Neuheisel makes every Husky suffer

Over the past weeks we have watched as "slick Rick" Neuheisel has tried to weasel his way out of yet another scandal.

Since Neuheisel arrived at UW from Colorado four years ago, his tenure has been anything but roses. The only roses Neuheisel has brought to the UW were the ones that Marquis Tuiasosopo brought us in January of 2001.

On June 4, the NCAA launched an investigation into Neuheisel gambling on college basketball, and since then, Neuheisel has squirmed.

He squirmed much like we have seen him do before.

Eight days after commenting on the incident, Neuheisel produced a memo that implied that the athletic department basically condoned the gambling if there were no bookie involved.

By producing this memo, Neuheisel shifted the blame for this incident from squarely his shoulders to the shoulders of the entire university.

Now everybody suffers.

Neuheisel suffers because he is out of a job. Regardless of what he thinks, he is no longer coach of the Washington Huskies. And every Husky fan suffers the unwanted media attention surrounding this whole mess.

Barbara Hedges looks as though she has no control over her athletic department and now the football team is without a coach only three short months before it battles the defending national champion Ohio State Buckeyes.

Neuheisel screwed up.

There is no other way to explain it. He blatantly broke the rules and now he is fighting to keep a job that he no longer has.

Is that good for the University?

Is that good for the athletic department?

Is that good for the football team?

No. None of this is good for anyone involved. Neuheisel needs to realize this and, that because of this scandal, he no longer has credibility as a coach at this university. When he speaks, the words are meaningless.

This may be the greater lesson that needs to be learned here. It doesn't matter how charismatic you are or how savvy a speaker you are, if you don't have credibility, then you have nothing. It is time for Neuheisel to move on and realize that he made a mistake, admit his mistake and suffer the appropriate consequences.

Looking back, I wonder how he feels. Was that $20,000 he won off his friends and neighbors worth the loss of a prime coaching job, credibility within the community, public humiliation, and -- oh yeah -- the $1.5 million dollars he could have kept if he would have just done the right thing.

I guess this is one scandal that 'slick Rick' can't squirm his way out of.