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More than just scores

David Hale

There are a few programming options on television that will catch my attention and glue me to my couch no matter what time of day or what else I have to do. “Shawshank Redemption,” “Days of Thunder,” that competition on ESPN where dogs jump off piers to catch sticks — they’re always fantastic television.

High up on that list is Jim Valvano’s ESPY speech from 1993. ESPN shows it a few times every year, and whenever I see it, I’m riveted, goose bumps on my arms and usually a few tears welling up in my eyes.

It’s as powerful as anything I’ve ever seen on television.

When Valvano stood on that stage, his body ravaged by the effects of terminal cancer, and shared with the world the handful of insights on life that his battle had taught him, he wasn’t speaking as a coach, and he wasn’t talking about sports. His success on the basketball court had simply afforded him a stage, a microphone and some airtime.

What he used them for was far more important than any national championship.

I’ve been thinking about that speech a lot recently. I’ve read and heard a great deal of criticism of the media — myself included — for using valuable airtime or newsprint to discuss social issues instead of game recaps and box scores. I’ve heard numerous complaints that sports fans aren’t interested in political views, they’re interested in who wins and who loses.

I’ve been told that it’s not news if blacks, gays, women or whomever aren’t being treated fairly in locker rooms and board rooms.

I’ve considered those thoughts carefully, and I just don’t agree.

Sports may be intended as entertainment, a diversion. You may open up the sports page each morning or surf over to ESPN.com every afternoon as much to find out stats and scores as to find an escape from stories about congressional hearings and jobs being farmed overseas.

That’s understandable. We all need an escape sometimes.

But to say that social issues don’t belong on the sports page is foolish, when, in fact, sports are the perfect avenue to illustrate inequities and enact change.

At their core, sports should be the perfect example of a level playing field. What matters is ability — how well you can hit a baseball or throw a football or dribble a basketball. It shouldn’t make a difference what color your skin is or what your sexual preference is. It doesn’t matter if you grew up rich or poor, if you were born in the U.S. or abroad — if you can play, you’ll play.

That’s how it should be.

And athletes are used to giving interviews, but they aren’t polished speakers or politicians with a P.R. rep standing over their shoulders at all times. They’re normal people who can do abnormal things on the field of play, so their opinions often represent a good cross-section of society as a whole.

And maybe sports shouldn’t be seen as that important —but ask yourself how you felt the last time your team lost a big game.

Perhaps sports shouldn’t be important, but they are.

So, why not use sports as a means for creating dialogue on social issues? Why not allow sports to serve as a barometer for the social climate of our country?

I took some flack for writing a column before the Super Bowl saying that, despite the fact that two black coaches led their teams to the NFL’s biggest stage, there was still work to be done in evening the playing field for minorities at the highest levels of sports. I can understand why people might be tired of hearing that story. It was certainly written and reported in one form or another by quite a few journalists.

But while some stories require finesse, others require a sledgehammer, and when people have decided that an issue is no longer worth discussing, it helps to have that blunt instrument handy.

I wasn’t impressed by John Amaechi’s admission that he was gay a few weeks ago. I don’t see anything particularly heroic in coming out years after you retire, just in time to sell a few books. Tim Hardaway’s comments that he“hated gay people,” however, were far more important and warranted the news coverage they received.

The sad fact is, as dumb as Hardaway was for saying what he said, and as appalling as most of us thought it sounded, his opinions are probably shared by a pretty large contingent of folks. It’s easy to assume there are gay people playing sports. It’s easy to forget why they’re afraid to come out, too. Hardaway reminded us.

When the U.S. hockey team defeated the Soviets in 1980, it wasn’t just a hockey game. It showed a country mired in the Cold War what was possible.

A cocaine epidemic infected the country in the mid-’80s, one that was glamorized by Hollywood and almost accepted into mainstream culture.

Then, a star basketball player named Len Bias died of an overdose just hours after he was drafted by the Boston Celtics, and the dangers of drugs became impossible to ignore for millions of sports fans.

Another epidemic was spreading throughout the country a few years later. Many Americans thought AIDS was a disease that only affected gay people. Others thought it was something that could be spread through water fountains and public bathrooms. Then an NBA Hall-of-Famer named Magic Johnson announced he was HIV positive, and the image of the disease was transformed forever.

While the public clamors over news that a pop star has adopted an African baby, taking it from its village to a sprawling mansion in another country, athletes like Dikembe Mutombo are using their fame to raise money to build hospitals in those very same villages.

Laveranues Coles breached the macho locker-room etiquette to speak out about sexual abuse of children. The NCAA is forcing teams to reconsider using mascots offensive to Native Americans. And Hardaway’s homophobia has done as much to bring attention to gay rights as anything Amaechi wrote in his book.

From Jesse Owens to Jackie Robinson, Muhammad Ali to Pat Tillman, athletes have had as profound an effect on our society off the field as they have had on it. They’re not always stories we want to hear, but they’re ones we should hear. We don’t always agree with the ideas they share, but we’re always better off because those ideas have been discussed.

In Valvano’s speech 14 years ago, he offered some advice that he said would invariably make you a happier person. There were three things he said a person should do every day; You should laugh, you should cry, and you should think.

Sports have no trouble bringing a smile to my face on a regular basis. And as a life-long Chicago Cubs fan, I’ve shed my fair share of tears because of sports, too. But when sports truly make an impact, when they really mean something in your life, is when they make you think.

You may only watch the game to find out who wins. It may be nothing more than a distraction from the daily grind of life. But no matter who you are, there’s a good chance you work with a gay man, go to church with someone infected with HIV, or live down the street from someone who has faced overt racism in their lifetime. So if sports can give you a greater appreciation for those people along with a box score and SportsCenter highlights, consider it a pretty nice bonus.