The Deification of The "Tough Coach"

If there's one thing that bothers me about the NFL community (media, fans, etc.), it's the fetishism for "tough" or "no-nonsense" coaches. I don't know why we seem to have this pathological need to see grown men chewed out by some emotionally unstable *******, but everywhere I look, I see paeans to these individuals. Take this Sports Illustrated piece by John Lopez. His thesis: tough coaches are needed because of the prevalence of spoiled behavior on the part of star athletes. Fair enough—this is the type of thing one sees everywhere. Look at his examples, though. Michael Crabtree? Nonsensical considering the entire article is basically set up to praise 49ers coach Mike Singletary. OK, maybe one could argue that Crabtree hasn't been around Singletary to sufficiently absorb his toughness (how does that happen, by the way? Osmosis?). But Tom Brady? Yeah, Bill Belichick is a real softy. After a tough Jets loss last week, he took his players ou...