Husky Great Warren Moon Said UW Coaching Change "Was Necessary'

The former Montlake quarterback is working the Super Bowl as a broadcaster.

Dan Raley | Feb 10, 2022

Warren Moon never made it to the Super Bowl as the Hall of Fame quarterback that he was, but he's part of this Sunday's Kansas City Chiefs-Cincinnati Bengals game as a broadcaster, working for Sky Television.

While Moon has plenty of insight regarding the matchup of the NFL's best teams and the competing QBs, the former University of Washington standout also weighed in on the coaching change at his alma mater.

The 1978 Rose Bowl Most Valuable Player and Pac-8 Offensive Player of the Year was strongly in favor of what took place, welcoming the hiring of Fresno State's Kalen DeBoer and the ouster of Jimmy Lake.

"I think it was necessary," Moon said. "I think there was so much turmoil within the program with Jimmy Lake towards the end of it that something had to be done new. think having a new coaching change will bring new excitement, new environment and new energy to the program."

A Los Angeles native who played for the UW in 1975-77 after a year in junior college, Moon said the key to reinvigorating the Husky program is keeping the top local talent from going elsewhere, which has been the case the past couple of years.

"There's a lot of talent in Washington state," he said. "If they can control that talent that leaves the state and have those guys go to the university, it won't be long before they're back on top."

On Super Bowl's radio row, Moon spoke with Claudette Montana Pattison, who's part of the Sports Illustrated/FanNation network and the daughter of former Husky and NFL wide receiver Mark Pattison.

"That's a proud program," Moon said. "They've been good for a long time. They need to get back to the top where they belong."

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Published Feb 10, 2022

DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.