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A32 sports
Diahuebs 21 OctOber 2021

Rolovich lawyer calls coach’s firing ‘unjust and unlawful’

Coach Rolovich’s sincerely modation would have been cials said. Rolovich was the
held religious beliefs” and his made,” Fahling said in the highest-paid state employee
dishonesty at the expense of statement. in Washington at $3.2 mil-
the former coach. lion per year. He was fired for
The statement didn’t specify cause and will not be paid the
Rolovich and four of his as- Rolovich’s religious grounds balance of his contract.
sistants were fired Monday for seeking an exemption
for not complying with the and the coach himself had Rolovich was hired from
governor’s mandate that all declined to discuss details in Hawaii two years ago, after
state employees be vaccinated recent weeks. Mike Leach left for Missis-
against the coronavirus. The sippi State, and led Wash-
attorney said Rolovich was Pope Francis and the U.S. ington State to a 1-3 record
escorted by campus police Conference of Catholic Bish- in the Pac-12 in a 2020 sea-
to his car and not allowed to ops have stated that all CO- son cut short because of the
speak to the team or visit his VID-19 vaccines are morally pandemic. He finished with a
office after his dismissal. acceptable and that Catholics 5-6 record in Pullman.
have a duty, responsibility or
(AP) - Former Washington Rolovich had requested a re- obligation to be vaccinated. He was replaced for the re-
State coach Nick Rolov- Attorney Brian Fahling also ligious exemption but it was However, some Catholics mainder of the season by Jake
ich’s termination for re- said in a statement that Ro- denied Monday, the state’s still oppose vaccination. Dickert, the Cougars’ defen-
fusing to get a COVID-19 lovich intends to take legal vaccination deadline. sive coordinator who was el-
vaccination was unlawful action and that the litigation Statewide, about 1,800 work- evated to acting head coach.
and an attack on his Cath- will detail what the attor- “The institution also indicat- ers have been fired, resigned
olic faith, his attorney said ney called athletic director ed that even if the exemption or retired because of the gov- Washington State (4-3) hosts
Wednesday. Pat Chun’s “animus towards had been granted, no accom- ernor’s mandate, state offi- BYU (5-2) on Saturday.

NFL set to propose fix to race-norming in dementia testing

(AP) — The NFL is set to propose one for everyone else — was devel- NFL retiree who does not have an ment for a decade, dismissed the suit
changes to the $1 billion concus- oped by neurologists in the 1990s as impairment but advocates for those on procedural grounds. But as the
sion settlement on Wednesday a crude way to factor in a patient’s who do. uproar over race-norming intensi-
after an outcry over test score socioeconomic background. Experts fied this year, she ordered the lawyers
adjustments known as “race- say it was never meant to be used to “(But) we’re not going to get every- who negotiated the 2013 settlement
norming,” which make it harder determine payouts in a court settle- thing we wanted,” Jenkins, an insur- — New York plaintiffs lawyer Chris-
for retired Black players to win ment. ance executive, said Tuesday. “We topher Seeger for the players and
dementia awards that average want full transparency of all the de- Brad Karp for the NFL — to work
$500,000 or more. Of the approximately 20,000 NFL mographic information from the with a mediator to address it.
retirees who have registered for the NFL — who’s applied, who’s been
The new testing formula, developed settlement program — which offers paid.” She later allowed lawyers for Dav-
during months of closed-door ne- monitoring, testing and, for some, enport and Henry to join the talks,
gotiations with players’ lawyers, will compensation — more than 2,000 He and other critics want to see a and issued a gag order on everyone
remain secret until a federal judge re- sought awards for early or advanced breakdown by race of the $821 million involved.
views it. That means the 1,435 NFL dementia. paid to date through the program. It’s
retirees whose dementia claims have not clear the court will make that data In the meantime, the Gordons and
been denied, many or most of them Only 30% have gotten them. The public, although he and others have other NFL families wait.
Black, won’t immediately know how awards average $715,000 for those also asked the Civil Rights Division
the changes could affect them. with advanced dementia and $523,000 of the Justice Department to open an “His life is ruined,” Roxy Gordon
for those with early dementia. inquiry. said of her husband, who spent more
They also won’t know if their prior than a decade in the league as a defen-
tests will simply be rescored, or if The vast majority of the league’s The issue first came to light in 2019, sive tackle or defensive end.
they must endure another grueling players — 70% of active players and when former Steelers Najeh Dav-
round of cognitive testing. more than 60% of living retirees — enport and Kevin Henry filed a civil He hoped to work afterward with
are Black. rights lawsuit that exposed the un- children in urban areas like the one
“The NFL should be really enraged equal testing formula. in Seattle where he grew up, she said.
about the race norming. …. That “If the new process eliminates race- Instead, she cannot depend on him
should be unacceptable to them and norming and more people qualify, Senior U.S. District Judge Anita B. to pick up their 10-year-old son from
all of their sponsors,” said Roxanne that’s great,” said Ken Jenkins, a Black Brody, who has overseen the settle- school near San Diego.
“Roxy” Gordon, whose husband, a
Stanford University graduate, finds
himself at 40 unable to work.

Amon Gordon has twice qualified for
an advanced dementia award only to
have the decision overturned for rea-
sons that aren’t yet clear to them. His
case remains on review before the
federal appeals court in Philadelphia.

The NFL had agreed in June to halt
the use of “race-norming,” which as-
sumes Black players start with lower
cognitive function. That makes it
harder to show they suffer from a
mental deficit linked to their playing
days.

The binary scoring system in demen-
tia testing — one for Black people,