Haters and Players

My wife sometimes asks me: Knowing as much as I do about the corruption and the lies and the immorality of big time sports, how can I still be a fan?

She asks me this question often. Usually right after the latest scandal related to domestic violence involving players, the latest instance of massive NCAA “student athlete” hypocrisy or the latest billionaire extortion attempt by a team owner toward a community.

And she’s right to ask such a legitimate question. How can anyone who truly pays attention to the world of sports still be a fan? How can anyone see all this disgusting behavior and ludicrous spinning and not feel the need to shut off the TV forever and take a shower?

And I don’t know if I have a great answer. Perhaps my only attempt at a rational response is this:

·         In spite of the banality, despite the lies and the evil, a 35-yard spiraling football, magically placed into the oversized hands of a freakishly strong and fast wide receiver crossing the end zone between two equally fast and strong men trying to stop him is pure. It is beautiful and it is above the noise of the cesspool of corporate sports.

·         The willowy touch of a shooting guard’s 3-pt launch and the balls’ hypnotic arch toward the basket is free of malice and venom. It is untouchable by scandal and acrimony.

·         The pop that a 95-mile per hour cutter makes as it hits the catcher’s mitt right down Broadway and fans the batter is left unmarked by drugs or money.

We compartmentalize. We accept the putrid greed and meanness that surrounds sports for the purity of the athletic competition. We know it’s part of the grand bargain.

And while I decidedly hate that bargain at times, I do wonder if we sports fans are unequally harangued for our fandom compared to followers and lovers of other entertainment.

Does anyone every say: how can you watch TV, in response to the fact that Bill Cosby was a serial rapist, or that Charlie Sheen beat up his girlfriend? Do people look at music fans with disdain because of Chris Brown, or James Brown or Jackson Browne?  Are we told to boycott movies because of Mel Gibson’s anti-Semitic rages, or Christian Slater’s fists?

No. Actors and singers and their art are not held to the same standard as athletes and their sports, and therefore fans of art don’t carry the moralistic burdens as fans or sport. Further, there are still millions of people who believe athletes are, and should act like, role models for children, while letting actors and singers off the hook for their lawlessness and peccadillos.

Why? Why is Keith Richards celebrated for his ability to ingest more drugs than an elephant, but Daryl Strawberry was forever demonized for his drug addiction?

Sean Connery admits on a fairly regular basis that it’s OK one in a while to smack one’s wife, but when sports columnist Steve A. Smith said (incorrectly, I will add) a woman bears some responsibility in domestic violence for not leaving the abusive situation – he’s practically chased off the air with pitch-forks.

Moving up from the individual artist and athlete level, the institutional problems of the art and entertainment world and the sport world are massive of course. But is there the same level of acrimony and rending of garments? I think not.

Hollywood is shockingly discriminatory toward minorities and women in terms of opportunity and pay. The NFL has had a pretty checkered past as well. But it was only toward the NFL that congress vented its anger and forced the league to adopt the Rooney Rule which required teams to consider at least one minority candidate for a coaching assignment.

Baseball looked the other way for decades on steroid use and now has one of the strictest testing policies on the planet. Rock and roll looked directly at heroin and cocaine for decades and still says, “keep it coming.” 

The NCAA is a vast empire run by rich white guys who exploit a labor force of mostly poor black kids. Sounds like the music industry, past and present.

It took almost 40 years for people to turn against Bill Cosby for what he did to women. It took only a few months for people to turn against Michael Vick with seething hatred for what he did to dogs.

So yes, being a thinking sports fan is tough. It’s hard to look at all the bad that happens in sports and still be a fan. And yes, it is legitimate to wonder if the evil and greed and violence inherent in modern sports makes our fandom dirty.

However, oh dwellers in glass houses, don’t question my morality for being a sports fan without questioning yours as you feed your entertainment fix. Don’t scorn me for watching the NFL – with all its warts – yet float by blissfully unquestioning the behavior of the actors, writers and directors who make the magic happen on the big and small screen. Don’t roll your eyes as I consume the NBA or college football, and refuse to look within your soul as you consume the latest download in the hip hop or contemporary music scene.

And just in case you wanted to hide behind the idea that there are only a few bad apples in the entertainment world and most of them are good, decent people – I say hold on a second. That is the exact same reality in the sports world. The vast, vast majority of athletes are fine, upstanding human beings who raise families, pay taxes and do good things for others. In fact, something like 40% of professional athletes have foundations and charities. Further, all pro athletes in the big sports of baseball, football and basketball are required by contract to participate in their teams charitable activities. Do you think Justin Bieber is required to give back to his community – whatever community might actually claim him? How are things going at the Adam Sandler Foundation?

So ease up a bit on us sports fans. We are imperfect and we buy into an imperfect industry. And so is every person who watches TV, buys a movie ticket or listens to music. We are all bound by our love of something pure, covered in multiple layers of filth.