Jay Cobb let his football players down

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August 17, 2009

CJ Editorial

Anonymous The Commonwealth Journal Mon Aug 17, 2009, 09:09 PM EDT

Somerset — Most high school coaches — the respected ones, to be sure — have their athletes’ best interest at heart.

Most would sacrifice for the good of the young men or women who toil for them on a daily basis.

These coaches are role models. Leaders. They set examples for our young people.

So with that in mind, good riddance to Jay Cobb.

Cobb, the Somerset High School football coach for better than a decade, sold his kids down the road last week when he bailed out on the program less than two weeks before its season opener.

He did it unapol-ogetically. He did it with the arrogance of a self-centered child who didn’t get his way.

So he took his ball and went home.

His letter of resignation pointed out a few weak beefs he had with the Somerset administration — an administration which, quite frankly, has been all-too-kind to Cobb over the years.

But we suspect the real issue that rubbed Cobb the wrong way was money. Sources close to the program claim Cobb left because he lost a few bucks pay. Times are tough, and evidently several employees in the school system were handed what amounted to a pay cut.

In essence, Cobb abandoned his team over a few dollars and cents.

We wonder how many times over the years Cobb encouraged his players not to throw in the towel in the face of adversity. We wonder how many times he implored them to dig deep for a courageous, selfless effort that would benefit the team.

If he did ask his kids for that kind of effort, he’s a hypocrite.

When the going got tough, Cobb quit like a dog.

So forget about his 84 wins and any measure of success he garnered at Somerset during his tenure.

Cobb threw all of that out the door when he turned his back on his team.

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