Athletes as warriors? Get over yourselves

[AggieJohn]

Published May 29, 2005


The other day, I was walking past the TV just as someone lamented, in a weary voice, "It was a war out there." But this was not an American Marine in Baghdad. It was not a Special Forces soldier in Afghanistan. It was not a human-rights worker in Darfur, Sudan. The program was ESPN's "SportsCenter," and the voice belonged to a basketball player who had just survived the frightful carnage of an NBA playoff game.

I don't know about you, but I have some thoughts about how that guy should spend Memorial Day--and they don't involve visiting the Basketball Hall of Fame.

Following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and the subsequent invasion of Afghanistan, athletes and journalists suddenly saw the folly of comparing sports to slaughter, and most of them curbed their careless use of such terms. Major League Baseball and the National Football League suspended play in the aftermath, and when players returned to the field, they weren't thinking how much their competitions resembled the Normandy invasion. More likely, they were thinking how lucky they were to be alive and earning a nice income from playing games.

The lesson stuck for a while. In 2003, one college football player, Kellen Winslow Jr. of the University of Miami, found himself universally reviled when he said, "It's war, they're out to kill you, so I'm out there to kill them. ... I'm a [expletive] soldier." Winslow later was wise enough to apologize, acknowledging the obvious: "I cannot begin to imagine the magnitude of war or its consequences."

But even with daily reports of American casualties in Iraq, complacency has set in. In recent months, athletes of all sorts have gone back to melodramatically overstating the discipline, bravery and heroism required in competition.

Last year, Florida Marlins pitcher Josh Beckett declared, "We're warriors. Everybody on this team is a warrior." In response to criticism this season, Alex Rodriguez of the New York Yankees said the only opinions that matter to him are those of "guys who go to war with me."

After a foul-plagued December basketball game between the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and McNeese State University, one player confided, "It was a big war out there." A girls high school tennis match in Huntington Beach, Calif.? You guessed it: "a war out there," according to one coach.

Please. A-Rod's idea of a casualty is an outfielder with a sore hamstring. College basketball players think bombs involve shooting from beyond the arc. While playing tennis in Huntington Beach, you never have to worry that an incoming mortar round will throw off your serve at match point.

It's ridiculous enough for athletes and coaches to grossly magnify their exploits in the best of times. But to do so when bona fide American warriors are dying for their country every week makes you think some professional jocks live about two time zones west of reality. Yet their warped view of the world has managed to filter down into the amateur ranks.

Plenty of sports can be demanding, grueling, painful and even dangerous. But they're all forms of play, which war is not. If you lose a battle in war, you may come home crippled, if you come home at all. If you lose a baseball game, you retire to a comfortable locker room stocked with cold drinks, fluffy towels and hot showers.

War is hell. Sport, win or lose, is pleasure.

Last season, Texas A&M University's football team included a walk-on player named Josh Amstutz, who has had bigger worries than beating Oklahoma. A Marine who saw combat in Iraq, Amstutz earned a Purple Heart when he was shot through the leg by a sniper. When he finished his tour and came back to make the team as a reserve safety, he had no trouble keeping his new life in perspective.

"One practice it was pretty hot, and everybody was complaining," he told Sports Illustrated. "But I thought to myself, hey, this isn't bad. It beats being in 120 degrees in Iraq in a hazardous chemical protective suit. And at least nobody's shooting at me."

Josh Beckett, meet Josh Amstutz. Now, who's a warrior?

[TMer25]

Just about every athlete should be forced to read that.

[AggieJohn]

i concur

[Gobbla2001]

This comparison to War from people involved in Sports has been blown way out of the water...

Yah, they may not be over in Iraq, and this may be a game, but the only thing you can compare sports to these days is war, whether it be the Revolutionary, The Civil, WW 1, 2, Korean, Vietnam or present day wars... The tactics used in these wars has shaped sports more than you know... Basketball/football/whatever coaches use those same tactics in trying to win the battle they face on the court/field/whatever every night/day...

The fact is that these players could compare their games and themselves to warriors/soldiers etc... any other time, but not DURING a war involving United States troops... Any other time and it is OKAY!!!

Honestly, WHAT ELSE DO THEY HAVE TO COMPARE THEMSELVES TO?

"Yah, we were out there working so dang hard, fighting for turnovers, trying to block shots, it was like Wall Street man..."

These athletes look up to our service men and women, why not honor them by trying in the 'least' way to 'be like them'...

"What do you wanna be when you grow up?"

"I wanna be a fire-man, a police officer, a soldier"...

Why not let them live their dreams on a totally different plain?

People are just 'too' anal about this subject, vet or not...

I bet you a million bucks that each player/etc... that mentions that 'it was a war' etc... doesn't even think twice that their position/etc... even compares to those who have gone to battle for this country of ours....

It's a 'figure of speach', lighten up...

[Matthew328]

For an athlete to compare his game to a war isn't that big of a deal......a team is like an army it is an army mentality....the coach is the general and the players are his soldiers and they are going into "battle" just because we are fighting a war doesn't mean we need to blow everything out of proportion..it's a figure of speech get over it...all these writers who get on their high horse to make some kind of stand just to make themselves look good and get some good publicity are sickening....if it was that big of a deal they would have been telling athletes to stop saying sports is a battle or a war during peacetime...leave the players alone.....hell at work sometimes I say its been a battle....and I work in the mortgage industry!!!! So someone please write some editorial about how I am disrespecting the soldiers in Iraq...I know some guys in Iraq and they could care less what some basketball player says about his game being a war...

[LH Panther Mom]

I almost started a new thread, but this one seemed more appropriate. Everyone take a moment to reflect on what the day means to us as Americans and thank the soldiers who have and are giving their lives for us, along with those who will live through the wars, so that we have the freedoms we do.

In a short while, my husband and two younger boys, with their Boy Scout troop, will be at the local cemetary with the gentlemen from our VFW branch to replace the worn flags on veterans' graves, in honor of our soldiers.

[44INAROW]

Originally posted by LH Panther Mom


In a short while, my husband and two younger boys, with their Boy Scout troop, will be at the local cemetary with the gentlemen from our VFW branch to replace the worn flags on veterans' graves, in honor of our soldiers.

What a good thing they are doing!! They will remember for years to come what Memorial Day is all about

[Gilmer Buckeye]

Many do not know that the terms such as "war," "battle," "conflict," etc., are registered trademarks of the Pentagon.

Also, do not ever use the term "holocaust." It is registered to a company in Israel.

[Maroon87]

Apparently Winslow Jr. lost his "war" vs. the motorcycle...

[LH Panther Mom]

Originally posted by Gilmer Buckeye
Many do not know that the terms such as "war," "battle," "conflict," etc., are registered trademarks of the Pentagon.

Also, do not ever use the term "holocaust." It is registered to a company in Israel.

Stop turning everything into politics.

[Ranger Mom]

Originally posted by LH Panther Mom
Stop turning everything into politics.

I second that motion!

[HighSchool Fan]

Originally posted by Ranger Mom
I second that motion!

i third that motion

[District303aPastPlayer]

can we close this thread... its going to keep goin political, and the entire point of this thread is ludacris, 5 years ago it didnt matter if this was said...

[LH Panther Mom]

Originally posted by District303aPastPlayer
can we close this thread... its going to keep goin political, and the entire point of this thread is ludacris, 5 years ago it didnt matter if this was said...

Any more politics & it will be.

[Gobbla2001]

Lay down the law, girls...

But it is an interesting topic...


God bless them troops, past, present and future...