c. 1996 Religion News Service
(Charles W. Colson, former special counsel to Richard Nixon, served a prison term for his role in the Watergate scandal. He now heads Prison Fellowship International, an evangelical Christian ministry to the imprisoned and their families. Contact Colson via e-mail: 71421,1551 at compuserve.com.)
(RNS)-The Super Bowl, otherwise known as the Millionaire’s Rumble, is probably our nation’s biggest pageant, replete with fireworks, marching bands, numbing hype, ceaseless commentary, presidential phone calls, blimps, flyovers, parachutists and the game itself, with its pathos, bathos, and Bud Bowl.
At no other time, short of war, is America so wired to the television: so much so that a few years ago residents of Buffalo blew out their sewer system by overuse during commercials (the Buffalo Flush, as the phenomenon became known). They were asked during the next Super Bowl to space their breaks more judiciously.
Clearly, this all-important event illuminates a central fact: sports have become a full-blown obsession in America. Is the word”obsession”too strong? I don’t think so. How else to explain the willingness to accommodate astounding levels of illegal and immoral behavior by athletes?
Anyone who reads the newspapers is all too aware of this phenomenon, for it is the rare day that the sports pages don’t contain at least one item about an athlete who has run afoul of the law.
The past year has been brimming with scandals, including the University of Nebraska’s decision to allow star running back Lawrence Phillips to compete despite his arrest for assaulting his girlfriend, and George Washington University’s recruitment of a high school basketball star who had admitted to sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl in a school corridor.
In the latter case, the player’s scholarship was finally withdrawn after a storm of protest, though for a university to offer a scholarship under those conditions tells us much about current priorities.
Professional sports, meanwhile, feature a steady stream of troubling news: George Steinbrenner offers Darryl Strawberry more than $800,000 to play for the New York Yankees, despite Strawberry’s well-known career as a drug addict, wife-beater and tax cheat. Other players set records for assault, drunk driving, drug abuse and philandering. Those who live openly with girlfriends and sire illegitimate children seem almost saintly by comparison, despite the huge societal problems associated with family disintegration and illegitimacy.
Indeed, athletes often flaunt their bad sides, as when Dallas Cowboys legend Michael Irvin went before a news conference last week and loosed a barrage of obscenities. Why? To make the point that he was not sorry for earlier crude remarks broadcast on national television. In fact, the mere suggestion that an athlete should be sorry for reprehensible behavior can bring hoots of derision.
Remember that rally for boxer Mike Tyson, who had recently been released from prison after serving time for a rape conviction? Sports Illustrated reported that when a journalist asked Tyson if he was sorry for what had happened, promoter Don King shouted,”Sorry for what? What are you talking about? C’mon, man!” In no other field of legitimate endeavor are criminals as welcome and rewarded as in sports. Indeed, it makes our national vilification of politicians, who lead relatively clean lives, seem a bit hollow.
Because this is a time in our history in which positive role models are increasingly important, we should make an effort to focus on athletes who keep their priorities straight. One of my favorite examples is the British Olympic champion Jonathan Edwards, whose feats of long-jumping are nearly as dramatic as his personal faith.
Edwards raised eyebrows-and not a few cheers-when he skipped world competition in 1991 because he refused to compete on Sundays. He later went on to win the world record in long-jumping (and, eventually, to compete on Sundays). But he never missed an opportunity to express what truly motivates him: faith and family.”What I want to do is glorify God and honor my wife and children,”he said.
True, there are many athletes like Chicago Bears legend Mike Singletary, who goes into prisons with me; Dan Marino, a strong family man who helps handicapped kids; and others who openly praise God for their talents. Yet character is very much beside the point, nearly quaint. We are so obsessed by the game that we have divorced fame and morality. What matters is not who is the best person, but who is the most powerful gladiator.
At a time when our young people are in desperate need of positive influences, professional sports often appear little better than Hollywood in the deification of loutishness.
MJP END COLSON
