Sports Reflect Real Life...Like It or Not

     There are a few things simmering on the local sports landscape right now that have me wondering what we actually want from our sports. Sports are supposed to be an escape from the normal, mundane activities of our life, but they can’t be viewed in a complete vacuum, and that is something that many fans seem to be struggling with right now.

     The recent examples of this started with former Chief and current Brown Kareem Hunt. Hunt got a ticket out of town by multiple incidents capped by being caught on video pushing and kicking a woman. When he was recently signed by Cleveland, the focus was almost solely on the final incident when there were actually at least three that we know of. He dolloped on lying to the team about it, that last part rather gutlessly emphasized by the Chiefs as the reason they cut him.

     More than a small portion of the fan base wanted him to remain on the team, and that was pretty pathetic, another example of how far we have to go in the treatment of violence towards women. But the energy that the “me, too” movement has gained has given a segment of sports fans (likely many of the same people), a card very similar to “reverse racism” to deal. Thankfully, I don’t think that group is too large, but it isn’t insignificant.

     Now of course, John Dorsey has gone out and reinforced every bad football stereotype by rapidly scooping up Hunt, returning him to a home area that even before they cut him the Chiefs deemed toxic for him in trying to stay on the straight and narrow. At the same time, even fans who are somewhat tolerant of the NFL players who protest the anthem, say that a player like Colin Kapernick would be a “distraction”, and somehow don’t think that Hunt will be.

     I don’t even disagree that having Kapernick on your squad could be disruptive, and I probably would only consider him as a starter not a backup, but the choice of behaviors that fans are willing to stomach versus ones they are not is puzzling at best, if not highly troubling.

     Then of course we have the outrage displayed by a couple of local college fans bases at how their squads are being harmed by the evil NCAA. The Missouri Tigers were hit with a one-year post-season ban for having a tutor on staff who did course work for athletes in various sports. It IS harsh by the standards of the day, but that doesn’t mean that a new standard might not be a good idea.

     As I have written about before, tutoring of athletes needs added scrutiny. Somehow, we have morphed into a landscape where no athletes are ever declared academically ineligible. Forget the fact that more than a few who are recruited have little aptitude and likely less enthusiasm for the classroom, in the general student body people flunk out all the time. Smells awful fishy to me, and the fact that this “rogue” tutor went beyond the standards that should be in place, is no surprise.

     Added on is this absurdly overplayed narrative about “cooperating with the investigation”. That reminds me of the Chris Rock comedy bit about being proud of not being in jail. Missouri is aghast that they received this penalty when they self-reported. The last I checked you still get convicted when you plead guilty. What is not being considered is that the Tigers might actually HAVE gotten a break in this new atmosphere in college sports.

     Then of course we have the whole mess at Kansas. There is no need to rehash the sordid case, but it is just rich when while obvious transgressions have been committed, that fans pick out the one thing that might be criticized and cry foul…..loudly. Is the suspension for Silvio De Sousa onerous? Arguable. But it’s not as if nothing happened. He may not have known, but the actions that involved his recruitment clearly occurred. I well imagine if Udoke Azibuke hadn’t gotten hurt, the sympathy for poor Silvio would have been far more muted.

     Because the point of this exercise is that fans just want their teams to win. Is it better if everything is rosy, and the guys all go to class, and the recruits just wanted to come to ole State U because they loved the campus? Sure. Is it better when you have an absolute poster child for all that is good in the pro game like Patrick Mahomes? You bet. Hell, at the NCAA level, the whole recruiting swampland has created the rarest of birds locally. A fan base at K-State that actually can take the moral high ground.

     But until KU started to take some dings due to the FBI case, there were more than a few ‘Cat fans themselves who were openly advocating that Bruce Weber and his staff get their fingernails a little dirty in the recruiting game. Thankfully, that FBI case may have actually come just in time to make the likes of Weber and MIchigan’s John Beilien look like people to be admired, and not hopeless Pollyanna’s.

     The actions of the Browns in the Hunt case, amidst saying all the hypocritical crap that always goes with someone being signed under dodgy circumstances because they can play, needs to continue to be put under close scrutiny. The NFL just rescinded their combine invite to the nation’s leading sacker, Jaylon Ferguson of Louisiana Tech, due to a simple battery conviction for a fight at a McDonald’s four years ago that resulted in a 187-dollar fine. In the same week Hunt was signed.

     The league’s actions there are complete public relations BS. Ferguson is going to be drafted and play in the league, but the NFL can stick their chest out and say they are making a statement against violence.

     The Chiefs and their fans are able to tout the great success story that Tyreek Hill has been. I said they shouldn’t have drafted him at the time and I’ll stick by that. It worked in that case, but Dorsey continued to draft character risks, and ended up having to cut 4th round pick Kevarae Russell before he played a down, and then Hunt. For every Hill, there are numerous Aldon Smith’s.

     “You can’t have your cake and eat it too”, is a very odd phrase, but it is apt in this case. Fans many times want to see every guy who can play be on the field despite what goes on off it, and they want to acquire those players and not have any consequences when it was done the wrong way or for the wrong reasons.

      We would love sports to be exactly like the joyride Chiefs fans are experiencing with Patrick Mahomes. Enjoy it and treasure it for the rare occurrence that it is.

     Expecting it to be anywhere near the norm is a fool’s errand.