Life Before the Oprah-ization of Sports

Hey, did you hear Jason Collins is a homosexual? What, the president called? He's on Good Morning America? Let's all get in touch with our feelings:

Dozens of NBA players sent messages to Collins after the story was posted Monday, many doing so through social media. The support didn't stop there, with President Barack Obama also calling to offer his support.

"It's incredible. Just try to live an honest, genuine life, and the next thing you know you have the president calling you," Collins said. "He was incredibly supportive and he was proud of me, said this not only affected my life but others going forward." 

I'll skip the group hug and recall a time when professional athletes had the decency and sheer politeness not to foist their "issues" upon all of us:

When [Pittsburgh Steelers Hall of Fame linebacker Jack] Lambert was two years old his parents were divorced. He'd spend weekends with his father. Most of the time they'd play ball. A few years ago Jim O'Brien of The Pittsburgh Press asked Lambert if his parents' divorce had affected him in any way.

"I'm sure it did," Lambert said, "but I don't think it's the business of readers of The Pittsburgh Press." 

It sure was better back then.

The Mark of an Irresponsible Adult

John Wooden, the legendary UCLA basketball coach who, according to star prodigy Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, could never coach in today's poisoned sporting atmosphere, says it best:

“Having worked with young people all my life, I can tell you for a fact that today’s kids are crying out for discipline,” Wooden said. “Unfortunately, they aren’t getting the discipline they need at home or from most of their teachers. Until we give them the proper standards to live by, we will continue to be a nation whose young people will be in and out of trouble.”

“Sometimes I wonder if most people even know what real discipline is,” he continued. “The purpose of discipline isn’t to punish but to correct. It’s not there to be used to antagonize an individual, but to help and improve him. It’s not yelling at someone, because that kind of approach never gets you anywhere. You can only get the response you want by acting fairly and rationally.”

Of course the Wooden way would never make it today. The current world of big-time college basketball emphasizes winning to the absolute exclusion of anything else and doesn't even bother with the pretense of educating young athletes anymore, as the best prospects frequently leave for the NBA after one or two years. Wooden's famous Pyramid of Success emphasized self-control as a key building block to winning in life, which was seen as the more important goal, as well as in sports, which were but a part of life.

That young college athletes do not learn any of these lessons today is literally printed on their very skins. Does a player covered in tattoos such as that look like somebody who has an appreciation of the valuable building blocks of poise and self-control?

But our college coaches have so abandoned their roles as molders of young men that we have the shameful and ridiculous spectacle of our current national championship-winning head man actually joining in on the irresponsibility:

Louisville head coach Rick Pitino vowed that if his Cardinals won the National Championship that he would get a tattoo commemorating the win.

Well, just over two weeks after Pitino’s team cut down the nets in Atlanta, the 60-year-old coach has some fresh ink to show for it.

In a picture posted online, Pitino showed off the tattoo, located on the upper left portion of his back, which has a big red L, 2013 and “NCAA Champions 35-5” on it.

It's refreshing that Pitino would go so far as to actually brand himself as what he is: a 60-year-old jackass who has abdicated his duty to impress on the young men in his charge the enduring lessons they need to learn to win in the game of life in order to pursue the far lesser goal of winning at passing games of sport.

One fears that the mark of character he leaves on his players will be just as permanent as the ink etching he has embossed on his pasty, wrinkled back.

The High Cost of Treating Jocks as Enlightened Beings

Bloody sock. But it was the Rhode Island taxpayer who got soaked.

Curt Schilling made tens of millions of dollars because he could throw a baseball harder and with more movement and accuracy than the vast majority of people. Along with those millions came an ego-stoking public adulation that could warp and distort the most stable person:

Schilling got the idea for 38 Studios while playing for the Arizona Diamondbacks in the early 2000s. By then he was well into his pitching career, and starting to wonder what he might do next. An aspiring businessman and budding philanthropist, Schilling thought of himself as a kind of -- well, let’s allow him to make the comparison: “I wanted to make a difference in the world and take one shot at getting Bill-Gates-rich.”

So our multi-millionaire athlete saw himself as a visionary who could do no wrong. He was a superstar. Not a baseball superstar. A superstar, period. The kind that is beyond any and all limitations. A 21st-century Renaissance man capable of deep thoughts such as this:

Schilling didn’t just want to develop a video game, let alone a sports-based one. He wanted to develop the most complex kind of video game possible -- a “massively multiplayer online role-playing game,” in which thousands of users interact inside an elaborately conceived and designed fantasy world. 

[. . .] 

Schilling had no idea how much time and money it took to build the software required for such a game. And he didn’t exactly help matters by weighing in with suggestions of his own. There was, for example, that instance when he mentioned in an e-mail that it might be cool to have mounted combat on flying pigs. The design team worked on nothing else for a week.

Really, who can argue with weaponized flying pigs? Now, of course Schilling is entitled to do whatever he wants with his money, no matter how far removed from reality his plans may be. But it is only due to our societal worship of the modern athlete that a taxpayer boondoggle such as this could occur:

Less than a year later, Schilling had persuaded the star- struck governor of Rhode Island, Don Carcieri, to issue $75 million in tax-free bonds for 38 Studios. That’s when “the Big Blowhard” -- as Boston Globe sports columnist Dan Shaughnessy once called Schilling -- officially transcended the familiar narrative of the ex-athlete as failed businessman. He wasn’t losing his own fortune on a bad investment, a failed car dealership or an ill-conceived restaurant franchise. He was fleecing taxpayers in order to realize his deluded dreams. 

$75 million in taxpayer money because our society thinks professional athletes are somehow better people than the rest of us simply because they can play a game. We often talk about the moral and societal costs of our disproportional attachment to pro sports. Here is one occasion where we can put an actual monetary price tag on our twisted infatuations.

Time Machine - 1981: Way to Start Your First Playoff Game in 12 Years

Agree with the poster here... one of the all-time great NFL playoff games. A Bills fan had a superb edited video of this game that sadly got pulled by youtube along with everything else on his account and it brought back to me how amazing a game this was. Both teams went all out, there were crazy momentum swings and real swashbuckling acts of heroism on both sides. Throw in a muddy Shea track and it all added up to what really was an epic. Extremely underrated to this day.

The Shea crowd was in a frenzy for the opening kickoff of the first Jets playoff game since the famous Super Bowl III victory. Anticipation boiling over, the ball is kicked, and...

(2:47 mark)

Welcome back to the playoffs, Jets fans!

Oh, man, this was playoff football as it was meant to be played. Grass, slop and a total lack of the overwhelming corporate porn we're all so used to seeing plastered all over the stadium and television screen today.

If you ever get a chance to see more of this game, do not miss the opportunity. It's a true forgotten gem.

From Paul Newman to Patrick Burke in 36 Years

The formerly ultra-macho (that was before the influx of Europeans) National Hockey League for whatever bizarre reason has decided to leap into the vanguard of the homosexual push into professional sports:

The National Hockey League announced a formal partnership Thursday with You Can Play, an advocacy organization dedicated to ensuring equality and respect for all athletes regardless of sexual orientation.

The agreement is the first of its kind in the four major North American male professional team sports, none of which have ever seen an active player come out as gay.

"I have no doubt that we will be first," Philadelphia Flyers scout Patrick Burke told USA TODAY Sports. "Our league is ready for this and our players are ready for this. The culture of the sport, when it comes to LGBT issues, is so far ahead of the other sports that I have no doubt that there will be openly gay athletes in the NHL in the near future."

Of course this bit of stylish PC inanity instantly reminds one of Reg Dunlop's legendary response to corporate sports weeniness in the classic comedy "Slap Shot":

(1:50 mark for zinger, though whole scene is recommended viewing)

Can you imagine him saying that in Gary Bettman's Beauty Parlor League today? He'd be suspended for 5 years, sentenced to sensitivity training for another 5 years and forced to work with homosexual organizations for the rest of his adult male life.

Is there the slightest doubt that Reg Dunlop's hockey world was a hell of a lot more fun than Gary's?