We, the Spectators Are the Real Problem
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Should we really give a damn beyond a comical mention of the incident, or beyond vilifying spectators, if Michael Vick flipped off some dickheads in the stands after Atlanta’s loss to the New Orleans Saints? Just like we freaked out when Dikembe Mutombo was seconds away from venturing into the stands after being called a monkey by some Middle Eastern dude whose apology came with this nugget: “I just used a poor choice of words. If I said he looked like a chimpanzee or like a gorilla, none of this happens.” Why is everyone from ESPN to Deadspin writing these stories as if they have the importance of the U.S. actually finding WMDs in Iraq?
Oh, I get it. ESPN is wholly desperate to set the moral tone for athletes around the country just like Chris “you’re with me leather” Berman, or Doug “I only bought a how to play basketball like the pros tape with the credit card I stole” Gottlieb. And Deadspin wants so badly to be seen as ESPN’s satirical little brother that they’ll do anything to have an excuse to break out the knee pads to perform acts usually reserved for members of Congress - or maybe Congressmen’s members.
Don’t act surprised about the Deadspin reference. They only act adversarial toward ESPN. Anytime Dana “the staunch neocon Michigan Yupper” Jacobson breathlessly gushes, “Deadspin! I love them!” as she did on Cold Pizza, you know there’s something more to the alleged Deadspin vs. ESPN matchup than meets the eye. It’s the same thing as seeing Joe Crawford and Bennett Salvatore on the court at the same time reffing a meaningful playoff game - you know there’s the potential for something “wrong” happening in the game.
Playing professional sports requires a tremendous amount of emotion. Even sportswriters know this fact. In the midst of a game an athlete must tap into regions of the will that for most people don’t exist. It’s the ability that allows for adrenalin to take over the thinking process so that there is no thought, no pain, no feeling - only the moment and the action within that moment. Yet athletes, lauded for this ability are asked to, in a matter of seconds or minutes, turn off this ability. They’re asked to turn it off for what? So that a camera or microphone can be shoved into their faces. So that reporters can get the real emotion of the moment. So that a voyeur public can glimpse something they only wish they possessed. Soul.
So why does it offend us so when Vick or Mutombo react this way? Why do the image makers like ESPN, Deadspin, and sportswriters around the country become so appalled when they see this?
The answer is simple. They are the ultimate voyeurs. They are the ones who are often as close to “the contest” as the athletes themselves. They are the ones who cross the threshold from hallway outsider to the sanctity of the locker room and bear witness to the after-effects of the contest on the human mind and body. And they are the ones who have the power to make these people that they cannot be or can never again be, into iconic figures - or villains for all time.
They are the uber-fan, the uber-voyeurs. And the uber-parasites of the world of athletics. Their goal, through their inadequacy, is to negatively shape the feelings of the reader of this piece or others who attempt to bring any true understanding of what they perceive as mal-actions by the athlete. But because these image-makers are not politicians, the world of sports is politics laid bare for all the world to see. Sports and the image-makers come without the nuanced language of the politico; without the slight-of-hand of a speech detailing work for “the public good” while personal coffers are being lined with gold through legislation that never sees the light of day.
In sports, like life, race is everything. White athletes are largely seen as cerebral thinking men, while black athletes are said to be athletically gifted “studs.” Art Shell - a black man - can be fired as head coach of the Oakland Raiders with a record rivaling the best of his era and not sniff a job interview for nearly 20 years. In sports the best and most highly-paid employees can be told what to wear when not at the office. Only in sports can the employees who are responsible for generating the corporation’s income be 75% black and yet only one of the subsidiary company owners of the corporation are black. Where else but sports is the worth of a human measured by body fat, the ability to jump high or run fast - and be traded at the whim of an “owner.” It is as if the racial blight of centuries that was alleged to have come and gone left its shadowy essence in the arenas and stadiums across the U.S.
And we, as watchers, spectators, voyeurs, pay our money to view the spectacle in the arena before us. Because we feel - incorrectly - that we pay those who participate in the spectacle before us, we believe it is our right to abuse the participants in any manner we choose - whether that be with words we would otherwise never utter in public, or whether that be with a well-placed cup full of beer on a participant’s chest, or with batteries, or partially-eaten food.
It is time that we who are outside the game are held accountable for our actions and are more understanding of the actions of those who reach the depths within themselves that we cannot. We need to realize that we are witnessing a game; not a life-death struggle, a game, and we need to learn to act accordingly.
If we can “raise the level” of our spectatorship and act more humane toward those we watch, then we can begin to perceive the underbelly of sports that infects the games, the athletes - and us.
And with our efforts, one day the games can become what they never were - pure.
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