The Devils' angel

At last, I've found a leader of men in sports

My favorite story of the week is Larry Robinson going back to the New Jersey Devils as an assistant coach less than a month after he was fired as the head coach. Good for him. Good for us. For once, on the sports pages, we can see a leader of men be ... well, a leader of men.

The opening was created when former Devils assistant John Cuniff was hit by a recurrence of throat cancer. After delaying treatment so he could help coach the silver-medal U.S. hockey team at Salt Lake City -- another leader-of-men move -- Cuniff was forced to go to the hospital.

At the tail end of the season, playoffs approaching, the Devils sorely needed a voice familiar with the assorted talents, emotions and quirks that make up their particular professional hockey lockerroom.

Enter Robinson. Perfect. A Hall of Fame defenseman as a player, a Stanley Cup champion as a coach with the Devils only two years ago, he was able to step over whatever hurt feelings he had, sublimate his ego and jump back onto the ship and grab an oar rather than his familiar place at the wheel.

This is an age when coaches wear their self pride like another Armani suit from the closet, when they whine about the forces that whir around their precarious jobs. ( Nolan Richardson , basketball coach at the University of Arkansas, comes to mind). Larry Robinson is refreshing. He simply rolled up his sleeves and went to work to help his friends.

Good for him. Good for us.

Leigh Montville's commentaries appear regularly on CNN/Sports Illustrated. The opinions expressed here are solely those of the writer.

 

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