Weighing in

A month after he led the Spokane Shock to the ArenaCup title, Adam Shackleford was let go as head coach and replaced by former standout player Rob Keefe. Shackleford led the Shock to two championships in three seasons; his departure attracted plenty of passionate comments at spokesman.com.

Omaha: He deserves to be the coach. We just won the freaking championship. If he wants to stay, let him stay. I think he’s earned that much.

SeeRed: He did a great job as coach and will be missed, but I think it will be a good move if Keefe is the new coach. He was essentially a player-coach for four years on the field and was an assistant coach last year, so it’s not like he isn’t qualified. Plus he was in the AFL and won an Arena Bowl with Philly.

jreighley: I think this is a big mistake. The Shock are not likely to be competitive next year … at least not to the extent they have been in the last few years. Keefe is coming in with some big shoes to fill, and an enormous task at hand as well. He is set up perfectly to fail.

capcentre: It is very apparent that Adam was fired because of the fact he is overweight. I know the GM will never admit that but he doesn’t have to because it is that obvious. He is simply guilty of discrimination because of Adam’s weight. He will never be held accountable for this so shame on him.

Al_Loysius: Speaking as somebody who is a little chubby myself, I don’t buy the overweight theory. After all, Adam was tubby when he got the job. Plus, to be frank, aren’t a lot of ex-football players on the chubby side? Sports Illustrated did a piece a few months ago on how so many ex-football linemen are in horrible shape physically and keel over in their 50s. John Madden ain’t exactly trim and slim nor any number of football coaches.

spokanada: Nice move! Fire a proven, experienced coach and replace him with a coach with one year of experience while moving to a more competitive league. I wonder how this will work out?

jimdraft: What a moronic thing to do. For a minute I thought I was in Seattle where they always send away their best guys.

Pat OLeary: If you change directions when you’re at the top, the only way to go is down. Unbelievable!

jddavis: A proven system, a tremendously impressive win-loss record, effective leadership, knows how to put a winning team together and make them perform. Time for him to go!