Man, it’s tough to be under a microscope. Especially if you are like 7-feet tall. Like one of the soccer coaches of our past.

The 14-year-old has since give soccer away for the gridiron, but in his “younger days,” he was pretty good on the soccer pitch. He played some travel soccer-but he didn’t love it like it needed for all that effort. And he wasn’t having fun. So he moved back to the rec league, where he was placed on an established team with a great big guy running around the field with the kids who was the Coach. Coach Andy intimidated me by his stature and deep rolling voice–oh, and the police car he drove.

Turns out that he is a very funny guy who cared about all the kids on the team and made sure that my kid was welcomed, even if he was the only one from a different school. It was fun for my son to play, because that is what they did, played. And when he fell hit the grass and rolled around in pain, and I would yell, “Get up, you aren’t getting a penalty, stop acting like a European soccer prima donna,” Coach Andy would turn around and note–with a grin–that I was being a bit tough.

Coach Andy is really a good guy. It is really crummy that his remarks at a recent community meeting on the awful murder in Georgetown is what is putting him in the news. The thing is he shouldn’t have voiced what folks–black and white–readily admit is true. He can’t say it because he is The Man. And I feel bad for him, because if you knew him, you would love him, too.