Uncertainty is common thread for Seattle teams

Let's analyze your Seattle sports ulcer in search of a symptom.

The Mariners began the season with a glorified interim field manager and an under-fire general manager. They proceeded to lose 101 games, with both John McLaren and Bill Bavasi getting fired in mid-misery.

The Huskies football team began the season with a coach burdened by an indefinite future. They proceeded to lose their first five games, and unless Tyrone Willingham wins the final seven, he will be fired.

The Seahawks began the season with a coach who had announced this would be his last year. They proceeded to lose four of their first five games, and Mike Holmgren's swan season might render the worst record of his stunning career.

And in case you've blocked out the trauma, the Sonics (R.I.P.) began last season with an uncertain home. They proceeded to lose 62 of 82 games, the poorest record in franchise history, and now they're playing in Oklahoma City under the alias "Thunder," wearing uniforms a blind seamstress must've designed and fretting because part-owner Aubrey "Money Bags" McClendon just lost $1.86 billion because he was forced to sell his Chesapeake Energy stock on a margin call.

Sorry to make you trudge through the despair yet again, but you should now see the common denominator of your suffering.

Impermanence.

It's been a huge contributor to this rampant losing. Every situation has different particulars, but the problems intersect at that one issue. That's not to say that the Mariners would be in the ALCS if McLaren had been given a five-year contract, but the uncertainty of leadership at least helped chop these teams down to ineptitude.

Looking back, I wonder why I couldn't foresee such a disaster. I recall a spring-training interview with McLaren, who was lauding his team at the time. And then we turned to the matter of his job security. I asked if he worried about being fired.

"No," he replied quickly before pausing. "Would I like to get fired? No. But I'm going to give the same effort I always have. I'm confident we will make the playoffs. All I ask for is an opportunity, and I've gotten it, and I'm going to run with it."

It wasn't the most confident answer. McLaren still sounded like a man who had been wedged into the job after Mike Hargrove quit in July 2007, not a full-grown skipper certain he would command this team for the long haul. I should've known it would eventually haunt him.

In the cases of McLaren, Willingham and Holmgren, all tried to use expectations to drown the background noise. They figured their teams would win enough to make their futures a nonissue. Instead, they failed, and what's worse, they failed early, so the discussion shifted immediately to their impermanent status.

McLaren encountered questions about the guillotine three weeks into the season. Willingham faced it from opening day, and as his team continues to stink, every news conference turns into hot-seat dialogue. Holmgren, who thought he quieted speculation by making a pre-emptive goodbye announcement, has seen a good idea devolve into a headache.

No kidding, after the first game, Holmgren received this doozy of an inquiry: Do you think the injuries to your team will make you want to reconsider walking away after this season?

It seemed nuts to wonder such a thing after one game. Now? Well, it would be nice for the influential coach to get an exit-strategy mulligan.

The players on these teams have and will continue to tell you that competing for a coach on a short-term lease changes nothing. They will tell you they can operate game by game, play by play, second by second, and not think about the future. Maybe they're right. Maybe they are blessed with a singular focus that far exceeds the capabilities of the average person.

Or maybe an impermanent captain makes for an indecisive crew.

The Mariners were built to fail. But the more they lost, they knew McLaren was standing on a shaky dugout, and the cloud plagued a portion of this season.

The Huskies have a mess of a roster and too many problems to count. But they have felt the pressure their coach is under more than any team in this city, and it has robbed them of their joy.

The Seahawks can point to injuries on offense and a regression on defense as their primary ails. But this weird Holmgren exit/Jim Mora coach-in-waiting situation is a greater issue now that the team is struggling and looking in need of a significant overhaul.

A coach's job status is never about the coach alone. There are so many factors, so many insecurities, and they all emerge at the first sign of trouble.

Across the Seattle sports landscape, there is instability. And there is losing. The commonality is stunning. If these teams need empathy, at least they don't have to travel far.

Jerry Brewer: 206-464-2277 or jbrewer@seattletimes.com. For his Extra Points blog, visit seattletimes.com/sports