It has been a long time since I've played a sport in any sort of competitive fashion. The closest that I've gotten is the night roller hockey league that I played on a few years back when I was in grad school and had to drive 50 minutes from Salem to Corvalis in Oregon to play some late night hockey. Nevertheless, I still remember some of the valuable lessons that I was taught from when I was a kid playing little league baseball and basketball. You know, the lessons like you'll only get out as much as you put into something, hard work leads to success, give things your best effort and you'll never be ashamed of the end result. The most important lesson learned by most all kids should be a lesson in class, it was for me.
I had a great coach for all of the sports that I participated in as a youngster. And something that always stuck with me had absolutely no outcome on any of the games that we played because it took place immediately after. Whether we won, or whether we lost, we gathered up as a team and we gave a team chant that basically carried the message of "Good game, thanks for playing us." Things that still show up in a lot of sports. Hockey players line up at the end of some brutal playoff series to shake hands with each other and say good match up. Tennis players shake hands at the end of each match. Golfers shake hands at the end of each round. Most basketball players stick around to shake hands and give hugs and say good game, and it usually happens in football as well.
I save football for last because this is what I want to address. There are many teams that are revered in the NFL for various reasons. Supreme ability, world class speed, stifling defense, the ability to throw the ball 80 yards, etc... But one thing that people are praised for, but rarely chastised for, is their class. Class is something that is usually learned from a young age, and should stick with you, but it seems to have eluded 2 people in the league that are almost always looked at as the prime example of exellence in the NFL. By a strange coincidence, they are also part of the same team, the New England Patriots. Yes, I hear the groans of people who are so willing to jump on the Patriot band wagon, people who love to talk about how good their team is, but are also unwilling to admit when another team outplayed you.
At any rate, Bill Bellichik and Tom Brady are constantly praised for their game smarts, as well they should be. Yet, it's never more than a casual joke on Sportscenter when we see a clip of Bellichik barely acknowledging the head coach of the other team, if bothering to shake hands at all, and then running off of the field. Same with Tom Brady who always leaves straight off when beaten, never bothers to shake hands with anybody. Why does nobody comment on this? Do you remember how fast people jumped on Lebron James when he left the floor without shaking hands after this last NBA post season? He is the golden boy of the NBA! So why nothing for Brady and Bellichik? Now, I expect Bellichik to have a little less class than most as he is one who was caught cheating in the middle of a game and made no bones about what he had done. Brady, however, loves to feign class. My favorite Tom Brady moment came after a loss to the Broncos this year in week 5. He had made a comment, at the press conference, about how with a game like this, the only thing that you can do with your former QB coach and O-Coordinator is go up to him, shake his hand, and say congratulations. The reporter quickly followed up with the question, "Did you get a chance to shake Josh's hand and congratulate him?" Brady tried to stifle a little smirk and just said, "No." Nice one, Tom. Very nice.
Why does this matter? To any of you who have kids, or have any respect for the sports that you love, this should be obvious. This inherent lack of class and obvious disdain for anybody who has the audacity to play the game better than you did on a given day is something that should disturb us. This should disturb us because who do you think our kids look up to? Kids look up to Tom Brady because of his fame and ability to throw the ball with the same velocity that a cannon might produce. He is looked at as golden, and when something like that is allowed to pass without any kind of reprimand, those kids now are told that that is an okay thing to do. That's what leads to things like kids in the Little League World Series that his a home run and then hot dog around the bases. That's what leads to 15 year old kids expecting some kind of special treatment at school because he plays sports instead of actually trying in class. That kid may then become a coach and tell a kid that it's okay to lie about his age so that his team has a better shot at winning because they have a 14 year old playing in a league of 11-12 year olds.
Is this a little over dramatic? Possibly, but don't, for one second, pretend that I'm wrong about the key arguement here. There are many things about the world that aren't as nice as when I, and many other people, were younger. Remember the places that your kids learn their lessons. The next time you see that Patriots lose and Brady just skulk off the field, remind them that he's being a sore loser and that's not right. Next time you hear of a baseball player being busted for steroids, tell them that that person is a cheater and that cheating to get ahead is wrong. Those are the types of moments, however small, that teach lessons that will stick with kids for a lifetime. They have with me.
I'll close with a personal story. One of the greatest moments I have witnessed, but also a very quick and little one. It was while I lived in Alaska, and my friends had my wife and I over for our weekly Monday Night Football get together. At half time, a story flashed on about Barry Bonds, and their son, a little over 2 at the time, made a great comment. "I don't like Barry Bonds." "Why not?" I asked. "He's a bad man!" His mom said, "That's right, and why is he a bad man?" "Because he cheated, and that's wrong!" Logic so simple that even a 2 year old can grasp it, so why has this eluded our "sharpest minds in sports?" Class in important, and it should never be forgotten.
**off my soap box**
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