Opportunistic Morality at the University of Washington

Opportunistic Morality at the University of Washington
In the lowland terrain of college sports, one can occupy the moral high ground and still stand waist deep in a swamp. The University of Washington's Athletic Director, Barbara Hedges, fancies herself a paragon of virtue after firing football coach Rick Neuheisel for alleged untruthfulness regarding his participation in an NCAA Championship basketball pool. As a paragon of honesty herself, she could never tolerate less from a subordinate - particularly after that subordinate has had a bad season.
Ms. Hedges conveniently forgot that Neuheisel's Husky career was launched by deceit. Colorado Buffalo fans were shocked and outraged when Neuheisel was announced as the new Ewe-Dub head football coach at an annual salary of $997,000 per year. Undoubtedly, he had given his Colorado overlords the same pledges of eternal loyalty that he showered Barbara Hedges with when he signed a contract extension early last season.
After facilitating a deception at Colorado, Barbara Hedges was so enamored with her golden boy she has since given him two raises and contract extensions, even though accusations of misconduct at Colorado emerged just weeks after he moved his shingle to Seattle. That misbehavior resulted in Colorado being placed on two years probation. He and UW were also penalized for violations that began immediately after his hiring. After two seasons under this moral cloud, but with an 11-1 season and a Rose Bowl win on his resume, Hedges expressed her moral outrage by giving him a raise to $1.21 million. Dishonesty goes down easier when diluted by victories.
Hedges rewarded another good season and more shady behavior with a contract that was worth about $1.8 million annually. But, after winning ESPN's "bonehead-of-the-week" award, and recording only 7 wins in 13 tries, Hedges' capacity for moral forgiveness was nearly exhausted.
Whether or not a lie is offensive depends upon the motivation for lying. When Rick Neuheisel deceived the University of Colorado to the benefit of the University of Washington, that lie was okay. It is not such a good idea to sneak off to San Francisco to interview for the head coaching position with the San Francisco Fortyniners after a 7-6 season. Such results tend to stoke moral outrage, so it was not a good idea for Neuheisel to claim that he was only in the Bay Area for a round of golf.
Even though Ewe-Dub is the source of most evil and corruption in the western hemisphere, selective outrage at deceit is not unique to Huskies and their fans. A similar scenario played out at old Wazzu when Sam Jankovich, former WSU Athletic Director and later the University of Miami AD began making goo goo eyes at WSU's head football coach Dennis Erickson. On an almost hourly basis, Erickson assured anyone who would listen that he had always been a Cougar, and had no aspirations to coach anywhere else on the planet. He even wiped away a fake tear during an awards ceremony at halftime of a basketball game.
"That means a lot," he wept as the crowd chanted, "Stay, stay, stay..."
At the time, he was only hours from boarding a private jet to the Sunshine State and the riches that Sam Jankovich had squeezed from Miami boosters.
Cougars were outraged. How could he lie to us like that? Well, as I recall, the same people who were so outraged at his deceit were encouraging him to lie to the University of Wyoming. Before signing his contract with WSU, he was right where he wanted to be. He didn't want to coach anywhere else. He had been a Cowboy all of his life and so on.
Coaches lie to their recruits and their parents all the time. To the recruit, coaches will all but promise that they intend to develop the team around his talents, knowing full well that the kid is destined for special teams and the practice squad. Coaches will tell parents that academics come first, and will personally guarantee that their son will graduate with honors, when the real goal is to satisfy minimal requirements for eligibility.
Don't weep for Rick Neuheisel. As good as he is at picking winners in basketball pools, why would Rick Neuheisel want to work for a living anyway?
Weep for a society that is so easily bought off. A two-bit whore has more dignity than the average fan.