The Elephant in the Room

By Mike Gibson
There's been an Elephant in the room for the past few days.
Elephant with a capital E.
Seems like no one in either Vivacqua Hall or the Edberg-Olson Football Complex wants to look at it, but it is an unwelcome visitor right there in the living room, unexpectedly coming through the sliding glass doors and destroying the brand new furniture and eating all of the peanuts on the dining room table.
Not even the media seems to be addressing it, other than superficially.
Well, today, Dave "Fizzy" Weinraub saw the Elephant, pointed to it and tried to get the trainer to take it out of the living room in an excellent letter to the editor in the sports section of today's Philadelphia Inquirer.
I was privileged to be introduced to Fizzy and have known him from the pre-game tailgating scene at every Temple football game.
He is a terrific storyteller (ask him about Bill Cosby some day), very funny and an all-around great guy.
He shows up at every Temple home game and probably has gone to some long before I started to be a fan as a 10-year-old kid.
If every Temple alumnus did what Fizzy has done, we'd have 250,000 at our games. We only need 69,999 more Fizzies to never have any problems.
His support of the program should never be questioned.

I believe if I tell you
I'm going to build
you a brick house
and sign a contract
to build that house,
I'm not going to leave
when one wall is up
and say, well, the guy down
the street gave
me a better offer

I appreciate everyone who supports Temple football, whether it be the big spenders in the Club Box level or those in section 101 like Fizzy, Cap Poklemba and myself.
Temple invested a lot of money in its current head coach, money it probably couldn't afford to pay because it wanted a taste of what other schools had on the football field for a change.
People like Fizzy, Cap Poklemba and other very hungry supporters deserve that taste.
All they've gotten so far is 1-11 and 4-8 and promises.
That's not tasting. That's not even sniffing.

I'm not a great guy like Fizzy, just a good one who, like him, is perplexed by the sight of an Elephant in any place other than a Zoo.
I'm a guy who gets to work on time every day.
I keep my appointments.
People who know me know that when I say I'm going to meet them at a certain place and a certain time, I'm always there.
I believe your word is your bond and that no amount of money can change that.
I believe if I say I'm going to do a certain job by a certain time, I'm going to get it done.
Only then will I move on to the next task.
I believe if I demand integrity, honesty and commitment from my colleagues that I should give no less in return.
I believe if I tell you I'm going to build you a brick house and sign a contract to build that house, I'm not going to leave when just one wall is up and say, well, the guy down the street gave me a better offer.
That doesn't make me better than anybody else. It's just the way I was raised.
Temple should hold its football coach, both current and next, to that same minimum standard.