ambchang
08-05-2005, 10:02 PM
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=jackson/kindness/050804
It was that one call. Think about it.
Raiders vs. Patriots.
At the time, no one was paying attention to the significance underlying the moment. The Patriots were not yet the darlings of American sports. Tom Brady wasn't Tom Brady yet.
But the Raiders? They were the Raiders. Black and Silver. Pirates with patches over their left eyes. Al Davis. Always mean, forever angry. The original Evil Empire.
Now, think if that call had never been reversed.
Evil wins.
The image of sports as it exists today may be totally different.
There have been many moments in sports where the destiny of anger has met the fate of kindness. McEnroe vs. Borg, UNLV vs. Duke, Ali vs. Frazier, Hitler vs. Owens. Go through the history. Know that anger and kindness have pitted fans against each other, family members against in-laws, presidents against inmates.
Chat: Page 2's Soul of Sports!
Page 2 can't decide who wins these epic battles without SportsNation's input!
All week, join each day's author in chat:
Tue: Patrick Hruby wrap
Wed: Dan Shanoff wrap
Thu: Scoop Jackson wrap
Fri: Jeff Merron, 1 ET
And through all these epic battles, morality has not walked away the victor. Neither has depravity.
Which has created a nation that has people loving the Raiders (Raider Nation) and hating the Patriots (Brady haters).
Angry equals love, kind equates hate.
Which -- if you think about it -- is the nature of what sports in America is really about.
See, anger manifests itself in many different forms: Ron Artest, Kenny Rogers, Tonya Harding.
Anger also has a way of getting into the soul of people and makes them "act" out of the character we are used to seeing them in.
Take George Brett. Nicest guy in the world. But let an umpire call back one of his home runs because of illegal use of pine tar, and you get anger to a degree of possible committal. Take Julius Erving. Coolest guy in the world. Let Larry Bird catch fire on him, say 42 points vs. six for Dr. J. Let Larry be running his mouth the whole time. Watch Larry start getting choked. Better? Take Michael Jordan. Let Reggie Miller get under his skin, and all of a sudden, MJ's open hand finds Reggie's face.
Kindness manifests itself the same way, appearing in people we have been conditioned to believe have no redeeming social value.
THE BATTLE SCORECARD
Here's the fight card for Page 2's Battle for the Soul of Sports:
Round 1: Pride vs. Humility
Pride beat Humility, 75 percent to 25 percent.
Round 2: Envy vs. Love
Love beat Envy, 54 to 46
Round 3: Anger vs. Kindness
Anger beat Kindness, 61 to 39
Check back throughout the week as we update the virtue scorecard.
Friday, Aug. 5: Sports Sloth vs. Sports Diligence
Monday, Aug. 8: Sports Greed vs. Sports Charity
Tuesday, Aug. 9: Sports Gluttony vs. Sports Temperance
Wednesday, Aug. 10: Sports Lust vs. Sports Chastity
Thursday, Aug. 11: And the winner is ...
When superagent Drew Rosenhaus jumps into a pool to save a child's life, no longer can the tag of "angry person" be constant. Kind gestures kill that.
And it makes the war between which characteristic is the most powerful that much more difficult to determine.
Which is most necessary to be successful in sports? Which does an athlete, a coach, an agent, an owner, a writer, need in order to make it in this game?
Could Billy Martin or Mike Ditka have won World Series or Super Bowls being nice? Could Joe Torre or Tom Landry have done the same being angry?
Albert Belle, Bill Romanowski, John Rocker, Bryan Cox, Rasheed Wallace, Bill Laimbeer, Jimmy Connors -- all have made comments that in order for them to play the game at their level, they had to play angry, with a chip on their shoulders. "Intense" is the word often used to describe the state of mind that precedes the activity.
But what does one say when players like Tim Duncan, Phil Mickelson, Wayne Gretzky, Derek Jeter, Arthur Ashe and Joe Montana all have championships, disproving the notion that nice guys finish without rings?
Joe Frazier was a nice guy, even a nicer guy oftentimes in the ring. But when Muhammad Ali flipped the script on Joe, when Frazier went "from nice to evil," Joe got angry. And in three historic fights, two at Madison Square Garden and then the famed "Thrilla in Manila," the apex of both kindness and anger could be found inside of both fighters.
Joe fought angry, Ali fought angry at the world. Ali fought "soft" because he knew deep down Joe was the reason he was back in boxing -- he owed Joe. Joe fought "unFrazier-like" because deep down, he knew every round with Muhammad defined his career -- he owed Ali.
Still, to this day no one can tell you who came out on top: Ali or Frazier? Kindness or Anger? There was no winner.
They say never take someone's kindness for weakness. In sports -- as in life -- too often we do. Just because David Robinson never got upset and cussed out refs or took a swing at Patrick Ewing doesn't mean he was weak. It just means that he's a kind dude. That's his character.
And if we are to believe that, because of his character, Robinson was not the same player Ewing was, that he lacked the meanness that made Patrick a bigger overall force in the game, all we have to do is look down at 50's fingers.
Then look at 33's.
It was that one call. Think about it.
Raiders vs. Patriots.
At the time, no one was paying attention to the significance underlying the moment. The Patriots were not yet the darlings of American sports. Tom Brady wasn't Tom Brady yet.
But the Raiders? They were the Raiders. Black and Silver. Pirates with patches over their left eyes. Al Davis. Always mean, forever angry. The original Evil Empire.
Now, think if that call had never been reversed.
Evil wins.
The image of sports as it exists today may be totally different.
There have been many moments in sports where the destiny of anger has met the fate of kindness. McEnroe vs. Borg, UNLV vs. Duke, Ali vs. Frazier, Hitler vs. Owens. Go through the history. Know that anger and kindness have pitted fans against each other, family members against in-laws, presidents against inmates.
Chat: Page 2's Soul of Sports!
Page 2 can't decide who wins these epic battles without SportsNation's input!
All week, join each day's author in chat:
Tue: Patrick Hruby wrap
Wed: Dan Shanoff wrap
Thu: Scoop Jackson wrap
Fri: Jeff Merron, 1 ET
And through all these epic battles, morality has not walked away the victor. Neither has depravity.
Which has created a nation that has people loving the Raiders (Raider Nation) and hating the Patriots (Brady haters).
Angry equals love, kind equates hate.
Which -- if you think about it -- is the nature of what sports in America is really about.
See, anger manifests itself in many different forms: Ron Artest, Kenny Rogers, Tonya Harding.
Anger also has a way of getting into the soul of people and makes them "act" out of the character we are used to seeing them in.
Take George Brett. Nicest guy in the world. But let an umpire call back one of his home runs because of illegal use of pine tar, and you get anger to a degree of possible committal. Take Julius Erving. Coolest guy in the world. Let Larry Bird catch fire on him, say 42 points vs. six for Dr. J. Let Larry be running his mouth the whole time. Watch Larry start getting choked. Better? Take Michael Jordan. Let Reggie Miller get under his skin, and all of a sudden, MJ's open hand finds Reggie's face.
Kindness manifests itself the same way, appearing in people we have been conditioned to believe have no redeeming social value.
THE BATTLE SCORECARD
Here's the fight card for Page 2's Battle for the Soul of Sports:
Round 1: Pride vs. Humility
Pride beat Humility, 75 percent to 25 percent.
Round 2: Envy vs. Love
Love beat Envy, 54 to 46
Round 3: Anger vs. Kindness
Anger beat Kindness, 61 to 39
Check back throughout the week as we update the virtue scorecard.
Friday, Aug. 5: Sports Sloth vs. Sports Diligence
Monday, Aug. 8: Sports Greed vs. Sports Charity
Tuesday, Aug. 9: Sports Gluttony vs. Sports Temperance
Wednesday, Aug. 10: Sports Lust vs. Sports Chastity
Thursday, Aug. 11: And the winner is ...
When superagent Drew Rosenhaus jumps into a pool to save a child's life, no longer can the tag of "angry person" be constant. Kind gestures kill that.
And it makes the war between which characteristic is the most powerful that much more difficult to determine.
Which is most necessary to be successful in sports? Which does an athlete, a coach, an agent, an owner, a writer, need in order to make it in this game?
Could Billy Martin or Mike Ditka have won World Series or Super Bowls being nice? Could Joe Torre or Tom Landry have done the same being angry?
Albert Belle, Bill Romanowski, John Rocker, Bryan Cox, Rasheed Wallace, Bill Laimbeer, Jimmy Connors -- all have made comments that in order for them to play the game at their level, they had to play angry, with a chip on their shoulders. "Intense" is the word often used to describe the state of mind that precedes the activity.
But what does one say when players like Tim Duncan, Phil Mickelson, Wayne Gretzky, Derek Jeter, Arthur Ashe and Joe Montana all have championships, disproving the notion that nice guys finish without rings?
Joe Frazier was a nice guy, even a nicer guy oftentimes in the ring. But when Muhammad Ali flipped the script on Joe, when Frazier went "from nice to evil," Joe got angry. And in three historic fights, two at Madison Square Garden and then the famed "Thrilla in Manila," the apex of both kindness and anger could be found inside of both fighters.
Joe fought angry, Ali fought angry at the world. Ali fought "soft" because he knew deep down Joe was the reason he was back in boxing -- he owed Joe. Joe fought "unFrazier-like" because deep down, he knew every round with Muhammad defined his career -- he owed Ali.
Still, to this day no one can tell you who came out on top: Ali or Frazier? Kindness or Anger? There was no winner.
They say never take someone's kindness for weakness. In sports -- as in life -- too often we do. Just because David Robinson never got upset and cussed out refs or took a swing at Patrick Ewing doesn't mean he was weak. It just means that he's a kind dude. That's his character.
And if we are to believe that, because of his character, Robinson was not the same player Ewing was, that he lacked the meanness that made Patrick a bigger overall force in the game, all we have to do is look down at 50's fingers.
Then look at 33's.