[net-gold] FW: Sport and Society 1-19-13 Heroes
- From: "David P. Dillard" <jwne@xxxxxxxxxx>
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- Date: Sat, 19 Jan 2013 12:08:20 -0500 (EST)
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Date: Sat, 19 Jan 2013 11:57:55 -0500
From: richard crepeau <crepeau1@xxxxxxx>
Subject: FW: Sport and Society 1-19-13 Heroes
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SPORT AND SOCIETY FOR ARETE
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January 19, 2013
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Some may regard this as one of the strangest weeks ever in Sportsworld.
Certainly the less than forthcoming appearance by Lance Armstrong with
Oprah had some surrealistic qualities. After years, or even decades, of
denial, Armstrong told America’s mother-confessor that, yes, he had
indulged in all sorts of performance enhancement techniques to win his
record seven Tour de France crowns. The fact that he had taken PED’s
surprised no one, but the fact that he did a TV confessional- “bless me
Oprah for I have sinned”- surprised a lot of people both in and out of the
cycling community.
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Overshadowing all this was the story reported by “Deadspin” on Tuesday
that the Manti Te’o story featuring the death of his “girlfriend” was
bogus. There was no girlfriend, dead or alive. For those of us who thought
that “catfish” was a featured dish in southern cuisine, it was even a
bigger surprise, if not one of the most bizarre, weird, or creepy stories
from the world of sport, at least post-Sandusky.
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Notre Dame has done its best to protect Te’o and their image by backing
their star linebacker completely. Te’o has now held his interview with
Jeremy Schaap, off-camera rather than on. Manti says he was the victim of
a hoax. The perpetrator has apologized via Twitter and has been fingered
by several witnesses. All the answers are not yet in, and over the next
days and weeks no doubt there will be more revealed, including the
reaction of Manti’s teammates.
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Te’o has been in consultation with his advisors at IMG (There is a
sentence that could only be written of a college athlete in the last
couple of decades). They kept him away from the press until last night,
and no doubt furiously prepped him on how to sound truthful and
sympathetic while not necessarily revealing all. At this hour it appears
Te’o has pulled that off, at least with Jeremy Schaap and those who decide
on truth at ESPN.
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While Te’o was making a run at the Heisman Trophy he seemed to be willing
to talk with anyone holding a camera or a microphone, and he was
especially forthcoming about the tragedy of the nearly simultaneous deaths
of his grandmother and his girlfriend. His girlfriend had been in an
automobile accident and while being treated for her injuries, was
diagnosed with leukemia. Through it all Manti was virtually and
electronically at her side, inspiring her as he inspired his teammates at
Notre Dame.
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It was such a heart wrenching story given a perfect climax when Te’o
played a great game against Michigan State the following Saturday. It
didn’t end there as he led the Irish to an undefeated season and the BCS
Championship Game, and versions of the story were told over and over
again.
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It was the stuff of American athletic myth and the story of heroism by a
student athlete. Te’o was described with a torrent of adjectives and
adverbs that overrode the memory of Rockne and the Gipper. He was a
warrior, a gladiator, a hero of gigantic proportions sprung from the
ordinary soil of America and the culture of football. He was a leader of
his team, a man dedicated to his teammates and his family, and someone who
faced personal loss head-on in a manner befitting the gridiron greats and
the great men in history.
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The television announcers could not find enough superlatives to describe
his every action. Brent Musburger was more moved by Manti than by Miss
Alabama. His tackles were like no others. His techniques were the very
best. When interviewed on television he choked up while recalling the
wonderful qualities of his girlfriend. And as a bonus he was a religious
young man, a man of the Morman faith, who prayed over his decision to
choose Notre Dame over Southern California, Holy Woods over Hollywood.
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Reporters from reputable national newspapers and magazines repeated this
heartwarming and heart-wrenching story adding bits and pieces to it. The
American hero making machine was in top creative form and running
overtime. Sports Illustrated reported on the car accident that didn’t
happen, while The South Bend Tribune reported on the bone marrow
transplant that never was. The funeral, when it came, was in a city that
didn’t exist.
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And it goes on and on.
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What can be made of this inspiring story that was devoured by the press
and the public? It really is quite simple. We love heroes and we
especially love them when they are dressed in a uniform and are performing
great deeds in or out of the arena.
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Unfortunately this never seems to be enough. We want our sports stars to
be heroes of character and quality. We want it so much that when a sports
figure achieves greatness on the field of play, we almost immediately
assume he or she must have the heroic qualities of a great human being.
This tendency has led to disillusionment over and over again. Lance
Armstrong is a recent illustration, as is Tiger Woods, while Pete Rose
serves as a model from an earlier time.
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It wasn’t enough that Manti Te’o was a great football player, when it was
so easy to make him so much more. The fallen sports stars litter the pages
of sport history and their number will continue to grow as long as
Americans want sports heroes and not just sports stars, and continue to
mistake one for the other.
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There will always be those around willing to create the sports hero out of
the thinnest of evidence, as there is generally a buck to be made by
someone out of this process. It sells newspapers, raises TV ratings,
increases hits on websites and blogs, raises the profile of universities,
and promotes Heisman Trophy candidacies.
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There are a host of people complicit in this story, but none more
complicit than a public longing for sports heroes and not just excellence
in sport.
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On Sport and Society this is Dick Crepeau reminding you that you don’t
have to be a good sport to be a bad loser.
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Copyright 2013 by Richard C. Crepeau
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