The Way I See It - Failing, falling heroes

Sports do not build character. They reveal it.

-Heyward Broun

Falling, failing stars

From my earliest recollections playing little league baseball, sportsmanship was considered a top priority. The old saying goes, "It's not whether you win or lose, but how you play the game." Somewhere along the way, we failed to emphasize the importance of character off the field once the game was over.

As a sports enthusiast, I've been deeply troubled by events making headlines in recent weeks. Unfortunately, many sport superstars, who serve as role models for millions of America's youth, are behaving badly and are hardly worthy of admiration.

Chris Benoit, a wrestling superstar with the WWE, killed his wife and son and then hanged himself. Speculation immediately circulated that steroids may have been a contributing factor. The worst fear of most proved true when toxicology results came back affirming that not only had Benoit used steroids, his body contained 59 times the normal amount.

If that were not bad enough, enter Michael Vick. Vick, the starting quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons, is charged with competitive dog fighting. This brutal and barbaric torture of dogs is a serious offense, and certainly, Vick's future is questionable.

On the brink of breaking Hank Aaron's record for the most homeruns in baseball, Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants plays the game with a grand jury that is going to sit for six more months while it investigates whether he took steroids. The New York Daily News reported recently that there is already enough evidence to indict him as early as September. When confronted with the grand jury news, Bonds, in role model fashion said, "You guys just want more stories about me. It's unreal."

Florida Marlins pitcher Scott Olsen was recently pulled over and arrested for DUI, resisting an officer with violence, and eluding a police officer. The Marlins released a statement saying they would "let the legal process run its course," adding, "As an organization, we take this very seriously and are extremely disappointed." How nice.

The FBI is investigating allegations that NBA referee Tim Donaghy bet on basketball games over the past two seasons, including games he officiated. The charges, if true, deal a serious blow to the integrity of the game.

The persons involved in the examples I cite are all presumed innocent until proven guilty, and all deserve their day in court to defend themselves. While the drama of these cases unfolds on a daily and weekly basis, we struggle with lingering questions.

In sports, the integrity of the game is the sum of the integrity of the player, the coaches, the owners and sponsors. While a league like the NFL can condemn a player like Michael Vick, and the Marlins can be "very disappointed" over the arrest of Scott Olsen, at what point do we, the fans, remove the adoring, role model glasses, and take a look at the reality of what's going on?

Do we really want our sons and daughters emulating drunks, gamblers, drug abusers and murderers, regardless of the passive "let the legal process run its course" defense given us? I don't think so.

Celebrity status, fame, and million dollar contracts can carry a person only so far. If there are no foundational principles to fall back on, we will continue to see more troubling stories like the ones mentioned here.

I think back to those little league days when it really was just about the game. Whether we won or lost, we were just happy to play. Parents didn't get into fights, our heroes were known for what they did on the field, and if we dared act ugly, we sat on the bench.

The modern era of sports is a complex, intertwined conglomerate of players, agents, owners, corporate sponsors and much more. Unfortunately, values and character are sacrificed at the altar of the bottom line. That's why owners "negotiate" what to do with a Michael Vick, because he is the franchise, the ticket draw, their financial security blanket. Do you think there would have been negotiations 30, 40, 50 years ago?

Ultimately, the individual must take personal responsibility for their actions. We, the fan, ought to raise the bar a notch or two when selecting an athlete to idolize.

We would all be better off if we placed character and principle above stardom and wealth.

Doug can be reached at editor@berkeleyind.com


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The Way I See It - If I should die before...I do anything!

The Way I See It
by Doug Dickerson

If I should die before I...do anything!

According to a new study released in the July issue of the Harvard Heart Letter, I should be dead. In fact, most of you reading this should be, too. According to the study, anger really can stir up a heart attack, so can getting sick, being too hot, being too cold, air pollution, lack of sleep, grief, overeating, natural disasters, exercise and sex. In fact, the study says that just waking up in the morning is the worst thing you can do if you're trying to avoid a heart attack.

Sharing the house with the wife and two daughters, the thermostat war is a constant battle. I am a hot box. In the winter, they bury themselves in covers and I am throwing them off. In the summer, I like to keep it cool and they sit around the house with blankets. Back and forth we go, on the verge of the next heart attack.

I know I shouldn't let studies like this bother me, but it just really gets under my skin. Just about the time it seems we have things figured out from the experts telling us what we need to do to stay healthy, they change everything up.

Before waking up in the morning, the study says, our bodies release stress hormones into the bloodstream. I thought that's what my wife was for, but I digress. Our bodies release stress hormones that give us energy to get out of bed, but this also stresses the heart slightly. That nudge can cause a cardiac event if one's arteries already are rife with festering cholesterol-rich plaque. If I can survive waking up and getting out of bed, then I have a fighting chance.

I learned that dehydration that normally occurs after a night's sleep also puts a plaque-plagued circulatory system at risk. In addition, heart medications wear off during the night. Now what's one to do? If I get up in the night to get a drink, I am not sleeping, thus increasing my risk of a heart attack. If I don't and consequently dehydrate, then that could kill me too.

I gather that mornings are a high-risk time to either have or avoid a heart attack. Getting up in the morning is a roll of the dice. Nevertheless, wanting to do something to stay healthy, surely exercise is the key.

Well, not so fast. The study says that strenuous exercise such as shoveling snow or running can be a trigger, but exertion is much less likely to cause trouble in people who exercise regularly. With mid 90-degree temperatures outside with heat indexes well over 100 degrees, I don't think I will be shoveling snow any time soon. Strenuous exercise in this heat is out of the question. Therefore, if I do exercise, it could trigger a heart attack, and if I don't then, tick- tock, the big one could happen at any moment.

Living in the Lowcountry, we face the threat of a natural disaster in the form of a hurricane from June 1 to the end of November. When a big thunderstorm develops out near the Lesser Antilles, the T.V. stations hype it up and have everyone running out to Home Depot faster than you can say nitroglycerin tablet! If the hurricane doesn't give me a heart attack, the weatherman will.

If a hurricane were not enough, the friendly folks on TV also remind us that a big killer earthquake, which wiped out Charleston and a good chunk of Summerville back in Aug. 1886, could happen again. Sure enough, I saw a spot on local TV recently asking what if we had the big earthquake today.

Well, I am not going to have a heart attack sitting around waiting for the sky to fall.

I am determined that if a heart attack is going to take me out, it will not be because of a hurricane, earthquake, exercise, being too hot or cold or for a lack of sleep. I am going to have it peacefully, and if not, I am really going to be angry!

Doug can be reached at editor@berkeleyind.com