Story Photos
 Richie Sexson, seen flipping his bat, was cut July 10 by the Seattle Mariners. John Froschauer / AP
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2008 couldn't have been much worse for Washington sports fans
Friday, January 2, 2009 12:45 PM PST
By Gregg Bell and Tim Booth
Printable version
E-mail this articleSEATTLE — Last month, a guy inside the San Diego sports scene dialed north to vent. "I'm in the worst sports area in the country right now," he said.
Um, no he wasn't. And that's not even considering he was staring at a beach and palm trees while he spoke.
"Do you forget where I am?" the Seattleite on the other end inquired.
No one from Maine to Maui could relate to what Washington's sports teams accomplished in 2008— make that, failed to accomplish.
The sadly comical meltdown of the $100 million Mariners that began in the spring was just a warmup act to the summer's waste-of-time trial and then flight of the SuperSonics. Then, with the exhaust fumes barely gone from the NBA team's abrupt move to Oklahoma City, autumn brought the triple horrors of football's Seahawks, Huskies and Cougars.
How bad was it? About the only great thing to happen during the year was that it ended.
"We're the punch line," said Washington offensive coordinator Tim Lappano, before he got fired with the rest of coach Tyrone Willingham's staff for being the first 0-12 team in Pac-10 history.
He was talking about Washington and Washington State on the eve of the Crapple Cup.
He could have been talking about the entire sports scene.
At least the state had its Seah ... uh, never mind. The defending four-time division champions in the NFL began the calendar year by winning another home playoff game and then traveling to Green Bay. There they got buried in a blizzard — and continued to get dumped on for the rest of '08.
Mike Holmgren announced this would be his last year as coach, setting up a dreamy farewell season. Instead, it became a nightmare. The Seahawks unceremoniously cut former NFL MVP Shaun Alexander. Then came far deeper gouges.
A bulging disk in Matt Hasselbeck's back, originally dismissed as nothing by the quarterback and his coach in September, caused him to miss nine games.
Then came seven different injuries at wide receiver, plus seven more that knocked out the entire offensive line and put veteran stalwart Chris Gray into retirement. Pile all that onto a defense that was too small and often in the wrong place, and it's a wonder the Seahawks even managed to go 4-12.
It was the worst year since the 1992 team was a franchise-worst 2-14, and only the third losing season in Holmgren's 17 years as a head coach in a surefire Hall of Fame career.
"This is new ground," Holmgren said with each mounting failure.
No, just Washington's wretched soil in 2008.
The state had to dig deep to find winners, to the UW's national champion team in women's cross-country and to Seattle Pacific, the Division II national champions in women's soccer.
The final year of Sonics basketball was basically an embarrassment. The team finished with a franchise-worst 20-62 record despite the arrival of Kevin Durant, last season's NBA rookie of the year.
The emotional highlight for the teetering franchise: Durant standing at center court raising his arms toward the KeyArena ceiling as the crowd roared "Save Our Sonics!" near the end of the Sonics' final game in Seattle, a victory over playoff-bound Dallas on April 14.
"I almost cried, to be honest with you," Durant said afterward. "It was phenomenal."
Way better than what followed, a federal courtroom battle between the Sonics and the city over the enforcement of the team's lease to play at KeyArena. Team owner Clay Bennett wanted out immediately, saying that KeyArena was not a viable venue and the Sonics would lose millions if forced to play in Seattle through 2010.
The city argued that the team should be required to abide by the letter of the lease, believing that enforcing the final two years could leave open a better chance of the team remaining in Seattle for the long term.
Stunning resolution came on the day U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman was expected to give her decision. A last-minute settlement was announced whereby the team would pay $45 million for the right to move to Oklahoma City immediately and would be required to pay another $30 million if plans for a renovated KeyArena are approved by the end of 2009, and the city doesn't get a new franchise within five years.
The settlement left fans bitter and angry at the city for what they saw as a sellout, and resentful at the NBA for letting the move happen.
Then, just as the Sonics left, Washington and Washington State started playing football. Plus the Mariners became the first team with a $100 million payroll to lose 100 baseball games. Other than that, autumn was great.
The Mariners fired manager John McLaren, general manager Bill Bavasi and fill-in manager Jim Riggleman. New GM Jack Zduriencik arrived from an executive's role in Milwaukee and immediately changed everything short of Ichiro, Safeco Field and the team's colors.
Now 2009, with first-time manager Don Wakamatsu, looks like a humbling rebuilding project that could last years but promises to fix the fundamental flaws that stopgap solutions have created since 2001 — the team's last year in the playoffs.
As for college football, Washington spiraled into an abyss after a 28-27 loss to BYU, when quarterback Jake Locker scored with 2 seconds left in regulation but was flagged 15 yards for unsportsmanlike conduct after spontaneously throwing the ball in the air. The subsequent extra point was blocked, preserving the loss.
Seattle's fans were so beaten down by the time Rick Neuheisel returned in mid-November for the first time as the new leader of UCLA that the coach hated for allegedly ruining Washington's football program found apathy instead of anger in a Husky Stadium that was barely two-thirds full.
Of course the Huskies got routed. And Neuheisel's family jogged off the field in glee.
Washington wasn't competitive until the Apple Cup against equally woeful Washington State. The Cougars were also miserable in 2008 under first-year coach Paul Wulff, the former head man at Eastern Washington who unsuccessfully tried his new system with players left over from old coach Bill Doba. But at least the Cougars had a win under their belts before the Apple Cup. Let's forget it came against Portland State of the lower-tier Big Sky Conference.
During a stretch of losses to Oregon State, USC and Stanford, the Cougars were outscored 169-0 in 10 quarters. Like the Huskies, WSU was remarkably awful against Pac-10 foes — until the Apple Cup.
Bad against bad equaled excitement. The Cougars rallied from a 10-0 deficit to force overtime on the final play of regulation. Then in the second overtime, after Washington kicker Ryan Perkins missed from 37 yards, WSU's Nico Grasu hit from the same distance to give the Cougars a 16-13 win in Pullman.
The Huskies then hired USC offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian to replace Willingham as the hopeful savior of the program.
At least college basketball wasn't a total loss. Wondrous coach Tony Bennett again took Washington State into the NCAA tournament, where the Cougars were sent home by powerful North Carolina. Gonzaga made another NCAA tournament, then the Bulldogs were stunned in the first round by mighty little Davidson.
Washington skidded out of the NCAAs again, and even lost in the first round at home to Valparaiso in something called the College Basketball Invitational. The Huskies ended the calendar year promising to return to the upper half of the Pac-10 standings behind dynamic freshman Isaiah Thomas.
Grant one, huge plus to Sarkisian, Wakamatsu, Zduriencik and Jim Mora — who will replace Holmgren as the Seahawks coach next year: They will not be trying to turn around their teams while having to work in 2008.
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