Count me among the outraged over the recent firing of Roger Reid. It appears Rondo Fehlberg's word is only as good as the BYU athletic department fiscal report. For all we know, some big-bucks advertiser threatened to (heaven forbid) stop playing its pointless timeout contest-commercial unless more fans showed up to watch it.
Meanwhile, increasingly more "fans" have turned into critics. Both the advertisers and the critics won a major battle recently. Therefore, even though I'll always have a soft spot in my heart for Cougar athletics, this is one fan who isn't coming back.I admit that Roger made mistakes, possibly plenty of them, and his sons likewise. However, I don't pretend to think I or anyone else have done much better. I don't know how to judge his comments to Chris Burgess. I myself wasn't listening to the call, and I seriously doubt anyone else was, either, although every-one sure seems to know what Roger really said.
So I express my regrets to Reid and wish him much better luck in the future, hopefully with fans who actually appreciate his coaching talents.
I also realize BYU has to do what is best for itself, although what happened Dec. 17 is anyone's guess. Fehlberg threw a team that was already reeling into even further turmoil, canned Reid during the season (isn't after the season a less awkward time to pick up the ax?), broke a promise he made last year to stick by the coach and disregarded the fact that the team's best player is in court instead of on it.
As a fitting last straw, Fehlberg let Reid find out he'd been fired from newspaper reporters. Conclusion? Fehlberg doesn't care about BYU sports or about people. He cares about money.
Case in point: Several months ago, I wrote a letter to several BYU officials, including Fehlberg and Reid, expressing concern that "BYU sportsmanship" is slowly becoming a contradiction in terms. A certain group of fickle hypocrites - the ones who begin calling for Sark's backup the moment he throws his first incomplete pass and who mercilessly heckle (or used to, in any event) the most successful basketball coach in BYU history - has ruined the game for the real fans, as I said in my letter.
The response from these two officials tells me a great deal. Reid took the time to give me a congenial phone call to thank me for my concern. (Strange but true; for those of you who have never met the man but feel free to criticize him anyway, Reid can actually be nice. And yes, Elvis is dead.)
However, Fehlberg sent me a three-sentence letter essentially telling me there's nothing he could do about poor sportsmanship. Maybe he was too busy working out a new ad deal - "This personal foul brought to you by your local Amway distributor" - to actually read my letter, much less care about it.
In conclusion, Rondo Fehlberg, you've sold out to the very people that are ruining Cougar sports. So when you look over the next anemic Cougar crowd, don't look for me.
Alden L. Weight
Provo