i have been wondering for years

I have been wondering for years, what has happened to the athletes around the world. We have become the most sensitive people on every topic in the sports world and country. Does the lack of having a father figure in the home hurt us or help us in some cases? I heard an alarming statistic the other night that in minority homes around the country over 70% of them are single parent and of that 70%, 90 % are woman lead homes. Is that one of the reasons why we have all become so sensitive these days? I keep hearing stories about how coaches around the country have mentally and verbally abused players in all sports. The latest story is about Mark Mangino at the University of Kansas and allegedly he has chastised his players with some choice language and condescending statements that make you scratch your head that one of the highest paid state employees would be using such language. We have all had coaches that have challenged our manhood. I can name 3 off the top of my head without blinking an eye and they never crossed the line with what they said. In fact what is the line? The word now is that since Kansas is not winning the coach is a "fat bully". When Kansas won 13 games in 2007 he was a genius and the future of the Big 12 conference. Now that they are losing, fighting with the basketball team and the school apparently has a problem with his weight he is a "villain" and a bully.
Do you remember the movie, "the Junction Boys"? It was a story about Bear Bryant coaching at Texas A&M and the harsh football camp that he put his players through. One of the players nearly died or died and the storyline was essentially about how tough this camp was and how tough Bear Bryant was. Bear was great coach at Alabama and his style of coaching made him legendary. In the 40's, 50's and 60's there seem to be evidence to support that athletes played under coaches that were tyrannical or resembled what most of the people thought a father figure was to be. Most of these athletes would listen to their coaches on the same level as they would their own fathers in other words. There was great pride in surviving "boot camp" style training with some of the teams or just even boot camp. Supposedly the training made you a man and if you could hack it you were not a man. Bear Bryant was a great coach allegedly and he was not the only coach that had that militaristic style. Adolph Rupp, Woody Hayes, Frank Kush, Vince Lombardi, Bobby Knight are famous coaches known for their tough manner in which they coach their players. Kush, Knight, and Hayes have stories about them of hitting players which cost them their jobs. Rupp and Lombardi were so feared and respected that speaking negatively about them was a sin. I have never heard anyone say anything negatively about the way any of these men coached because they all won. Bill Parcells is famous for saying stuff to his players to get them motivated and no one criticized him because they won 2 rings. So why is today's athlete so much weaker in the mind or even physically that the athlete of the previous eras.
With mommy having to work and support families these days, it seems that the lack of discipline in homes has to be the leading cause. Obesity is the reason why athletes are not cut in the same mold as well. In the NFL I would say that 30 percent of the league is over 300 pounds. In the 50's and 60's I believe that there was only a handful of players over that weight. So with obesity and I can understand why so many have died in recent years of heat exhaustion and suffer from diabetes and other physical ailments. The other side of the issue is not having father figures in the homes. My mother is a rock star and she raised me right and even though my father was not there everyday, i had enough contact from him to understand right from wrong. I had tough coaches in my day who were strict and did not tolerate much crap. I was fortunate that very team I ever played on was good and won a lot of games so I did not have to endure their wrath too much. In the 50's and 60's parents loved sending their sons to play for these "tough" men. They thought that these men would make their sons into better men. In the 70's and 80's it seemed that they were some of the same tough guy coaches around but there were other styled coaches who succeeded. Tom Landry, Bud Grant, Dean Smith are coaches that it seemed never got angry. They just won games and handled defeat with grace. John Wooden was an exception in the 50's and 60's and maybe these coaches emulated their styles. Don Shula, Joe Paterno transcended different eras and was able to blend their styles with the type of players they had. I have never heard anything negatively about them in all of my years following sports. Now the the trend of single parent homes are not a new phenomenon dont get me wrong. Many parents today send their children to schools hoping that they get the discipline and structure that get at home and more. What the parents don't want is their child losing their confidence or integrity because a bully coach is in their face 24-7. Coach Mangino made the comment that parents should not blame him for his style but they should do a better job at home so he does not have to raise their kid. He has an obligation to that child. Would i let my child be coached by a bully coach. Of course I would. I saw an HBO documentary of Pat Summitt and she was ruthless on her players for playing badly. The players were crying and apologizing and I thought one of the players was going to quit. She did not call any of them names or threaten to send them back to ghetto like Mangino allegedly has but she wasn't kind either. Pat Summitt wins and no one will ever criticize her. PERIOD!!! I dont personally blame single parent homes. Each child is different. Some children need support and adulation all of the time. Some just need the damn ball and get out of his/her way. Coaches will always emulate the person who influenced them. Not only coaches all human being do. The question is how we respond to the things said to us!! Do we take the grief or do we cry about it and turn it into a national story? A lot of people react differently to all kinds of stimuli. In hindsight we take both approaches to the topic. I think that every coach I ever played for or even every boss I have ever worked for has been tough and i take a little bit from their approaches and apply it to my life. Whatever works right?