Sportsmanship & the Media

The very word "sport" can be used to imply a person of GOOD character and "sportsmanship" is used for fairness, courtesy, and good character.

But nowadays, it seems so many headlines in sports have to do with BAD character. Really bad character as well as bad behavior!
And oddly it seems to be present mostly in just a couple sports...basketball, football...and maybe just a little in baseball.

I can excuse an occasional minor problem...but trouble is brewing...and I do not want to see the kind of behavior that's presently in the news happen at Bradley. BU has had a few lesser incidents, and is likely to have more given that the program at Bradley is vigilant and catches and disciplines offenders. (unlike what we see elsewhere.) But if the kind of stuff I am about to discuss is happening or does happen at BU, then I want to clean it up and get it out. It has no place in college sports! it should be viewed a an extreme privilege to get a scholarship with a free education and play major college sports. But I am discouraged by the overall state we see where bad behavior is becoming the norm.


There have always been fights in hockey games, and way back people were cheating and point shaving...
but at least it was called "wrong" and wasn't glorified as a trendy lifestyle...
The violators were caught and disciplined...and in many cases severely....note how Squeaky is still paying a price even now!
But - now entire TV channels and music & clothing styles are promoted around this culture of criminal acts and gangsterism! And it is being emulated by athletes and seemingly a lot of young people.


But the entire culture of drugs, gangsterism, guns, etc.....this is something relatively new to sports. It hasn't been around too long.......


When I was growing up, I heard and read of some fights in sports and some players who had alcohol problems - even guys like Mickey Mantle. But there were NO issues with drugs, guns, and gangsters. It's not that we didn't just hear about it...it really did not exist.


In the 80's or 90's, if a guy was into drugs and had behavior issues, he was gone and gone fast..that ended a lot of promising careers such as this guy...
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/thenetwork/news/1999/08/27/pageone_leonsmith/


Then over the past 10-20 years and accelerating - now a day doesn't go by without the commonplace DUI, drug arrest, failed drug test, and now gun violence. And all that happens in this day and age is maybe a shrug.


Many seem to sit by and accept that this is just the way it is....that we should NOT speak out against it for fear of maybe - possibly offending a certain sub-group within the population that lives this lifestyle or glorifies it!
After all they may boycott our newspaper or TV channel if we call this behavior BAD!


This latest set of headlines with FOUR Tennessee players arrested with drugs and guns, and two Washington Wizards players drawing guns in their own lockerroom are what cause me to write this entry and bemoan the state of "sports" in 2010.
And I will admit that even though some of the issues that BU has had are far more minor....I am not happy that kids who are enjoying a free ride at school, fail to take the opportunity seriously enough to behave along their pre-agreed guidelines.


I kinda wonder what would happen to me if I got arrested with guns and illegal drugs in my car. Especially if one of the guns had illegally had the identification numbers removed.
I am certain I'd have been taken to the jail, thrown in a dark cell, bond set at $15-20,000, then I would have lost my license to drive and likely my license to pursue my occupation, then likely I'd have been banned from pursuing my chosen occupation by the accrediting authorities, and I would have also likely had my name all over the press in a very bad way!


Well, the four University of Tennessee thugs were booked at the jail and let out on tiny bonds...
varying from $1000 to $2500, meaning all they had to do was post 10%, a mere $100 to $250 and they are out of jail.
And as this column (below) proves, their head coach still hasn't decided if they are going to even miss a game, while going on a long tirade of how really good these kids are and that this is just an unfortunate, rare incident.


What's even funnier are the comments by readers under the column...
some who have sense and want the players expelled pronto (which is what I think should happen), and some who think we shouldn't discipline them at all since "everyone's doing it".....in other words...all college students do these kinds of things and if we expelled all who have broken laws, then there'd be nobody left.
http://www.govolsxtra.com/news/2010/jan/02/ut-mens-basketball-team-practices-day-after-arrest/


Well.. I am here to tell you that I never drank or used drugs illegally in college, I never owned, or even saw or touched a gun, and didn't get arrested for anything.
I know that was a "different era", but I might also use my own 3 college-age kids as examples (and there are numerous others who don't get the headlines), all of whom have been in college already for 1-4 years, and none of whom have had a single arrest for drugs, alcohol, guns, or any of these kinds of issues.


So it is quite possible for a college kid to NOT be a thug.


But you'd never know it from the press or the statements of Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl.
They not only excuse this gangsta-like behavior, they seem to glorify it!!
Please, someone take a strong stand, speak out powerfully against such behavior, and call for the expulsion immediately of the violators!
Am I alone here? Seriously, I want the sport (and all sports) cleaned up, and it isn't going to happen coddling these thugs and gangsters and giving them eldless 2nd, 3rd, and 25th chances!

Like I said....there is NO hypocrisy here....it has (to a small degree) and maybe IS happening at BU, and I want it cleaned up. If anyone violates the rules big time, I want them gone or given serious penalties..not the coddling we see at Memphis, Kansas, and Tennessee!


Speaking of Pearl...
He's had a whole lot of issues that might have easily led to the conjecture that this stuff was inevitable - that Bruce Pearl has skeeted rules and recruited thugs for quite some time...and even worse...he's been soft on them, coddling them, even encouraging them, allowing them to return to the team without discipline time and time again...and finally it has caught up with him. (again)
But the press has applauded the guy from day one as a really great coach...a man of integrity...which he IS NOT!!
Why do the media and many fans put this guy on a pedestal and wirship him like they did to Kelvin Sampson?


Recall - Pearl got away without NCAA sanctions (when he was an assistant at Iowa) even though he was guilty of making the same offers to recruits as he alleged Illinois had made. The NCAA should have given him sanctions as well instead of letting him off the hook.


Other examples of his own behavior and his ethics--
-He was ejected from a high school game that his own son was playing because of an ugly confrontation with the refs

and many ugly issues have happened with his players and with his team that he has NEVER taken a firm stance against.

-Just a day before the four players were arrested, Tennessee beat Memphis but two ugly incidents occurred there as well.

Pearl got into a heated exchange with a Memphis fan (at the Memphis arena) and was reportedly close to being restrained or arrested by Memphis police
http://ncaabbs.com/showthread.php?tid=410697

-also at the Memphis game, one of the Tennessee players (Melvin Goins who was arrested the next day) got into a foul-mouthed shouting match with Memphis fans.

-also Wayne Chism danced around at the center circle and taunted the Memphis crowd when the game was over


But the most damning evidence of the way Bruce Pearl recruits and plays the game - is just his track record of recruiting thugs, druggies, and gangbangers.
At least 6 other players (Tabb, Smith, Crews, Passley, Hendrix, Wingate, Patterson..) - and rumored to be many more - had multiple drug arrests and other drug related issues and were let back onto the team time after time, until they finally had to be dismissed for violating the school's drug related policy more than the allowable number of times.
Why didn't the head coach see this stuff coming?
Do they ever check what their kids are doing??


Then, I guess I have to hold much of the press and media accountable...
they glorify this gangsterism...they make superstars out of the trash-talking bad boys who do drugs, play with guns, treat others (especially women) with abuse, and who play for the big time coaches like Bob Huggins, John Calipari, Bill Self, and Bruce Pearl.


While at Memphis, Calipari had so many players arrested in barfights and other incidents involving girlfriends beaten up and guns being used, that he had to face the press about why all those thugs were always back on the court the next day.
One incident where one of Calipari's Memphis players slugged and suckerpunched opponent-fan, was completely swept under the rug and Calipari never even made mention of it!
http://www.bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?p=78048#post78048


Bill Self's entire team turned to campus prowling, brawl-provoking thugs, and not once did Self speak out firmly against it or even discipline ONE player...despite even video tape evidence that essentially the whole team was fighting, brawling, and violating long established team rules!
http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=13212
http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=13160


Suffice it to say that I am a HUGE college basketball fan and am quite tired of all the issues we see with guns, booze, attitudes, drugs, and the serious lack of discipline -- all just so the enablers can be sure they have the talent back on the court as soon as possible!
Winning is everything...it causes the Indiana fans to LOVE Kelvin Sampson and idolize all the thug players he recruited...and also worship Bobby Knight when he was a glorified thug himself flaunting the breaking of laws with attacks on others and bullyism.


Winning causes the press and fans to overlook the kind of behavior that Bruce Pearl's (and Self, Calipari, Huggins'..) thugs commit, and watch for those crooks to be back on the court playing full time with little or no discipline...
Even in the MVC we've seen kids with DUI's, drug issues, and serious arrests who are then given NO significant punishment at all..and in some cases none whatsoever (significant or not).


(Thankfully none of these serious issues has really ever happened at Bradley, but what we've had is bad enough and I'd like to see it end.)
Even the much lesser and more minor issues of a single failed drug test, a skirmish, or such...are still dealt with at Bradley FAR more sternly than any penalties we have seen at Tennessee, Memphis, even SIU or ISU when their violations are light years more serious.
I have always taken the same firm stand, and if any Bradley players were into this gangsta-ism...with guns, drugs, booze, etc...I'd want them gone ASAP.


But then that lastly brings me to the issue of the press and their odd tendency to either make an enormous story out of a minor issue - even fabricating and lying like making up comments (like "ligature marks" and "strangling") or the press' failure to report this stuff as serious at all...as we have shown the Pantagraph does...
Back when ISU was having a DUI a week, message boards were highlighting the DUI's calling on their coach (Tim Jankovich) to be forthcoming about them and why no punishment was ever dealt to the offenders, and yet the Pantagraph didn't report a single thing about any of the DUI's until they were embarrassed into doing so when all the talk was going on in message boards, blogs, and elsewhere.
In effect the paper helped cover up for the coach...and hide the offenses, and didn't hold the coach accountable when he PROMISED openly the kids would be disciplined and suspended "immediately and completely" -- only to show the very offenders on videotape the next day at practice or "boot camp"..and never bother to ask the coach for an explanation of his open lie to the press.


So it seems the press just can't get it right...
ignoring the offenses and acting like they are nothing when they are serious....
or impaling and destroying a student for really minor stuff like underage drinking or a miniscule skirmish. None of the stuff that the PJ Star smeared all over the headlines for weeks had a thing to do with guns, violence, felonies, DUI's, smashing windows at a police station, drugs or selling drugs, and NO BU player was ever let right back onto the court without any penalties at all as has happened most other places.


But now we see that when the stories do involve those SERIOUS crimes...that many of the papers don't make such a big deal out of it...
the head coaches are lauded and their butts get kissed because they are Bruce Pearl or Bob Huggins...hey they win games, that's all that matters!
This insane tendency to excuse the kind of regular anti-social and outlandish behavior by the players for Pearl & Huggins, or by the coach himself (as in Bobby Knight's routine thuggish and criminal behavior) is just another reason why nobody really respects the press any more...


The media has already made up their minds...
they don't bother to call what we all know to be BAD behavior bad. They are already in someone's pocket as we see time and time again...


I happened to see THREE different things just today in this morning's newspaper that fits right into this...

--I guess the people at the Pantagraph can't stand to be held accountable..so guess what...
they are going ONE STEP further even that our local newspaper. They are not only making it danged-near impossible for the readers to leave comments, they are banning reader comments altogether!
This is so odd and so unusual of a step, that in itself this banning of reader comments is making NATIONAL NEWS!
Oddly, but as expected, rather than just moderate such comments, they blame the whole problem on the readers....sure just insult the very people who buy your product again.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-ap-il-newspaper-cooling,0,2660924.story

--the local newspaper has downsized again...
after I had removed the ads from this morning's newspaper, I thought maybe something else must have fallen out. What was left was about as thin as what the parade magazine alone used to look like.

But, no, nothing had fallen out...this is just what we're left with. Sections are being deleted, sections are being combined, and everything is thinner, smaller, and more useless.
The Sunday newspaper was a grand total (minus all the post-Christmas sales ads) of about 1/2 inch thick, including ads!!
The paper even put in a disclaimer, probably hoping that if they offer an excuse, that people might not notice or complain...but in the end they are giving way less, but continue to jack up charges and make readers pay more.
All the while the electronic medium is booming, and while news is available and some outlets make it available instantly and thrive in doing so...
the dinosaurs like liberal print media are dying a steady death. They know exactly what their life preserver is and where it is found, but they continue to cast it away and curse those who say they should use it...and in the end they will drown fully on their own merit...fully due to their own choices!

Numerous media outlets that give fair and balanced news and opinion are skyrocketing in sales and ratings, but guys like the local paper are going belly up.

--which brings me to the last example...the Washington Times has simple discontinued its sports section.
Do they think that'll make them MORE likely to sell papers?
Do they know that more than half of the buyers of newspapers are males and most of them enjoy reading about sports?
Nope..this will cost them big time, as I guarantee their readership and sales will plummet significantly..
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hDhUlG5wWkJcWYx_-7LcDHsCDLuA

one other story from a few weeks ago...the Pekin daily newspaper is about to go belly up, to, and they are making changes.
http://www.pjstar.com/news_now/x1792929753/Pekin-Times-goes-to-mornings


Someone tell me why sports sites like ESPN and even sports message boards when run well are BOOMING, while the newspapers' effort are ridiculously failing?
Same can be said of some news and media outlets that are thriving and others are dwindling?
It has to do with the way some in the media feel the need to spin the news or hide news altogether.
Some news outlets report all the news and do so fairly, others are nothing but hothead reporters who get emotional while choosing only to rip into various people with their news reports.
No wonder nobody can stand to watch their full hour of rants against people who aren't even in any elected positions?


Suggestion....if you guys want success...in news, in sports, or whatever...just give the people what's fair, honest, and and leave it at that. Stop with all the agenda stuff. Especially in the area of Bradley sports, stop bashing and misreporting, stop with the agenda of trying to spin everything towards the bad side. Just give us fair coverage.


Lastly -- This is not to make a religious argument out of this, but let's take a look at how drugs have been viewed over the centuries.....

...one of the behaviors that is very strongly condemned by the Bible and most all other religions...is the sin of idolatry, witchcraft, sorcery, gross disobedience...

Guess what word is used by the writers of the Bible for these sins...
it is the word "pharmakeia".
Yes, it is the word that is synonymous with drug using and drug taking.
http://www.searchgodsword.org/lex/grk/view.cgi?number=5331
http://bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Topical.show/RTD/cgg/ID/2945/Pharmakeia.htm

You will not find many socieities throughout history that condoned drugs (the few who have - in North America, South America, or Africa) remained as primitive as a batch of animals living together and never flourished)...and almost all societies have recognized their harm and the impact of their use. But we now have a very permissive society and many want to legalize drugs and accept their use as normal and commonplace.
Unfortunately we reap what we sow...as we see above....drugs ruin peoples' lives, yet somehow those in authority simply won't take a strong stand. I won't fear taking a strong stand, and doubt I ever will....let's work towards a drug free society, and let's stand united in calling the use of drugs abhorrent and wrong.