Jon Gruden insists on Monday Night Football that "this Ben Roethlisberger kid will be OK." Josh Hamilton is called a "hero." Michael Vick is the "feel good story" of the year.
In our efforts to be good sports journalists in an ever increasingly competitive environment, to find stories that are compelling, informative and at the end of the day to find stories that sell, we often flirt with crossing the line between telling a story and making an athlete a hero. In doing so, we glorify the wrong types of athletes. Often one's have done wrong are glorified for their atonement.
The case of Gruden, ESPN and Roethlisberger defies human logic.We've been told that Roethlisberger is a changed man. That's he's on the road to redemption. That, as Gruden said, Big Ben will "be OK." Last summer, Roethlisberger was accused of sexually assaulting a girl in the bathroom of a club. Despite not being convicted, Roethlisberger was suspended for four games by the NFL (reduced from six). Before his first game back, the Steelers' quarterback was interviewed by ESPN's Merril Hodge, who is Roethlisberger's self-proclaimed mentor. During the interview, Big Ben denies assaulting the girl, but says he's a changed man and that the person from the night in question "just wasn't him." Of course, he also found religion again. Which begs the question: if he didn't do anything wrong, why such a need for change, comeback and redemption? There again, that's human logic, not sports logic.
Keep in mind that Hodge doesn't question Roethlisberger, in fact, the interview seemed so contrived, Roethlisberger was almost answering the questions before Hodge asked them, all the while the former Steeler Hodge is nodding his head in agreement.
In this mixed up bout with reality and logic, somehow Roethlisberger ends up the victim. Somehow he's painted as someone who's overcoming. He's the comeback story, he's the underdog who we're being told to celebrate and cheer for. All the while, there's an actual victim: the girl Roethlisberger was accused of assaulting. Unfortunately, she can't throw a football 50 yards or break a tackle.
Back on Earth, humans would normally choose to cheer for someone who hasn't been twice accused of sexual assault and, from what we learned, been an arrogant jerk to fans, media and teammates. Not on Planet Sports, though.
The story of Josh Hamilton is another example of twisted, blurred logic and a "feel good" gone wrong. Hamilton had the world in his palm. An incredibly talented, No. 1 overall Major League Baseball draft pick who was, at 6-foot-4, 235 lbs considered a can't miss. He tossed it down the drain, or rather into his lungs, nose, veins and throat, with drugs abuse and alcoholism. Now, before I go on, I'll first say that it's fantastic that Hamilton is no longer suffering with addiction and was able to win the AL MVP. But, Hamilton is not an underdog or a hero. Yet, those words are tossed about each time a soft feature package about the Rangers' outfielder is made.
These are the features which act as opinion leaders in telling us who we should cheer for and emulate. Maybe I'm being naive, but I'd tell my children to learn from players I've mentioned before on this blog such as David Eckstein and Jim Abbott. Players who persevered despite disadvantages which were out of their control, such as Eckstein's size (5'5, 140) and Abbott being born without a right hand. Hamilton had the world, gave it away, then got it back with a nice smile and a swift swing. We glorify him for not doing drugs, which, as far as I know, there are hundreds of excellent role model athletes who never did drugs, presumably Eckstein and Abbott.
Again, Hamilton's success is good. I'd never root for a player to not succeed because he was once a drug addict, but the message becomes clear: as long as you perform, you are free of responsibility for your past and are, in fact, a hero.
(Though I would like to add that when commentators say "he's never been arrested" about black or mulatto players like Terrell Owens or Derek Jeter, that's despicable and racist. Someone not being arrested should be the norm. Plus, I've never heard that said about Tim Tebow)
Now, about Mike Vick. The Eagles' quarterback, who was imprisoned for cruelty to animals, is now a hero. Vick made his comeback last year, and spoke for the Humane Society last year and spoke to schools last year and was humble last year and was a good teammate last year, but last year, very few were making him into a hero. Very few were begging for his forgiveness as ESPN columnist Rick Reilly did this week. Reilly said, "The man reinvented himself into a wonder, both in his uniform and out. He has seen how wrong he was. He's sorry. He's making amends." Notice the mention of his on-field success.
I feel good that Vick has brought himself back from a very dark place, but a man who spends two years in prison for feeling invincible, who then can have the sports world beg fans to forgive him based on humility (which should have been there in the first place) and 11 touchdowns, is not someone I'd label a hero. But Reilly almost does. He said that because new laws have been passed since Vick's imprisonment, that the Eagles' quarterback's murder of dogs was in a way, good. That is ABSURD. That defies every ounce of logic we humans on this planet have been instilled with.
Am I glad that Martin Luther King Jr. was thrown in jail because the Birmingham letters came out of it? Am I glad Ghandi nearly died during his Salt March? Should I cheer for the school who would not allow Homer Plessy to go to school with white kids because it eventually was overturned? OK, then I will go ahead and think that companies who abused their workers in the early 1900s were good because their abuse led to anti-trust laws and unions.
Again, I have nothing against Vick and am glad things have turned around and he isn't killing dogs anymore. But my goodness, Ravens' lineman Matt Birk works tirelessly to assist former NFL players in need, even encouraging players to donate game checks, and he isn't given anywhere near the praise Vick is. Where it goes wrong, as you can see in Reilly's column, isn't the praise of Vick's on-field play but Vick himself as a "feel good" story. I don't feel good about a man not killing dogs.
But, as we've seen from the Derek Jeter contract situation, the mainstream media seems to make up its mind and dissenters get ripped or are ignored. I understand they want what sells, but when you cross the line of a "good story" and begin disingenuously attempting to force viewers/readers to believe certain athletes are heroes or are deserving of praise for overcoming their self-inflicted wounds, that's when you enter Planet Sports, where rhetoric rules over human logic.
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