When Reality TV Makes a Bigger Mess of Reality

I'm not a big reality TV fan, but being a major sports fan I decided to to watch a few episodes of ESPN's "Bound for Glory", a reality show about about high school football. The basic premise is you take a sad sack high school football team, bring in a dynamic head coach and get the once prominant program on track. Of course "Bound for Glory" hired Dick Butkus as the head coach, so the combination should make for great TV right? Not exactly. The whole fiasco just feels like a three-ring circus that's more focused on making a show at the kids expense.

According to the Pittsburgh Tribune Review there were problems with the reality show that escalated when the production wrapped up before the end of the football season:

While Butkus' abrupt departure prompted furor in Western Pennsylvania high school football circles, it was met with a shrug by Montour's players, coaches and administrators.
"We found out four weeks into the season that he wasn't going to be there for the whole season. It wasn't a big shock to us," Montour junior Bryce Pfeuffer said. "I figured, even if he wasn't getting paid, he might stay with us. I guess we weren't that important to him."

To make matters worse, the team went 1-7 for the season. The strange part is that the high school had actually hired a proven coach before Butkus got there:

With Butkus gone, Lou Cerro regained complete control of the team he was hired in February to coach. Cerro led Seton-La Salle to two WPIAL Class AA championships in three years, but he took on the title of "assistant head coach" for the sake of the show.

I really love the quote from the school superintendent:

"This probably would have not gone as smoothly as it did had we not had a coach of the ilk of Lou Cerro," Montour superintendent Dr. Joseph Findley said. "He's not interested in creating his own personal mystique. Lou's main focus is developing the kids."

Hmm. Go hire a good coach, demote him, and then bring in a circus side-show to get the team back on track and then say that the reason everything didn't blow up too bad was because of the coach in the shadows. Yep, sounds like reality TV!

at Pittsburg-Tribune Review

October 31, 2005

When Reality TV Makes a Bigger Mess of Reality