Wednesday, September 18, 2002
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Wednesday, September 18, 2002 |
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Sports brings us together . . . ? By BILLY MURPHY On Sept. 11, I was traveling and came across a very interesting headline in "USA Today." It was their 9-11 issue and it said flatly: "How sports brought us together." I almost spewed my 2-percent low-fat chocolate milk from my nose. It could have been an embarrassing moment had not the Atlanta airport been a ghost town due to virtually every man, woman and child being glued to their TV set for the anniversary day special broadcasts. I know it was pretty much "the law" that every media had to make some sort of tie-in on the anniversary of our nation's tragedy, but to give the world of sports any credit for improving our quality of life is ridiculous. Sports are like the bright shiny snowmobile that once was exhilarating but now, when wrecked, has you pinned under it while the polar bears are fighting over your carcass. In high school and college I played football, baseball, basketball and tennis. In that, sports had a benefit for my health and self-discipline. But "sports" as we recognize it today is just the sedentary viewership of athletes who are overpaid, oversexed, over-egoed and over-indicted. To say that our nation has benefited from sports is like saying Ozzie Ozbourne has benefited from the world of pharmaceutical science. When noting the causes for the decline and fall of the Roman Empire, in his book by the same name, Edward Gibbons states two main causes: The breakdown of the family and the overemphasis of sports. Hmmm, sound familiar? To look at the sports page today, it reads like the chalkboard in an old episode of "Hill Street Blues": Rape, weapons charges, murder, drugs, drunken driving. The list goes on. I am sure the repeated rape and assault charges at the University of Georgia have really brought that campus together; the same with University of West Georgia. The NBA must feel like a close-knit clan as Chris Webber was charged with lying to a grand jury, Allen Iverson was charged with four felonies involving weapons and assault, Glenn Robinson was charged with a weapons violation and Stephon Marbury was sentenced to jail time for drunk driving. The manslaughter trial of former player Jayson Williams starts soon. Remind me to wear my Kevlar vest to that family reunion. And how about men and women? Sports has really brought the two genders closer. Except of course at Augusta National where the women are banned. And if you think that is just some old world situation, when I was in Phoenix, there was a big fighting going on about Arizona's first men-only golf club scheduled to open in November. Don't people know that this kinda of mental energy should be reserved for debates on "The Sopranos"? Oh boy, sports sure has brought us all together. I guess we can count our blessings, too, that local sports programs have created a community where parents of all races, creeds and economic backgrounds can come together to verbally abuse and fist-fight each other on an equal playing field. And I won't even mention the all-consuming schedules of kids' sport schedules that reduces parents to nothing more than limo services and snack providers. So that's why pro stars always want to ride in limousines and have snack trays in their hotels: To make them feel at home! "How sports brought us together." I feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
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