by Tom Luicci
Thursday September 20, 2007, 5:00 AM
Greg Schiano has been as fiercely protective of his personal life through the years as Rutgers\’ offensive line has been with Mike Teel. His family almost never gets touched.
So it was interesting to see his reaction after practice on Wednesday when the Knights\’ head coach was asked what he thought about pictures of his new house being posted on the internet. The house, under construction, is a Kenny Britt fade route from Rutgers Stadium. And there it was, shown from three different angles, on rivals\’ Rutgers football message board.
Schiano was obviously not happy about it.
\”What are you going to do?\” he said tersely. \”That\’s life.\”
Asked by a reporter if he was bothered by the pictures, Schiano, a private man in a very public job, indicated he was.
\”I wish it didn\’t have to be that way,\” he said. \”Usually, they keep that stuff — I don\’t know who `they\’ are, but the adminstrators of the (message) boards and stuff — I think they try to keep your personal life personal.
\”I don\’t know if somebody sits there and watches all day.\”
There was nothing offensive about the pictures except that they were an obvious invasion of Schiano\’s privacy. It\’s a nice looking house. Spacious but not prententious. I admit it, I looked at the pictures when I heard they were on line.
But is that something that people — Rutgers fans — really care about? And at what point do those fans cross the line of being a little too zealous?
As miffed as Schiano was by the pictures, he was quickly able to shrug it off and even called over the beat writers to let them in on a rare private moment.
He told us that he suggested to his wife Christy that they install field turf on one side of the house so that his children — three boys and a girl — could play outside year-round. He wasn\’t looking for anything elaborate, he said. Just enough for the kids to get a good neighborhood football game together now and then.
\”Know what she said?\” Schiano asked, referring to his wife.
He then made the thumbs down gesture.
Sound reasoning didn\’t work either, since he tried arguing that the kids wouldn\’t drag mud in or have grass stains if they had a small field turf area.
The thumb stayed down.
By the way, since some segment of the Rutgers football nation apparently has to know, Schiano and his family should be in their new digs soon enough.
\”Hopefully, sometime in October,\” he said. \”It\’s getting there.\”
source http://www.nj.com
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