Maybe Peyton can save our schools
Let’s assume that at some point in the near future, Peyton Manning does the expected and retires from professional football. His mother, Olivia, said this to ESPN.com and the Los Angeles Times on Sunday night: “I would like for Peyton to retire, I would.”
His father, Archie, told the network on Monday that regardless of what decision his middle son makes about his football career, the quarterback’s time in Denver is likely at an end.
But let’s return to Peyton’s mom, who said of her reasons for wanting him to call it quits: “Well, we’re on top, and physically I just don’t think it’s worth going on. You won a Super Bowl. That’s the best way to go out.”
And she’s right, of course. Mothers always are. When you’ve been given a fairy-tale finish to a fantastic career, be smart enough to recognize it. Walk away while you can still clearly remember the fairy tale. Walk away while you can still walk.
But what’s a future Hall of Fame quarterback to do after football? To borrow a line from the classic movie “White Christmas,” what do you do with a general when he’s through being a general? Or in this case, the sheriff?
So here’s a suggestion for the Hamilton County Board of Education as it searches for a permanent replacement for Rick Smith, its outgoing superintendent. Hire Manning. This isn’t a joke. Especially in light of the Ooltewah High School scandal involving older players being accused of raping a younger teammate with a pool cue. And understand that there will be those who will justifiably bring up Manning’s past sexual misconduct case with a University of Tennessee
athletic trainer during his Big Orange playing days.
That civil case, which was settled out of court, is certainly a red flag even 20 years later, and one that Manning will at some point be forced to address in a general way if he ever seeks to coach or administrate at a public high school or university or run for public office.
But to view his good works during so much of his professional career — everything from this city’s Chattanooga Heroes Fund to aid the families of the five servicemen killed in the July 16 terrorist attacks to his scholarship program at UT — is to view a person whose heart and soul and mind obviously want to make the world a better place.
And given that he lives here at least part of the year, why not ask him to become the most famous superintendent in the country for a school system that has become one of the nation’s most infamous due to the Ooltewah disaster?
For a better reason why, merely read these excerpts from his 2014 address to the University of Virginia’s graduating class to discover a philosophy that is sorely needed in both Hamilton County’s schools and the nation over.
“If the real world isn’t kind to newcomers, it’s because the people in it have chosen to be unkind,” Manning said. “You can change that. More than half the world’s population is under 30. The sheer number of you creates a gigantic opportunity to change the workplace as we know it, to make it a more civil place to be. Shake it up. Throw open the shutters and let a little fresh air in. Make kindness a priority, not a blurred line.” But he was just warming up. “You’re the generation that can put ethics and values back in vogue again,” he continued. “You’re the generation that can challenge the leaders of business, government and other professions to make decisions based not solely on the bottom line, but also on what’s good for your community and others halfway around the world.”
Later, he urged his audience to “Show the world by your actions that you understand where the real sustainable value is. Studies show that the public has lost trust with authority. When you’re chided for your naivety, and you will be, remind your critics that an amateur built the ark, experts built the Titanic.”
We have never needed kindness and ethics and values to become a constant in our schools, all our schools, more than now.
And while it might be folly to reach out to Manning to lead such a charge — and not only because of his long-ago past in a UT training room but also the fact that this past season he made more money per game (approximately $900,000) than he’d make in multiple years running the school system — thinking outside the box could surely have merit.
So if not Manning himself, the school board would do well to find someone who mirrors his message, whether that person ultimately comes from the public or private sector, or inside or outside the education machine.
But at the risk of alienating those candidates who have spent a lifetime inside public education, experts did build the Titanic — and it would be hard to find a more Titanic mess these days than the Hamilton County school system.
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.