In his recently filed lawsuit, former Washington State Football Coach Nick Rolovich alleges that the school suggested he take the coronavirus on the field as a stunt to show the school’s fealty to vaccine mandates.
In a recent interview, Rolovich told radio host Jason Rantz that the school’s athletic director wanted him to get his first vaccine on the football field in front of the whole team.
“The AD said, ‘Hey, let’s put you on the 50-yard line, we’ll have the team all around you, and the doctor will give you the vaccine in front of everybody,'” Rolovich told the radio host.
“I said, ‘Absolutely not. I have no desire to do that.’ I wasn’t going to make it a circus.”
Nick Rolovich head coach of the Washington State Cougars talks with officials during their game against the Utah Utes on September 25, 2021, at Rice Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City, Utah. (Photo by Chris Gardner/Getty Images)
Rolovich claimed in the lawsuit his application for a religious exemption over his sincere Catholic beliefs was denied without due consideration.
In the lawsuit, Rolovich claims that Washington State Athletic Director Patrick Chun unfairly terminated his employment in accordance with Gov. Inslee’s order for all state employees to receive the coronavirus vaccine if they did not have a specific exemption. Though Rolovich, a practicing Catholic, tried to obtain a religious exemption, he claims that the university and Chun specifically gave him “hostile” treatment.
Head Coach Nick Rolovich of the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors watches a replay during second-half action in the Mountain West Championship against the Boise State Broncos on December 7, 2019, at Albertsons Stadium in Boise, Idaho. Boise State won the game 31-10. (Loren Orr/Getty Images)
“Rolovich contends Chun and other university officials were ‘hostile’ when they denied him a religious exemption and fired him from his $3 million a year coaching job midway through the 2021 season,” reported USA Today. “Rolovich was the highest-paid public employee in the state at the time and had more than three years left on his five-year contract.”
Rolovich also claimed that he was told that his religious exemption was initially accepted but was then later denied.
University officials reject Rolovich’s claims and insist they were bound by Washington Gov. Jay Inslee’s vax mandates, and they acted in a “fair and lawful manner.”
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