Seattle Sportsnet

It wouldn’t be fair to call this the “Ugliest Athlete of the Year Award” because well, everyone defines ugly differently. So to be both specific and just, we went ahead and selected the “weirdest looking” athletes we could find in 2008, and really there wasn’t much competition. Amazingly enough, both these guys played for the Sonics last year, so we saw first-hand how strangely beautiful Robert Swift and Delonte West can be.

First, let’s examine Winner A, Robert Swift. The former first-round draft choice has seemingly gotten less normal-looking with each passing year. Observe the photo on the left. In the first half of that photo is a snapshot of Swift from his rookie season, 2004. He looks, for the most part, like your average pimply teenager (which in fact he was at the time). Now take a look at the second half of that photo. That’s Swift two years ago after undergoing a massive transformation. Tattoos all over his body, long red hair, tufts of peach fuzz, and the face of a pimply adult. Not as normal, by any means.

Now take a look at the photo on the right. How things have changed. Besides the fact that Swifty is a) playing and b) dunking, no less, he has also undergone yet another metamorphosis. His hair–once buzzed trim, once long and flowing–now appears to have been yanked out little by little. The tattoos remain, canvassed by an even whiter, milkier, ghostly-pale skin. And the mug, at one time pimply and with the potential to blossom into a beautiful flower, has apparently been scorched to the very nethers of the epidermis. Where has our Robert Swift gone? Who is this impostor, contributing semi-productive minutes of PT and with the face of an 80-year-old senior citizen? Swifty, we hardly know ye.

On to Winner B, the infamous Delonte West. West, like Swift, has always looked a little, how to put this nicely, different. In 2008, however, he took those differences to a whole new uncharted level of weird. Look to the left and you’ll see the 2007 edition of D-West. Bald head, lots of tats, a pretty good representation of the pre-weirdo Delonte. Sure, he wasn’t your run-of-the-mill looking dude back then, but at least you could tell that he was human.

Fast forward one year and catch a glimpse of the new Delonte West on the right. No, that’s not a half-sprouted Chia Pet you’re looking at; that is, in fact, the man who feeds LeBron James his balls (literally, one ball at a time). In addition to sporting what appears to be a pube-to-head hair transplant, West has also opted to follow in the footsteps of his former teammate, Swift, and grow facial hair, one chunk at a time. Naturally, the tats are still there, and possibly in greater numbers. It’s not all bad, however. Delonte does appear to have worked on his tan. No longer is he one of those questionable “Is he white or is he black?” guys, like Jason Kidd will likely always be. No, it’s very clear that West can at least now check the “Other” box on his SAT’s, so good news there. Overall, not as significant a downgrade in appearance as Swift, but major negative marks for the Brillo dome.

Again, we want to reiterate that this is not an ugly contest. We don’t consider either of these recipients to be “ugly.” Neither Robert Swift nor Delonte West happen to be what most people would consider “normal-looking,” however, and that’s what we’re really judging here. For 2008, at least, they are the two most unnormal-looking athletes we could find, and for that they get an award. Congrats!

We laughed. We cried. We celebrated the decade that was. Mike Holmgren, now officially the ex-head coach of the Seattle Seahawks, announced his retirement from football yesterday, however fleeting that retirement may be. In his last gathering with the media, Holmgren humbly downplayed his greatness, choked up when talking about his players, and joked with his audience on more than one occasion. In one brief excerpt of an afternoon, Holmgren displayed and evoked a full spectrum of emotions.

To the average fan, Holmgren’s time spent leading the Hawks can be classified as, if nothing else, emotional. The coach, who at 6’5″ towered over many of the players he guided, was one of few people in the NFL who could conjure fear out of grown men. When angry, the short-fused Holmgren had a tendency to turn beet red and begin spewing expletives with unrivaled fervor. Just as easily, he could make people laugh, often demonstrating a clever wit off the gridiron that belied his on-field demeanor.

In between the highs and lows of his personality, an intelligence befitting a former history teacher who became one of football’s great thinkers resided. Mike Holmgren was a bully, a comic, a sage. He was more than a coach; he was our boss, our favorite actor, our friend. He was larger than life, but could still relate to us. He had a pedigree and a reputation as one of the NFL’s greatest leaders of all-time; yet he got his start as an educator, someone we all know. He was royalty, but also the everyman.

Above all else, Mike Holmgren was everything we wanted in a coach. He went beyond the call of duty in that respect. He led a ballclub, but he also carried the hopes of an entire city on his shoulders. He understood that fact as well as anyone, and handled his role the way a surgeon handles a scalpel. He was tactful, precise, methodical, and more than anything else knew what he was doing. He never chastised the fan base. He never bashed the media. He always stood by his players. He was a leader in every sense of the word.

In the annals of Seattle coaching history, Mike Holmgren will be remembered as one of the greatest leaders of all-time. A winner, a leader, and a fan favorite. Really, what more can you ask for?

There were few flubs this year that compared to the one made by the American Family Association. The American Family Association is an ultra-conservative “family” organization that promotes their spin on Biblical values via the internet, a recipe for disaster if there ever was one. The AFA ratcheted up the protection of their moral rights this summer by opting to censor certain words on their site using the Worst Invention Ever: auto find-and-replace.

*Side Note: Auto find-and-replace is a horrible, horrible invention. Whoever invented it needs to have their name changed to “Poop Johnson.” That way, they’ll fully understand the power of their monstrous creation. No one actually uses auto find-and-replace to do anything productive. Auto find-and-replace was invented for evil pixies who hack computer databases and hijack report papers before replacing words like “the” with words like “boobies.” Nice job, auto find-and-replace inventor.

The specific word the AFA wanted to censor was “gay.” They chose to find-and-replace all instances of the word “gay” with the word “homosexual” instead. You can probably see where this is headed.

During the Summer Olympics, the AFA website picked up an AP news feed regarding none other than American sprinter Tyson Gay. Yes. Instead of “Tyson Gay wins…,” the headline read “Tyson Homosexual wins…” This isn’t the first time this booboo has occurred, either. Just ask Memphis Grizzlies star Rudy Gay. But really, what else would you expect from an organization that petitions the FCC every time an episode of The Simpsons airs.

Is this the type of Gay we want our children emulating?

In order to properly acknowledge the accomplishments of the AFA, we here at Seattle Sportsnet came up with a more complete list of words that the webmasters at AFA.net should consider censoring in the future. Feel free to contribute your own ideas, as well.

• Dick, Wang, Cock. Instead of the more offensive terms for male genitalia, let’s just go ahead and replace those with the old standard, “Penis.” As in, “Penis Vitale elected to College Basketball Hall of Fame,” “Chien-Ming Penis gets victory for Yankees,” and “Pedro Martinez spotted at illegal penis fight.”

• Balls. Not as appropriate as “testicles,” so we’ll pull the old switcharoo. As in, “Two testicles and one strike.”

• Pujols. Simply not the kind of name parents should have to try and explain to their children. We’ll go with “anal orifices” instead. As in, “Now batting for the Cardinals, Albert Anal Orifices!”

• JaMarcus. Not really offensive, but ethnic enough to scare off the most conservative families. Replaced with “Steve,” as in “Steve Russell under center for Raiders.”

• Boner. The proper term is “erection.” As in, “AFA wins Erection of the Year Award.”

• Sack. In health class, it’s called a “scrotum,” so that’s what we’ll call it, too. As in, “Michael Strahan with a huge scrotum!”

• First Base, Second Base, Third Base, Home Plate. To be replaced by “Friendship,” “First Date,” “Hand holding,” and “Marriage.”

There you go. No one can say we don’t do our part to help out American families. Feel free to check out the AFA website by clicking here and let them know that former Major League pitcher and ex-Mariner Homosexuallord Perry sends his best wishes.

Dawg Pack Dirt, Volume 5, Issue 10, Morgan State University, December 30^th, 2008

By Nate Taggart and Aaron Bean

Good job for getting a decent crowd together for the Winter break game against Montana. It was a nice win and we even got referee Billy Kennedy to joke around with us. The Dawgs play their last non-conference game this Tuesday against Morgan State before Pac-10 play starts in Pullman on January 3^rd.

The Game:

-Morgan State Bears at Washington Huskies

-Tuesday, December 30^th, 2008 at 7:30 p.m. PST

-Bank of America Arena at Hec Edmundson Pavilion

The Team:

-Morgan State makes its home in Baltimore, MD and is a member of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference.

-The Bears are 5-7 this season with their best win coming against DePaul.

-Morgan State only returned 2 starters this season and is on the up as a program over the last 2 seasons under new head coach Todd Bozeman after being a perennial bottom feeder of the MEAC.

The Coach:

-Todd Bozeman, Head Coach: Coach Bozeman is the real story of this team. Bozeman was the head coach at Cal from 1993-1996 and even coached Jason Kidd when he was a player there. He was slapped with NCAA violations and a “Show-Cause” order after he admittedly paid a player’s parents $30,000. This violation effectively banned Bozeman from coaching college ball for 8 years. While at Cal, Bozeman’s players called him O.D.B., after Wu-Tang Clan rapper, Old Dirty Bastard.

After 2 years of working for NBA teams as a scout and working as a sales rep for Pfizer, the company that makes Viagra, Bozeman was hired back as a D-1 college basketball coach at Morgan State. Bozeman quickly fell into more controversy with what came to be known in the college basketball world as “Sandwich-gate”. In 2007, after his team lost a game on a buzzer beater, Bozeman went into a restaurant to order some sandwiches for his team. After he realized that there was a mistake in the order, Bozeman went “berserk” and went into a curse filled tirade in which he shook the restaurant employee and yelled, “I DON’T WANT HAM SANDWICHES!” He was arrested and charged with misdemeanor assault along with curse and abuse.

You can read about the incident here: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/16992176/

In addition to this plethora of information, Bozeman has his own active blog entitled “Blogging with Boze” that you can read here. It’s quite the read…

http://www.toddbozeman.blogspot.com/

That should be more than enough information to effectively heckle the head coach for a the entire game.

The Players:

-Sr. G #3 Jermaine Bolden is nicknamed “Itchy”. We’d love to know the origins of that one…

-Jr. G #5 Joseph Morgan is 4 for 20 from three point land this season.

-Sr. G #21 Rogers Barnes; and yes, that is spelled correctly; has a plural first name. His nickname is “Dealz”.

-Sr. F #32 Marquise Kately couldn’t cut it in the Pac-10 when he played for Cal during his first two years so he transferred to Morgan State.

-Fr. F #33 Kevin Thompson goes by “Big Baby”. Ask him any question you have about shoes because he worked at Foot Locker during the summer.

-Jr. F #44 John Long really loves chicken alfredo with broccoli and garlic bread on the side. His middle name is “Phoenix” and he says his game is just like Shawn Marion’s. He also claims that nobody can touch him in Madden.

GO DAWGS!

A two-headed referee? A too-involved coach? Hard to say with this picture from yesterday’s University of Alabama men’s basketball game.

The movie Goodfellas is your classic Mafia tragedy. Main character Henry, played by Ray Liotta, works his way into the local Italian Mafia, climbs the ladder to Mafioso prominence, and *Spoiler Alert* ultimately betrays the gangster family members he’s grown close to over the years. Like most tragedies, almost all the people surrounding our hero (Henry) go down in flames by the end of the film.

In the cutthroat world of the NFL, New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick is not unlike a Mafia boss. Mysterious, important, rather unfriendly, and seemingly larger than life, Belichick plays the role of Goodfellas character Paulie, the mob boss who orchestrates the activities of his clan. Like Paulie, Belichick has cronies who act as go-betweens on trivial matters (assistant coaches), has goons who carry out his every order (the players), and has a network of associate bosses that handle operations in other parts of the country (pupils who are now head coaches).

In perhaps the beginning of the end for the Belichick family of gangsters, two of Belichick’s one-time underlings were fired as head coaches this morning, amidst a day of rampant activity in NFL front offices. Romeo Crennel, ex-coach of the Cleveland Browns, and Eric Mangini, ex-coach of the New York Jets were the two casualties, underscoring the failure of Belichick’s former disciples across all of football. Crennel and Mangini were axed due to less-than-satisfactory win-loss records during their brief tenures at the helm, as nearly all the graduates of the Bill Belichick School of Coaching have had bumpy roads on their way to the top.

Crennel, a defensive mind, could never get his Browns to play defense. They barely played offense this year, either, despite coming off a 2007 season that saw them just miss the playoffs. Mangini, a salty curmudgeon at the age of 37, was burdened by a lack of personality (not unlike his mentor) and an inability to win ballgames down the stretch (the Jets lost four of their last five and missed out on the playoffs in their final game).

Another member of the Belichick Clan is Notre Dame head coach Charlie Weis, a man on the hottest of seats after avoiding the chopping block during a rocky 2008 campaign. Weis, who like Mangini and Belichick suffered from an inability to relate socially with other human beings, has softened up his personality after the humbling events of the past two seasons in South Bend. If he’s able to make it through 2009, it will be a major coup.

Other more successful clients of Belichick & Sons include Alabama head coach Nick Saban (see: personality issues, inabililty to relate with people) and Virginia head coach Al Groh (fired his own son to save his job).

When a coach has as much success as Belichick has had, it only makes sense to target his assistants as your team’s next head coach. Interestingly enough, though, the less-than-amiable Belichick, who struggled mightily himself before finding success in New England, has produced few quality coaches in his years as skipper. Belichick’s undoing will ultimately be his inability to win ballgames at some point down the line. But in the meantime, we can argue that his lack of production when it comes to coaches serves as a symbol of his teaching failures during his NFL tenure. You’re only as good as the people you surround yourself with, in which case Belichick might just be about as bad as they come.

With their loss to Arizona Sunday, the Seahawks secured the fourth overall pick in the 2009 NFL Draft by locking up the fourth-worst record in the league. The loss proved more than beneficial for a team that was already playing for little more than pride: a win would have put the team at 5-11 and possibly landed them anywhere between the sixth and eighth overall pick. The difference may not seem like much, but the caliber of player between those spots is often quite measurable and worth millions of dollars to rival owners wanting to move up in the draft.

A win would have been nice for sentimental sake, but let’s be honest: would you really remember or care about the Seahawks end-of-season victory come draft day? Probably not. So just thank God, Allah, Buddha, or whatever else you worship that the Hawks got beat by a sorry Cardinals squad that will likely lose in the first round of the playoffs. Come next season, that higher draft pick may mean the difference between a rebuilding team or a playoff-bound team.

“Awww, skeet skeet!” Toronto Raptors forward Chris Bosh reacts to something, maybe a lady in the front row.

The Oklahoma City Cloudfarts remain on pace to become the worst team in NBA history. With a 3-28 win-loss record currently, OKC is on tract to post a record of 8-74 by season’s end, one game worse than the all-time low of 9-73.

The Farts seemingly have no relief in sight until January 7th, when they head to Minnesota to face the Timberwolves. The ‘Wolves were one-time victims of OKC back in November. Of the Blunder’s three victories, all have come against teams with losing records. The aforementioned T-Wolves, with a 5-24 record, were on the losing end of the Farts’ first W. The second victory then came three weeks later against a Memphis team that is currently 10-20. And the most recent triumph, on December 19th, came at the hands of the 12-18 Toronto Raptors.

One interesting scenario that has arisen is the possibility of the Detroit Lions finishing their NFL season at 0-16. Squaring off against the Green Bay Packers today in Green Bay, the Lions should solidify themselves as arguably the worst team in football history by posting a completely defeated season. If that occurs as planned, then it’s quite possible that we will have a season in which two teams in two of the major professional sports leagues set all-time records for futility, Detroit in the NFL and Oklahoma City in the NBA. Let’s root for some losses.

Dawg Pack Dirt, Volume 5, Issue 9, University of Montana, December 28^th, 2008

By Nate Taggart and Aaron Bean

We hope everyone’s holidays went fantastic and after a week off due to the postponement/possible cancellation of the Lehigh game, the Dawgs take the court against the Montana Grizzlies on Sunday their second to last non-conference test before Pac-10 play starts on January 5^th.

The Game:

-Montana Grizzlies at Washington Huskies

-Sunday, December 28^th, 2008 at 12:00 p.m. PST

-Bank of America Arena at Hec Edmundson Pavilion

The Team:

-Montana makes their home in the Big Sky Conference which is also home to UW opponents, Portland State and Eastern Washington, who are in first and second place, respectively.

-The Grizzlies are 6-6 and got killed by Portland State in their last game which was the same day as our last game.

-The Grizzlies returned 3 starters from last year’s 14-16 squad.

-Montana has 6 players from Washington.

The Coaches:

-Head Coach Wayne “Tinks” Tinkle’s last name is Tinkle…

-Assistant Coach Nate DuChesne was the head coach at Stanwood High School and is notable for being sharpshooter Ryan Appleby’s coach and mentor during his high school years.

The Players:

-Jr. G #3 Ryan Staudacher is from Kirkland and graduated from Lake Washington High School. He turned down the opportunity to play quarterback in the Pac-10 to average 9.1 PPG as a shooting guard for the Montana Griz.

-Sr. G #5 Ceylon Elgin-Taylor is nicknamed “June Bug”.

-So. G #13 Michael Taylor is a native of Brewster, WA on the other side of the mountains and is a true Eastern Washingtonian at heart because he says his “career goal is to work on the family farm.”

-Fr. F #15 Nyandigisi “Digs” Moikobu is a graduate of Rainier Beach but it looks like he’s on his way to redshirting this season.

-Fr. G #22 Shawn Stockton hails from Spokane but is a member the lesser famous Stockton family from the Inland Empire. He loves ALL reality shows on VH1.

-Jr. G #23 Anthony Johnson is from Tacoma and graduated from Stadium High School. His wife is a guard on the Montana women’s basketball team. I wonder who is better…

-Fr. F #24 Derek Selvig loves the Scandinavian delicacy, lefsa. When his team passes the ball to this 7 footer down in the paint, odds are that he’ll give it right back up… to the other team. He has an assist to turnover ratio of 1/4.8.

-Fr. G/F #32 Tyler Hurley has played 5 minutes in 3 games. “Put in Tyler!”

-Jr. G/F #33 Vassy Banny hails from the Ivory Coast and did not play high school basketball and it shows, considering his 27% FT% and 25% from 3 point range. A solid IMA pickup game player if you ask us.

-So. C #41 Brian Qvale says, “All books are the devil.” The “Q” in his name is not followed by a “U” as well.

-Jr. F #44 Jack “Angus” McGillis was named “Mr. Montana” in high school which is an award for the state’s best basketball player. He probably knows our thug friends down at Oregon State because he played his freshman and sophomore years there before transferring to Montana and redshirting last season. His team probably wishes he didn’t shoot so much from 3 due to the fact that he shoots 26% from there despite shooting so many of them.

-Fr. F #45 Mathias Ward looks like he might be on his way to redshirting this season but this Gig Harbor grad lists his favorite book as, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.

GO DAWGS!

A new segment here on Seattle Sportsnet. Each afternoon/evening, we will publish a “Pic o’ the day” featuring a unique sports-related picture from current events. We encourage you, our readers, to submit pictures our way and likewise hope you’ll feel inspired to comment on our photos or add your own captions. Without further ado, our first Pic o’ the day.

“PIYAAAH!” LSU head basketball coach Trent Johnson (formerly of Stanford University, and a graduate of Seattle’s Franklin High School) reacts midway through his team’s 64-52 victory Saturday over Washington State.

Love ‘em or hate ‘em, we’re done with these stories. Some are good, some are bad, but all are yesterday’s news. With the departure of 2008, we can leave these sports stories behind us and cherish their memories as we move into a new year. Without further ado, and in no particular order, on to the stories.

Michael Phelps wins eight gold medals. You can’t deny the accomplishment: simply amazing, a feat that will likely go unmatched for years. Likewise, you can’t deny that you don’t care anymore. After about the one-millionth news segment on Phelps’ size 14 feet, 100 billion calorie a day diet, and mom Debbie, we knew more about Michael Phelps than we did most of our family members. Sure, we might love the guy for what he’s done, but that doesn’t change the fact that we’re sick and tired of hearing about him.

Sports Illustrated named Phelps “Sportsperson of the Year” and if you actually read the article that recapped the articles that recapped the champion, then you yourself deserve eight gold medals just for perservering through what you already knew. Like watching the TBS version of Rudy for the tenth Saturday afternoon in a row, you couldn’t pull yourself away from an overcooked, watered down tale of heroism that had been played out one too many times in sugar coated fashion. Which is why we’re here to help you let go. It’s ok to let go.

Boston Celtics win NBA championship. Nobody likes Boston to begin with, which made hearing about this story all the more unbearable. We had to hear about how Paul Pierce was now and forever the next great Celtic legend, how Ray Allen finally validated a career on the outside looking in, and how Kevin Garnett thought “ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE!”

All an NBA championship means is that fans of 29 other teams hate your guts, while only one team’s fans get the opportunity to celebrate. If you want to become the most reviled sports story of most people’s year, just go ahead and win yourself a championship of some kind.

Brett Favre is (un)retired. The one thing most people took away from the whole Brett Favre retirement saga is that the people’s quarterback is actually kind of a jerk. The man who announced he was hanging ‘em up on national TV, in front of our very eyes, with tears streaming down his cheeks decided he didn’t want to quit after all. He manipulated a Packers organization, who had rolled out the red carpet in the direction of Favre’s couch, into taking him back. Then, he told them he would only play as a starter, despite the fact that the franchise had already bestowed that distinction upon Favre’s ex-understudy, Aaron Rodgers. After that, he pulled strings and forced Green Bay to kowtow to the wishes of Brett Favre, master puppeteer. By bluffing on an empty hand, Favre did his best to get his former employers to ship him off to a nearby division rival in Chicago or Minnesota. When those plans fell through, the future Hall of Fame quarterback seemed content upon landing in Tampa Bay. Instead, lo and behold, Broadway Brett became a New York Jet.

Away from the security of small-town Green Bay, Favre was spotlighted in the city that never sleeps, a city that is more anti-Favre than perhaps any other. Here, he appeared to emote displeasure with his surroundings and will cap off an up-and-down season this Sunday with no chance at making the playoffs. How the mighty have fallen.

Yep, we’re done with the Favre drama of 2008. The Favre drama of 2009, however, is just around the corner.

Honorable mention: Tiger’s gimpy U.S. Open victory; Plax shoots himself in leg; McNabb unaware that games can end in ties.

We asked you to vote on your favorite Dawg Pack moments, as well as your favorite sportscaster and the results have been tallied. We’ll start with the Dawg Pack Moments, and keep in mind this was done over two polls:

Favorite Dawg Pack moments, Poll 1 of 2
Fast food night, 47% (19 votes)
Adam Morrison Soap Day, 17% (7 votes)
Poli cheech miyaya, 15% (6 votes)
Stegosaurus Nick Young, 12% (5 votes)
Dawg Pack Road Trips 7% (3 votes)

Favorite Dawg Pack moments, Poll 2 of 2
Mexican Heritage Night, 56% (13 votes)
Frye’s phone number, 17% (4 votes)
Bennett flips off Pack, 13% (3 votes)
Hernaaaaaandez, 8% (2 votes)
Arizona upset 2004, 4% (1 vote)

And of course the sportscaster poll, with the overwhelming winner being ESPN’s Erin Andrews. The results:

Favorite local sportscaster (plus a national wildcard)
Erin Andrews, ESPN, 77% (42 votes)
Eric Johnson, KOMO, 9% (5 votes)
Paul Silvi, KING, 7% (4 votes)
Dan Devone, Q13, 3% (2 votes)
Angie Mentink, FSN, 1% (1 vote)
Gaard Swanson, KIRO, 0% (0 votes)

Sumner High School offensive lineman Grant Cisneros is upset. The University of Washington verbal commit has been told that his scholarship may in fact not be honored by the new coaching regime headed up by Steve Sarkisian in the coming year. Cisneros, who was destined for Montlake, is now in limbo as he awaits the decision on his academic and athletic fate. Rightfully, the high school senior is angry.

Unfortunately, anger doesn’t change the fact that the new coaching staff has zero commitment to Cisneros or any of Tyrone Willingham’s other recruits. If they want to pull Cisneros’ scholarship offer, they have every right to do so. If any school wants to pull any kid’s offer, they reserve the right to do that at any time, so long as the athlete in question hasn’t signed a letter of intent. The process works both ways, of course. Student-athletes reserve the right to de-commit from a verbal pact at any point as well, with the one caveat again being the almighty letter of intent.

It’s not like Cisneros couldn’t see this coming. He committed to a dead man, a lame duck. Word came in that Grant Cisneros wanted to attended UW after Tyrone Willingham had already been terminated by the university. That’s like investing in a company that just filed bankruptcy, or purchasing a car that just had an accident. You have to understand what you’re getting yourself into, and if an 18-year-old kid is dumbfounded as to why his poor choice has led to this result, then he has much bigger problems than where he’ll play football next year.

As fans, we should be glad that the Sarkisian regime has the balls to make these decisions. Towards the end of his tenure, Paint-Dry Ty and his Band of Jovial Stooges were pulling in some iffy prospects for a team they wouldn’t be coaching much longer. Grant Cisneros is a one- or two-star recruit according to most of the experts who evaluate these sorts of things (and I realize that to many of you, those ratings don’t mean much, but for the purposes of this article they are our only reference tool), meaning he’s a fringe Division-I player at best. The fact that he has zero scholarship offers from any other D-I school should tell you all you need to know about the kid: he’s just flat-out not good enough to be considered for this level of play. Does that mean he should give up the dream? No way. But does that mean he should expect to play football for the University of Washington? Probably not. More than likely, he’s destined for a D-II school like Western or Central Washington, a place where he can expect to start and possibly improve himself through repetition. Should he end up at UW, it is very likely that he’ll simply be a body on the depth chart who possibly sees time on special teams. That shouldn’t be his goal, but it’s the reality of the situation.

It’s not fair to rip on high school kids for making choices such as the one Cisneros has made. But when they demand public attention for a situation that is ultimately out of their control, they become targets for scrutiny and evaluation, no matter how fair or unfair that may be. Grant Cisneros may very well be the next great University of Washington offensive lineman. Whether he ends up getting the chance to prove that may or may occur. The one thing we need to realize as fans is that by entrusting a guy like Sarkisian to run our program, we are likewise standing behind the decisions he makes. Grant Cisneros’ mom and dad may not like those decisions being made, but you have to appreciate the tough decisions being made by a new coach who is anything but what the hold coach was. The more ties we can sever from the Ty Willingham era, the better. If that means guys like Grant Cisneros have to be cut, then go ahead and point them towards the door.