kevin
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http://www.profootballweekly.com/PFW/Commentary/Columns/2004/harkush1908.htm
"True role models
We can all learn a thing or two from U.S. Olympians
By Hub Arkush (hub@pfwmedia.com)
Aug. 25, 2004
For some reason, I just hadn’t been bitten by the Olympic bug, a strange occurrence for me since, under normal circumstances, I end up crazy-glued to my TV screen once every two years for the 17 days or so of Olympics action.
Perhaps it’s just my greater-than-usual anticipation over the upcoming NFL season, which I think promises to be the most exciting ever. Or maybe it’s the strangeness of my beloved Cubs hanging around a pennant race for the second year in a row for the first time in over 30 years. Or maybe it’s the spectre of so many of the world’s greatest track-and-field stars being accused of being to human-growth hormones what Ricky Williams is to pot.
Whatever the reason, it all changed for me on the seventh evening of these games.
I was actually studying the 49ers and working on some charts with the TV on in the background when I heard an interview with America’s newest golden boy, Michael Phelps. It seems that fresh off winning his fifth gold medal, by four-hundredths of a second over fellow American Ian Crocker, he was giving up his spot in the final swimming event of the games, the 4x100 medley relay, to Crocker.
A few days earlier, the Americans had suffered their one major disappointment of the games, finishing third in the 4x100 freestyle relay, due in part to a poor leg turned in by Crocker. Now, with Crocker completely devastated and facing the reality of these games living forever in his mind as his own personal infamy, and Phelps staring down the barrel of his own crowning achievement, swimming for a sixth gold medal, the teenage phenom stepped to the microphone.
“We came into these games as a team, and we’ll leave as one,” explained Phelps, who went on to say, “Ian Crocker is one of the greatest relay racers of all time, and the race is his.”
As I sat there thinking about what this kid had just done, it got better. Gary Hall is the anti-Phelps. He is to U.S. swimming what Michael Moore is to the Republican Party. He is also 29 years old (basically the Satchel Paige of world-class swimmers), suffers from diabetes, and about an hour after Phelps cemented his legend forever, Hall won his second consecutive 50-meter freestyle gold medal. Forget that he wasn’t even supposed to be anywhere near these Olympics. He successfully defended his crown.
Now the story here is that several days earlier, Hall had been bitterly upset over being left off that same disappointing 4x 100 freestyle relay team. Some believe it was because of his anti-establishment ways, and many believed Crocker was swimming in a spot Hall deserved. But in his moment of triumph — and gloating and revenge had he so chosen — as the interviewer did everything he could to get Hall to fire at his coaches and teammates, Hall refused. Asked whether he would be equally disappointed if he were not selected for the freestyle leg of the same relay team on which Phelps had just given his spot to Crocker, a leg which he had clearly just earned the right to swim, his response was: “Let’s just say that I believe the American team will be great no matter who swims that leg.”
Listen up, folks! These kids are like what we’re supposed to be. All I could think about as I watched their eyes well with tears to the strains of the national anthem with their gold medals around their necks is how proud I was to come from the same place they do. I’ve been sickened in recent months by Republicans and Democrats and the shameless farce of a presidential campaign being waged in our country today. And what so many of us have become or are becoming.
And believe it or not, that actually brings me back to football. You see, earlier that day I’d gotten a call from a friend in Buffalo who breathlessly asked me if I’d heard the latest. It seems the airwaves were crackling with the news that second-year RB Willis McGahee, who’s never done a damn thing to earn it, had supposedly told the Bills that, if he didn’t get the starting job, he’d demand a trade. That’s interesting because the guy he’s competing with for the job, Travis Henry, who at least has some credentials for the job, had said something very similar a few weeks earlier.
After digging around a little bit, what I’ve come up with is that it’s likely it was actually McGahee’s agent, Drew Rosenhaus, and not McGahee who may have made the inflammatory comments, but it’s pretty unlikely he did it without the kid knowing anything about it. I find it awfully ironic, though, that in the ultimate team sport, professional football, so many of our greatest stars can think of nothing but “Me first!”
And that in swimming, which in reality isn’t a team sport at all and is based primarily on individual performances, kids who will never earn the fame or fortunes these football players will think first about their teammates.
I have a thought for McGahee, Rosenhaus and Henry. You guys should watch the Olympics, too, and maybe you’ll learn something about being men. "
"True role models
We can all learn a thing or two from U.S. Olympians
By Hub Arkush (hub@pfwmedia.com)
Aug. 25, 2004
For some reason, I just hadn’t been bitten by the Olympic bug, a strange occurrence for me since, under normal circumstances, I end up crazy-glued to my TV screen once every two years for the 17 days or so of Olympics action.
Perhaps it’s just my greater-than-usual anticipation over the upcoming NFL season, which I think promises to be the most exciting ever. Or maybe it’s the strangeness of my beloved Cubs hanging around a pennant race for the second year in a row for the first time in over 30 years. Or maybe it’s the spectre of so many of the world’s greatest track-and-field stars being accused of being to human-growth hormones what Ricky Williams is to pot.
Whatever the reason, it all changed for me on the seventh evening of these games.
I was actually studying the 49ers and working on some charts with the TV on in the background when I heard an interview with America’s newest golden boy, Michael Phelps. It seems that fresh off winning his fifth gold medal, by four-hundredths of a second over fellow American Ian Crocker, he was giving up his spot in the final swimming event of the games, the 4x100 medley relay, to Crocker.
A few days earlier, the Americans had suffered their one major disappointment of the games, finishing third in the 4x100 freestyle relay, due in part to a poor leg turned in by Crocker. Now, with Crocker completely devastated and facing the reality of these games living forever in his mind as his own personal infamy, and Phelps staring down the barrel of his own crowning achievement, swimming for a sixth gold medal, the teenage phenom stepped to the microphone.
“We came into these games as a team, and we’ll leave as one,” explained Phelps, who went on to say, “Ian Crocker is one of the greatest relay racers of all time, and the race is his.”
As I sat there thinking about what this kid had just done, it got better. Gary Hall is the anti-Phelps. He is to U.S. swimming what Michael Moore is to the Republican Party. He is also 29 years old (basically the Satchel Paige of world-class swimmers), suffers from diabetes, and about an hour after Phelps cemented his legend forever, Hall won his second consecutive 50-meter freestyle gold medal. Forget that he wasn’t even supposed to be anywhere near these Olympics. He successfully defended his crown.
Now the story here is that several days earlier, Hall had been bitterly upset over being left off that same disappointing 4x 100 freestyle relay team. Some believe it was because of his anti-establishment ways, and many believed Crocker was swimming in a spot Hall deserved. But in his moment of triumph — and gloating and revenge had he so chosen — as the interviewer did everything he could to get Hall to fire at his coaches and teammates, Hall refused. Asked whether he would be equally disappointed if he were not selected for the freestyle leg of the same relay team on which Phelps had just given his spot to Crocker, a leg which he had clearly just earned the right to swim, his response was: “Let’s just say that I believe the American team will be great no matter who swims that leg.”
Listen up, folks! These kids are like what we’re supposed to be. All I could think about as I watched their eyes well with tears to the strains of the national anthem with their gold medals around their necks is how proud I was to come from the same place they do. I’ve been sickened in recent months by Republicans and Democrats and the shameless farce of a presidential campaign being waged in our country today. And what so many of us have become or are becoming.
And believe it or not, that actually brings me back to football. You see, earlier that day I’d gotten a call from a friend in Buffalo who breathlessly asked me if I’d heard the latest. It seems the airwaves were crackling with the news that second-year RB Willis McGahee, who’s never done a damn thing to earn it, had supposedly told the Bills that, if he didn’t get the starting job, he’d demand a trade. That’s interesting because the guy he’s competing with for the job, Travis Henry, who at least has some credentials for the job, had said something very similar a few weeks earlier.
After digging around a little bit, what I’ve come up with is that it’s likely it was actually McGahee’s agent, Drew Rosenhaus, and not McGahee who may have made the inflammatory comments, but it’s pretty unlikely he did it without the kid knowing anything about it. I find it awfully ironic, though, that in the ultimate team sport, professional football, so many of our greatest stars can think of nothing but “Me first!”
And that in swimming, which in reality isn’t a team sport at all and is based primarily on individual performances, kids who will never earn the fame or fortunes these football players will think first about their teammates.
I have a thought for McGahee, Rosenhaus and Henry. You guys should watch the Olympics, too, and maybe you’ll learn something about being men. "