Dysfunction Dominates Sports Pages Buried By Off-Field Activities, Games Have Become Irrelevent

Let’s see: One day the big story is Butch Hobson getting arrested for cocaine possession.

One day it’s Dennis Rodman going on “Oprah” wearing eye shadow to talk about everything from bisexuality to dressing in drag.

One day it’s Lawrence Taylor getting arrested for possession of crack.

One day it’s some Patriots’ draft choice with a history of assaulting women.

One day it’s Michael Irvin getting arrested for cocaine possession.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. All this in the wake of the O.J. fiasco: one of the most famous football players of his generation in the so-called “trial of the century”.

Do you see a trend here? More and more, it seems, the actual games have become irrelevent, buried under an avalanche of off-field activities that seem to command the big headlines. These are the big stories, the ones people talk about on talk shows, the ones that are the buzz, the ones that seem to dwarf the games themselves. This is where we are in the world of sports on this morning in May, 1996.

The question is how did we get here? It’s an interesting question, and there might not be a definitive answer. Unquestionably, the world of sports mirrors society. We’ve been living in a “Hard Copy” culture for years now, in which controversy sells and scandal sells more. Call it the Madonna Syndrome. Not that she originated it. No, this is the message that’s been trumpeted for years. Oprah. Geraldo. Montel Williams. Ricki Lake. Come see the freak show that is America in the ‘90’s. One nation, under God, indivisable and dysfunctional for all.

Why should sports be any different? Thing is, we used to think it was.

You remember those days, right? Sports were the toy department, somehow exempt from the real world, some place forever preserved in innocence.

Then it all changed. Then the police blotter became part of the sports page. The drug busts. The domestic abuse stories. The salary stories. The loss of innocence. And now, the sports page is no different from the rest of the newspaper; sports offers no respite from the rest of society.

Where have you gone Joe DiMaggio, a nation turns its lonely eyes to you? More and more, there’s the feeling that professional sports is worn out.

As though the actual games are no longer enough. As though we’ve all seen too many of them. Blame it on cable television. Blame it on the media. Blame it on the fact there are too many games in too many leagues, too many sports in seasons that are too long. Blame it on anything you want.

But more and more, there’s the feeling that the games can’t possibly live up to the news off the field.

What’s left are the scandals.

The scandals and the arrests. The controversies and the bizarre. The litany of horrors that seem to bombard us constantly. The freak show that’s become America in the ‘90’s, complete with a game face on. These are the stories that seem to excite us now. The ones we talk about. The ones that have the buzz.

This is what we seem to be left with here on this morning in May, 1996. L.T. arrested for crack one day, a Pats’ draft choice with a history of abusing women the next. On an on it goes. Every day another mini-scandal. One horror show after another. The sports page no different than the rest of the paper. Sports is no more a respite from the real world. All this and Dennis Rodman in drag.