Team videographer Declan Sullivan fell to his death last week when the scissor lift he was operating toppled in a heavy windstorm. The accident occurred at a Notre Dame practice.
Despite 50-mph winds, Kelly ordered the team to practice outside in the gusts. Sullivan did his job despite his fears, as he expressed online with his Twitter account minutes before the accident occurred.
Major college football programs have several levels of authority. Someone in that chain should have told Sullivan not to board the lift. That didn’t happen.
Ultimately, that responsibility falls on Kelly.
It isn’t unreasonable to expect a coach to manage safety concerns on his football field, especially obvious ones. Anyone with decent eyesight can spot something as precarious as the situation that was developing at Notre Dame.
This sounds like common sense, or just basic leadership, but as coaching becomes more of a profession, it has become lacking at all levels. Coaching isn’t just X’s and O’s, and it means more than winning or losing.
It requires leadership in areas that go beyond the football field.
It means taking responsibility. That’s the first and foremost job of anyone in any leadership position, including coaching.
To that end, Kelly and Notre Dame failed miserably.
Contact this writer at obethel@coxohio.com
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