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Articles
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Life goes on By: Richard Linde, Posted 12 June 2003
QB Cody Pickett and WR Reggie Williams are poised to perform an aerial assault on the Buckeyes and Pac-9. Rich Alexis and Chris Singleton, thanks to Dan Cozzetto, will bull through some gigantic holes created by a veteran, newly energized offensive line. Tim Hundley and Phil Snow will show Dawg fans they know how to coordinate a defense, other than just shouting at sloughing players during practice—although that helps. The fax Neuheisel received last night said, in effect: “So long, coach, nice having you around, This fall, all those spirited practices, all the enthusiastic young men, all the nervous freshman, all the camaraderie, all will be gone with the wind, like the leaves of fall…that flutter and fall. Rick Neuheisel loved those kids; he recruited them. As a player’s coach, he cared for them, but like the leaves of fall, he fluttered and fell. At the first day of fall practice, he will be absent, and there will be an ache in his gut and tears in his eyes. On that day, when he talks with his friends and loved ones, his voice will crack with emotion. He’ll feel sorry for himself. But he shouldn’t. Although it was a minor gambling soiree that jettisoned the coach, he should have known better, even though the NCAA bylaw he violated doesn’t say anything about sports pools, like participating in a March-Madness basketball pool—which he did. Neuheisel, the lawyer, thought he was in bounds with the rule, which is aimed at organized gambling, where the real threat to the NCAA lies. Some notable lawyers think no rules were broken, other than the spirit of them. One of them said you don’t fire someone for breaking the spirit of a rule in this country, that’s only done in Iraq. However, Coach Neuheisel should have known that the NCAA is death on gambling. Its brochure aimed at the student-athlete (Don’t Bet On It), no matter how condescendingly written, spells out its policy on gambling quite clearly. There’s no question, in my mind, that wagering a few quid on sports pools is common practice with student athletes and athletic department staffers who are a part of the college football sports scene elsewhere in this country. Neuheisel isn’t the only coach who tossed money in a pool. The fact his four-man group won a large amount of money was the deciding factor in the imbroglio. But he should have known he was a marked man in the Seattle area. The news media told him many times they were on his watch--the “quiet” period episode, the secondary rules’ violations, the lying about a job interview, all being excess baggage he carried. Sure, the media distorted the gambling story by interviewing NCAA officials who didn’t know the true facts of the case, and then reporting on what they said. Ostensibly, the 42-year-old coach never had his day in the court of public opinion. The media exaggerated on the amount of monies wagered and won. They omitted the fact that Neuheisel donated part of his winnings to charity. They behaved irrationally, lacked institutional control and should have been tossed out of the game. While this was going on, AD Barbara Hedges weighed the facts of the case in her mind, and took her time before making her decision. Hedges did the right thing, and the media weren’t a factor in her decision, nor were the NCAA officials she'd talked with, nor was the unfairness of it all. Actually, she really had no other choice. We talked about that in our Finnegans Wake article. In the end, the coach she’d carried--through peccadilloes, lies and rules’ violations--got too heavy to lift. It all caught up with him, the past, the present, his lawyerly slant on the rules, and a lack of common sense and good judgment. It’s no surprise that it occurred; it was inevitable with his nascent arrival at Montlake, with the smile on his handsome face. We wrote about the inevitability back then, when we said, "Sports are nothing more than the toy department located in the department store of life. But after his stint at Washington, we wonder whether Neuheisel will think he worked in the toy department at Macy's or was taken for a cruise on the Titanic." Maybe, he was just too young to be a head coach--maybe too bright--although he’s lost that baby face he wore in 1999 and, temporarily, the sly humor that accompanies intelligence. His youth is gone forever, along with his guitar, and as he climbs the stairway of life, at a pace one step slower, he will develop more wisdom, with a reassuring grayness around the temples. During the Curtis Williams memorial, Rick Neuheisel quoted his fallen player as saying, “All I want to do is play.” All Neuheisel ever wanted to do was to be a coach. He won’t ever coach at Washington again, and he has only himself to blame, not the news media, not AD Barbara Hedges, not Assistant AD Dana Richardson, not interim University President Lee Huntsman—just Rick Neuheisel. When he realizes his culpability, he’ll become a much better man and his smile will return. He’s a decent man, a loving father and husband; he is a man who would never shed his wedding ring to cheat on his wife. In the end, he cheated on himself and the University of Washington, a lack of good judgment leading to his demise. The coach will find a rewarding job elsewhere; this is just a temporary wilting in the blossoming of his career, no matter how withered it now looks. For all of us and the coach, life goes on. ---------------- Although I've been a little harsh with the news media in some of my articles, I should acknowledge that Ted Miller of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer has been one of the most objective reporters covering this tragedy. The compassion he showed for the head coach during a recent appearance on Fox Northwest is significant in my mind. It says a lot about the man. Miller in an e-mail to me (March 3, 2003): “I am frequently amused, however, that you guys think we -- at least the beat writers -- have a vendetta against the Huskies. Our lives are much easier when nothing bad is happening and the team is winning. Covering a successful team is much more fun than a loser. While it's part of my job not to be a fan, it's hard not to wish a team well when you like most of the players and coaches (which I do with the Huskies).”
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It’s a shame Rick Neuheisel
has to leave the University of Washington after restocking its arsenal with
the most firepower it has had in two years. Since his victory in the 2001
Rose Bowl, the coach has recruited well and accumulated outstanding
players--while readying others--all who are ready to compete with the best teams
in the country.