Chow Going Down? Not so fast...
Shamus here. A word to the wise seems in order... Donāt park in the fee lot of the Sidestreet Inn unless you plan to visit your car oftenāthe tow trucks will steal your ride as soon as youāre inside, no matter how much time you pay for. Shamus got lucky and caught the shysters as they hitched up the old Nissan. Itās not often you win one against two grifters with a license to steal your wheels.
I wish I had their names. Iād let āem taste the lash in print. Oh, Iād make them pay. I'd put their kids names in the paper, their dead sainted mother's too.
Why? Because scorched-earth personal destruction of personages in the public eye is a Hawaii thing. Itās our cockfight fix. Give us Sen. Donna Kim in the ring with M.R.C. Greenwood and watch those razors shine. Weāll take that over actual insight and investigation anytime.
M.R.C. didnāt do anything wrong, except not get back to Kim fast enough about her lilā boyās non-existent application to UH law school. Still she got sliced and diced while Team Patron allowed the Wonder Blunder culprit, now-former athletic director Jim Donovan, to put the squeeze on for a couple hundred very large ones and a new office in which to do nothing.
But then Donovan had roots here. Which is what makes the Chow Ultimatum pop off the pages of the local paper. (Thatās Norm Chow, our UH football coach, in case youāve been following some other minor story, like gay marriage.)
The last public whipping avant-M.R.C. was of Evan Dobelle, the UH Prez who resembled a door-to-door insurance salesman and never met an expense account he couldnāt cook. There were plenty of reasons to say to hell with Dobelle. He had less of an academic pedigree than our outdoor cat, the noble Stripes; he was a nebbish with a weak underbite; in short, he was such a dumb choice you had to wonder if somebody on the Regents or the Legislature forgot to put on her reading glasses and thought the last name was Dudoit or Duvaschelle.
Or maybe they thought it was Dobash, the gluttonās choice of chocolate cake at Zippyās.
Now itās Normās turn. Itās Chow Time, the pun on everyoneās lips. The UH football coach has been in the batterās circle for a few weeks. Now heās up and the Star-Advertiser is throwing heat. No jokeāthese are beanballs weāve been reading for the last 48 hours. When a hometown paper takes aim at the local football hero, first Asian-American head coach, etc., itās news.
Itās even bigger news when it feels as if the writers have intentionally misconstrued his remarks, especially since they were in the room when he made them.
But hey, I wasnāt in the roomāthe press room after the 49-10 Utah State loss, that is. But it sure sounds like Norm really was joshing around with his olā bud on the local Utah paper, saying he was ātoo old for this game.ā Heck, Iāve heard 12-year-olds say it. Iāve said it. (Every year.)
So whatās up with this? Does it matter? Should we care when Kakaāako sewers are suddenly discovered to be an erupting volcano of merde only after the city has lazily signed off on a plan to put up 29 towers and add 20,000 porcelain thrones above el caldera de caca. Thatās a heck of a new stadium for something, come to think of it.
Backstory? Norm Chow never really had a honeymoon upon arriving at UH, never warmed up local hearts the way a local-boy-makes-good was supposed to. The word I heard from some passionate fans on the streetāincluding a clutch of women, the kind who wear UH jerseys to the KCC Farmerās Marketāwas surprisingly reserved. āI hear heās abrasive,ā said one to me a couple of years ago. It was like hearing somebodyās Mom admit their bouncing baby boy was a playground biter.
Mondayās column by Dave Reardon on Chowās public musings was brutal. It was also a watershed moment. The lead columnists have held their fire and played good soldier for much of the season, but theyāre not the types to wager their reputations on playing dumb. (Especially after they waited too long on June Jones, but then, going 12-0 in the regular season makes up for a multitude of sins in football.) They got the green light. Maybe they even got a nudge and a wink: Time to take down Chow.
Is it a coincidence that this is happening when Navy is the next opponent? The coach of Navy is a former Radford High and UH player, who also was an assistant at UH. Heās a stellar character and a beloved leader of men, as they say. Heās still a young man, as Tower of Power sang. And heās Samoan. So how come heās not head coach of UH?
Instead we have a coach who says heās too old for the game, that he could take it as a young man but not now, not anymore. A coach who isnāt asking his boys to win one for the Gipper, but for the Griper. And we have a newspaper suddenly baying for his blood.
Chow down? Aināt gonna happen. But itās getting ugly.
PS This weekās prediction is Go Navy. They pushed Notre Dame to the limit last week, gaining nearly 400 yards, most of it on the ground. Even if the WaneBow passing game is on fire, itās hard to score when the other team wonāt give up the ball. With a depleted defense the odds grow longer. It wonāt matter whether the team leadership gets their mojo back. Navy has leadership and discipline and a system that suits its recruiting limitations. You wonder if coach Ken Niumatalolo was offered the job at UH and if so, ever had a chance with our Las Vegas-loving Regents and Leg. They were probably scared of a straight arrow; next Saturday the Rainbow Warriors will know that feeling and take the arrow in the neck. The reality of an 0-8 record makes 0-9 a formality.
Ā This weekās prediction: Navy: 33, UH 14











