 |
| (wday image) |
How long was our interscholastic softball season last "spring?" Were any games played before May? I don't take notes. And I know that when Memorial Day weekend arrives, the high school post-season games are already on. There is only one day of home post-season softball for the Tigers: the "sub-section." Pretty sure I'm right on that. After that the drift southward begins, as seems to happen for all our teams now. If we do advance in any sort of decent way, the action ends up at Southwest State of Marshall. I consider that to be a hassle of a driving distance.
I remember when far more of the post-season action was here in Morris like at the UMM facility. (It used to be called the "P.E. Center.") Mobs of loud and maybe obnoxious fans showing excess emotions, plus ear-splitting pep band music, you know the whole motif. I went along with all that as a newspaper person because, well, it was school activities. By definition we're supposed to cheer such stuff.
Privately I held reservations and would guess others did too. Like maybe parents of kids who weren't born with particular athletic gifts, but who might do well in other endeavors, endeavors that don't cause the news media to do cartwheels continually.
Last night (Tuesday) I was listening to WDAY Radio out of Fargo. The programming was the epitome of obsession with the sport of football and obsessing over the young men who play it. We come to expect this fawning attitude so much. The on-air hosts went on and on, mainly talking about the major North Dakota teams. There was a time when I might say "small college" but it's not small any more.
Football has unfortunately spread its wings and grown. Grown to be more of a sacred cow for us than ever. I am not exaggerating, as I base this on the tone of all the on-air talk from the radio Tuesday night. I can't blame the radio station or its on-air hosts. Not really. They reflect the societal values. They give us what we want.
I once deluded myself into thinking all high school sports activities were worthy of such focused attention with emotions attached. I'd get in arguments with people. My perspective was one of never having played football myself.
WDAY left the impression Tuesday that the football athletes must be placed on a pedestal. They talked about the moral value of setting such high goals. Like, for a player to achieve the highest competitive level: Division I football as opposed to lower. But the radio guys can fawn just as much over the lower levels when that's called for. So, our most venerable young people are those who choose to play sports, especially football. Well, one cannot help but get that impression.
Football! It did not used to have such a lofty place. In fact, society seemed more conscious in a previous time of its violence and barbarity. The problem is that when the tech behind TV advanced to where we got a really high-quality color picture for appreciating football, people steadily went nuts over the sport. They decided it was just too much fun to watch. They'd put aside any concerns.
Just how does a young man display his virtue as a result of being big and fast and determined to overwhelm guys on the other side who may not be quite as big and fast? Why do we as a society consider this to be so exemplary? I mean we really do.
I'm sure that the on-air guys with WDAY believe all their own lingo. Society as a whole gets lulled into thinking the "student-athletes" wearing shoulder pads are an absolute ideal among our youth.
We ought to view them as victims. We already know about the "injuries" that so regularly happen to sideline players. The public has little realization about the real pain of such injuries, and certainly can overlook the long-term consequences of same.
There was a time when society actively encouraged young men to "suck it up" and show resilience and bravery or whatever and just "get back out there." Macho manliness or whatever. We have progressed beyond that. But we are way short of taking the necessary measures to protect these young people.
The best measure would probably be to eliminate interscholastic football. You laugh. Well, society did eventually eliminate smoking in public places. It can be done! But we have become so invested in football. We in Morris want to keep "selling" our Big Cat Stadium. These things represent investments. Boys notice the fawning attention by radio and other media toward football. They notice how they might become heroes. They might still be influenced by the old ethos about how a "real man" might play through an injury.
Allow yourself to get too beat up, and you might find yourself wearing an adult diaper by when you're in your 50s. Cognitive decline and maybe even premature death. But you will have done your part helping entertain us all. So we're obsessed on the short-term fun. The fans observe as if they're just observing a pinball session: no danger for the player obviously. Then we just withdraw from it, get on with the regular aspects of our lives.
The players experience the finite period of time where there's adulation for them, requests from the media for interviews with them. On and on. It's perpetual. Football has zero tangible benefits for society. It is brutal and disturbing. But try mixing those thoughts in while listening to the evening of football talk on WDAY. It's an opiate.
We must start thinking harder about this. All of our cheers from the stands just keep the players going through pain. The consequences in many cases to be felt later. You know who really needs to wake up? The parents.
Addendum: So how long is the high school softball season exactly? With a lousy spring as we've experienced of late, not very long at all. Maybe hardly more than a month? I'm not including the post-season where there is only a minimal guarantee of games.
Maybe the season is just one month? Man, compare that to the winter season.
And we invest in these spring sports that are designed to be outside. We invested in the Morris "softball complex" which I have assailed from Day 1. I still think the fans are getting totally short shrift out there. How much was the newest of the fields used this past spring/summer? I had concerns that batters there would be facing the sun too much. Was this borne out?
When I was with the newspaper I could get more answers. Now I'm forced more into speculation.
Maybe the interests of the fans just don't rate? The school board used OPM, other people's money. They listened to a UMM administrator. Oh those administrators.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
No comments:
Post a Comment