Writer: Want Real Stress, Talk To Someone In Unemployment Line

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Mike Bianchi of The Orlando Sentinel has a message for all the folks worried about Urban Meyer’s stress level: Go to the unemployment office and talk to the folks who can’t find work.

“In the last couple of months — ever since tightly wound University of Florida football coach Urban Meyer’s resignation/leave-of-absence/long weekend — there have been numerous accounts written and broadcast about how these tortured coaches are so wracked with stress that you wonder how they can possibly cope with their miserable existence.”

Sounds like a heartless sportswriter, no?

Well, Mr. Bianchi put his money where his laptop is and actually visited an unemployment office in Central Florida.  He feels his point — “stop crying for these millionaire football coaches” — was proven out by some of the comments he heard while there.

For example, one unemployed roofer told Mr. Bianchi, “You want pressure?  Try getting a job right now.  It’s damn near impossible.”

I get it.

And while I agree with the writer when it comes to the fact there are greater things to worry about than making a fourth-and-one in a football game, I believe he shows a fundamental misunderstanding of stress.

Some people simply process stress differently.  It sounds nice and easy to say, “Suck it up and stop worrying,” but if you’re a worrier, that’s a helluva lot easier said than done.  Sort of like telling an alcoholic, “just stop drinking.”

So while I agree that if Meyer were an unemployed roofer his stresses, concerns and worries would be different than they are now… that doesn’t mean his current stresses, concerns and worries are any less real to him.

If you can’t process stress, running out of ketchup can be cause for a tantrum.  (Note to self: buy ketchup.)

If you pour yourself into your job and work around the clock at it, yes, it can be just as stressful to you as the guy who’s worried about finding a job or making a house payment.

Let’s not forget that Meyer took an ambulance ride to the emergency room after his wife found him unresponsive on the floor following complaints about chest pains.  I wonder if Mr. Bianchi would like to tell Meyer’s family that his stress isn’t “real” stress.

Think of it this way, do you think that Mr. Bianchi ever gets upset about something that goes awry in The Sentinel’s offices?  Maybe the coffee is always cold.  Or the guy in the seat next to him talks too loudly.

Now, if he ever complains about that, someone could easily say, “Hey, some people have cancer, so stop yer whining.”  Technically, they’d be right.  But every man’s minute-to-minute world is his own.  Humans aren’t exactly known for having proper perspective 24/7.

While I think Mr. Bianchi misunderstands the stress on Meyer, I do believe he’s heading in a general direction that I agree with.

When all of this came about in late December, I wrote that for millions of Americans struggling to make a car payment or dealing with a sick loved one, there’s no way to walk away from their stress.  They can’t quit.  They can’t listen to what their bodies are telling them.

But Meyer can.  He has the millions.  He has the ability to walk away from what causes him the most stress. 

And he’s choosing not to.

I’m not going to sit here and tell a man that his stress isn’t as real as another man’s.  But I will say that a man who can afford to walk away from his stress should.  There are thousands and thousands and thousands of people who would do absolutely that if THEY could.

And I bet that includes that unemployed roofer.

So Meyer isn’t being a cry-baby.  He’s being an idiot.  There’s a difference.

Florida’s coach has an opportunity that millions would kill for and he’s not going to take it.  And depending on future chest/heart episodes, it could win up killing him.

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