he hasn’t used his desk for months and that he bears no grudge against the legends he played for. Williams said he understands how hard it is to let go of something you’ve worked your whole life for, especially on someone else’s terms and not yours.
The Tigers won the season after Robb handed the title to Williams, and over the next three seasons, they went 31-5, helping Williams regain the championship luster Robb had built.
It’s easy to imagine that Gramling would not have lost momentum if Coach Rob had followed the advice of those around him sooner. Those around President Biden are growing increasingly vocal, as if they are already worried that one day they too will have the same questions.
