In life, we often hear about the "almighty dollar," where one needs only to follow the paper trail of cash to figure out the source of a problem, be it politics, business practice, etc.
In sports, the almighty dollar is certainly there, but an even greater force is also at play.
The almighty win.
Thus far, I admit, I have not entirely warmed up to Georgia's new head coach, Kirby Smart.
He pulled in the reigns on the school's once-bragged-about transfer policy, making sure that a player (reserve tailback A.J. Turman) couldn't transfer to Miami (former head coach Mark Richt's new home), even when that player expressed no interest in such a transfer.
I can understand limiting transfers within your conference or future opponents. One needs only to watch the 2013 Auburn game to understand why.
But Smart has struck a not-so-harmonious chord to those of us who work in journalism, not denying that he played a role in a piece of 11th hour legislation that would extend the time public universities' athletic departments in Georgia respond to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA in journalism parlance) requests to 90 days.
Three months.
Unlike every other state in the SEC footprint by a mile.
The current rule requires a window of response that doesn't exceed three business days. That response can include reasons why it might take longer.
Now athletic departments at many of the state's schools can operate in three months' secrecy before letting any information to the public.
Imagine if somebody like Jerry Sandusky were allowed to continue operating for three months without the public knowing what their tax dollars were funding.
Smart was asked about his role by the AJC, and immediately began deflecting questions about it, reportedly.
I say all this because here we stand, on the cusp of Opening Day for baseball as the spring temperatures start to rise, and I admit that I'm not thrilled about the Smart Era so far.
There's a certain disconnect between liking a person as a coach and as a person, something I never troubled with the previous 15 seasons. Something I'm struggling to grasp now.
But then again, if Smart starts winning ball games come September, nobody's going to remember a thing about those silly open records laws we media types got all in a tizzy about last March.
