The Sports Curmudgeon

I am neither a psychologist nor an addict so forgive any impreciseness here with regard to the meaning of “enabling” in the context of assisting folks to continue on with less than constructive behaviors on their part. Enablers allow addicts/people with less than fully socialized behaviors to escape the consequences of their behaviors thereby making it difficult if not impossible for the folks with problems to learn from their destructive behaviors. The “enabler” may rationalize that his/her enabling behavior is simply being helpful or being a good friend/parent; the enabler may also feel a certain degree of control over events because the enabler is “keeping things together”. Most enablers do not set out to become enablers with evil motivations. Nevertheless, enablers are not people doing good works.

I set this preamble because there is a lot of enabling behavior that needs to be discussed today in the sports world. And the poster child for someone living off enabling behavior at the moment is John Daly. Fans love Daly; he looks like “every-man”; he behaves like the guys you know at work – meaning he smokes and drinks and cavorts with women – except he was once a really good golfer. After Tiger Woods, he draws the largest galleries at tournaments. That is why sponsors give him exemptions to play in their events; he draws fans.

He needs those exemptions because he cannot play professional golf any more. He has had one tournament win in the last decade; he misses the cut in tournaments more often than he finishes in the top-20. He drinks too much; he continues to smoke and to say he is merely overweight would be most generous. Last week after spending lots of hours in a hospitality tent during a rain delay where he fired his caddy and had Jon Gruden carry his bag for the rest of the day, his score ballooned and he missed another cut. Butch Harmon was his swing coach and Butch Harmon fired his client. Harmon said the most important thing in Daly’s life now is “getting drunk”. Then this week, Daly missed his tee-time in the pro-am portion of the Arnold Palmer Invitational - - where he got a sponsor’s exemption from Arnie. That’s right; Daly blew off Arnold Palmer; that makes lots of sense for a professional golfer, no.

Those sponsors that give him exemptions are enablers. Those fans who pay to see him and cheer him on in the deteriorated condition he is in are enablers. The media that cover golf are enablers. The PGA itself is an enabler for allowing him in any of their events. Moreover, at some point, those enablers need to stop what they are doing lest John Daly kill himself. How would you like to be the PR person for the sponsor that gave Daly an exemption and had him collapse and die on the ninth tee on the Friday afternoon of your tournament. As Ricky Ricardo was wont to say, you would have some ‘splainin to do.

Interestingly, Daly injured a rib in a tournament last year when the click of a camera by a fan caused him to stop his swing in medias res. Last I read, Daly is “contemplating a lawsuit” against the sponsor and or the tournament - - the same sponsor that granted him an exemption to play in that tournament in the first place. Talk about biting the hand that feeds you…

By the way, there are a host of enablers around Michelle Wie too. She is not a fat, chain-smoking alcoholic, but her career has lived on her youth, her attractiveness, her potential as a 15-year old that never achieved anything near what it portended and those ever-present sponsor exemptions. She hasn’t been playing competitive golf long enough to have had a decade long drought with only one win; but considering the following and publicity and preferential treatment she gets, can you tell me the last tournament she won that was more important than an amateur event in Hawaii? There have not been many.

For years, enablers allowed Mike Tyson to continue to live a profligate life and behave as if he were just a small step removed from savagery itself. Look where that kind of enabling has led for Mike Tyson. In fact, here is a Quick Quiz:

Whose behaviors/addictions will bring about an earlier death - - Mike Tyson or John Daly? Explain your choice…

According to a report in the Rocky Mountain News, there is some enabling going on in Denver with regard to Kenyon Martin. K-Mart received a traffic citation for driving in excess of 100 mph in a 30 mph zone and another one for exceeding 100 mph in a 55 mph zone. Then based on a plea deal arranged with the prosecutor’s office in Denver, K-Mart was allowed to keep his driver’s license. Because he does not have to suffer any meaningful consequences of his obviously anti-social behavior, how can anyone expect that he might learn from his mistakes and find ways to avoid repeating them in the future?

Normally, at this point I would be suggesting that the good citizens of Denver march on City Hall with torches and pitchforks to root out the monster(s) that perpetrated this deal. However, it appears that the stink from the deal is already too much for City Hall and the prosecutor who forged this deal was put on leave-without-pay as per the Rocky Mountain News. Just a guess here, but I think that lawyer will learn from his improper behavior more readily than K-Mart will…

The Akron Beacon-Journal reports that when a young fan attending a Cavs/Knicks game in Madison Square Garden rushed onto the floor and into the Cavaliers’ huddle to get close to LeBron James, LeBron shook hands with the young man and then – through his people – arranged for the young man to be his guest when the Cavs played the Nets last night. I am willing to believe the young man is merely an ardent fan with no ill intention or pecuniary motivation here. Nevertheless, what LeBron James did is a form of enabling for fans to interfere with games/rush the floor/create distractions for players and other fans. If this becomes the 2008 version of “streaking” at NBA games, LeBron James was the enabler.

Here are some other enablers in the world of sports:

NASCAR honchos allow cheating to be a way of life in their sport because teams/drivers that get caught violating the rules to gain an advantage are not punished.

Baseball management looked the other way for more than a few years while players took steroids to build up their bodies.

Baseball union officials blocked any meaningful testing for steroids for years.

Roger Goodell did not take steps to prevent any more “Spygate style rule breaking” when he allowed the Pats to retain their win over the Jets in the first game of the 2007 season.

NCAA pooh-bahs enable student-athletes to ignore the “student” part of that description in the “revenue sports”. Oh and they enable colleges to find new ways for those same “student-athletes” to skirt the rules year after year after year by allowing those schools to continue to compete in the big money events.

I have found it more than a bit humorous that so many of the candidates in the 2008 Presidential primaries - - in both parties - - campaigned on the basis that there needed to be change in Washington. I found that humorous because there is nothing anyone can do to prevent change in Washington in January 2009; the administration is going to change even if it is the National Vegetarian Party that resurrects itself and wins the election. Change in Washington is inevitable in 2009. Would that change in the pervasive enabling behaviors in the sports world would undergo similar fundamental change in 2009. I could drink to that.

Finally, that is enough negative commentary for the day; so here is a lighter one from the Morning Briefing column in the Los Angeles Times:

“Ken Shamrock lasted only 1 minute 14 seconds before being knocked out in Cage Rage 25 — a mixed martial arts competition — in London on Saturday. Shamrock is billed as ‘The World’s Most Dangerous Man.’

”Makes you wonder what they call the guy who beat him.”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports…