Dantonio, now out of the hospital, suffered heart attack hours after his team's dramatic win over Notre Dame. Missouri coach Gary Pinkel, a former Akron Kenmore HS and Kent State star, cites stress of coaching, but also the love of it.
Michigan State coach Mark Dantonio leaving the field after the Spartans' overtime win over Notre Dame -- just hours before he suffered a heart attack he is now recovering from.The more attention paid to sports --with heightened reward for success and ridicule for failure -- the more the stress on the participants.
The heart attack suffered by Michigan State coach Mark Dantonio hours after the Spartans defeated Notre Dame, 34-31 in overtime last Saturday, prompts some thought that coaches can pay a steep price in exchange for hefty paychecks and fame -- or infamy.
Vahe Gregorian writes for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:
Explaining the absurdly audacious fake field goal he called to beat Notre Dame in overtime on Saturday, Michigan State coach Mark Dantonio said afterward that part of his reasoning was to avoid thrusting intense stress on sophomore kicker Dan Conroy to win or lose the game.
“I’d rather the pressure be on us or on me,” he said.
So absorb it he apparently did.
Hours later, Dantonio suffered a mild heart attack and had surgery to insert a stent in a clogged blood vessel leading into his heart. He is expected to make a full recovery but won’t be coaching when the Spartans play host to Northern Colorado on Saturday.
What caused the heart attack is uncertain.
Gregorian writes that Missouri coach Gary Pinkel -- an Akron Kenmore High School graduate who was a two-time honorable mention All-American tight end at Kent State -- says that the "intensity level and stress is beyond, I think, what anybody could ever imagine on a head coach."
Gregorian quotes Pinkel on reasons for the stress:
“Because of ESPN, because of the national sports scene, because of the Internet, because of all the instant communication out there,” he said. “And there’s so many media avenues that now exist, (and) the amount of money that coaches make.
“To me, it’s going to do nothing but get worse, the pressure. It’s not going to go the other way."
Even as some fans grumble that Mizzou’s 3-0 start is tainted by a 27-24 win over San Diego State, though, Pinkel, 58, isn’t complaining about the circumstances.
“This is the way the business is,” he said. “People sit there and say, `Well, can you take the pressure off?’ I don’t know how you do it. And (for) some reason you thrive on it. That’s why you do it, also. There’s this kind of love-hate deal there. You feel like hell all day Saturday waiting for the game, but then you love it.”