A.G. Gancarski
Jacksonville’s First Coast News ran a segment earlier this week that gave an unprecedented look at Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry doing one of his favorite things: coaching his son Boyd’s football team.
The segment offered a “look at Jacksonville’s main man like you’ve never seen him before,” balancing football and family.
For those who look at the mayor’s daily schedule, they often see a block of time reserved for Boyd’s football practice, and that’s paid off: The youth Jaguars, unlike the big ones at EverBank Field, are playoff bound.
What’s interesting about the brief segment is the type of coach Curry is. Contrary to the accountant persona one might expect, he exhorts and cajoles his players between plays, and picks his starters, apparently, just before the game.
And he demands answers.
“Who did not start on first offense last time? Somebody’s not telling me something.”
Curry, who claims in the clip that he “rediscovered” football when his son was old enough to really get into it, is “intense” and “competitive,” according to the narration, pushing his players hard, especially on pivotal fourth downs.
“All right, it’s fourth down! You want this?”
No is not an acceptable answer.
As is the case with fathers coaching their kids, there is that extra little push.
“Cut the corner, Boyd! Go, go!”
As Curry, who played at Middleburg High School, knows, a running back has to be able to break around the edge.
Curry points out in the video that his son, who from all outward appearances is as strong-willed as the father, listens to other coaches before he listens to his old man.
That’s the way of the world.
One of the interesting wrinkles of the current mayor: his willingness to talk football with almost anyone on Twitter, from U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio all the way down to even political bloggers.
In following those conversations, you can get a sense not just of his football philosophy, but a philosophy of life itself.
After the Pittsburgh Steelers ran the ball in to beat the San Diego Chargers as time elapsed, Curry mentioned that “playing to win is being willing to lose while going for the win. Great game.”
You can apply that, certainly, to his “riverboat gambler “approach to reshaping the boards and commissions, and going back further, to campaign gambits that shocked some observers who majored in Faux Outrage in college.
Of course, there are limits.
After that bizarre Indianapolis Colts’ fake punt against the New England Patriots, an audacious move that failed miserably, Curry spoke for all watching when he posted the following.
“SMH.”
