Sunday’s column was about how I’ve come to understand that football players aren’t all the thugs and brutes I encountered when I was in high school.
In what seems like a world turned upside down, all of a sudden I like football players and FBI agents — George Pyle | The Salt Lake Tribune
... Football players, in my experience, were not exemplars of moral leadership. The few I knew personally did not fit the stereotype of the dumb jock. They were intelligent enough. But they were egotistical, cliquish and, often, bullies. Especially if you were the guy who already thought of gym class as undeserved punishment. So now it feels a bit odd to look around and see some football players and other athletes standing morally, not just physically, head and shoulders above much of the rest of society. Far from being dumb jocks, quarterback Colin Kaepernick and those who followed him in his loud-as-a-whisper practice of falling to one knee during the playing of the national anthem have, if anything, flown right over the heads of folks who should know better. ...
Also in Sunday’s paper, a football player who has come to see life somewhat differently:
I loved playing football for BYU. But was it worth the damage to my brain, life and family? — Larry Carr | For The Tribune
... I have always been an easygoing person, but over the years my emotions have become more and more difficult to control. The darkness that envelops me at times is real and is becoming more frequent. The desire to stop what has become an unrelenting mental and emotional pain is helped by my faith that enables me to live with my situation; however, it has taken a toll on my wife, children, and employment. I retired from teaching nearly a decade earlier than I had hoped because of my inability to deal with the crushing anxiety, fear and paranoia. I wake up every morning and pray to find the peace and patience to get through the day. ...
Then there was this:
Former NFL player is a suspect in a Utah killing, ‘but this story should be about her’ — Mariah Nobel | The Salt Lake Tribune
A former NFL player has been named as a suspect in the Thursday slaying of his wife in Park City. Park City police said Friday that 28-year-old Keri “KC” McClanahan — the wife of Anthony Darnel McClanahan — had been found dead in the Park Regency Resort condominiums, 1710 Prospector Avenue, on Thursday. ... [Kerry McClanahan’s sister] said Anthony McClanahan tried to blame his behavior on injuries he’d suffered while playing football. ...
Over on the basketball side, we have some deeply intelligent feelings -- or some deeply felt intelligence — from Gregg Popovich, aka Pop — coach of the NBA’s San Antonio Spurs.
Gregg Popovich on Texas shooting: Talking about basketball ‘is probably pretty inappropriate’ after win — Cindy Boren | The Washington Post
Not long before the Spurs played Phoenix on Sunday, a mass shooting at a church 33 miles from San Antonio left 26 people dead. After the game, Coach Gregg Popovich was in no mood to talk to reporters. ... “We won a basketball game, but considering what’s going on today, it’s pretty meaningless,” he said. “When you think about the tragedy those families are suffering, it’s just inconceivable and impossible to put your head around. So I think talking about basketball tonight is probably pretty inappropriate. So you guys have a good night.” ...
Pop had already developed a reputation as a straight talker who cares about more than basketball.
Why President Trump ignites Gregg Popovich — Kevin Arnovitz | ESPN
As the team’s head coach and senior executive, Popovich preaches that curiosity about people — especially those unlike yourself — provides not only a foundation for cultural literacy, but the building blocks of a better team. He invites Olympian John Carlos, who, along with Tommie Smith, hoisted the Black Power salute from the podium in 1968, to address the Spurs. Popovich briefs the team on the Innocence Project, which appeals criminal convictions with the aid of DNA evidence. His players are routinely recommended reading. In SpursWorld, unfamiliar ideas are to be explored, then discussed with those who will challenge your assumptions honestly.
Back in 2014, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver took it upon himself to read the then-owner of the L.A. Clippers, Donald Sterling, out of the league for leaked racist comments. Silver showed skill, guts and the knowledge that racism is anathema to an organization that is owned by whites but manned mostly by blacks.
This is what old fuzzy-headed liberals like about sports, even as we remember high school athletes as brutes and worry about such things as CTE and college athletes who do all the work and get none of the money. Unless they cheat, in which case they take the punishment and the coach moves on to another multi-million-dollar gig at another school. It may be the one element of society — alongside the military, which liberals are also supposed to mistrust — where true meritocracy rules. If you can do it, you’re in, no matter your color or nationality.
Major League Baseball is so serious about recruiting the best talent from around the world that translators are now a common sight in clubhouses. And the NBA is a virtual United Nations. Partly to build overseas markets for TV rights and jerseys. But also because they want the best talent.
For many of their games last season, the Utah Jazz were represented on the floor by three people from other nations: Rudy Gobert and Boris Diaw (both from France) and Joe Ingles (Australia). Diaw is gone now, but seven of the 17 players on the current roster are from nations other than the U.S.
That was the joke about basketball coaches in the 1960s, when high school, college and pro teams were first integrated but still had to worry about the sensibilities of white fans, administrators and sportswriters: How many black players does your team put on the floor at once? Two when you are playing at home. Three when you are playing on the road. And four when you are behind.
