Interesting Stuff
Of Politics and Football
December 27, 2005 
Only because readers have demanded it, the GUARDIAN will comment on BSU football and the guy reveled and reviled by fans.
Dan Hawkins will earn more coaching the final 2005 Boise State gridiron battle against Boston College than Guv Dirk makes in a year–in salary that is.
Hawk makes more than the President, but he has to deal with a lot more important things than IRAQ and Democrats…things like the battle of the FIGHTING HUMANITARIANS. That’s the bowl game sponsored by those macho computer nerds in Nampa.
Maybe the pay scale explains why President Nixon used to call NFL coaches with special play suggestions, originating the link between church and state–football IS a religion isn’t it?
Hawkins had a 5-year deal, but it allowed him to “buy out” for about $740,000. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could do something like that with politicians? We could offer a reverse buy out plan and just pay them to leave. It would be cheaper than special prosecutors and costly trials.
With his gap-toothed boyish grin we want Hawk to show up with a MAD Magazine on the sidelines just once and say, “What, me worry?” Not our Hawk. He says things like, “I love these guys like family.” Then he leaves town. How many bosses do YOU know who can get people to bust their asses, knees, ankles, and shoulders without pay while the boss is paid about a million dollars a year?
If you don’t want to go sit in the cold rain and pay to watch it, no doubt KTVB Channel 7 will show the game at 27 times in the next week!
Why doesn’t BSU schedule the bowl for August as a Preseason game?…after all it’s a foregone conclusion they will play a bowl game in their own stadium anyway. Why not do it on a nice August evening?
Don’t forget what happened to Riverfest! If MPC gets a worm in its software the FIGHTING HUMANITARIANS may have to declare “mission accomplished” and forget about broadcasting the typically beautiful Boise weather the last week of December.
The Chamber of Commerce needs to celebrate an end to the bowl as “damage control” instead of kidding themselves that someday Boise will be competing with the Rose Bowl for TV audiences…it will take a lot more global warming than we will ever see.
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Comments & Discussion
Comments are closed for this post.
Dec 28, 2005, 7:10 am
Hey Guardian, as the Sgt. in the movie Stripes would say “ligten up Francis.” Are you upset that you won’t be there taking pictures and getting paid. I take it by your idea that they play a bowl game in August that you are not a football fan. Bowl games are played in December and January. As a forgone conclusion the Broncos will play in their own bowl game, what happen the past two years? Oh yeah they were in Texas and Tenn. How come you don’t talk about USC playing in their own bowl game,The Rose Bowl or Miami playing in their own bowl game at the Orange Bowl. The WAC has an agreement with the MPC Bowl game to provide a team, and it is suppose to be the first place team in the conference, thus BSU fits that bill. I really don’t think the Chamber is trying to compete with The Rose Bowl, and I think the downtown business community kinda likes the bowl and the money it brings in at the end of the year. So “lighten up Francis.”
Dec 28, 2005, 11:00 am
Guardian–I like your comparison of the “Bronco Bowl” to the gratefully-defunct River Fest. Both are (were) particularly attractive to the low-life element of this community.
Dec 28, 2005, 12:46 pm
Fred,
I loved and miss the Riverfest, even though we live right above the rim and were subject to many inconveniences caused by said defunct festival. In my opinion it was a great family event – plagued with bad timing and worse management, but never did we find it populated with “lowlifes.”
Dec 29, 2005, 12:05 am
I have found the MPC Bowl to be a rather pleasant event in a week that is devoid of much else to do. I gave up skiing years ago. The people running this event have a business model that works as long as there is a major sponsor behind it and people (or their employers) buy up the tickets. The stadium is there, the nation is full of 2nd and 3rd tier bowl games, so why not one in Boise? In contrast the River Fest could not charge admission and which did seem to encourage higher attendance by the low-life element Fred mentions (and a lot of regular folk attended too). It also destroyed the river banks before they put the parade on the street where it belonged. Before its demise it was nothing more than a glorified state fair minus the barn animals but and plus the kitchen sink of every other community event borrowed from other cities across the west. Then Ann Morrison Park turf suffered for weeks thereafter thanks to the huge crowds. I don’t miss it, especially the hype about economic benefits.
As for Dan Hawkins, I hoped he would stay on a couple more years but I do not fault him for making the move. When those opportunities come along and its the right location, then go for it. I’m glad he was here long enough for son Cody to help BK get a couple of state championships. He did a great job with the BSU program, one that I think pays its way and provided thousands a place to spend their entertainment dollar. He deserved every dollar more than Gov. Kempthorne because he did a great job – a much better job performance than the Governor. The only thing I disagreed with was the cult-like reporting of the local news media leading up to his taking the job in Boulder. They really went overboard.
Dec 29, 2005, 1:15 pm
As for the gone (but sadly not yet forgotten) River Festival… once the float-boats were banned from the river (which was a pretty crazy idea anyway), shouldn’t it have be renamed the “Boise Commerce Festival”? It really had nothing to do with the river after that. (I can remember a couple of those early-year floats. Huge throngs of people tromping the fragile and frequently muddy/slippery river banks. IMO, it’s a miracle that we didn’t lose a young child into those swift-flowing currents. It’s usually still running high in June.)
As for Dan Hawkins… more power to him! Coaching is a job, and if he had a poor season, many of his loyal fans would turn on him like starving pit-bulls. (The ones who have been writing all the angry letters to the editor.) He saw an opportunity for a huge raise and a giant challenge to his coaching skills… and his family still gets to live in a pretty nice neck o’ the woods. (Although I think he’ll find Boulder to be WAY more liberal than Boise. A little island of “blue state” in an ocean of red states. Kinda like Hailey/Ketchum. Isn’t Boulder the place where, by city ordinance, you can’t be the “owner” of a pet dog or cat, but rather its “guardian”?) Go Dan! Go Pete! Go BSU! (The MPC ice bowl turned out to be a classic game!)
Jan 5, 2006, 11:06 am
What really happened to Riverfest? There is more to the story than what we know.