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It has never been confirmed that Scott Woodward toured the Sistine Chapel and wondered aloud at the marvelous artwork on the ceiling and mused, “a flat white coat of paint would have been a lot cheaper.”

Nor can we prove that he was involved with planning the first Tacoma Narrows bridge where the operating philosophy was to build it as cheap as possible.

We do know that now that he is entrusted with another landmark of historical and emotional significance,  his operating philosophy is to do it as cheap as possible.

“We can’t afford” joins “you can’t expect” and “we can’t” as the rallying cry of the new Husky Football as built by Emmert Gantry and his Pool Boy Scott. Combine all three and you get the stadium mission statement – “We can’t afford to do it right because we can’t get any money because you can’t expect us to so it’s better than nothing which is like being better than Ty so shut up and send us money.”

The scaled back plan eliminates all the football only facilities like a weight room, coaches offices, and football hang out palace like all the real programs that are serious about winning have. Big shock there.

Left intact is a plan to go cheap to raise as much revenue as possible to keep Olympic sports rolling along. Nothing new there. That has been the mission since 1992.

Anyone with half a brain and access to a computer knows that if you aren’t raising money, and shockingly, 17-54 hasn’t loosened the wallets, then do the less expensive things that have the most effect on the product on the field first. Build the weight room offices palace first, a clear sign that 20 years of neglect is at an end, then shake down the grateful faithful for the money to “monetize” the stadium.

The fact that Pool Boy even uses a term like monetize shows the abject greed of this endeavor. The fact that he claims Husky fans are a base that doesn’t sell out the stadium shows the current leadership remains adrift without a clue, a real problem when it comes to raising the money for even this scaled down bad idea of a plan.

How about some acknowlegdment of why ticket sales have cratered? Show us that you guys finally have grasped a clue. Hell, blame Todd Turner like the rest of the doogs. Mention it in passing. Instead we get the same old blame the fans and the same old cheerleaders for disaster spinning away trying to sell a bad idea made by stupid people to long suffering fans.

Let it play out, see what they come up with. Hell, they’ve only been lying to us for years now, why wouldn’t we trust them? Where’s this secret money?

Same shit, different sandwich. A cheap sandwich.

“Winning isn’t every thing, but wanting to win is” –  Vince Lombardi

Lombardi is often castigated by today’s soccer fans for saying that winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing. He didn’t say it, and even if he did, what the hell is wrong with that thought? There is a scoreboard on the field for a reason. A reason that Todd Turner and Mark Emmert never got.

Wanting to win is – does Washington want to win? Half brain research has found that no, Washington does not want to win. They would like to win, but they are far too accepting of losing to say that they want to win like Lombardi wanted to win.

As I watched the painful replay of the Spring Game last night I was reminded of another Lombardi quote,

“WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON OUT THERE!”

Sideline moron reporter was busy throughout the broadcast asking inane questions that caused the coverage to miss the few highlight plays that occured. The stupid contests were covered in depth. Sideline moron reporter interviews Sark after the game and leads with,

“Family, fun, then football tonight, the way it’s supposed to be”.

“Winning is a habit, unfortunately, so is losing”  – Vince Lombardi

The big question of the 2010 season is if Jack Lockner and his 8 wins can carry this team on his back to a big bowl game and a double digit win season. Or a small bowl game and a winning season. Hope was kindled in the last two games of the 09 season, as Lockner finally produced like a big time quarterback.

Hope was setback this spring scrimmage as Lockner looked like he has so many times before when it counts and calmly shrugged it off afterwards as he has so many times before when it counts.

I thought about the time that Michael Jordon smashed Steve Kerr in the face during a practice, we’re talking about practice, not a game, but practice! Jordon hated to lose more than he loved to win, a common trait among the best at what they do. It doesn’t make them great off the court, but it damn sure does make greatness on the court.

Some simpleton wrote a letter to SI saying that Tiger may have double the wins of Phil, but Phil was a great husband and that’s what really matters most. Another simpleton wrote in praising Vince Carter for enjoying the journey instead of being all hung up on championships.

Have we forgotten what big time sports are all about? As we like to say around here – fuck perspective. There is no perspective other than the will to win, the desire to win and the want to, to win.

Jack Lockner is a better role model for your kid than Michael Jordon as far as we know unless you want your kid to be an obsessed winner staying up all night gambling and beating up his team mates. But I want Jordon on my team. I want Tiger to play the golf hole to save my life, not the goofy, grinning model husband, allegedly.

This is it for Lockner. Does he want the meaningless, empty Doog legacy of greatness without results or does he want to go out a winner?

“The difference between a sucessful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather in a lack of will” – Vince Lombardi

“I firmly believe that any man’s finest hour, the greatest fulfillment of all he holds dear, is the moment he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle – victorious” – Vince Lombardi

“A man can be as great as he wants to be. If you believe in yourself, and have the courage, the determination, the dedication, the competitive drive and you are willing to sacrifice the little things in life and pay the price for the things that are worthwhile, it can be done.” – Vince Lombardi

I think that stories about the great Ivan Lewis, weight room master, and the improved players are greatly over rated. There is progress, but it is not as much as you read about. UW is still soft and small in too many places. There are more players paying the price, but not enough.

And that is the price of the culture of losing that Emmert leaves here as his legacy and the low expectations and high praise for nothing that defines the current Huskie Fan, ie, Doog.  It’s a tough call on what to expect this fall. As of today, it looks like a 50-50 team once again. The summer remains, and Lockner’s head is the key. The defense is improved, but the Huskies will need to score early and often to have the special season they need.

But in the current culture of high praise for frauds and failures at UW, who cares?

Those that expect nothing from their leaders will get nothing. And like it – Race  “Judge Smails”  Bannon.