I prefer not to, says the football coach at Washington State, and haggadah tell you (Passover pun), UD‘s always had a soft spot for silent machos who canter off and everyone watches them go and says What a man and No one will ever know why and Miss Ellie’s daddy he owns the biggest copper mine in the state and everybody knows she wanted to marry him but.
Nick Rolovich gave up fifteen million dollars and the wild adulation of the entire Evergreen State because he refused to get vaccinated because… because none of your goddamn business is because. Fine. Nuff said.
October 19th, 2021 at 4:53PM
The coach has F. U. money, and the prospect of some other football program picking him up.
He’s the tip of the iceberg, though, with the real action being police officers in big cities who are using the mandates as reason to walk away from having their jobs “reimagined.” That’s not likely to go well.
October 19th, 2021 at 8:36PM
Stephen : I’m reading less sanguine predictions for his future. In any case, glad to hear he can afford to walk away.
October 20th, 2021 at 5:21PM
UD, his team beat Stanford which is a pretty big deal in west coast football. In the same way that Dave Bristol or Gene Mauch kept resurfacing as managers in baseball, Rolovich will likely spend a few seasons as coordinator, perhaps in the mid-majors or the community colleges that polish player eligibility, and there’s a better than even chance he will resurface in your rogues’ gallery the way Rich Rodriguez or Mike Leach (there’s that Washington State again) did.
October 20th, 2021 at 5:52PM
Stephen: Oh good. And there’s the lawsuit he just filed, too. A precious resource for my blog. However:
Rolovich, who took over in early 2020 as the head coach of Wazzu after Mike Leach left for Mississippi State, apparently never wants a Division I head coaching job again. He’s now decided to take legal action against the university and the athletic department in what appears to be a claim of religious discrimination…
This Deadspin writer seems to think that causing a university massive trouble – public relations and other forms or trouble – and then suing it for many millions of dollars might be a tad discouraging to other schools. But you and I know there’s no violent litigious wack job that the universities of this great country won’t desperately fight each other over for their football programs.