MADISON, Wis. — The parents of a Wisconsin football player were driving home recently from a volleyball tournament for their daughter when conversation shifted to the homework assignment she needed to complete. The task was to write a paper containing an interview. They began to consider who might be a notable subject. Then one parent took out his cell phone and sent a message. Badgers coach Paul Chryst.
He called him back moments later and offered his time for 10 minutes.
This was Chryst. He was a man who was respected for how much he cared for the people he knew. It’s why, following a brief team meeting Sunday evening inside Wisconsin’s football facility to announce that Chryst had been set on fireMany players were at the halfway point of his eighth season. Shaken by the newsAnd expressed SupportFor their former coach.
Chryst’s admiration was what contributed to his demise.
“The biggest compliment you can give Paul happens to be his biggest flaw,” one parent of a Wisconsin player told The Athletic. “He is loyal to a fault. I think that makes it very hard to be callous in this business because that’s the reality of it.
