What? Bill O’Brien doesn’t seem very happy about being in Happy Valley?
Fine. Time to go Dr. Phil on him:
“If you love someone, set him free. If he comes back, he’s yours. If he doesn’t, it wasn’t meant to be.”
As we hurtle toward O’Brien’s one-year anniversary at Penn State, and the (still, for now) Penn State head football coach starts to make the NFL interview rounds, his current bosses Rodney Erickson and Dave Joyner may consider this negotiating strategy:
Rip up O’Brien’s contract. Make him a totally free agent. At least for the next two weeks.
That’s right: Give OB a hall pass. Yes, like the movie. And just like his players. As it is, they now have a whopping 30 weeks of total freedom.
Under the NCAA sanctions, every single Penn State football player has between now and the start of official summer practices in August to transfer without penalty. They can switch teams and play immediately. O’Brien cannot. He is semi-locked into a multi-year contract that would cost him millions and millions of dollars to break. Or, more accurately, cost a new employer millions and millions.
What’s good for the goslings should be for the good of the gander. If O’Brien — who reportedly has already interviewed with the Cleveland Browns — wants to duck out, let him. But only for the next two weeks. That’s plenty of time to openly huddle with whomever he wants. Give O’Brien that window of opportunity to take a clear view of the NFL landscape, however painful that would be to Nittany Lion fans, players and recruits.
Call it a time-out. In recognition of what O’Brien’s done since he was hired as Penn State’s 15th head football coach on Jan. 6, 2012, to clear the air, to allow Penn State to continue (to try) to move forward, Erickson and Joyner should let O’Brien out of his reported $2.3 million per, nine-year deal. For now.
That would heighten the speculation for 14 days, but – mostly – end it after that.
As much as Erickson and Joyner could be part of the solution, they are part of the problem. O’Brien is working for two full-time temps and it is a grating situation for him, much moreso than people realize. Right now, he is much more invested in Penn State’s longtime future – financially, emotionally, contractually — than his president and athletic director, ostensibly his bosses. And most certainly the pair who hold the biggest keys to his immediate future.
Erickson, Penn State’s president, is a lame duck, with a replacement slated to come on board no later than Jan. 1, 2014. Erickson has said he has no plans to replace his A.D. in Joyner. And the Freeh Report has dictated that Penn State do a national search for an athletic director. So, in 18 months or so, of the president, the athletic director and the head football coach, only the football coach is expected to be around.
And that is in doubt. We do know this: OB has been the face and voice – internal and external – of a Penn State that is attempting to coalesce its alumni, fan and national media audiences.
All of which makes him more valuable to Penn State, and gives him the ability to re-negotiate now in a situation that is equal parts unique, bizarre, sad and maddening. That O’Brien – away on vacation, his agent Joe Linta told Altoona TV station WTAJ earlier this week — is not repudiating these reports publicly, and that some 2013 recruits have expressed public concern, is chipping into the tower of goodwill that OB has rightfully generated.
Perceptions are that:
A.) O’Brien’s agent is working behind-the-scenes to reduce or negate O’Brien’s Penn State contract’s length and/or its huge buyout figure. OB’s leverage has never, and likely will not ever be, better.
B.) O’Brien is serious about leaving, hence the visit to Cleveland (ah, the Brown grad could go to the Browns). Gov. Corbett’s pronouncement probably doesn’t help matters. This is not a quagmire of O’Brien’s doing, and he has to be wondering if it will ever stop. I mean, who isn’t?
Then there’s also: C.) O’Brien is a man of his word, a remarkable stand-up guy not getting caught up in any of this fervor, which has been the case for the past year. Looking less likely.
True or not, the lack of a public statement fuels the fire. Like this email to me from an ardent Penn State supporter for over 50 years, a man at the pinnacle of his profession: “This is starting to piss me off. He’s either staying or he should leave now.”
So, giving O’Brien a two-week hall pass starting today will:
— Let Penn State’s incoming recruits know O’Brien’s status before their own decision date, Feb. 6, when they can first sign their National Letter of Intent.
— Allow O’Brien to openly (key word here) answer the call if and when the seven NFL teams sans head coaches come knocking.
— Fairly quickly bring to an end, at least a little while, one of the several maddening Sandusky scandal storylines that will just never die.
— If O’Brien takes an NFL job, give Penn State time to promote Ron Vanderlinden or Larry Johnson, or bring back interim-coach-in-exile Tom Bradley to be the next head coach. Or maybe even Jay. Ain’t none of those guys gonna interview with Cleveland after one year as head coach, that’s for sure.
If O’Brien agrees to the contractual hiatus, good for him. He did Penn State a great service the past year in a way that few could have. And despite his $2.3 mil per deal, he’s not rich. O’Brien never pulled down big bucks coaching in the college ranks for nearly 15 years. And when he arrived in New England to work for the Patriots as a coffee-making, film-crunching grunt in 2007, he bet his small life savings on making it big. That eventually happened, but only in the final year or so of his deal with the Pats. His personal coffers are not big.
His wife Colleen, an attorney by trade, was and is a stay-at-home, with two boys – one of them a special needs child. It is, no doubt, an emotionally and financially draining situation. O’Brien’s high-earning years are only beginning. You can truly believe O’Brien if and when he says he’s “making this move for the good of my family.” Whatever that move may be.
That way this will-he-, won’t-he-go game of speculation can end. For now.
If O’Brien stays, he truly wants to be at Penn State. He’s certainly lived every minute of the past year that I’ve seen – and what several players have told me – that way. And with the two-week hall pass, he gets a do-over, a mulligan to decide again now knowing what he does about the unprecedented onerous NCAA sanctions.
And if he wants to go, now he can. With impunity, without financial penalty. With great gratitude, without rancor.
But then that’s it. (At least until next December.)
Related Article:
Report: Penn State Making Push to Ensure O’Brien Remains Coach, Jan. 3, 2012
