Second Thoughts

Coach makes sure who Kerr is working for

San Antonio Spurs Coach Gregg Popovich says his jokes about video coordinator Nick Kerr have run their course. Kerr is a son of Golden State Warriors Coach Steve Kerr.
San Antonio Spurs Coach Gregg Popovich says his jokes about video coordinator Nick Kerr have run their course. Kerr is a son of Golden State Warriors Coach Steve Kerr.

Unlike what has passed as political discourse these days, Golden State Warriors Coach Steve Kerr and San Antonio Spurs Coach Gregg Popovich reached an agreement.

Popovoch has spent this past season jokingly accusing Spurs video coordinator Nick Kerr for being a spy for his father at Golden State. Before Game 2 of the Warriors-Spurs first-round series at Oracle Arena in Oakland, Calif., Popovich promised to make an in-game adjustment.

"He does not want any of this attention. I think the jokes may be over," Steve Kerr said. "We have to move past that. That poor guy."

Popovich has made several jokes at that poor guy's expense. Popovich said the Spurs have patted Nick Kerr down to see if he has a wire planted. Popovich has reported he observed Nick Kerr furiously typing on his computer during film sessions, openly wondering if he is sending the Spurs' scouting reports directly to his father's inbox. Popovich said the team voted informally that Nick Kerr could not attend a recent team meeting, only for Popovich to overrule his players. Popovich joked he would have fired Nick Kerr, if only he had evidence of collusion.

"It was quite funny when we did it all, but there's a limit to humor. So we decided there would be no sorts of jokes," Popovich said. "He's an intellectually gifted and wonderful young man. We didn't want to make it a characterization. He's working his butt off to try to help us anyway he can to beat his father and the Warriors. A little bit of humor was good, but we don't want to take it too far."

"He doesn't want any attention. He loves his team," Kerr said of his son. "He's dying to win. He's dying to beat us just like we're dying to beat them. He's unbelievably loyal to Pop and the players. I couldn't be more proud of him."

Keep the kickoff

New England Patriots captain Matthew Slater, who has tied Steve Tasker for most career Pro Bowl berths by a special-teams player with seven, spoke passionately earlier this week about the importance of keeping the kickoff in football, saying that if it is eliminated because of safety concerns it would be "tragic."

Slater, entering his 11th NFL season, added that the careers of many players would be affected negatively.

"You take away this play from football, you're changing the fabric of the game," he said. "It really makes me ask the question, 'Where do you go from here? What would happen next?' I don't know the answer to that. I look at a number of plays. I look at a goal-line stand. I look at a third-and-one. Think about the collisions that are happening there. Those [are] maybe deemed unsafe by some people.

"So if you make a drastic change such as this, what's next? What happens? The reality is this is football. This is a contact sport. This is a violent sport. All of us that are playing the game understand that there are inherent risks that come along with playing the game. If you're not OK with those risks, I respect that, and maybe you should think about doing something else. But if we feel like we need to take away this play from the game to make the game safer, then where does that stop?"

Sports on 04/20/2018

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