Interesting sports week
By Tom Grout
February 8, 2008
It was quite a week in sports highlighted by the upset win of the Giants over the Patriots. Some of what happened this past week was real interesting.
Two coaches were in the news one is being accused of being a cheater and another one has been called a hypocrite. A Hall of Fame pitcher along with another great pitcher were caught on video being referees in a cock fight south of the border. Yet another possible Hall of Fame pitcher was testifying in congress and claiming he didn't take steroids while the guy who has accused him has produced the needles that may prove he did.
The Super Bowl's losing coach, Bill Belicheck, has been accused of filming the opposing teams practices. There were films of this that was given to the NFL commissioner who in turn pulled a Richard Nixon and had the tapes destroyed. But wait, there is this other guy who used to work for Belicheck who has come up with some more tapes from a few years ago that could prove incriminating. Who knows maybe our all most perfect coach won't be coaching next year. Hmmmmmmm.
Then there is this college coach who has preached all things team. He says you work hard to do the right things, at least according to him, and by all means never give up. Especially don't ever quit. Well, this guy quits. Bobby Knight, college basketball's all time leader in wins and thrown chairs, has seldom lived the life he preached and he proved it by quiting on his team in the middle of the season. Said he was tired and it was time for his son to take over which all sounds well and good, but this is the never say quit Bobby Knight. He did quit, not retire, because he made it quite clear he meant he would not coach this team anymore, he left it open to coach someplace else. That is if anyone wants him. Hmmmmmmm.
Mets pitcher Pedro Martinez and Hall of Fame pitcher Juan Marichal didn't pull a Michael Vick and promote dog fighting, no, they promoted cock fighting. Now the in country they were doing this it was not illegal so there will be no court case or prison time, but they did it and of course it was caught on tape. The tape ran on youtube for awhile before it was deemed to violent and taken off. These guys did have one thing in common with Vick they all graduated from the Stupid U. Hmmmmmmm.
Do we have a case of he said-he said with this Clemens case? It is pretty obvious that one of these guys, Clemens or MacNamee, is lying. They have two completely different stories so one of these guys is going to get into trouble. Clemens comes out of his first Congressional meeting with this poop eating grin saying he was happy to be able to tell them he didn't use steroids. Then his trainer who said he shot him up, MacNamee, says he now has the syringes, gauze, and whatever that he used on Clemens. So the question is how come after all these years does this guy still have these things. Did he plan on selling them on ebay at some point? Well, no, he was an ex-police officer and he has learned to save things to cover his hind end if needed later. Ok, I can understand that, I'm all for covering my hind end, although its getting so big it's getting harder to do, and I'm sure all of us has done that at one time or another right? I never thought that Major League baseball would have it's own CSI series. Hmmmmmmmm.
I could complain about all this crime and punishment in sports but they do give the sports media something to write and talk about. You see, sometimes there just isn't anything to talk about in sports. Why talk about Shaq being traded, what's so interesting about a Super Bowl upset, how could a two time Cy Young award winner changing teams be of interest at all. This garbage stuff is what we want to hear just like we can't stop wanting to know what's up with Brittany Spears, Lindsey Lohan, or Paris Hilton or all the mud slingling in our political campaigns. If the news isn't bad or if it doesn't involve people behaving badly or if we aren't bashing somebody, we don't want to hear about it. Hmmmmmmmmmmm. I guess I can be guilty of that to.
Yep, all things sports are polluted by the actions of those that continue to flush the goodness of the games into the abyss of contention!
Bobby Knight; deplorable. Clemens, et al; unconscionable. Pedro Martinez and others; although culturally accepted as "sport," it's clear that Vick isn't the only "dog" that deserves to be scrutinized.
We could go on and on here about the irresponsible behavior of all these athletes. Isn't it just sad?
In it's totality, what does this tell us about the state of our own morality vs. these issues?
There can be a case to correlate the recent abhorrent behavior of these athletes and the simultaneous spirit of where we are as a nation and world.
Nothing is sacred.
Please come back, Joe DiMaggio!
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