What might have been

Doug Williams was fired today as the head football coach at Grambling.

Williams, 58, said he received a call around 8 a.m. and was summoned to school President Frank Pogue's office. Pogue handed a letter to Williams and told him the school was going in another direction.

A school news release said the remainder of Williams' contract was bought out. He had agreed to a new three-year contract in June 2012 that paid him $250,000 a year.

It's generally understood that football coaches who work at state funded universities are technically public employees. It's conceivable, given the degree to which the NFL (especially in this state) is subsidized by public funds that we could also describe pro coaches as such. 

And that's one reason I've always wondered if maybe they shouldn't be elected.  Or at least appointed by some politically accountable body.  That way the impotent rage of the angry fan could at least be channeled into something resembling civic engagement.  Does your ideology align  more with the 3-4 or 4-3 defensive concept? Organize your neighbors and townhall that shit out. Tired of seeing Mark Ingram get too many of Pierre Thomas's carries? Quit bitching to Drunk Bobby and call your councilperson.

On the other hand, maybe don't call your councilperson.

Flashback, January 2006:

NEW ORLEANS -- The New Orleans City Council on Monday unanimously passed a resolution calling on the Saints to hire Doug Williams as the team's new coach.

The resolution urges both Saints owner Tom Benson and general manager Mickey Loomis to give "strong consideration to naming Louisiana's own Doug Williams as the Saints head coach or as a high level administrator within the Saints organization."

"Benson never called me," Williams, a pro personnel executive for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, laughed. "Loomis never called me, either."

Democracy is hard work.