The sports world provided unfortunate cases of mistakes this week on the part of two men. Bobby Petrino, football coach at Arkansas, found his personal indiscretion exposed over a motorcycle crash last week. Ozzie Guillen, the often outspoken manager of the Florida Marlins, risked community outrage by telling TIME that he respects and loves Cuban dictator Fidel Castro.
Why are these two worthy of a blog post? We need to figure out our response to sports figures when either their personal mistakes or controversial political statements emerge. Think about any political figure and immediately visions of smoke-filled rooms, shady deals, and kickbacks circle through your head. As much as we act scandalized by politicians and their mistakes, by now they are a dime a dozen. We are accustomed to such stories in politics.
But similar stories in sports still shock us, mainly because the sports microscope focuses on the field and never outside the lines. Even pundits follow that routine. This morning, Ryan Stewart on ESPN’s First Take said he felt uncomfortable talking about Guillen because “I’m here to discuss sports, not this.” For some, these are not strictly sports stories, but considering the prominence of Guillen and Petrino, these controversies center on how sports figures are judged in today’s society.
Let’s start with Petrino. Many Arkansas sports outlets see Petrino as serving a suspension and paying a fine next year, but do not see him fired, mainly because the Arkansas team is 21-5 under him and had a chance last season to be in the SEC Championship. I have to agree with these theories, since I cannot imagine athletic director Jeff Long would fire a successful coach, especially since he wrote a conduct clause in Petrino’s contract for this kind of situation. I understand further that Long will likely move forward, since Arkansas has a chance at a top 5 team this season.
And yet, I think Petrino should be unceremoniously fired. College football programs, like social fraternities, are only as good as their recruiting. Petrino, as a representative of the university, will have to present himself to high school prospects and convince them to choose his team over Alabama or LSU. How can the university be comfortable putting him in front of an impressionable 17-year-old when this guy lied to his boss but will expect players to trust him? Do we really think the parents and mentors of these kids will entrust their young man as a ward to a consummate liar? I say consummate because he left the Atlanta Falcons without telling owner Arthur Blank, resigning abruptly and taking the Arkansas job. If he stays, Arkansas will continue to win, but the university should understand how personal characteristics will invariably bleed into the football program.
On to Guillen, who I think must be the dumbest man on the planet today. Knowing he would be manager of Miami’s baseball team, Guillen successfully offended the backbone community of Miami by praising a dictator. Some folks out there believe Guillen, who has made a habit of crossing lines his entire career, finally struck a third rail community topic and should be fired for it. By contrast, however, I love the Marlins reaction to suspend Guillen for five games.
While the league should not be in the habit of suspending players or coaches for political statements, the team should have that discretion. Each baseball organization reaches out to the community, giving back through charitable events and associations. In return, fans come to games over a long season. Living in DC I can tell you that every stadium has an effect on the area around it. For those reasons, baseball franchises cannot afford to undermine their credibility by letting comments like Guillen’s, very controversial in the surrounding area, go by unpunished.
So how do we respond to these personal and political mishaps?
Petrino’s personal life, clearly in tatters, wouldn’t normally concern many of us. If anything, most are not that concerned about his infidelity to his wife but more with his deception to a second boss in three years. We as fans should believe in redemption, because everyone makes mistakes, but a pattern of behavior shows here, and someone will need to make that clear to Petrino eventually or this will continue to happen.
As for Guillen, his political views truly shouldn’t concern the large baseball authorities, but to be so insensitive to the Cuban-American population, so prominent in Miami, demands a franchise response. As with Petrino, however, Guillen has shown a pattern of verbal insensitivities while proving success on the field. If anything, the White Sox did too little to discourage Ozzie’s verbal cannonades during his time there, creating a verbal powder keg with no consequences until now.
Above all, we need to remember that sports figures, like all of us, make big mistakes often. We should not, however, use that as an excuse to totally pardon those who occupy prominent cultural positions through sports, especially with patterns of behavior. What remains to be seen is if winning really does cure all ills, and we should know very soon for both Petrino and Ozzie.
Bit #1: Finally the Odom pain ends
On Monday Lamar Odom and the Dallas Mavericks announced a mutual split, much to the delight of any warm-blooded semi-comatose sports fan. Odom’s done almost nothing for the Mavs this year, averaging career lows in every major statistical category. I’ve written multiple Bits on his inability to perform, but things hit a new low when the Mavs gave him less than ten minutes of ice time even with Dirk Nowitzki out the entire game.
It’s very easy to say Odom quit on the Mavs, but as Tim McMahon of ESPNDallas.com points out (also it is high time for ESPNDC.com I’m tired of Dallas getting all the love as a “major” sports market), Odom had to put in effort to start with. His performance has been supremely unprofessional this season, showing he needs the glitzy location to satisfy his Kardashian-esque drama needs. Thankfully, we no longer need to worry about Odom.
Bit #2: Hoosiers primed for next year
Don’t look now, but the glory days of the Midwest may be returning soon. With the news today that Christian Watford and Cody Zeller will return to Indiana next season, the Hoosiers look to be ready for a climb again to the top. Unfortunately many of my generation only remember Bob Knight as a red-faced vitriolic coach from Texas Tech and now know him as one of the most ornery announcers on ESPN’s payroll.
But the Hoosiers were a powerhouse under Knight, winning three championships and eleven Big Ten titles from 1971-2000. Last year Indiana shocked top-ranked Kentucky in December and made their gym one of the toughest places to play. For some reason, college basketball always gets better when Indiana plays well, so I bet next year marks a high point in competition.
Bit #3: The triviality of the NCAA
Word came down Monday that the NCAA found infractions on the part of Baylor basketball, both men’s and women’s, for improper phone calls and text messages. While I’m sure that the coaching staffs actually broke rules, I can’t believe the NCAA would devote this much time to phone calls and text messages compared to the situation at Penn State and Miami. Incidents like this prove the NCAA Rulebook needs to be shortened, or at least cleaned of waste.
Bit #4: April 10, 1971 – U.S. Table Tennis team arrives in China
Might seem strange, but the U.S. did not recognize the Communist regime in China until 1970. And, imagine this, but the first goodwill meeting was an exhibition between the American and Chinese table tennis teams. And yes, this would be the only time table tennis grabs a spot on my blog, but I find it so interesting that sports provided the first heralded act of recognition between the two countries. Much like the Olympics, for some reason we continue to appreciate international sports competition precisely because of what I said above: rarely do the cares of the political world interfere with production on the field.
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