Just outside Cleveland on Friday night, the high school football opener between Collinwood at Garfield Heights was canceled in the third quarter after a late hit started a fight, which became a brawl, then a riot among players and spectators. Five arrested, three hospitalized.
Of course, what once rarely happened is becoming common at high-school football and high-school boys and girls basketball games. It’s the inevitable blended by-product of our neo-sports “culture” with modern no-one-disses-me “attitude.”
That got me to thinking about TV’s complicity in such matters. What if over the last, say, 35 years, game announcers hadn’t pandered to the bad acts; what if they hadn’t been afraid to say that bad is bad and to condemn wrong as wrong?
What if kids and young adults over the past 35 years had repeatedly been told conspicuous immodesty and, yes, unsportsmanlike conduct, do not mirror a player’s “enthusiasm” for the game?
Of course, it’s likely too late. I suppose we could claw back, but … nah, too late.
In fact, over the weekend, pandering to the no-upside bad acts — the kinds that would cause a riot because it doesn’t take much these days — returned, along with college football, to national TV.
On ESPN, Friday night, BYU had a 28-7 lead on UConn, early fourth quarter. After a sack, BYU linebacker Alani Fua performed an exaggerated me-dance, one that mimed him casting a line then reeling in an opponent like a fish. BYU was flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct, and UConn soon would kick a field goal to stay somewhat close.
ESPN analyst Danny Kanell, while conceding Fua violated a rule, said, “I don’t agree with that. They should let ’em have fun.”
That’s fun? Really? He would indulge or encourage such behavior in the kids in his life? We would or should, too? Overt displays of self-aggrandizement, especially within team games, is good? Fun?
Next night, with West Virginia keeping it surprisingly close against Alabama, 27-20 late in the third, Tide quarterback Blake Sims ran full speed out of bounds, toward the West Virginia bench. At that point, everyone on the Mountaineers’ sideline could have chosen to do one of two things.
1) Get out of Sims’ way to allow him to slow down by himself.
2) Reach out to help him brake, maybe even gather him in.
But as Sims reached Andrew Buie, who didn’t play in the game, Buie left his mark on it. He braced for a collision, then, bad-ass style, threw his arms out, shoving Sims, as if he had no right to invade his or his team’s turf.
The last thing West Virginia needed was what it got: A 15-yard personal foul. Perhaps even worse was the pandering assessment from ESPN analyst and ex-Michigan quarterback Brian Griese: “You can’t throw a flag on that!”
Throw a flag? In addition, Buie should have been tossed, if not by an official then by his coach! Sims could have had his neck snapped and here we have an ex-QB telling a national audience the perp was unfairly ticketed!
Then again, according to ESPN, there’s no better way to show your school spirit than to storm the field or court.
Anyway, they don’t yet know what to do about that high-school game on Friday night. And it keeps getting harder to bring kids — and their elders — back to a place they’ve never been.
Sterling short on details
There’s nothing quite so educational as John Sterling’s condescending “Great Mysteries of Baseball” spiels. Saturday, he delivered a ya-never-know about Toronto’s Adam Lind, how his power numbers are way down — four HRs, 29 RBIs — and how he now mostly only plays against righties. Go figure!
Suzyn Waldman knew. She explained Lind had just came off the disabled list. She might have further embarrassed Sterling by adding it was Lind’s second time on the DL this season, but … mystery solved.
When Mike Mayock speaks football in plain English rather than in genuine pigskin gibberish, he can be a good listen. And he was pretty good for most of NBC’s Rice-Notre Dame on Saturday. A few slips — when an unblocked linebacker made a stop, Mayock called it “a downhill tackle” — but he seemed more eager to inform us rather than dazzle our razzle.
Listening to US Open women’s tennis from another room can be frightening — sounds as if you’ve walked in on an assault. Odd, how for over 100 years championship tennis was played without anyone grunting, moaning, shrieking.
Strong take on MLB’s “instant” replay from SNY’s Gary Cohen on Friday, how it removes the dramatic spontaneity of the game, vis-a-vis close out/safe calls. Now, said Cohen, such calls, in essence, “don’t count.” (And such calls never were intended for replay application.)
“Remember fans, that’s Revel, the Official Just-Shuttered Atlantic City Hotel & Casino of New York Yankee radio.”
What a guy, that Bud Selig. He has Eastern teams play Sunday nights for ESPN, but gives teams off for holidays, including Labor Day.
OMG: What if Noah had asked Mike Francesa if he thinks it’s gonna rain?
Disgraced coach winds up shiny as a Pearl
If the state of both sports TV and “student-athletics” within colleges, serving as fronts for basketball and football teams is to be studied in a résumé, perhaps Bruce Pearl’s, as per his steady enablers, should be at the top of the pile.
While an assistant basketball coach at Iowa, Pearl was at the core of a recruiting scandal. No problem, he later would become head coach at Tennessee until he was forced to leave after being caught — and finally admitting to — lying to the NCAA, which was investigating a pile of violations on his watch.
No problem, Pearl, although thoroughly scandalized, quickly was hired by ESPN, from where he awaited the end of his sanctions. In March, he was hired to coach Auburn, an illustrious academic school — unless one considers “student-athletics,” which often leave Auburn in let’s-do-it-again disgrace.
Now, over to Maryland, which had recruited 7-foot-1 Trayvon Reed, although Reed first had to enroll in a Maryland academic pre-enrollment school. In July, while in Maryland’s summer program, he was charged with assaulting a police officer after allegedly committing a theft.
Last month, Maryland dismissed Reed. Again, no problem. Pearl recruited him to Auburn, which will warehouse him in Florida at something called the Elevate Prep School. Reed could be eligible to attend Auburn — er, play for Auburn — in December.