This week, college basketball started the season for the first time in almost 30 years without the loveable oaf that is Bobby Knight.

No red sweater, no white hair, no sideline chair launchings. And what did this saint of a coach do to get canned like a common Michigan autoworker? He (allegedly) grabbed a player on the arm and yelled at him.

OK, OK. So he did have, let us say, a history of violence and yes, he did choke a player. But why he's gone isn't nearly as important as the fact that he is gone. Another year, another four-dozen coaches get fired. Usually, it's for losing. Sometimes it's for "personality conflicts." Occasionally, it's for spite. Rarely, it's for incredibly stupid acts (see above).

The job of a coach in sports is a tenuous one, at best. Most normal people don't expect to get fired once, maybe twice in their life, except those who know how moronic or grossly incompetent they are. But coaches, oh boy, do they know how to get fired or what?

The Dallas Cowboys (America's Penitentiary Team) had all of two coaches for something like 35 years and then bam! Three more coaches in five years. All of whom got to the playoffs and one of which won the Super Bowl.

It seems like to succeed at being a head coach or manager is to win it all every year. Which means that the only coach in the New York area with a safe job is Joe Torre, and ironically that's the only one under George Steinbrenner.

The New Jersey Devils fired their head coach last year two weeks before the playoffs following a eight game losing streak. Now, I'm not saying they were being fickle, but I've seen guys rewarded for leading their team into oblivion with extensions and bonuses.

Tom Kelly in Minnesota has the longest tenure of any manager in baseball, having been with the franchise for something like 16 years. This is a team who has not been .500 for quite some time now and only this year is there even talk about getting rid of him. If there was any case for firing a guy, this is it.

But then again, how is their record Kelly's fault? The GMs are the ones who make the trades and are supposed to be cultivating the farm system. The GMs are supposed to keep talent in the organization. In every case, it is the GM's responsibility to get quality players to play the game. The manager's job is basically to watch and make sure those guys accrue, instead of lose, their value and skills.

So when is the manager or head coach to blame? Easy, when the team quits. When you're halfway through a season and there's no jump, no effort, no oompaloompa. The primary function of a head coach is that of parent, coordinator, or motivational speaker: to sufficiently and consistently energize a team to win. When a team gives up on a season when they're only halfway through it, the coach needs to hit the road.

Then again, are head coaches really worth it? They don't play, they usually aren't very marketable, and they aren't typically very interesting. Of course there are the darling managers of the media, like Bobby Cox, who is brilliant no matter what he does. Or Phil Jackson, the Zen Master of overpaid NBA players. Meanwhile, there are those guys who will never be recognized for what they do, like Ken Hitchcock.

But does anyone really believe that these guys are particularly hurt by their fleeting jobs? Nah. They know that there's probably a job out there for them somewhere.

After all, these jobs are given to the same guys year in and year out with only a few exceptions. And who can complain about a market that virtually guarantees you work once you can get in? It's like a "get out of the unemployment line free" card and all it costs is the comfort of knowing that you will probably be thrown out faster than a vote for Al Gore in Palm Beach County.