Former Virginia Tech quarterback Marcus Vick has, finally, been dismissed after a long string of traffic vilolations, misdemeanors, and unsportsmanlike conduct. This is insanity as Ben Franklin defined it – “doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”
Now Washington Post sports writer John Feinstein places Vick’s string of violations in a broader context
All of which brings us to an issue that goes well beyond the troubles of Marcus Vick. His story reflects a much larger problem at all levels of sports: the existence of a place that we might call, for want of a better term, "The Land of Never Wrong."
This is where truly gifted athletes live. They are given second, third, fourth and 15th chances solely because of their talent. That's why so many of them come to believe that rules and laws, even rules of decent behavior, don't apply to them.I’m the husband and father of teachers. One of their major challenges is convincing elementary and middle school students that they will face consequences for their actions. Feinstein is right on target. Collegiate and professional athletics sent the opposite message – If you have enough talent, you can get away with anything. There is no reason for Vick to change his behavior when he expects that the can always expect a good result. We could call this insanity except that Vick’s
response to being thrown off the team was to drop out of school and announce he'd follow his older brother, Michael, the Atlanta Falcons' Pro Bowl quarterback, to the National Football League. His comment on his dismissal from the team put him near the top of the list of athletes sounding arrogant beyond belief: "It's not a big deal. . . . I'll just move to the next level, baby." And the truth is that if he can play, he'll be welcome at the next level. Professional sports teams don't care if you've been to jail, been stopped a hundred times for traffic violations, stomped on 10 opponents' legs or made profane gestures at opposing fans (which Vick did at least once this season). They care if you can play. Period.
Insanity has to be recognized and acknowledged before it sanity can be restored. Why should Vick admit that his behavior fits Franklins definition while the athletic world protects him from the results?
Cultural conservatives care about stories like this. By tolerating the behavior of Vick and others the collegiate athletic world undermines the efforts of teachers who care about their students. Virginia Tech is not alone. Please read Feinstein’s story to see how the University of Colorado and Charlottesville’s University of Virginia also debase the culture.
The National Collegiate Athletic Associate (NCAA) does care about cultural influences. Why else would it exert so much effort to control the messages placed before the public? This explains its high profile effort to ban Native American symbols, such as the University of Illinois Chief Illiniwek as culturally demeaning.
This is a clear case of misplaced priorities.
At the same time, there are people in the sports world who have their priorities straight. Read these stories about Antonio Brown and Joe Gibbs
NOTE: This Post linked to Beltway Traffic Jam for 01/12/2006
Comments