What Jason Garrett didn’t get, Ron Washington totally deserves.
Weird how sports will change your perspective.
As the Cowboys refuse to offer their head coach an extension entering the final year of his contract, the Rangers took a different path and gave their manager some security in the form a deal that runs through the 2015 season.
Simple: Garrett hasn’t won a playoff game as head coach; Washington has taken his team to two World Series. One coach deserves a contract extension; one doesn’t.
Young general manager Jon Daniels took a gamble when he hired Washington as a first-time manager in 2006. And it looked like a disaster when, in 2010, Washington admitted during spring training that he’d failed a drug test the previous season and had used cocaine during the regular season.
Success notwithstanding, I said it at the time and I’ll say it again: Washington should have been fired. On the spot. Not because he wasn’t a good manager but because he, well, made the horrible, law-breaking decision to snort cocaine during the Rangers’ season.
Imagine if Garrett failed such a drug test.
Sports Connection
Connecting you to your favorite North Texas sports teams as well as sports news around the globe.
Alas, Daniels stood by his manager, and now he’s clearly the best skipper in franchise history. Don’t look now, but Washington is also the fourth-longest tenured manager in baseball.
I’m not sure he deserved a pardon for his drugs. But I am certain that his success has warranted the extension.
A native Texan who was born in Duncanville and graduated from UT-Arlington, Richie Whitt has been a mainstay in the Metroplex media since 1986. He’s held prominent roles on all media platforms including newspaper (Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Dallas Observer), radio (105.3 The Fan) and TV (co-host on TXA 21 and numerous guest appearances, including NBC 5). He currently writes a sports/guy stuff blog at DFWSportatorium.com and lives in McKinney with his wife, Sybil, and two very spoiled dogs.
