Christian family values: She sells the house, he goes recruiting

You saw the big smile.

And the purple ball cap.

Jim Christian has a better gig at TCU, but it's a big sacrifice for the family. (Getty Images)

And the microphones and the cameras and the handshakes and it all looked like a whole bunch of fun, didn't it? Of course it did! Because it always looks like a whole bunch of fun -- just a man and his family standing in front of a crowd of strangers, telling them how happy they are to be there, how thankful they are for the opportunity.

Then the reporters pack up the microphones and the cameras, and the handshakes stop and the press conference ends and what comes next is what you never see.

The drive back to the airport.

The kiss goodbye.

The life disrupted.

"I was just kinda like, 'OK, I guess I'll see you later,'" said Patty Christian, wife of new TCU coach Jim Christian. "He didn't even walk me into the airport. He just kinda dropped me off at the curb."

That was March 30.

"I think he's been back home one time since then," Patty said Tuesday by phone. "And when he came home he didn't even have time to sort through his clothes and show me what he wanted to get rid of. So I'm sorting through all his clothes now."

I'm not asking you to feel sorry for the Christian family.

Let me make that clear.

They more than doubled their income by moving from Kent State to TCU last month, and Jim's base salary is now reportedly $600,000 a year. That's a nice paycheck for teaching guys to dunk, a pretty good gig if you can get it.

So there's a good chance your problems aren't the same problems Jim and Patty Christian are dealing with, particularly if you are a member of middle-class America and struggling with rising gas prices and finances in general.

In other words, Jim and Patty Christian are going to be fine.

Let me make that clear, too.

But don't think this move from Kent State to TCU comes without sacrifice.

It rarely does for any coach changing jobs.

"It's so hard to put everything together," Jim said by phone this week. "Unfortunately, the family suffers. That's the hardest part of the whole thing."

For instance, it has been nearly a month since TCU introduced its new basketball coach and he's still living in a hotel in Fort Worth. Meantime, Patty is back in Kent, Ohio, with the couple's 19-month-old son, Zachary, trying to figure out how to sell the house in the area where she has lived her entire life.

She was raised in Hudson, Ohio, just two towns over from Kent. Her parents are a five-minute drive away right now. When she moves it will be more like a 19-hour drive, making those days of stopping by for dinner an obvious thing of the past.

And it all happened so fast.

That's the other thing about coaching changes.

Not only are families at the mercy of the openings, but they have to evaluate and accept offers more quickly than it takes the Rockies and Padres to play a typical Thursday night baseball game. There isn't time to mull the possibilities or evaluate school systems or research in general. You look at arenas, not neighborhoods. And if things feel right you say goodbye to one group of people and hello to another in a matter of 24 or 48 or 72 hours.

"He got offered the job one day and the next day I was sitting with my mom when I got a call from Jim's secretary," Patty said. "She said 'Your flight leaves at 6:50 tomorrow. Do you want to come back Sunday or Monday?' I said, 'What are you talking about?' She said 'You're flying to Fort Worth.' And I said 'Oh, really?'"

Which is not to suggest Patty isn't looking forward to the move.

She is.

She has been studying the Dallas-Fort Worth area since returning from Jim's introductory press conference and learning all she can about TCU. Sure, it will be strange leaving behind family and friends, like it would be for anybody. But she seems excited about exploring an unfamiliar part of the county and meeting new people. Plus, avoiding those Ohio winters has to be considered a positive, right?

Still, it's difficult -- difficult living 1,200 miles from her husband now, difficult thinking about living 1,200 miles away from her home when she finally moves. And that's the part of the story that gets lost in the nonstop coverage of the annual coaching carousel, the part where people we are used to seeing on TV have to deal with real-life issues that guarantee taking a nice payday will come with a price.

On the court, it's simple.

Off the court, not so much.

"My wife is handling the whole move and buying the house and doing everything up there, and I'm just down here trying to find players," Jim said. "I'm telling you, it's crazy and it's hard. It's just really, really hard."