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Health & Fitness

The Curious Case of The Epileptic Gopher Coach

Sometimes people start talking about something, and they talk about it for so long that they miss the important points of their own discussion. Sometimes they let the Rah-Rah-PR get in the way of better judgment. Sometimes even their empathetic goodwill can interfere with factual information.

Case in point: Gopher football coach Jerry Kill and his epilepsy.

Here’s a timeline to refresh your memory, just in case you missed all or part of the brouhaha.

 A couple of weeks ago --on Saturday, September 14th, to be exact -- Coach Kill experienced another “game day seizure.” That is, he suffered an epileptic fit during a home game at the U of M. So when players on the football team needed his guidance, expertise, and professional input, Coach Kill couldn’t give it to them. Once again, this coach couldn’t perform the most fundamental task in his job description: he couldn’t coach his team.

His inability to function at the most basic level wasn’t lost on fans and local sportswriters.

As Star Tribune contributor Jim Souhan so aptly stated in his article the next day, “Jerry Kill suffered another seizure on another game day, and this time his boss chose to pretend nothing was wrong.”

Take that, Athletic Director Norwood Teague!

Souhan also raised this interesting question: “How can a school continue to employ a football coach who has had four seizures during or after the 16 home games he has coached at the school, along with an unknown number of seizures away from the public eye?”

What a reasonable, intelligent question... Almost immediately, though, Souhan was attacked for his insensitivity. How dare this mere sportswriter personally deride a courageous, heroic coach struggling with the chronic healthcare impairment known as epilepsy! What could have been a thoughtful exchange of ideas on accomodating epileptics in the workplace quickly disolved into emotionally charged accusations of “epilepsy bashing.”

On Tuesday, September 17th, the newspaper published several letters to the editor that were all critical of Souhan and the opinions he raised in his column. Readers denounced Souhan’s comments as ignorant, illogical, ridiculous, even “jaw-droppingly inappropriate.” Welcome to the Dark side of Minnesota Nice. If you dare to criticize anyone for any reason, you yourself will be criticized in the most scathing way possible.

Take that, Jim Souhan! And shame on you for criticizing any sports figure who suffers from any health problem.

But one doctor’s letter to the editor at least brought up this touchy issue of working-while-epileptic. Too bad he dropped the ball by egregiously defending Kill and avoiding the real issue at hand.
“There are a few occupations -- those where incapacitation can result in risk of injury to self or others -- that individuals with epilepsy should avoid. This does not include head college football coach.”

Really, doctor? I don’t know if you’re a gynecologist or you just have a Ph.D. in English Lit, but your comments don’t make sense. You admit that epileptics might be -- should be -- limited in their choice of occupations when risk to self or others is apparent. So I guess that rules out brain surgeon, race car driver, coal miner, and astronaut. But what about working at other seemingly safe jobs?

What about farming or fishing? If those jobs sound safe and low-risk to you, think again, Doc. Being a farmer or professional fisherman might sound easygoing and stress-free to you, but these occupations are among the most dangerous ones in America today. And those stats are for healthy workers who don’t have epilepsy or other chronic health problems.

So how do you know which jobs are appropriate for epileptics?

And who determines which occupations are safe and doable for epileptics?


Furthermore, how can such a determination be made when every job carries its own apparent and hidden dangers?

There are no easy, one-size-fits-all answers to any of these questions. Unless the right questions are asked, however, the discussion will get mired down by misplaced school spirit and maudlin sympathy for chronic illnesses. The underlying issue here has to do with job performance of a coach who’s incapacitated by epilepsy. So the first question to ask is this one: How can we best accomodate this epileptic coach to function in his workplace so he can actually do the job he’s being paid to do?

That’s a start. From there, we can begin to ask other questions:
What kind of accomodations does Coach Kill need in order to do his job? Are such accomodations available? If not, why? If so, then is he currently able to do his job as head coach?
Or, is he ever going to be accomodated in the way he needs so that he can effectively function in the workplace?

Better yet, these questions should have been asked BEFORE he got hired.

That would have been the intelligent approach, anyway. Because the University of Minnesota is my alma mater, though, I know such level-headed, orderly thought from school administrators is usually impossible. Any decisions made here are devoid of logic or intellectual curiosity. The suits running this educational insitution don’t get it, and they never will. That’s why the administration approved hiring a head football coach who has a history of grande mal seizures.

Despite obvious limitations that epilepsy brings, having or not having epilepsy has nothing to do with getting hired to work at Gopher Nation.

Now the dirty little secret is out: Joe Maturi and the other selectors who hired Jerry Kill didn’t hire the guy who could do the best job. They just hired the guy they liked. That’s all there is to it.

Consider these obvious facts. The head football coach in the Big Ten has all kinds of job duties and expectations that would exhaust a healthly person. Kill was hired when Athletic Director Joe Maturi and Committee knew full well about his medical condition. They knew he was epileptic when they made him head football coach for the U of M. They were aware of his epilepsy, yet they still gave him the job. Why?

Is it really possible that, in this country of over 300 million people, Jerry Kill turned out to be the only qualified candidate for this coaching job?  Come on. They liked Jerry Kill, they really liked him. That’s why he got the job as Top Gopher.
He’s the All-American Success Story -- even if he is a loser. He works hard, plays hard. He’s a cancer survivor, he’s a good ol’ boy, and he has a cute wife. Who cares if he can do his job, anyway.

Remember, this is the University of Minnesota, not Notre Dame, not Stanford, not Ohio State. Everybody here loves a modest, unassuming loser who is engaged in some kind of courageous struggle -- and it’s not the epic struggle to win any football games.



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