Brian Thompson While Thompson doesn’t
care what athletes think, he does care about what YOU think. He can
be reached at [email protected].
We pay way too much attention to the rubbish that comes out of
the mouths of athletes. When we turn on SportsCenter or open up the
newspaper each morning, there seems to be just as much commentary
about the latest controversy caused by an athlete’s
inflammatory remarks as there is about last night’s
games.
There are way too many examples that I could cite to prove
this.
I think we all remember a certain ignorant baseball pitcher who
mouthed off about his dislike for basically every ethnic group
under the sun. That one made international headlines.
Most recently, we were treated to a Bible-thumping backup point
guard blaming one religious group for the persecution of his own.
Of course, his very important thoughts received attention in the
mainstream press and religious leaders began clamoring for an
apology.
My question is this: why does anyone care what athletes think?
These men and women aren’t heads of state or prominent
community leaders. They play games for a living.
Now before I get much further, I will freely admit that, yes, a
few months ago I was the one who in these very same pages wrote a
column chastising guys who flaunt their status in our society,
ignore that they are indeed role models, and take such little
enjoyment in making millions that they sometimes beat on their
wives, berate fans, and sexually assault women.
Obviously, athletes are prominent members of our society. We do
care about them. Especially here at the college level, it’s
easy to develop a following for our athletes because we sit next to
them in class or live next door to them.
But at the same time, an athlete’s role in society, on a
very basic level, is to provide entertainment. True, sports mean
more to the basketball player who spends four hours a day on the
court or the ice skater who wakes up at 4 a.m. to refine a routine.
But for commoners out there like myself, I watch for the whole
“thrill of victory” and “agony of defeat”
factors.
Just like us, athletes are people who have their own set of
beliefs about the world. But just because they have the stage to
say it doesn’t mean that we want to hear it. And when we do
hear it, why do we get all worked up and think that this
person’s beliefs actually matter?
Yes, what John Rocker said in reference to minorities, the poor,
and homosexuals two years ago was downright offensive. The guy came
across as a complete racist, elitist and homophobe.
But why does it have to become a national crisis? The man is an
idiot, plain and simple. There are a lot of ignorant bigots in this
world. Do his remarks need to be the main topic of every talk show
and the lead story in every newspaper? He’s just a baseball
player!
And then we have the other gentleman I alluded to earlier:
Charlie Ward.
The guy came out and pretty much blamed Jews for the persecution
of Jesus as well as for the persecution of Christians in the world
today.
His comments caused a big controversy, particularly in New York,
where Ward plays.
But come on. This guy isn’t the Pope! He’s a backup
point guard! If he wants to promote his misguided views, why are we
giving him a forum to do it?
Part of the problem is guys like me. Yep, the media is to blame
for a lot of this. A long time ago, the focus in sports was taken
away from what happens on the field and placed in the locker room
or even in the players’ homes.
We’ve got our plethora of sports networks like ESPN, ESPN2
and Fox Sports Net. Then we’ve got our 24-hour sports news
channels like ESPNEWS and CNNSI. Then add that to the regular
network sports coverage, dozens of sports magazines out there,
newspapers and the ever-growing Internet sports Web pages. We are
inundated with sports. All of these outlets are competing with one
another for your attention.
So when a mediocre athlete decides to let his views on world
hunger or Arab-Israeli relations or Cambodian politics be known,
there are 10 microphones in his or her face ready to blow the story
way out of proportion.
The media has always done a good job of telling us what is
important and how we should think. Because of this, we don’t
care only about how many tackles a linebacker has on the football
field or how many strokes under par a golfer shoots, but are also
conditioned to care about what the linebacker and golfer think
about society.
It is understandable. We live in a voyeuristic society. But the
next time an athlete runs his mouth, ask yourself if it’s
really worth getting all worked up about.