Fans insulted in wake of Shackleford firing

While heading to my afternoon class on the first day of fall quarter, I heard the news that Head Coach Adam Shackleford of the Spokane Shock arena football team was being replaced by his assistant Rob Keefe. When one considers that Shackleford had a 49-8 record, along with leading the Shock to an Arena Cup Championship recently, it was (sorry for the pun), quite a shock.

Shock general manager, Brady Nelson, was interviewed by Q6's Sam Adams that evening. In the interview, two things stood out to me: First, Nelson said that the team, "owed it to our fans to have the very best person," in any team position, as they move to a presumably more competitive league. To that, all one really needs to do is look at the numbers (49-8) and the shiny championship ring Shackleford may have had something to do with. I think Shackleford had a good head start on any prospective candidate for his job.

The second thing that stuck out was Nelson's statement that the fans were "never gonna understand or never gonna have the information we have." Nelson should enlighten the fans, or at least give the fans credit for being more football savvy than he perceives. Instead of this, Nelson stepped on the point of view of a fan and filled in what we should think, "They must be so confident in Rob, they're willing to buck tradition, they're willing to buck public perception and risk some fan backlash", he said. "Hopefully, that's what we did, and we're not worried-we're more confident going into the next season than we ever have been."

I like Shackleford, but I'm not blind to the business side of football. Coaches get fired and, if Nelson says the Shock owe it to the fans to put the best person available in a position, then they're owed concrete answers when the man who so many think was the best coach is suddenly canned. After all, we vote our approval with ticket sales. Keeping fans informed and happy is good for business, isn't it?

If the black mark of Shackleford's firing doesn't fade on the face of the Shock organization next season, hopefully Nelson will be a little more gracious to Shock fans than he was last week.

Good luck to you Adam Shackleford. We'll miss ya.