Point not taken: Rolovich stands his ground, loses his job at WSU
You’re never going to persuade guys like ex-Washington State coach Nick Rolovich to get the shot. It’s a waste of breath.
The best scientists and all the evidence in the world couldn’t. Losing a $3 million-a-year job didn’t. Even public pleas from the likes of Alabama’s Nick Saban, Clemson’s Dabo Swinney and Georgia’s Kirby Smart — guys who command genuine respect in the business — failed to make a dent.
Rolovich, who was hired in January 2020, was fired for cause by the university Monday after blowing through a deadline mandating that state employees get vaccinated against COVID-19. Despite being Washington state’s bestpaid employee, he has yet to explain why. If this was supposed to teach his players a lesson about personal responsibility, it backfired. Rolovich owns every bit of this.
“This is a tough day for
Washington State football,” athletic director Pat Chun said, announcing the firings at a news conference where he also said Rolovich’s request for a religious exemption was denied.
“No one,” Chun added, “wants to be here.”
Except that Rolovich did. He said in July he wouldn’t get vaccinated and despite knowing it could mean he’d be forced to walk away from his team in midseason, he repeated it Saturday, not long after a win over Stanford.
“I’ve been settled for a long time on it. I believe it’s going to work out the right way. If that’s not what Pat (Chun) wants,” Rolovich said, “then I guess I’ve got to move on.”
There’s not a college coach in the country popular or successful enough to defy the law and get away with it and none who want to repeat the mess that was the pandemic-interrupted 2020 season. Rolovich, it turns out, isn’t exactly flush on either count.
Only last year, Rolovich effectively chased off sophomore receiver Kassidy Woods after the player expressed concerns about opting out of the season to safeguard his health and then informed the coach of his planned involvement with a Pac-12 players’ rights movement.
“I’d call it a dramatic irony,” Woods said about Rolovich’s predicament in an interview with The New York Times. He wound up transferring to Northern Colorado and has filed a lawsuit against his former coach and Washington State.
“Every person’s decision should be respected, but he didn’t respect my decision,” Woods continued. “The rule for me was if you opt out, you’re not going to be part of the team. Now he wants to opt out of the vaccine. Does he want to be part of the team?”
The answer is no, apparently, at least not if it requires the kind of sacrifice Rolovich expects from everybody but himself.