Gonzaga Coach Mark Few On Paying Players: What About Mexico, And Also, Uh, The Homeless?

Stadium’s Jeff Goodman spoke with Gonzaga coach Mark Few yesterday about California’s recently passed Fair Pay to Play Act and the broader movement to see college athletes compensated for their labor. Few expressed some wishy-washy support for players being able to make some money, but only after bizarrely going in on California governor Gavin Newsom.

“What I find totally disappointing and just disgusting, is that a governor is wasting his time grandstanding around in something that he really doesn’t understand when .00001 percent of his constituents are going to be impacted by this,” Few, who has spent his entire coaching career in Washington, said. “He should probably stay in his lane—like I tell my players—and figure out homelessness and I think he’s got a state that borders Mexico and get that mess figured out, and the budget and some things like that.”

I would really like Few to explain how Newsom, a former Division I athlete, is somehow responsible for figuring out “that mess” in Mexico, yet has strayed too far by ushering along a bill that helps college athletes. Furthermore, the timing of Few concern-trolling Newsom over homelessness ( the same tack taken by Mike Leach) lines up perfectly with Donald Trump taking a sudden, vicious interest in the issue. Like Trump, Few is not bringing this up because he cares about the plight of homeless people, he just wants to portray Newsom as a meddler.

When you’ve made Coach K look like the only rational one in the room, you’ve really stepped in it.