Clemens? Romar? Willingham? Cleaning out the mailbox

Published 11:15 pm Monday, February 25, 2008

I’ll call a timeout here from the usual column blather and address a few questions that have been cropping up lately.

Since my deal is to inform as well as entertain (Hey! You! I saw ya rolling your eyes!) it’s probably worthwhile to explain a few things. I get a lot of e-mail and a lot of you have asked a few of the same questions. And while I answer all e-mail, except the ones that begin “Dear (bleep)” and slide downhill from there, it might be a good idea to go over a few things for those who haven’t written and are wondering.

So here goes nothing:

Q. Nice hatchet job on Roger Clemens, schmuck. Why can’t you write a nice, balanced news story and shut your yap abut what you think?

A. Two issues here. One, I believe Roger Clemens is one of the thousands of lying drug cheats in sports. Second, I don’t get paid for writing balanced stories. As a columnist, one of the things I’m paid to do is to take a stand and defend it. I research, evaluate and analyze.

That’s separate from the duties of a reporter, who researches and writes the facts.

I’m lucky. I can’t get enough hate mail to satisfy my boss. The idea is to get the ball rolling on a dialogue, to induce people to react, talk and, we hope, write in to agree or disagree.

I can’t think of a column I ever regretted writing, although my boss would bring up one in which I evidently did a masterful job offending the entire Deep South a couple of years ago by questioning the necessity of putting an NFL franchise in Charlotte, N.C. But hey, it was all in good fun. Lighten up, people. It’s sports. We don’t all have to go all Ann Coulter around here.

Q. What’s your deal in defending Tyrone Willingham and Lorenzo Romar? They couldn’t coach a rec league.

A. In Willingham’s case, people have been all over him since he was hired. My argument always has been and continues to be that he inherited a program that was severely broken, one that was in worse shape than any of us truly know. He not only had to clean up the culture of the program (which he successfully has), he also had to turn around the losing mentality (an ongoing process).

I would argue that Willingham was hired to do the most difficult job in college football. I know. I was close-up witness to the low points. Boy, were they low. And rival recruiters took full advantage.

Willingham just completed the third year of a five-year contract. Anyone who says he hasn’t moved the program in the right direction isn’t watching. The popular notion is that he has this year to get his team into a bowl game or UW president Mark Emmert will let him go. I hope Emmert’s smarter than that. Willingham’s last recruiting class is among the best the school’s ever had. The program is gaining momentum. It would be a shame to tear the whole thing down and start over at this point. At least let him complete his contract.

As for Romar, I don’t understand the hostility. A couple of down years after several spectacular seasons and they have trouble filling Hec Ed. The Dawg Pack student section is lame again, as lame as Bob Bender’s final seasons. Sure, the Huskies aren’t annual Sweet 16 crashers, but name those who are. It’s a short list. Besides, it’s worth the price of admission to bet Mountain Dews on the over/under on missed free throws.

It’s chic to demand a coach’s firing. It’s chic in the media and chic in the stands. Sorry, but I don’t have the stomach for it. I’ll question decisions. I’ll wonder out loud why a coach can’t develop Player X or Player Y. But a program has to have zero hope of resolution before I call for a coach’s head. I don’t see that with either Willingham or Romar. Frankly, I’m appalled at the impatience of today.

I’ve been fired in my lifetime. It stinks. It’s among the most horrifying things I can think of. Having the masses demand the pink slip of someone in such a high-profile position, such as head coach at a big-time university, has to be something next to hell.

Q. You’re a Coug. I know you’re a Coug. You write Coug stuff. You love the Cougs. You love to watch Washington struggle because you’re a Coug. You want Willingham and Romar to stay because you’re a Coug.

A. Sorry. Western Washington University. Class of ‘80. And ‘88. Six and a half of the best years of my life — until I started getting massive hate mail from Herald readers.

Sports columnist John Sleeper: sleeper@heraldnet.com. To reach Sleeper’s blog, “Dangling Participles,” go to cmg-northwest2.go-vip.net/heraldnet/danglingparticiples.