WSU had 'just cause' to fire former football coach Nick Rolovich for refusing Covid vaccine, court finds

Three years after Washington State University fired its head football coach for refusing to get vaccinated, a federal court has said the university had the right to do so.

WSU fired Nick Rolovich late in the 2021 season after he refused to get a Covid-19 vaccine, as was mandated for state employees. He had sought a religious exemption from Gov. Jay Inslee's mandate but was rejected.

Rolovich previously said he would not get the shots for private reasons. He then sued the university and the state.

RELATED: Washington State fires its football coach over COVID-19 vaccine mandate

On Monday, U.S. District Court Judge Thomas O. Rice effectively ended the case in WSU's favor by granting the university's request for summary judgement in the case.

In a statement emailed to KUOW, a university spokesperson said WSU is pleased with the decision.

"This ruling affirms the university’s commitment to upholding workplace health and safety requirements — especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, the deadliest pandemic in U.S. history," said Phil Weiler, vice president of marketing and communications for WSU. "The governor's COVID-19 vaccination mandate was a critical measure to stem the spread of the virus during the pandemic. As the Court recognized, the overwhelming, undisputed evidence proved that allowing an unvaccinated head football coach to continue in his position during the height of the pandemic would have endangered the health and safety of the university community."

The judge said granting Rolovich an exemption would have caused undue hardship for WSU during a global pandemic.

"[WSU] asserts that Plaintiff’s accommodation request would have resulted in increased travel costs, harm to recruitment and fundraising efforts, and damage to WSU’s reputation and donor commitments, in addition to an increased risk of exposure of COVID-19 to student athletes, other coaching staff, the media and the public," he wrote.

In his decision, first reported by KXLY in Spokane, Rice also clearly rejected Rolovich's religious reasons for refusing the vaccine.

"Both the Ninth Circuit and the Supreme Court have cautioned against second-guessing the reasonableness of an individual’s asserted religious beliefs," Rice wrote. "However, the record does not support Plaintiff’s claim of religious objection to the vaccination. Plaintiff frequently expressed secular concerns about the COVID-19 vaccine to friends, family members and coworkers. In the thousands of pages of discovery, Plaintiff does not invoke a religious objection to the vaccine. This alone is a basis for denying Plaintiff’s claimed religious objection."

RELATED: 'The guy you look up to every day is gone.' The toll of Rolovich's departure, as told by one WSU alum

Because Rice found WSU had "just cause" to fire Rolovich, the judge also denied the former coach's claims of breach of contract and wage withholding. Rolovich had previously been one of the highest-paid public employees in Washington with a salary of $3.1 million.

Rolovich's tenure at WSU was short, lasting not even two full seasons. He came to WSU via the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa in 2020.

And his firing from WSU has left a gap in his resume.

Rolovich was out of college football until just last month, when the University of California, Berkeley, announced he'd been hired on as a senior offensive assistant for Cal football.

"Rolovich guided WSU to a 38-28 win at Oregon State in the 2020 season opener, becoming the first Cougar head football coach to win his debut since 2003 and first to win his first game on the road since 1977," Cal's press release noted, going on to list other achievements Rolovich had at WSU while neglecting to mention he'd been fired.

A spokesperson for Cal declined to comment on Monday's ruling.