Taking none for the team

 So I'm wondering what Washington State's football players are thinking this week, now that their head coach has pulled a Leon on them.

Leon, for those who don't remember, was the star of a short-lived Budweiser ad campaign in which a profoundly me-first football player is being interviewed about his four-fumble day. Leon, of course, blames his teammates. And when the interviewer then says "There's no 'I' in 'team'," Leon replies, "Ain't no 'we' either."

Nick Rolovich, it seems, could relate.

That's the Blob's takeaway from the WSU head coach's profoundly selfish act of grandstanding, in which he refused to comply with a work rule that all state employees had to be vaccinated against the Bastard Plague. So the university was compelled to fire him Monday, along with four assistant coaches who refused the vaccine as well, thus following Rolovich off the cliff because ...

Well, who knows. Rolovich says he was declining to be vaccinated for "personal reasons," which essentially is code for either "I don't really have a good reason" or "I don't like being told what to do."

Of course, this will elevate Rolovich to martyrdom in certain circles, where his decision will be spun as some sort of Braveheart stand for "FREEEEE-DOMMM!" He stuck by his principles, even though it cost him his job! He stood tall against the tyranny of the state! Huzzah!

Balderdash. He quit on his team, is what he did.

He violated everything coaches -- including Rolovich himself, no doubt -- preach constantly, which is, yes, that there's no "I" in "team." Sacrifice for the greater good is a consistent theme in every team sport locker room, and has been since Rockne was out there exhorting his troops to pull together and win one for the Gipper. Love each other, as Indiana coach Tom Allen likes to say. The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one, as Spock likes to say.*

(* - Gratuitous "Star Trek" reference)

Screw that, apparently is Rolovich's response.

When push came to shove, he decided practicing what he preached was for other people, not him. He Leon-ed the thing.

As for the team he quit on, Washington State will be coached by defensive coordinator Jake Dickert, who met with his players yesterday to assure them that what remains of the coaching staff are in their corner all the way. It's the speech Rolovich should have made after getting the jab, despite his reservations. Because that's what a leader does for his team.

But, nah.

And meanwhile?

Meanwhile, the Philadelphia 76ers have suspended point guard/pouting infant Ben Simmons for the season opener, because  Simmons did his own Leon-ing this week. Still butt-hurt because head coach Doc Rivers and center Joel Embiid made comments after the Sixers' playoff exit that Simmons bore his share of responsibility, he petulantly refused to participate in a defensive drill in practice the other day. Not once, but twice.

So the Sixers suspended him. They ought to trade him, but who'd want a guy who's spent the entire offseason figuratively throwing his toys because Rivers and Embiid, as gingerly as possible, answered a postgame question five months ago?

"At the end of the day, our job is not to babysit somebody," Embiid said after the practice incident, clearly done with Simmons' act. "We get paid to produce on the court, go out, play hard, win some games ... that's what we get paid for. We don't get paid to come out here and try to babysit somebody."

Me?

I think Ben Simmons and Nick Rolovich are kindred spirits, frankly. Because, again, there's no "I" in "team."

Although there is in both "Simmons" and "Rolovich," come to think of it.