Vanderbilt football head coach wants assistants with hot wives.

On a radio interview the other day, Vanderbilt's head football coach James Franklin explained to listeners:

"I've been saying it for a long time, I will not hire an assistant coach until I've seen his wife. If she looks the part, and she's a D-I recruit, then you got a chance to get hired."

James Franklin with his wife.

Three problems with his logic:

1. It probably violates the civil rights of individuals, and especially gay and single men;
2. More than half of all current head coaches and some of the best assistant coaches wouldn't meet his standards;
3. People get old; if you want only coaches with beautiful wives, you're encouraging the kind of behavior that got Bobby Petrino in trouble.

Thanks to people like Franklin, meritocracy has been demoted in favor of the Beautiful People.  I'd argue we're more than base animals, capable of using our brains to judge others based on what's below the surface.  But then again, he's not the only one obsessed with the Beautiful People.

Big talk from a guy whose only wins were against teams that, combined, averaged 4.3 wins last year.