Christilaw: Let’s not let sportsmanship be trampled by showboating
Not literally. I literally feel pretty good, figuratively speaking.
It’s about the old school, and by that I don’t mean the old alma mater.
I come from the old school when it comes to the world of sports, and those of us who are alums are dropping like flies.
I frequently feel as if it’s the ancient school. I would say Royal & Ancient school, but it’s suggested that St. Andrews has that title copyrighted.
When I became aware of the world of sports, men still wore crew cuts and my favorite player wore high-top football cleats. Dick Butkus was the scariest animal at the zoo and Keith Lincoln was the most famous moose on the Palouse.
Johnny Unitas was my hero – oh he of the high-tops and the flat-top.
What I loved most about Unitas, aside from his right arm, was the fact that he never, ever gloated. Whether he just threw a interception or a touchdown, he walked off the field the same way.
It was about respect.
Respect for the game, respect for his opponent.
I loved that. And it’s still the centerpiece around which my concept of how the game should be played exists.
We of the old school learned how the game should be played.
We knew the words of the great Grantland Rice: “For when the One Great Scorer comes to mark against your name, He writes – not that you won or lost – but HOW you played the Game.”
I have the utmost respect for those athletes who take the game seriously and treat it with the respect it so richly deserves.
It’s called sportsmanship – and that’s a real word. You can look it up. No, please. Look it up. I often feel that particular word needs a PR firm to get its brand out there.
I still remember watching the great Bill Russell defend Wilt Chamberlain. Russell would regularly block Wilt’s shot – in-your-face blocks, too – then just turn and run down the court. No words said, because the block itself was the perfect mic-drop moment.
Not only was it classy, it was too cool for words.
There’s an exuberance that comes with putting your body on the line to play a game, and I love it. It speaks volumes.
The perfect example of that natural expression of joy was a catch Ken Griffey Jr. made in Yankee Stadium, taking a home run away from Jesse Barfield. Junior’s father, Ken Griffey Sr. was in the stands and when Junior came down after climbing the wall, he raced toward the Mariners dugout with the ball in his hand, as if to say “Look what I did, Dad!”
Today’s game has taken that exuberance and turned it into something that I do not like about modern-day sport.
I have never been a fan of trash talking, but I understand it. The chest-thumping, look-at-me antics, not at all.
I’m a guy who loved watching Barry Sanders – who would turn defenders inside out on the way to the end zone, then calmly flip the ball to the official and trot back to the bench.
It was the end zone, he was saying. I’ve been there before and I’ll be there again. No big deal. Watch what I do next.
These days it feels as if players have offensive and defensive coordinators and choreographers.
Not my cup of tea. I subscribe to what former Seattle Seahawks coach Chuck Knox used to say: “What you do speaks so loudly that I don’t have to hear what you say.”
I watched Oregon beat Duke over the weekend and followed the controversy over Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski telling Oregon forward Dillon Brooks that he’s too good of a player to show off the way he did by hitting a 3-pointer with the shot clock winding down.
For starters, I don’t quite understand what Coach K was objecting to after some of the antics his own Duke players have performed over the years. And on the list of objectionable things players have done on a basketball court, this one raises nary a peep from most folks.
But mostly I’m surprised someone spoke up for the integrity of the game, drew a line in the sand and told a player he’d crossed it.
There are programs that play the game the way it’s supposed to be played, and I am proud of the way our own Gonzaga Bulldogs represent.
If sports are designed to build character, or at least reveal character, there has to be a standard for what that character should be.
They taught that at the old school.
Steve Christilaw can be reached at steve.christilaw@ gmail.com.