Sports fans know their
politics
Posted: Wed April 22,
1998
It has seemed very surprising that the president's
job-approval rating has remained high, even as so many
people despair for not his character and deportment. But,
really, sports fans have been able to make that same
decision about their heroes and, as
the bumper stickers say: I'M A SPORTS FAN AND I
VOTE.
Maybe it has always been so. Oh yes, maybe there is just
more lip service paid nowadays to the premise that athletes
have come to disappoint us, whereas once they uplifted us.
But fans learned long ago to divide athletes as people, to
bifurcate them, so
that performance on the field could be neatly separated
from performance off the
field.
In a world today where political leaders are foremost
stars, why should we be surprised if we deal emotionally
any differently with elected celebrities than with
halfbacks or
shortstops?
Certainly, fans are conflicted and not true to the feelings
they express. What you constantly hear is that too many
athletes are scum and they're all overpaid. And yet the
reality is that fans continue to follow sports in
unprecedented numbers, paying
higher and higher ticket prices. Those people who swore they
would
never go to another baseball game after the strike ended have,
evidently, most all returned to the loges and luxury
boxes.
It is also a fascinating example of human nature that,
whereas the public vociferously decries the salaries paid
athletes, there always rents the heavens a great roar of
protest when it appears that my team is about to lose a
player because some
other team is willing to pay him even more profligately.
Basically, what we see now is that every player in every
sport is overpaid
except the players on my team. This is somehow consonant with all
the polls that show that the public despises Congress—only
incumbents win about 98% of the time. That is: All of
Congress is dreadful except for my own
representative.
Likewise, despite this great expressed public disgust about
the misbehavior of players, there is a wonderful
benevolence afoot when it comes to the scoundrels who wear
my team's uniform. Led by coaches like Jerry Tarkanian at
Fresno State, who has
peopled his roster with unvarnished thugs, the rationale is one
of unbridled forgiveness. Hey, in America, everybody
deserves a second chance. Why, to deny anyone a chance to
play perpetually now is downright un-American. Certainly,
the hardy old concept that
playing on a team is a privilege to be earned has been
replaced by the assumption that participation in athletics
is an inviolate
right.
The only time we rise up in a consensus of sanctimonious
condemnation is when some certified bad boy is trying to
get
into the tent. Ah, then everybody suddenly finds scruples and
indignation. This NFL draft, the scapegoat was one Randy
Moss, a wide receiver from Marshall, with a rap sheet to
match his stats. Moss was generally ranked as no lower than
the fifth-best talent
in the draft, and teams like the Dallas Cowboys lusted
after him. But inviting a rogue onto your team draws the
moral ire of the same pious fans who make exceptions for
the criminals already wearing their colors. Moss finally
was drafted 21st by
Minnesota where, now that he is in hometown purple, he will, no
doubt, receive many second
chances.
The generous spirit of the land today is that politicians
and players alike may be bums. But they are our
bums.
These commentaries, which appear each Wednesday on National
Public Radio's Morning Edition, are posted weekly by
CNN/SI.
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