What a powerful, articulate, and passionate speech. Not used to hearing this kind of press conference, are we?
I’ve never seen a football player as incisively challenge his own fans. Courageous. But this was a great speech. He called the extremes of the American football culture to account for its attitudes.
Wow.
In the last few days we have seen shameful behavior by sports fans in more than one venue. Braves fans at Turner Field threw debris on the field after a call goes against them in the Wild Card game. It was a judgment call by the umpire – an unusual call, to be sure, but other umpires have said they thought it was correct, or at least permissible within the rules. But the game had to be stopped for 20 minutes because hooligans threw cans and bottles on the field to show their displeasure.
Eric Winston evoked the image of the Gladiators in his rant. Is that such a far-fetched comparison?
It would be easy to condemn Chiefs’ fans and Braves’ fans as if they are unique. But I don’t think this is a problem limited to those two cities. Sports has become an obsession, and often an idol. That is a confession, not a condemnation.
I remember watching the final outs of the World Series in 2004 (also known as the Year of Great Evil). The cameras were scanning the delirious Fenway Park crowd and I was filled with loathing against them. Suddenly, I had one of those Holy Spirit moments. “How dare you disdain human beings simply because they cheer for the Boston Red Sox?”
I love sports. Always will. But there is something wrong with my heart when I hate the fans of another teams – even a teams as evil as the Red Sox. It is evidence of a heart-problem when we cheer for injuries or throw things on the field, or shout unkind things at players, umps or coaches because of our passions.
Gladiators? May the erudite Mr. Winston’s analogy was more apt than we want to admit.
As one ESPN commentator observed, one of the more remarkable things in this gem is that an NFL player goes on an angry rant for 3 minutes and not a single bleep is necessary.
I had heard about it and just the words–without the video–were powerful. Add the person and the emotion and the intelligence and you simply can’t ignore what he says. I posted elsewhere of the need to–I’m borrowing from Douglas Groothius–exegete culture. Football is a violent game. But as long as it isn’t an intentionally destructive game, it is a beautiful game of power meeting power. It is a game that men play well, though not grown men. It is not a proxy for war, though it sometimes seems to be. But when it descends to–and I’m not sure this is… Read more »
I meant “young men”, not “though not grown men”. What I really meant was “not old men like I am”.
Yeah, it would be dishonest to deny that I have rejoiced when an opposing player on a team I didn’t like turned an ankle or tweaked a knee. Sports often brings out the worst in us.
Dave, His commentary is accurate to a point. To broad-brush all chiefs fans as having rejoiced in Cassell’s injury is inaccurate and not helpful. I get that he is frustrated by those fans who did cheer his QB being injured, but to lay that on all the fans (or all the fans present) makes about as much sense as a crusade against all Calvinists because some are so over-the-top as to be hyper-Calvinists who would glad sing the old hymn, “Let the rest be damned. We won’t have heaven crammed,” thus inaccurately misrepresenting the vast majority of Calvinists who prefer… Read more »
Okay, I havent heard that Calvinist hymn before….funny stuff. I guess the fact that so many of the Chiefs fans cheered is disturbing enough. I know that not all of them did. But, the fact that so many did… also, the bottle and debris throwing of a lot of the Braves fan in the Cards win was equally disturbing. Also, in this part of the world, too many children are playing 60 to 80 baseball games a year..not countinig all the practices….in Travel Ball, as it’s called. And, they miss Church from April to October. I mean, they hardly ever… Read more »
Eric Winston was pretty careful to aim his rant at those who cheered the injury.