THEY'VE DONE IT AGAIN

The most prominent performer in the 1912 Stockholm Olympics was a young American Indian lad named Jim Thorpe, who swept aside all competition while winning both the Pentathlon and Decathlon championships. The King of Sweden himself presented him with the appropriate gold medals, proclaiming him the greatest athlete in the world. That he was indeed, and his legend shines vividly to this day in the annals of track and field, not to mention football.

Nevertheless, it was discovered shortly thereafter that this lad had committed the mortal sin of having played minor league baseball for a spell in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, and receiving a few bucks through such effort. “Horrors!” shouted the International Olympic Committee bluenoses, “Off with his head!”

Well, they didn’t go quite to that extreme, but did retroactively strip the fellow of his illustriously-earned awards. Probably no more painful an injustice has ever been foisted on a man, for what amounted to a relatively small sports world misdemeanor.

We’ve long entertained the hope that no such ill treatment would ever be repeated. Unfortunately, though, it has, after a 98-year hiatus.

A recent news announcement has burst open, to the effect that Reggie Bush, the former Southern California running back, now cavorting with the NFL’s New Orleans Saints, has been coerced into returning his 2005 Heisman Memorial Trophy. To pour a little more sand into the wound, the esteemed powers who run that institution have decided to levy sanctions on his school’s athletic program, and remove any mention of the boy’s field prowess forevermore, recording that year’s award to have been presented to absolutely no one.

This is the lad some pundits were declaring to be the best running back in gridiron history a few short years ago. Although we consider such comments to have stemmed from emotion-driven exaggeration, he does rate among the finest kick returners ever spawned.

What grievous fault, then, did young Mr. Bush perpetrate to deserve such gross indignity? Why, tsk tsk, he accepted cash and other gifts while performing at USC, which renders him ineligible after the fact for part of the 2005 season.

Is Reggie the only football player who ever received under-the-table financial support during his undergraduate days? To believe so would amount to naivety in the ultimate degree.

Anyone with minimal knowledge of collegiate sport goings-on over nearly the whole past century is aware how the hypocrisy level has been mushrooming year-by-year to an almost explosive point today. However, just one supposedly guilty chap has been singled out for vicarious capital punishment.

It’s a fact that athletic history has long been rife with cases where offenders have either been punished, chastised, or sometimes ridiculed for various indiscretions. A backward glance at incidents which readily come to mind are those cited below.

1. Muhammad Ali, the world heavyweight champion, was deprived of his title because he challenged the so-called necessity to make war against North Vietnam, forcing him to regain his formar status after he had been cleared of supposed non-patriotism.
2. Billy Cannon, a hard-running halfback at Louisiana State University, and another Heisman Trophy winner for 1959, was initially denied admission to the collegiate football Hall of Fame until 2008, due to having been involved in a counterfeiting scheme following his graduation.
3. Paul Robeson, an excellent concert and movie singer, had also been an outstanding gridiron player at Rutgers University, but held socialistic sympathies. As a result, those same Hall of Fame moguls refused to consider him for membership until several years after his death.
4. Barry Bonds hit more home runs in a full career and a single season than any other slugger. Still, his fibbing about use of steroids (and certainly not the only person to do so), has turned his name to mud in official baseball circles, to the extent that we’re expected to pretend those feats were never really accomplished.

On the other hand, we can condone certain past penalties meted out by sports universe rulers. The Chicago White Sox boys who threw the 1919 World Series to Cincinnati were duly punishable, and deserved lifetime banishment from their playing roles. Hal Chase, although highly praiseworthy as a major league first sacker, will forever be excluded from Hall of Fame eligibility, because he openly bet on games throughout his career, sometimes even against his own team.

We also excuse NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle’s one-year suspension of Packer running back Paul Hornung and Lion defensive tackle Alex Karras for betting, albeit innocent when compared to the Chase antics.

This writer has personally maintained all along that on-the-field performance is what counts above everything else, regardless of what guilt lies with a person, either during his playing days or afterward. If an ex-hero holds up a liquor store, beats up an opponent in a barroom brawl, or joins a protest movement against the sacred establishment, that, from this viewpoint, detracts nary a whisker from the glory he achieved as an athlete.

Now that the Jim Thorpe incident has been virtually repeated in the Reggie Bush matter, where should we go from here onward, to continue the flow of condemnation or scorn accordable for private life offenses? How about taking back the many golf trophies earned by Tiger Woods, due to his off-the-fairway extra-marital behavior? If immoral activity becomes a criterion for “disbarment”, might we not refuse to recognize that Grover Cleveland, Warren G. Harding, FDR, Dwight D. Eisenhower, JFK, and Bill Clinton ever really occupied the White House, because of spousal infidelity?

If Paul Robeson’s leftist feelings were enough to override recognition of his athletic prowess,
shouldn’t we also say that Charlie Chaplin was never very funny after all, for the same reasons?

The sports realm has chosen to forgive Babe Ruth’s incessant roundering and womanizing, as well as Ty Cobb for his post-career viciousness. Nobody seems to care that pitcher Pete Alexander and outfielder Paul Waner were known lushes, even while engaged in playing field action. NFL quarterback Michael Vick’s misdeeds seem to have been forgiven as well, except perhaps by devoted dog lovers. It has become more a case of individual selectivity, keeping our eyes closed where and when deemed prudent.

We see a sole solution to this overall hypocrisy, and that would be to drop this foolishness about the sanctity of amateur athletics, declaring every performer a professional from gitgo, since that’s what the truth amounts to these days. Otherwise, where is the sense in picking on the Thorpes, the Bushes, and other isolated unfortunates for their various rule infractions?