They played the games. The assassinated president was lying in state in the Capitol rotunda, and life as the people of America knew it had been irrevocably altered that Sunday, Nov. 24, 1963. In a week when we have commemorated every important moment of the week that was 50 years ago, this Sunday certainly qualifies as an appropriate sign post.
We know the aftermath, of course. We know NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle almost immediately came to regret that decision, we know he spent the rest of his life owning the mistake. We also know it was a decision reached out of humanity and not commerce: Rozelle’s old classmate at the University of San Francisco, Pierre Salinger — JFK’s press secretary — thought it was both an appropriate way to remember the football-loving president and to afford the nation a brief respite from its sorrow.
That it was a wrong decision didn’t make it an evil one. And if nothing else, it served as a template for how we are expected to behave as a nation in times of national crisis, how we are supposed to put sports in their place, how we are required to seek balance at times that demand it.
As someone who was born a little more than three years after that awful weekend, it always has fascinated me to listen to the stories of those who remember every detail of what they were doing, who they were with, the moment they heard news of the shooting. Every generation has these kinds if benchmarks, be they Pearl Harbor or 9/11, and what’s constant is the feeling that normalcy is unachievable ever again.
There was a famous exchange from that period, reporter Mary McGrory lamenting to future New York Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan: “We’ll never laugh again.” And Moynihan saying, yes, they would laugh. “But we’ll never be young again.”
The laughter does return, as impossible as that might have seemed on Dec. 8, 9 or 10, 1941, or on Nov. 23, 24 or 25, 1963, or Sept 12, 13 or 14, 2001. Sports returns, and finds a place, and seeks its status, alongside plays and concerts and parties and celebrations.
And we learn.
Thanks to what happened 50 years ago today, when the games went on, Major League Baseball would understand some 53 months later that Opening Day had to be postponed in the wake of the shooting of Martin Luther King Jr.
And in the days after 9/11, when the NFL wasn’t quite sure what to do the next Sunday, when even some politicians seemed intent on paralleling what Rozelle and Salinger did — again, a bad idea with the best intentions — it was a small but vocal group of players, including Michael Strahan, who had the courage and the conviction to say, “No. Let’s think about this, please.”
Which means that out of the chasm of a dark decision, rose something better, something lasting. They played the games. And taught us a lesson that resonates, still, 50 years later.
Vac’s Whacks
The Mets are officially one Delmon away from a Forever Young outfield, and I guess that’s something, right?
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Chalky White has become my favorite television character in a post-Walter White world, so I certainly hope things shake out well for him on the “Boardwalk Empire” finale Sunday night.
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It’s good how Geno Smith’s teammates have stepped up for him in his worst moments this year. Today would be a good day to start paying that faith back a little.
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Me? I’d let Johnny Football quarterback my team.
Whack back at Vac
Richard Siegelman: The bottom line, Alex, is that truly innocent men insist on testifying — no matter what their lawyer (employee!) advises them.
Vac : You mean WFAN Circuit Court didn’t count?
Charles Pope: It hurts to watch other teams just walk down the lane with the Knicks just standing around and watching.
Vac : I remember yearning for old-school 135-125 games during the Riley/Van Gundy years. Can I officially retract those complaints?
@joec75: James Dolan has held the Knicks hostage from fans for too long with his horrendous mismanagement. The team’s future again looks bleak, and that’s on him.
@MikeVacc: I thought it would take a few years for the Nets to make inroads into the Knicks’ fan base. If they ever get this turned around first, however …
Bob Leise: Abuse in football is nothing new. Lucy has been bullying Charlie Brown for years.
Vac: And when Peppermint Patty got involved …