Well that pretty well tells us where there priorities are. Steve Sarkisian, football coach at the UW was paid $1.98 million last year (gross pay). The second highest paid state worker was the UW Basketball coach, Lorenzo Romar at $1.14 million. Think about that for a minute. These were numbers published in the Times which were obtained from the Office of Financial Management . I am going to just stop with those two to get the point across that I am trying to make. The webs of lies, and twists and turns and bass-ackwards talk when talking budgets or expenses just makes your heads roll. I have to ask some questions here. Who signs those two bozo’s pay checks? If they are classed as state workers, then they must work for the state. If the state signs their paycheck how can they say they are not paid by the taxpayers or tuition? If the athletic program generates its own money it should not even be a part of the University. They should have a sports university, completely separate. They should build their own buildings, purchase land for their stadiums and sports fields. They will screw this up somehow by saying they are giving free tuition to the sports players. But look at the reputation the sports players have. The UW recruits these so called jocks, they do not care if they can read or write. They help them cheat to get in and when the recruits feel so important they drive drunk or rape underage girls or even go on to be a pimp Romar would try to cover it up. It’s plain sick.
I know you might not agree with me, but I think sports have gone completely haywire. It is not the most important profession in the world. It pays the best, and ruins more young lives than it helps. The kids are so intent on a sports scholarship they don’t bother to learn how to make any other living. When they fail to get to be a player they don’t know how to do anything. You would think a public university where parents pay high tuition so their children can be doctors, lawyers, teachers, engineers would be rewarded more than a kid that can kick a ball or do hoops. It is not fair to taxpayers or hard working parents paying tuition to be paying so much overhead. Geez it’s bad enough to pay the UW President Young an obscene salary and furnish him a mansion but his pay is peanuts compared to the Coach’s.
Hope this article generates enough interest or anger to make others ask some questions about the expenses at the UW. Do they say out of one side of their mouth their pay does not come from taxes or tuitions but still factor it in when the Office of Financial Management figures their costs? Sports figures have ruined the lives of so many. They get more money than they will ever need and just go crazy. There are not many Jim Zorns and Steve Largents who can actually handle money. Now on a different spin that is not about money. If you look at the necessities of life. What sort of people do we need? I will list a few in the order of what I call importance. First and foremost you need a farmer to grow your food. You need a man that can dig wells or figure out how to get water to you. You need engineers and architects to build houses and bridges etc. I could go on and fill pages of what kind of people we really need to make our life even livable but you know what, a football or basketball coach is the least needed thing in the scheme of things. They can generate a lot of money and maybe feel important but when push comes to shove I would have to make this comparison. In the garden of life everything has a purpose. Honey bees might sting but they need to pollinate the blossoms where as I cannot figure out in the scheme of things the slug contributes anything to make our lives better. I put the sports and their obscene money making schemes right with the slugs. I think sports are great if they really are sports and entertainment, but these are just money making schemes for billionaire sports owners. I don’t think anyone that is called a state employee should be making more than $200,000 a year tops. This article will not agree with a lot of peoples thinking but hope that if their house falls down in a flood or earthquake they have a coach’s phone number handy to call and not call 911 for police or fireman. LLL
