Do God and Sports mix?

The Mirror Effect

Our world and what it tells us about ourselves

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We don’t have to look far to see what kind of world we are living in…and what kind of world we have collectively created. The only question we might want to ask is: Why aren’t we doing anything to stop it? Or are we trying…but simply (and sadly) unable?

A case in point, please, that may not seem all that important to you—and that may actually appear to be a little petty to even be bringing up here—but that deserves our notice anyway, however temporarily (given our culture’s current 90-second attention span):

NEW ORLEANS SAINTS ADMIT TO PAYING
PLAYERS FOR INJURING OPPONENTS

This story hit the newswire the other day and produced a tidal wave of disapproval (some have described it as “outrage”) among American football aficionados and non-fans alike. How could it be true?, people innocently asked. “I mean, we know it’s a rough game, played with reckless abandon…but teams actually paying their players cash bonuses for injuring the guys on the other team?” one NFL fan was heard moaning. “My God, what are we coming to…?”

What, indeed…

I’m sure you’ve all heard the story by now. After an internal investigation ordered by the team’s owner, the head coach of the New Orleans Saints franchise in the National Football League, Sean Payton, and the team’s general manager, Mickey Loomis, publicly acknowledged the practice, and, in apologizing, said they take full responsibility for it.

The league issued a public statement as a result of the investigation, declaring that the Saints began in 2009 to pay its defensive players a bounty for injuring opponents. The practice continued through the last football season, which ended just weeks ago.

Saints players were paid $1,500 for a “knockout,” when an opposing player was not able to return to the game, and $1,000 for a “cart-off,” when an opposing player had to be carried off the field, according to a report on the news network CNN, which said it was quoting the NFL statement.

In some cases, particular players on the opposing team were targeted, the NFL is reported by CNN to have confirmed.

Everyone involved in the practice is now profusely apologizing, and promising that it will never happen again.

Nice.

But how, and why, did it happen to begin with…?

Is this was sportsmanship is all about? Of course not. That’s what got football fans all across the country so riled up.

Or is it…?

The CNN report included a fascinating statement. It said that the disclosure of cash-for-injuries bonus “has ignited controversy among football fans nationwide.”

Controversy? What controversy? Do you mean there’s any question in anybody’s mind as to whether this kind of thing is acceptable?

Sadly, yes. There are those who see all of this as Much Ado About Nothing, taking an “Oh, grow up. It’s all part of the game” attitude. Like “Enforcers” in professional hockey. Like basketball players who team up to take a high-scoring opponent off the court.

In the same CNN report, former pro basketball player Charles Barkley was quoted as saying in an online interview that he had once called on teammates to knock out an opposing player whose team was beating Barkley’s Philadelphia 76ers badly. He put the bounty amount at $5,000 but would not identify the player or opposing team.

“We were getting beat by 30 or 40, I can’t remember,” CNN said that Barkley told interviewer Dan Patrick. “This guy was shooting threes and running up and down the court. I said, ‘Hey, we’ve got to hurt that guy right there.’ ”

The CNN report went on to say that “Barkley added: ‘people are clearly going to overreact to the bounty thing,’ which he said should have stayed among the players.”

Should have stayed among the players? I’m sorry? The “bounty thing” should have stayed among the players? Like the “Wall Street thing” should have stayed among the brokers? Like the “Watergate thing” should have stayed among Nixon’s advisers?  

I’m sorry? Did I hear that right? Charles Barkley, now a national television sports commentator for TNT, a sister network of CNN—a man whose thoughts and opinions are now being heard and taken in by young people all across the U.S.—says that people’s negative response to cash bounties for injuring opponents is an overreaction?

And you want to know how our world got to where it is today?

The Global Conversation is all about igniting a discussion around creating a New Cultural Story for humanity. A story in which violence is not the way to get your way. What do you think, can national television network commentators get behind that?

Can you?

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(In our next entry: How and why violence got to be “okay.” And a look at why this is all more of a spiritual question than television commentators,  professional athletes, and some sports fans might think. But let me ask a question right now. Are these some of the same athletes who make the Sign of the Cross when they score a touchdown? Just wondering here…)