[NU Sports] my latest column

Wed Jun 13 11:53:43 CDT 2007

 Hi, all --
 I realize this is not directly Northwestern related but nonetheless,
with Mr. Nolan's permission, I thought I might pass it along here
because I think it speaks to the values all of us would like to believe
are an essential part of the Northwestern experience. (I mean, those
values are a part of the experience at a great many places -- not trying
to say in any way that they're exclusive to Northwestern -- hardly --
but they are, I believe, a big part of what Northwestern is, and is
always trying to be, about.)
 All comments welcome.
 If anyone would like to see the column on the website, it's paired with
video of the Wellman tirade. Go to nbcsports.com.
 Go Wildcats - Alan

 --

Responsibility and respect aren't too much to ask from athletes

By Alan Abrahamson
<BLOCKED::BLOCKED::http://www.nbcsports.com/columnists/394164/detail.htm
l> 
NBCSports.com
Posted: Jun.13, 2007, 9:49 am EDT 

The sixth-grade orchestra at my kids' school played a spirited version
of "Stairway to Heaven" at Tuesday's end-of-the-year promotion ceremony,
and then the sixth-grade chorus sang a lovely, truly lovely, rendition
of the great Hawaiian singer Israel Kamakawiwo'ole 's version of
"Somewhere over the Rainbow," and everyone got all choked up, and I
thought to myself, these are the moments we live for, right? 

Maybe, just maybe, these kids are indeed absorbing the values that are
at the center of this -- and I'd like to think every -- school's
mission, the core values imprinted on blue-and-white banners fluttering
in the breeze above the sixth-grade singers: 

Respect. 

Responsibility. 

Honesty. 

Fairness. 

Compassion. 

As the ukelele played and the chorus sang, "Somewhere over the Rainbow,"
I thought, that's it -- the thing I've been thinking about now for
several weeks. 

I've been trying to figure out how to articulate something that perhaps
seems so obvious. 

It's this: 

We tell the kids one thing. And yet those who would be their role models
far too often don't do as we say. 

It's not just the arrests or worse that mark the sports pages and the
highlight shows. 

It's the departure from those core values. 

Kobe Bryant's No. 24 Los Angeles Lakers
<BLOCKED::BLOCKED::http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/basketball/nba/teams
/lakers/?eref=nbc_sports>  jersey, Associated Press reported Monday, was
the most popular in the NBA season, according to sales at the NBA Store
in New York and on-line through the league's website 

This is the same guy who threw a tantrum a few days ago because he's
frustrated the team isn't winning the way he'd like. 

All of us get frustrated at one thing or another. So why did Kobe mouth
off? Simply because he could, because he's the star player? 

That's not a good-enough reason. 

It wouldn't be in high school -- imagine if the best player on your
local team complained because the other players weren't as good as he
was -- and it shouldn't cut it in the NBA, either. 

For me, meanwhile, nothing crystallized the departure from those core
values as much as the recent on-field tantrum thrown by Phillip Wellman,
the manager of the minor-league Mississippi Braves -- the one that
became something of a YouTube sensation. 

Wellman was later suspended for three games. 

I would have fired him. There's no place for that kind of behavior.
Anywhere. Anytime. 

It's not OK from a 3-year-old. 

And it's so not OK from a grown man. 

Our kids need to see a respect for the rules. 

Not just the kids, though. All of us need to see that respect. 

Such respect goes along with what I believe is an emerging desire to see
a return in our public discourse to civility, decency and dignity. 

Peter Ueberroth, the chairman of the U.S. Olympic Committee, gets it. He
has said a number of times now that the U.S. team that goes to Beijing
for the 2008 Summer Games will be a team the American people will be
proud of -- no matter how many medals the U.S. athletes win. 

Roger Goodell, the NFL commissioner, gets it as well. In suspending the
likes of the Tennessee Titans'
<BLOCKED::BLOCKED::http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/football/nfl/teams/t
itans/?eref=nbc_sports>  Pacman Jones, the Cincinnati Bengals'
<BLOCKED::BLOCKED::http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/football/nfl/teams/b
engals/?eref=nbc_sports>  Chris Henry and the Chicago Bears'
<BLOCKED::BLOCKED::http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/football/nfl/teams/b
ears/?eref=nbc_sports>  Tank Johnson, he has made it plain that the
league ought not and will not tolerate certain misconduct. 

I applaud both Ueberroth and Goodell -- and, too, NBA commissioner David
Stern for the suspensions he levied against Phoenix Suns
<BLOCKED::BLOCKED::http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/basketball/nba/teams
/suns/?eref=nbc_sports>  players Amare Stoudemire and Boris Diaw in last
month's conference semifinals against the San Antonio Spurs
<BLOCKED::BLOCKED::http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/basketball/nba/teams
/spurs/?eref=nbc_sports> . League rules mandate a one-game suspension if
a player leaves the bench during an altercation. Both players left the
bench. 

The rules are the rules. They apply to everybody. No exceptions. 

We ask our kids to do the right thing. If the 12-year-olds can do it,
certainly the privileged few who get paid sometimes-astonishing amounts
of money to play games for a living can do it, too. 

It's just not so hard to understand. It's hardly too much to expect