Sportsmanship, we hardly knew ye.

Back in the day.

I admit, it's probably my most used catchphrase. It's one of those sayings that define a person. I am pretty much the historian withing my circle of friends. "Hey Mike, who was that guy that..." or when I am at a class reunion (sometimes not even my own, Miss Roberts.) and I am the one people ask..."who was that?" Yep, that is me. So when a catchphrase defines one....one tends to use it...so, here 'tis.

Back in the day....remember when sportsmanship existed and was the rule and not the exception?

Growing up when I did, it was commonplace to play sports especially that of the sandlot variety. A few of us dabbled in organized sport but the majority of our highlights were made on the front yards, asphalt courts and playground fields of our neighborhoods. Names like Silver Creek, Stone Ridge and Misty Oaks were as hallowed to us as Hemisfair Arena, the Astrodome and Texas Stadium. It was pretty much football or basketball. We tended to lean toward hoops in the hotter months and when it got cooler, it was time for the pigskin. It was always fun and every so often, there were epic games. The kind of games that you talked about for days afterward and tried to recreate but couldn't. There were touchdowns, fumbles, three-pointers and blocked shots. Sometimes you won, sometimes you lost and usually once a game, you argued. One thing was always there though. A lack of punkage. Punkage is a Salmans-esque term for just what it says, being a punk. You didn't trash talk for the most part except in jest (no one's mom was mentioned...mainly because you knew everyone's mom and they would smack you just as fast as your own) you played hard but not dirty and if you lost, you took it like a man, said "good game" shook hands and that is it. You then went somewhere with your buddies and laughed about what happened..usually long into the night and over some, er..uh..root beer. On the court, you played 100% and knocked each other around, when it was done, it was done. No whining, no crying and no bitching. It was done this way because that is the way the pros did it. Which brings us to our story today...sportsmanship, with few pockets of exception, is gone.

Putting on my Ducky Mallard hat, my cyber autopsy has isolated the components which I believe has led to the demise of sportsmanship.

Cause 1: I saw you on da ESPN
I love me some ESPN. I am one of its original viewers. I have watched Sportscenter pretty much since 10 years old and still love watching the nightly highlights. The problem is, so does everyone else. We are a monkey see, monkey do species. As kids, we emulated our heroes. We wanted to be the Iceman, Roger Staubach or Nolan Ryan. We watched what the pros did and did what they did because we wanted to be like them. Starting in the late 80's, players figured out that this ESPN thing was here to stay and it was a good way to catch themselves on TV. This curiosity evolved into a fascination by pro and college athletes and further evolved into a philosophy that it was more important to get one's self into that night's highlight package than getting one's team into the win column. Also, if we saw a pro or college athlete pull a 4-star nutty or throw a cheap shot, hey, if it's good enough for them, it's good enough for me. To this day in 40 and over leagues all over Michigan, you see guys pop someone in the mouth then act like they did nothing wrong a'la Bill Laimbeer.

Cause 2: Mama's little meal ticket
The difference between us and a lot of kids now is that our parents would catch us if we acted a fool and corrected it immediately and harshly. These days, too many parents are worried about damaging Johnny's fragile psyche or getting labeled a child abuser if they pop him on the butt. You also have the parents who's kid has talent or worse, has none but they think he does, and they are looking to make sure nothing gets in the way of him signing the big contract that lets them retire early. When the kids shows that he does have real talent, greedy parents will do anything to ensure that nothing gets in the way of the dollar signs in their eyes. Often times this involves telling junior how great he or she is and then telling the coach the same thing. It also leads parents or coaches to encourage selfish behavior in order to get the kid noticed. Occasionally young Johnny throws an elbow or after a score, gets in another kid's face letting them know how good he is. Mom and Dad or Coach say its OK because the kid is "just expressing himself". I yelled at a ref in youth soccer once because of a bad call (I know, me yelling?) ref gave me a yellow card and I said "bite me". My coach kinda said "don't do it again" but my mom? Oh damn. I got yelled at all the way home. I was more scared of her than of my coach. I got quite the lecture about how my behavior reflected on myself, my team and her and that I was not to do anything to embarrass any of those people especially her. She didn't pop me but I wish she had, it would have been less painful than the blistering talking-to I got.

Cause 3: Fan is short for Fanatic
Fans of teams come in varying degrees. You have the casual fan who roots for his team and can probably name the starters but not much else. There is the homer who loves his team more than anyone in the real world and will proclaim the greatness that is his team to anyone who will listen..even if said team is a cellar-dweller. The smallest group is the educated fan who is loyal but not blind to his teams lack of success. He knows the players and the game and is pretty much a stat-geek. (Or, basically me. :) ) Fans too, have changed with the times. As fans have done since the Ancient Greeks ran around all naked and dusty and as mentioned earlier, fans will emulate their sports heroes. There has always been hero worship of athletes but it also used to be easier. You rooted for one team and those players almost always played out their entire careers there. In this modern era of player and, hell even franchise movement, its harder to maintain one's loyalty. Harder, but not impossible. A wise man of the sea once said "the biggest circle of hell is reserved for betrayers and mutineers". I personally believe that it's reserved for bandwagon and fairweather fans. Too many people have forgotten that a true fan NEVER deserts there team regardless of what happens. It's easy to root for a winner, it takes guts to stand there and proclaim your allegiance to a team that sucks out loud. It used to be that even the pros played for the name on the front of the jersey, not the one on the back. Remember those big wind gusts in the 90's? Those were caused by the Orlando fan stashing their Magic jerseys when they all of a sudden were "diehard" Laker fans when Shaq headed west. Then there was the one around 1993 when MJ hung them up and all those black and red 23 jerseys were tossed in the back of the closets..for two years then they were brought back out when Jordan figured out he couldn't hit the curve ball. But really, those fans always supported the Bulls. Happened in South Texas about 1999 when the Spurs won their first title. "Go Spurs Go! Oh, and who is that 21 guy again?" Sadly enough, it happened to my Cowboys as well. In the infamous 1-15 year, I was pretty much alone (save for a few)...five years later I suddenly had lots of company.

Cause 4: Respect and Responsibility...no one wants to give one or take the other.
Something else that has gone away in today's sports world is taking responsibility. You ever see an NBA player who actually thinks a foul was committed? The sad thing is that the superstars, the ones who need the least help by calls going their way, are the worst offenders. Even the stoic Tim Duncan whines about calls..and he whines alot. Kobe, LeBron, D-Wade...all-stars and all-star bitchers. One play I will never forget was in the 2003 Western Conference Semis. Kobe had gone up for a shot and Bruce Bowen stripped him of the ball and while the other 9 guys on the court ran down to the other end, Kobe stood there and complained to the ref. Oh by the way Kobe-ster, they just scored on your team. Recently, after game 3 of this year's Spurs-Mavs series, Eric Dampier's post-game comments weren't about the fact that his team just lost a game to fall behind in the series but about the raw deal his team was getting. Wahhh. Maybe if you nutted up a little in the 4th quarter E, Manu Ginobili wouldn't have raced by you constantly as if you were standing still. Oh wait, you were..or as you call it, playing defense. Coaches are just as bad. Phil Jackson has been playing the ref card for years in an attempt to mess with opponents heads. Oh what power you have O wise zen master. Yeah, I would like to that Zen crap with a team that didn't include Jordan, Shaq or Kobe.

The aforementioned fan emulation also extends to officiating. No one's team ever loses, the refs took the game away. Check out your local teams fan message board and you will see this. It's like clockwork. Here's how it works...the losing teams fanbase will pull the ref card, then the winning teams fanbase will call them out for doing so. Then, when the previous losing team becomes the winning team, the roles reverse. The greatest example of this was in 2006. The Spurs and Mavs played an epic series which Dallas won in 7 games. There were Spurs fans who blamed the refs for all four losses and those fans were called out for doing so by Mavs fan. Two weeks later, those same Mavs fans who had been putting down the Spurs fans for blaming the refs did the exact same thing about the refs in the Finals against Miami.

Let me give you some advice. Can officials affect a game? Yes. They can disrupt the flow if they call the game too tight or they can get into a players head by calling some early fouls on him. However, do they decide the game? No. Refs don't cause you to miss shots, clank your free throws or throw the ball into the first row. If your team loses by 4 and they missed 10 free throws..do the math. Your player hits the popcorn vendor instead of the open man? Guess what? 22 turnovers and 12 assists? You lose. But you didn't lose because the zebras stole it from you. You lost because you got beat and it seems as if no one is willing to admit that. Hey, it happens. Your team will not win every game. Some nights, the other guys are just better. You play hard, you shake their hands and you work harder to get ready for the next game. We as fans have invested so much emotionally in our teams that we can't bear the thought of losing. Losing is for everyday, normal life..not for the world where our heroes reside. We can't lose!! And yes, its usually "we" or "us" even though none of us actually did anything. That is how pathetic some of us have become. The we'ers and us'ers are so wrapped up in the successes and failures of men and women we don't know and could never compete with that they can't always recognize reality when they see it. Well, they can't or won't.

The question of respect is raised all too often in the sports world. It seems athletes and fans, especially the younger ones, have developed a mindset where somehow respect equals fear. You always hear players blather on about "getting my respect" or "they have to respect me" or "we don't get no respect" You earn respect junior, its not handed to you with your first paycheck. You have a bunch of wannabe, hood-rat gangstas running around crying about "I gots ta get mine". Really? How about the family of 4 who had to take out a second mortgage to watch you "get yours"? Andrea Kremer, then of ESPN, did an interview in the late 90's with some players about the state of the NFL. One of those players was future Hall of Famer and mental midget Shannon Sharpe. When asked about respecting your opponents...Sharpe's answer was "Why?" Perfect example of what is wrong with sports. I'm not saying you have to go out to dinner with an opponent or exchange Christmas cards but you scream about not getting respect and then you are not willing to give it? Double standard much? Sports use to live by the saying of "Respect all, fear none" now its "Respect none and make sure you get on Sportscenter".

OK, I know this might come off a little as a cranky old man rant and I am not saying all athletes or fans are bad. However, we have too many who have lost the desire or just flat out refuse to embrace sportsmanship. Sports are in no way the pure form of distraction they once were and they don't have to be. We can evolve and change with the times while still keeping basic principles intact. The biggest problem I have is the lack of respect for the game. Without the game, no player would have the accolades or riches they have. Without the game, the fans wouldn't have something to cheer for and rally behind. There is nothing wrong with painting your face and screaming yourself hoarse yelling for your favorite team, just sprinkle in a little perspective and reality now and then. It won't hurt and will make the experience more enjoyable. Remember, the kids are watching.