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Friday, August 29, 2014

Breaking News: Is USC's new coach a Racist?

It's kind of interesting that I just wrote a rather lengthy piece on race, and its effects on our country and the people who reside in it. Then yesterday comes news that a USC player by the name of Anthony Brown (no relation to Michael as far as I know) has quit the team. Why? Because he claims that new (and former UW) coach Steve Sarkisian is a racist...and that he won't play for a man who is racist.



Now...I will be the first to admit, I heard this and immediately wanted to dismiss this as the angry ramblings of a kid who probably wasn't getting things to go his way early in the coach's tenure at USC. I'd never heard of such allegations while he was at Washington for the past 4 previous years...and from what  I could see, this was just a kid doing unspeakable damage to a coach's reputation, and possibly it's program.  I was ready to blow the whistle on this kid and flag him for illegal use of the 'Race Card.'

I may have reacted too soon. Who is Steve Sarkisian? Well, he is a man who played college football at BYU, and who was their starting QB. He later played a little pro ball in Canada before getting into coaching. Despite going to BYU...he is not Mormon, rather a Catholic, born of an Irish mom and an Armenian dad from Iran. He wound up as an assistant coach with USC during Pete Carroll's time at USC. Back in 2009 he took the head coaching position at Washington...at the ripe young age of 42. He took a Husky team that was 0-11 under Tyrone Willingham and turned it into a 5-7 team that following year...then ran off four years in a row of teams that went to bowl games...before being offered the job to return to USC as its head coach.



Last week...USC's Josh Shaw leaped from the third floor of an apt building near campus and sprained both his ankles. It was first reported that he did this while trying to save his cousin from drowning in the pool. It turned out to be a total lie. He was subsequently suspended from the team...and Los Angeles Police are investigating the possible claims of a man matching his description having robbed someone's apartment in that same building he jumped from. Despite Sarkisian expressing disappointment that Shaw would concoct this  story, he has left the door open for his return to the team. However...according to the latest reports, his fellow teammates have been quoted as saying they 'are done with him.' So I guess that pretty much seals his fate.

Also coming out in today's news...is a story that one of the leaders of USC's team has stated that Coach Sark has shown no signs of being a racist. And that everyone should ignore the player who  is making those allegations.

Okay. So...case closed right? Anthony Brown is just some bitter kid with an axe to grind so he decided to blow up the best way a black kid can against a white coach he is trying to hurt?

Whoa! Hold it a second. I want it known for the record...I was a big Sark fan while he was at Washington. I loved what he brought to Huskyville. He turned our program around. And when he left to coach USC I was disappointed, not mad...I understood that he had roots there, just kind of bummed. Well, all that sadness disappeared a few days later when it was announced that Chris Petersen had left Boise State to take the head job at Washington. It was a great day to be a Husky! And the loss of Sark was a distant memory. So this news I'm about to reveal? It has nothing to do with me being bitter about losing our  coach. None!

My sister...who herself played softball at Washington...was in a Master's Program last summer...one which we all attended her graduation and got to meet a lot of her class mates. This program was centered around Sports Management...and she had several people in her class who has been on the Husky football team. What she told me blew me away. 

"Oh...it's been known around campus now for several years that Sarkisian was thought of as a big racist. I had a guy in my class who gave me numerous examples of it...and he said it was widely known that he wasn't well liked by the black athletes."

So of course, when I asked "why wouldn't they have said something, then? I mean...if it's that bad...and the current culture being what it is now in our country...what were they afraid of?" Her response made sense. They were afraid of  losing their scholarship. Here was this coach who was revered for the turnaround he had performed at UW...which holds its football program sacred...and how was it going to look if some kid started screaming 'racist' about him? Probably the same thing that most people will do about this kid at USC. That he's just some punk ass jock not getting his way...and so he's going to the race card.

Wow! So...in defense of this kid Anthony Brown...and following the mantra that usually where there's smoke there's fire? Someone might want to send the Fire Marshall down to Los Angeles and check things out at the University of Southern Cal!


Okay then...just felt compelled to share this news...as I am now about  to take a shower then take my mother to the Mariners game tonight...where we are going to see King Felix attempt to pick up his 14th win against the NL's best team, the Washington Nationals tonight. I've picked up some juicy tickets 10 rows behind the Mariners dugout for $120 a pop....and expect that we might see the biggest crowd of the season so far!



I really need the Mariners to win at least 2 out of 3 from Washington this weekend, and a sweet would be great. I  have this poker dealer who will  be dealing the WSOP circuit event I'll be playing at this week talking crap on my boys...that they are  merely 'pretenders' who have no shot this year. Well, needless to say, I disagree! So losing 2 out of 3 at home to the last place Rangers wasn't exactly what I was looking forward to. We went to the only game they did win on Tuesday night. Before that...we went to four different locations around Seattle and had total strangers dump ice over our head for the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge! It was a very exciting afternoon! Those four videos are currently being video-edited by a friend into what I hope will be one very entertaining clip that I will 'air' as soon as its ready!

Okay...time to go get ready! 

MONKEY


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