When’s the next rocket ship outta here? Or maybe it’s time to hitch a ride on a riverboat queen. Another week of nice, fresh nut loaf. In two acts:
Act I
Last Saturday, Marcus Smart, a 19-year-old Oklahoma State player, shoved a fan (as in perfect attendance fanatic) named Jeff Orr, a 52-year-old who apparently chooses to devote his time and money to closely following Texas Tech basketball, which is played by kids.
There are tons of Jeff Orrs. I don’t get it, and the more I see it — and it’s everywhere — the less I get it. There are thousands of otherwise well-adjusted adults who just can’t get close enough to college basketball teams. They begin to pant; their hearts go pitter-patter.
Smart and Orr, by the end of the week, seemed to land in a good spot, both issuing what seemed sincere apologies to each other and to all who suffered their misconduct. Smart was suspended for three games; Orr voluntarily will sit out the rest of the Red Raiders’ season.
But before that civil conclusion could be reached, the media jumped in, guns blazing, to reach whatever firm conclusions, based on guesswork or wishful thinking, suited their purposes.
From the start a “racial angle” (Smart is black, Orr is white) was presented. Word quickly spread that Orr called smart a “n—-r,” which today, depending on who speaks it, writes it or raps it, is either still a revulsive racial slur, or a term of endearment.
On ESPN, Orr almost immediately became a fully suspected racist. The Duke lacrosse team lesson, again left unlearned.
No one stopped to consider why Orr, if he were a white racist, would choose to spend his time and money glued to a Division I basketball team that has 10 black players and a black head coach.
Orr, while fully acknowledging he had acted like a jerk, also fully denied he made a racial remark to Smart. Too late. Such stains — even if the gravy was thrown from a balcony in Bristol, Conn. — don’t wash out.
Then there was the position of TV folks, armed with video of the hassle. “Tsk, tsk, tsk. What is the world coming to?”
Yet TV, and let’s again start with ESPN, has been begging the worst kind of audience participation for the last 25 years.
ESPN celebrates the “Cameron Crazies” and all organized student body cheering sections, so many of which now proudly lead with mean-spirited, designed-to-provoke put downs — chants that enflame and defame.
Those on-site “College GameDay” football and basketball shows are designed to fuel the frenzy. Viewers often can’t even hear what’s being said. All that matters is ESPN is in town, passing out matchbooks and lighters. Invite, excite, ignite.
ESPN The Magazine once asked viewers to submit their favorite put downs of opponents. Its college basketball analysts “have no problem” with mass court-stormings, ignoring evidence of clear and present dangers, and crippling injuries. Who cares? Come on down! Party with ESPN!
Ah, but then come the ESPN flipside “fan participation” reels, which, unlike the Bobby Knight Goes Nuts action reel, are still in play.
One of the “fans behaving badly” episodes ESPN this week featured was the 2006 hassle when the Knicks’ Antonio Davis ran into the stands in Chicago to “rescue” his wife from an “abusive” fan.
Did it matter then to ESPN that after the knee-jerk conclusions were reached (The work of a drunken, abusive, 22-year-old punk!), the evidence showed Davis’s wife was both the cause and the single assailant? Nope. Those facts didn’t matter then, why would they now?
But only fools are fooled. Reader Rich Leary, of New Fairfield Conn.:
“Can’t believe the hassle this Orr guy is getting. He’s just a fan who was cheering with ‘swagger’ and ‘talkin’ some smack.’ Why is he the villain when worse behavior by athletes is celebrated and even encouraged by the same media?”
Act II
Run for your life! A 6-foot-2, 260-pound homosexual and potential early NFL Draft pick is on the loose! Green eggs and ham, Michael Sam he am!
Immediately, we heard — and heard and heard — forms of, “How’s that going to go over in the locker room?”
Call me naive, but how much sex — straight or gay — goes on in locker rooms after or before games and practices? At halftime? It’s time Pam Oliver asked!
Reporting the Sam story, NBC News reporter Kate Snow relied on the new, easy standard of insightful, incite-full reporting: Internet and “social” media-circulated trash talk, specifically, in this case, homophobic put downs of Sam, to let people know that hate for homosexuals abounds.
But anything goes on the Internet. “Phil Mushnick is a lesbian!” There it is! It’s on the web! I’ve been outed!
Easy keyboard-vandalism is now used by newscasts to instantly measure public opinion. The Internet, depending on your take, can quickly fill a need to demonstrate one side of any issue is represented by good people, and the other side is predominated by the criminally insane.
Funny, too, in a not-so funny way, is how athletes, with lots in their lives to not be particularly proud of, are asked to pass judgment on Sam. And they do! Not one says, “Me? I’m in no position to judge anyone.”
Well, I’m withholding judgment. I’ll root for him or against him based on how he plays the game, and maybe, a little bit, for which team he plays and against whom. The way I’ve rooted for years. I know it’s supposed to matter a lot to everyone, one way or the other, that he’s gay, but shame on me, I couldn’t care less.
NBC waves red flag on bleary Costas
Why would NBC, its only live prime-time Olympics attraction being Bob Costas’ glowing red eyes, sit him down and out? “Costas of the Damned!” Best horror show host since Zacherley on Ch. 9.
I guess Craig Carton, Boomer Esiason and Joe Benigno couldn’t find anything funnier on Tuesday than the death of Shirley Temple Black.
Reader Chris Dellecese has a question: When intelligent people read an ESPN graphic, “Pistons fire coach Maurice Cheeks, according to ESPN and media reports … news first reported by Yahoo Sports,” do they admire ESPN’s aggressive news gathering, or see right through ESPN’s cheap, dishonest effort to attach itself to everything?
From Sochi, Apolo Ohno, near the close of a short-track speed skating heat: “The crowd is going crazy!” But there was no reason to shout. As the skaters circled, it was plain to see that there was no crowd to make a crowd, let alone much noise.