EDITORIAL
'Sport': a word that once implied civility
The horrifying spectacles of violence taking place in and around our sports stadiums and arenas are not just the work of a few hooligans in and out of uniform. They also imply a lowering of our standards of acceptable behavior.
The brawl in which Indiana Pacers basketball players waded into the seats to trade punches with Detroit fans and the general melee between South Carolina and Clemson football players were only the latest examples.
Officials in charge have done what they could to prevent these ugly incidents from recurring. Pacers player Ron Artest, suspended for the rest of the young season, will lose millions of dollars in pay. Other players received lesser suspensions. The two universities were quick to decline any bowl game invitations.
But the suspensions have already been appealed by the NBA players' union, and university officials are sure to feel heat from alumni and fans and loss of perhaps $1 million in bowl gate receipts.
Even if commissioners and regents stand firm, these measures are in a sense too late. The disease we're seeing must be prevented, not cured after it breaks out. And we must all ask ourselves the extent to which we have become carriers of this disease.
These breaches of decency are widespread. British soccer is often plagued by violence. A Texas Rangers pitcher tossed a chair into the stands, breaking a woman's nose; a Toronto hockey player wrestled a fan in the penalty box; spectators rushed the field to attack a Kansas City Royals first-base coach. The South Carolina-Clemson fray was reminiscent of a couple of ugly brawls between University of Hawai'i players and their opponents at Aloha Stadium in recent seasons.
It's not just players and fans forgetting their manners in the heat of the moment. The tensions that lead to such incidents "have been building for years," observed Sports Illustrated. "As the gulf between athletes and fans has widened, standards of civility have declined and the lust for violence has intensified."
Some observers feel the problem at the Detroit basketball game stemmed from the resentment that fans feel for the players' obscene salaries.
But it starts way before that. Certainly parents are justified in thinking twice before taking children to today's sporting events, as noisy profanity, drunkenness and brawling become more common in the seats. They should also take a look at the attitudes they transmit when they hurl angry words at officials, coaches and even young players at Little League and Pop Warner games.
The problem won't be solved with bigger fines, or cutting off beer before the fourth quarter, or beefed-up security. We have to relearn what it means to "play" a "game" without resort to total war.
Grantland Rice was not a hopeless nerd when he wrote that it's "not that you won or lost — but how you played the game." Those who love sports desperately need to revive a concept we've nearly lost: sportsmanship.
