Jack’s Blog

On my drive home from a rather disappointing two-day trip to the Stanford Hospital and Pain Clinic, I was listening to KNBR-AM out of San Francisco (mainly because I’m waiting on a couple books on CD I recently ordered, but also because I like the guys on that station). 

One of the subjects was, not surprisingly, Al Davis, and one of the show’s hosts was informing the listeners that Al actually coached the Raiders at one time.  He mentioned how that fact separated him from the owners who never were in the game, but always wanted to be.  He remarked that, while the Raiders are in complete disarray right now (and have been for quite a while), Al should be given credit for both his coaching success and for building the Raiders into the (however brief) dynasty they were. 

I can’t remember which of the personalities made the following remarks but they went something like: “OK, you’re right.  Al did build the franchise but that was a long time ago.  As an analogy, let’s say he was a brilliant heart surgeon, the best in his day.  But now he’s 80.  If I’m having heart surgery, I don’t want an 80-year-old, who might have vision problems now, operating on me.”

That metaphor shouted to me exactly where the sports fan’s mind is - and probably has been for a long time.  The hole in his logic is that if you are undergoing heart surgery, it’s a life-and-death matter.  Of course you wouldn’t want an 80-year-old, with or without vision problems, operating on you!  The probability of a mistake is too great.

But sports isn’t life and death; it’s entertainment!  Yet, many people align themselves to sports teams and when their team wins, they feel like they won - like they’re winners.  On the flip side, if you pull for a team that loses too often (like more than twice), you may not feel like a loser, but you think other people look at you like you’re a loser.  Therefore, you strike back - usually by either attacking their team, pointing out reasons they, to use the favorite talk show word, suck, or you vent your frustrations at your own team - whether it be at the coach (the favorite target in most cases), owner (definitely in the case of the Raiders), GM (if you know who he is) or a player or players who aren’t playing as well as you think they ought to (especially for what they’re getting paid - and combine that with the fact they are far less educated than you are - or pretend to be).  Or could it be they snubbed you somewhere - maybe in front of your date after you told her how super they were (while possibly even inferring you knew them).

This paints a nasty picture of the sports fan (and probably is a bit over the top) but the topic began with the Raiders and if any team has over the top fans, it’s the Silver and Black.  All in all, though, hasn’t the entire sports world gone a little nutso over mere athletic contests?  The country has seemed to drift away from the idea presented by one of the greatest winners - both in athletics and life - of all time, Jesse Owens, who said:

“To me, we must learn to spell the word R-E-S-P-E-C-T.  We must respect the rights and properties of our fellowman.  And then learn to play the game of life, as well as the game of athletics, according to the rules of society.  If you can take that and put it into practice in the community in which you live, then, to me you have won the greatest championship.”

   

One topic sure to generate emotional dialogue is the one regarding whether professional athletes get paid too much.  Within that topic is the one about NFL rookies getting guaranteed money - and a lot of it - before they do anything.  Count me in on the “too much” side.  After all, as I stated in a blog a few days ago (or was it yesterday - they all run together sometimes), if these guys weren’t doing this job, i.e. “playing a game” for a (really comfortable) living, there is a 100% chance that they’d being doing something else for far less money.

Granted it takes skill that so very few in society have and doing it does fall under the supply and demand category, but the contribution any one player is making pales in comparison to what he’s getting paid (with the exception of one or, maybe two, players on each team - in each sport).  To add to a contentious situation, we get to read about the whiners and complainers (Stephen Jackson of that powerful Golden State Warriors franchise - “I want out and if I can’t, I’m going to make an awful situation worse for all concerned”), injured players (way too many to list, but guys who get paid while they don’t work - OK, similar to the rest of us, but with one difference - they never use up their “sick leave,” at least not until their contract runs out) and, finally, the ones who, although they’re healthy, never play (although we don’t get to read about those guys).

Then along comes a player like Louis Murphy.  Who???  Yeah, that Louis Murphy, wide receiver, #18 for the up-until-yesterday hapless Oakland Raiders.  Here’s a guy on a winless team (sure, with a storied tradition of excellence, but that was a long time ago), playing in a game against the 3-1 Philadelphia Eagles that all the pundits had written off as an easy Eagles victory.  Yet, on a pass to a teammate,  he makes a pancake block, springing his fellow Raider for a long gainer.  But that wasn’t enough for the youngster (Murphy is a rookie out of the University of Florida and, evidently, a guy not used to losing).

Keep in mind, that this effort was not one of those spectacular moves that a player shows by breaking tackles, stiff-arming people and outrunning everyone else.  This play was for someone else.  It was a pass play and Murphy, a wideout, in all probability, had run a route, hoping the ball was going to be thrown his way.  When it wasn’t, he kept on playing (maybe that’s why the Gators win).  After he threw the big block, he sprinted downfield (attested to by a camera zoomed in on him) and kept blocking, taking out two more of Philly’s finest until the play ended - in the endzone, a touchdown for Oakland.

No one watching the play, no one, would have begrudged Louis Murphy a dime of however much money he’s making.  That’s the moment where people ought to be saying, “Independent of how much dough Al Davis is paying that guy, he’s earning every bit of it because, although I don’t have the skill he does at the job he has, I can’t recall too many times when I put out that much effort at whatever it is I do.” 

All year long (and for years before this one), loyal Raiders’ fans (and, living near Oakland, I can tell you there are still an incredible amount of them) have been waiting for a spark, a catalyst, to get their team going.  It seemed like everyone on that ball club was waiting for someone else, until rookie Louis Murphy heeded the advice of Mohandes Gandhi:

“You must be the change you wish to see in others.” Â

As the 2009 NFL season gets under way, there will be many fans whose wishes will be kept alive with some early season success.  Others will have their dreams dashed right out of the gate.

The beginning of the season allows fans to engage in what’s quickly becoming America’s favorite pasttime - trash talking.  And when it’s your team that gets crushed in the first two regular season games, you need to take it out on someone.  After all, it can’t be your fault.  I mean, you don’t play.  (Funny though, how much bravado you display when your team wins). 

Who that someone is will most likely depend on where you, or rather your favorite team calls home.  If Buffalo tanks early, T.O. will be a scoundrel, a cancer that everyone knew he’d be all along - even if he’s putting up big numbers (we’re talking reality football here, the way the game was meant to be played, so when the team loses, people who root for that team get upset).

If Oakland goes south, Al Davis will be catching the overwhelming majority of the criticism.  He probably doesn’t deserve all that he’s gotten the past decade, but it’s pretty close to proportional to the praise he received when the franchise was bordering on a dynasty.  That wasn’t all Al’s doing, either.

In Chicago, should Da Bears lose, Jay Cutler will be villified - super stats or not - and all because he popped off when there was no need - right after the trade.  There is a group of loyal fans there who will forgive his losing, but only if the Bears cover.

And, if it were multiple choice question as to which of the Falcons would catch hell if that club started poorly, every answer to that question (but the last one) would be Michael Vick.  And the last answer would be “All of the above.”

Naturally, if these same teams busted out of the gates playing near perfect football, these same cast of characters would be hoisted on the city’s shoulders for their godlike qualities. None of the above have been portrayed - at least recently - as a “nice guy,” which should bode well if you’re a devotee of the man whom a complex is named after.  One of the most diminutive, but nonetheless, effective bosses of all time, Napoleon, is credited with saying:

“A leader of whom it is said. ‘He’s a nice man’ is lost.”

   Â