Jim Schlossnagle seems fine with work-related selfishness when it benefits him.
Apparently, new reported Texas baseball coach Jim Schlossnagle is fine with someone being selfish with their job if it involves him.
News broke on Tuesday that the former Texas A&M coach will reportedly make the jump to the Texas Longhorns as their new baseball coach after his Aggies team lost Game 3 of the College World Series Final on Monday night to Tennessee.
In theory, that’s a logical leap for a coach to make after achieving success at their school. Coaches change jobs all the time, especially after making a deep postseason run like Schlossnagle’s team just has.
However, his berating of a reporter asking him about this very scenario after Monday night’s CWS loss rings especially hollow after he reportedly took the Texas job less than a day later.
In the interaction, Schlossnagle called the reporter’s question “pretty selfish” for it being about the Texas job and said that he left his family to take the Texas A&M job in 2022 after a lengthy stint at TCU.
“I took the job at Texas A&M to never take another job again, and that hasn’t changed in my mind,” Schlossnagle said in his terse response. “That’s unfair to talk about something like that. … I understand you’ve got to ask the question, but I gave up a big part of my life to come take this job, and I’ve poured every ounce of my soul in this job. And I’ve given this job every single ounce I could possibly give it. So write that.”
He abruptly left the press conference right after he finished his response.
After Tennessee's 6-5 CWS-clinching win over Texas A&M, @AggieBaseball head coach Jim Schlossnagle was asked about a "specific job opening" and his future with the Aggies:
: NCAA pic.twitter.com/dhKfIXddHo
— Dennis de la Pena (@dennisonfox7) June 25, 2024
While it was obviously a fair question in the moment, it feels even more appropriate that it was asked now that Schlossnagle has reportedly taken the Texas job he seemed very offended to be asked about on Monday evening.
It was absolutely a sensitive topic for Schlossnagle to discuss in the moment, but he could’ve given a much, much more graceful reply than to call a reporter “selfish” for doing their job.
Former NFL reporter John McClain said it best when he said the sequence of events may well question Schlossnagle’s credibility going forward.
After his postgame performance in which he berated a reporter for asking him a question that had to be asked, if Jim Schlossnagle leaves the Aggies for the Longhorns, he'll have no credibility for the rest of his career and will be branded as a liar by many.
— John McClain (@McClain_on_NFL) June 25, 2024
