Your Wazzu Crimson Sunrise 4/28: Spring Football Finale, New Guard for Ernie Kent, Underage Drinking, and of course, Don Sterling
By George Means
Well, many of us enjoyed watching the WSU Spring Game Saturday. We saw some answers, we were left with questions, and well, it was a spring game. First, Bruggman and Falk both have work to do. Please remember April 26th when calling for Connor’s job next fall, because there will be a vocal minority doing so at some point. The game was fine, Connor was productive, the receivers were productive (surprise? of course not), and Daquan Brown made his presence known. We also learned that Deone Bucannon believes that the DBs are the deepest group going into the fall, which could be the most counter intuitive, homer statement we will hear this spring. Also, Brown’s nickname is Cheetah, so we have that to work with now.
While the broadcast was fun, I would implore the Pac-12 Network to locate graduates from the Edward R. Murrow school of broadcasting to fill out their stable of analysts. Glen Parker is terrible, and should not have been anywhere near Spokane on Saturday. A couple of seniors in the communications department would have been preferable. Jeremy Bloom is the gem of the group, but there are any number of Cougs (or even ANYONE from the Pac-12 North) available for such a position. The best games in the 90s were when Oregon and WSU played, with Dan Fouts and Keith Jackson at the mics. Please, Pac-12 Net, we crave homerism, it seems that those of us in the PNW have traded East Coast Bias for California Bias.
Links:
Recap from the Athletic Department of Saturday’s game. Some bonus links located on this page for more Monday time wasters!
New Gaurd Jackie Davis will be playing in Pullman after avoiding the fate of Penn State, UC Irvine or Tulsa (the Golden Hurricanes, named after a weather phenomenon that does not exist in Tulsa, I need an explanation).
Tweets:
While sifting though tweets early this morning, I discovered that an underage Cougar Football player was posting pictures of himself drinking beer. While there is a long list of bad things to do while drinking beer at 2 am on a Monday, and this is a small transgression, how about some discretion or common sense? It would be absolutely hypocritical of me to chastise underage drinking, but my underage did not include twitter or an athletic department to whom I was accountable.
It is not fair to throw that player under the bus, so I will not post the offending tweet, but come on guys, use some basic discretion. Who knows if CML will see this, or care. Who knows where legal cannabis will factor into his three rules, but as it is, this player is underage, and flaunting his drinking, even in Pullman, is inadvisable.
Addendum: After some research, I now realize that I was mistaken and the player has departed the team, I still have no reason to throw him under the bus, and the advice still holds. So instead, I give you this, which if it doesn’t make you smile, tough:
I can only hope that his response to Sterling came from Pullman.
Thoughts:
If you are unaware of Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling’s recorded rant released by TMZ this weekend, well, that’s a hell of a rock you have been under. There is no excuse (not that you’re 80, not that you have employed and housed numerous minorities, nothing) for that type of ignorance or hatred, regardless of how the argument is couched, it is just plain wrong. Listen to the audio, contemplate it, and consider this:
As college sports fans we celebrate racism, specifically in the South. The Tennessee and Ole Miss mascots inherently celebrate slavery. Draped in antebellum love, they are defended as celebrating states’ rights; and I agree, they are celebrating the fight to maintain slavery, as a state’s right. Additionally, Oklahoma celebrates the most egregiously broken treaty in the history of this nation, the opening of “Indian Territory” as a new state to whomever arrived first (this is the root of the Sooner mascot).
Native iconography throughout college sports (professional as well) is offensive to many, possibly more to our indigenous fellow citizens. So as you as you malign Donald Sterling, remember our own complacency, our own place in helping people like this justify their beliefs. I will reiterate, there is no excuse here, and Sterling should be exiled from the league, but he is not alone in his thoughts. Look carefully at those who try to defend Sterling, because that is where the enemy still lies.