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Sidelines Kalani Simpson |
Now it’s all about
the Benjamins
UNFORTUNATELY, this is now, officially, about the money.It's lamentable. It's a shame that it comes to this, but that's how it goes. That's society, human nature. That's the art of the big deal. As soon as you take the money, it's about the money, whether you like it or not.
After every three-and-out, next season, there will be a guy in the stands saying, "We're paying $800,000 a year for THIS?"
After every incomplete pass, there will be some idiot with a calculator who will declare, "There went $1,400."
And yes, I realize I have just become that idiot.
EVERYBODY HAS A different attitude about paying big money for college football coaches.
ME: June Jones is going to make $800,000 a year.
MY WIFE: That's ridiculous.
ME: (Nebraska coach) Frank Solich makes $1 million.
MY WIFE: (Defensively) So!
I guess it all depends on your perspective.
YOU DON'T GET to decide if it's about the money. You have no say, but everybody tries. They all try.
"Money changes everything."-- Cyndi Lauper
"It really wasn't about the money," Jones said.
Dang. There it was. As every sportswriter in the last 25 years has written, the second you feel you have to say it isn't about the money, it is, even if it wasn't.
No turning back now.
That kind of money does it to people. It's my theory that nobody begrudges anyone making big money. It's actually having the audacity of asking for it that Joe Public can resent. And you have to ask for it, because no one gives you cartoon bags of "not about the money" money as an opening bid, out of the goodness of their hearts.
"I didn't ask for anything," Jones said.
Wait a minute. What? You mean to tell me that the state of Hawaii, UH, regular boosters and assorted football-loving rich guys just gave $800,000 a year to a guy who didn't even ask for it? Who claims he didn't even particularly want it? Hold on, now. How, exactly, does that happen?
"I really wasn't privy to the negotiations," Jones said. "I let somebody else handle that. I told him I wanted to be here."
Darn those agents. You've got to watch them every second or they'll turn around and make you rich when you're not looking.
Jones said he wasn't underpaid under his previous contract -- at about half the price.
"I wasn't," he said, on a Friday conference call from Maui (where he was on a golf trip). "I was willing to honor the contract I had and I had voiced that.
"I was happy where I was."
(Sound of UH athletic director Herman Frazier smacking himself in the forehead.)
"If money was my motivator, I would be somewhere else," Jones said.
So it wasn't about the money.
But it is now.
WHAT THE HECK is it with this exact figure of $800,016 a year? Where did the $16 come from? Why not $799,999.99 while we're at it?
So of course UH ponies up for half of it -- exactly $400,008 -- while the other half is handled by a mysterious hui of anonymous sugar daddies.
I feel it's time to come clean and let everyone in on the identity of one of the donors.
I kicked in the $8.
EIGHT HUNDRED THOUSAND Dollars! Man, I get giddy just thinking about a number like that.
"It doesn't do anything to me," Jones said. "Whether I'm making $80,000 or $800,000, it's been the same."
Yeah, I would agree. I think when it comes to looking at most of our own salaries by comparison, numbers like those are in about the same category.
"Hopefully it'll be a trickle-down to everybody," Jones said.
Hey, trickle on down.
But I've said it before and I'll say it again, none of these silly salary comparisons apply until the governor beats BYU.
In fact, that would have been my argument. Forget all this hoomalimali about economic impact, national exposure ... I would have stood up in those meetings and said, "THE MAN BEAT BYU!!!" And sat back as the $100 bills fluttered down like a ticker-tape parade.
Maybe that's what happened. And Jones never asked for anything, the football-mad masters of our universe just backed up an armored bank car to his house while the coach was out minding his own business, golfing. You never know. While Jones has always said this is a special job, a special place, he isn't going anywhere, I've been one of the few to actually believe him, and not go into a panic over every hint at another job.
He said it again the other day, that this deal is about here, about Hawaii, about players that feel like family.
"That's what motivates me," he said. "I'm just different, I guess."
Me, too. Darn our social consciences.
Of course, it's also about something else now, too, unfortunately. When you take "not about the money" money, there isn't any other choice.
See the Columnists section for some past articles.
Kalani Simpson can be reached at ksimpson@starbulletin.com
