I've become an Arkansas Razorback fan. Now that I've lived in Fayetteville for three years, worked at the University for those three years, and finally learned how to call the Hogs correctly, I think it is safe to say that I have a vested interest in the news that Ohio State football coach Jim Tressel has retired due to allegations that he not only knew of NCAA violations by his players, but actively worked to hide those violations. Frankly, it seems to me that there are a lot of problems inside of college athletics, and I don't pretend to have a lot of insight into that arena. But I was intrigued when I read the Sports Illustrated article that came out this week, detailing not only the issues but the seeming inconsistencies between Tressel's outspoken values, including his Christian faith, and the very clear ways in which he tried to bypass the NCAA rules.
At the same time I've been watching Ken Burns' 'Baseball' on Netflix this week. I made it through the Tenth Inning episode and began pondering the way in which we seem to be willing to ignore the underbelly of those things we love. But I wasn't really shocked to hear people admit they turned a blind eye to steroids because it help the resurgence of America's love for baseball in the aftermath of the 1994 Player's Strike. I lived in St. Louis from 1995 to 2008. I had just moved to Baseball's Greatest City when the Cards fired Joe Torre, I remember feeling that the team on the field was juvenile and gross. I remember the upsurge of excitement and respectability that came in 1996 with Tony LaRussa's coaching... and the palpable joy of being a Card's fan as we watched Mark McGwire hit 70 home runs in 1998.
Here's what stands out to me in the midst of all of this: We are quick to overlook the faults of our heroes because we receive something from them. It might be as intangible as hope... hope for the future of your city, hope that anything is possible, hope that we are not forever stuck in last place. I moved from a mid-market but historic baseball town that happened to have a football and hockey time to a college town with a storied but down on it's luck football team. If I have overlooked the sins of my heroes in St. Louis, it is all the more understandable how people would turn all the blind eyes they could in a place like this. Though there is much, much more happening here than just the University of Arkansas, it certainly is at the heart of our community. There's a different feel to the city in the fall. You can tell when football season has come to Arkansas.
But there is still this inconsistency between the heroes we have set up and the reality of human nature. One of the most interesting comments in Burns' Tenth Inning was the implication that because Barry Bonds had less of a personable attitude than some of the other sluggers (i.e., a Mark McGwire who shied away from the media, or Sammy Sosa who is seemingly always affable and smiling), perhaps he had been more readily exposed for his use of steroids because people wanted him to fall.
Here's the deal: Jim Tressel is a likeable guy. So while I think his decisions were wrong; were unhelpful and illegal, I can't help but wonder... are we willing to turn a blind eye to those things that seems to open our heroes up to ridicule and shame? Have these violations been going on for years and years and because it served the purposes of those around the Ohio State fans, everyone just let it go on? But because Barry Bonds was an unloveable winner, there more willingness to bring him down? Because Mark McGwire was a generally humble and nice guy for a clean-cut team things got shushed just a bit? Just some thoughts.
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