Mike Leach died. I tend not to lament these things, celebrities dying, because we’re all dying every day. But Coach Leach talked a lot about the things we talk about here, and unlike most athletes and celebrities, he was interesting. He was a college football coach, most recently of Mississippi State, formerly of Texas Tech and Washington State, with other stops along the way. He was a two-time national coach of the year and three-time conference of the year and popularized the air-raid offense, which changed college football forever. None of those things made him interesting though.
After a bad loss at Texas Tech in 2003, he brought a pirate sword to the team meeting the following day. He explained to the team that he was something of a pirate aficionado, having read over 20 books on pirates at the time. [He] explained how the pirates viewed their swords the same way football players should view their bodies. “They took great pride in their swords, sharpening them just like players do their bodies by lifting the weights and doing all of the drills we do,” he said. The players said nothing. [He] swung this long sword through the air in front of them. “Your body is your sword. Are you going to swing your sword aggressively, but really out of control like you’re out there playing street ball?” [he] said as [he] began to haphazardly flail the sword around. “If you’re frantic, without being clear-minded, you put yourself into a vulnerable position. Are you going to duck your head and swing it timidly? Or are you going to have great technique and swing it without any hesitation?” Coach Leach titled his autobiography, published in 2011, Swing Your Sword, which I have not read, but will soon.
His pirate metaphor helped him rise to national prominence and 10 of his former players are elite coaches today as are at least 9 of his former assistants. Pirates also factored into his cameo in the television series, Friday Night Lights, where Coach Leach stumbles upon a disheartened fictional high school football coach, Eric Taylor in a gas station. In perhaps the greatest sports cameo in television history,
Leach tells him “You’ve lost your inner pirate.”
Coach Taylor just stares at him.
So how do you find your inner pirate?
Before Leach, Steve Jobs popularized the pirate metaphor. When Jobs felt that Apple Computer had strayed from its outsider roots, he commandeered a team and a separate facility to work on his next project. He flew a pirate flag and repeated the slogan - “It’s better to be a pirate than to join the Navy.” That team of pirates built the Mac, changing the company and the world. Much of the culture of Silicon Valley, for better or for worse, was built on this metaphor. Jobs urged his employees and the World to “Think Different”.
Of course, metaphors aren’t meant to be applied literally. Like Disney, we’re looking for the pirate’s free spirit, rebel soul, and swordsmanship, while leaving all the rape, murder, and pillaging behind.
The best pirates walked the line between rebels and the establishment. Captain Henry Morgan, of rum fame, began his life at sea in the British Navy, switched to the pirate’s life but did so under the instruction of the British Crown. He robbed every Spanish ship he could find in the Americas. Morgan was so good at it that when he retired he was named Lieutenant Governor of Jamacia.
The world conspires against rebels. The struggle between our “inner pirates” and the establishment is real.
In On The Road, a book that is more important than it is good and one that you probably won’t read, Jack Kerouac wrote:
There lies the plight of the rebels and pirates among us, they don’t all get to retire like Morgan or get fabulously rich like Jobs - sometimes they just fade away.
Jimmy Buffett wrote his famous song, A Pirate Looks at Forty about a real-life smuggler, Phillip Clark, who was lamenting the end of his time as a pirate/smuggler as he approached midlife. There is an excellent documentary featuring Mr. Clark called Square Grouper that you should watch, but likely will not. Jimmy sang “Yes, I am a pirate/two hundred years too late/
The cannons don't thunder/there's nothin' to plunder/I'm an over-forty victim of fate/Arriving too late”. It's a dirge for the pirate days of youth.
Perhaps that midlife grind is meant to bleed the pirate out of us. Jobs was bounced out of his company for his rebellious nature (albeit only to return later triumphantly to save the company later), Leach had his share of troubles with college administrators, Kerouac died reclusive and young and ole Capn Morgan was rumored to have died of alcoholism. Phillip Clark also died an untimely and unseemly smuggler’s death.
But the choice may be the point. Looking back at Leach’s quote, “Are you going to duck your head and swing it timidly? Or are you going to have great technique and swing it without any hesitation?”, it seems that this part of Leach’s metaphor is its most poignant one.
Living a deliberate life, that is - an authentic life, and accepting all of the perils and treasures that come with it may be the true lesson of the pirates. Godspeed Coach.
The swashbucklers who found him strange were right, and it is was the best part about him. As a WSU grad, I loved having him as our coach and while disappointed personally when he left, totally understood his jump to the SEC. Rest easy Coach Leach.
Good one. Long live the Pirate.