WHERE HAVE MY HEROES GONE?

When I grew up in Boston we worshipped the players of our favorite teams. Not just the hometown teams but teams that we followed because of the players. Baseball, basketball and football. For example, we had no pro football in Boston until 1960. I moved to  Los Angeles in 1958, so I never had a hometown team until I came west. Strangely, my favorite team was the Los Angeles Rams while growing up in bean town. Now I am in Los Angeles with my favorite team.

Bob Waterfield no longer played for the Rams, but he was my hero quarterback. He became my hero coach of the Rams. Ollie Matson, Dick Bass, Merlin Olson and so many other larger than life real heroes.

I know that this was way before the 24 hour news cycle, but bad behavior is bad behavior regardless of the new cycle. We are seeing a lot of bad behavior now that is coming to light. Did it start with Aaron Hernandez who allegedly murdered some people? Nah, there were bad guys way before him.

But a lack of social dicipline, too much money and too much adoration gave these over paid idiots the license to do bad things and give them the idea that they have that priveledge. Just ask Kobe Bryant how much it cost him. It is time to change the names of the professional leagues:                           

                National Felony League (NFL)

                                                          National Bad Asses (NBA)

Major league Baseball deals with drugs and doping by their unique dopes. There  are no stories or maybe  I haven’t heard the stories about players beating their wives, kids or girlfriends. Maybe they are too "high" to perform such tasks. They beat themselves with bad behavior. That behavior should not be tolerated either. They are their own victims.

I am not a hockey fan but if these guys who are known for fisticuffs were beating their wives girlfriends or kids, we would know about it. Maybe they leave all that aggression on the ice. In any case, with 32 teams and about 1800 players there has to be some bad apples in Football. I am painting all the players with a broad brush. It is easy to do that because just a few idiots who think they can deck a woman. Then the publicity kicks in and they are all apologetic. Boo Hoo! Then there are others coming forward or being outed and that leads to the generalization that all these guys are bad news. They are not bad news what some create is bad news.

My heroes are the older guys that played. Bob Cousy, Bill Sharman. Bill Russell,  Carl Braun, Tommy Heinson, K.C. Jones and more. I recall these guys in spite of not having sensational headlines of bad behavior. Going back to baseball, Lew Burdett, Gene Conley (also a Celtic player), Warren Spahn, Johnny Sain  (pray for  rain) and then there were the Red Sox players: Wiliams, Piersall, Jensen, Goodman and Lepcio. Ted Williams was a hero on and off the field as were many major leaguers in that generation. They beat their enemies , not their wives.

The Boston Patriots didn‘t play until 1960 after I moved away from Boston. So, it took the Rams moving from Los Angeles to St. Louis for me to focus on the New England Patriots. They had a losing season in 1960 but no one went home and beat their families. The one guy I can recall was Gino Cappalletti, No. 20. No one on the Patriots wears No. 20 – it was retired.

The point of all this is that the positive heroes I recall from many years ago. These bad news guys that beat their kids, their wives, murder people will one day be forgotten but their stain on professional sports won’t be.

But who is to blame. I think some of it goes to us. Look how many Rice uniform shirts were worn in his support by women. He committed a crime, a felony, yet women support him – why? So, how does Rice decide that kicking the crap out of his wife is OK? Ladies, you said it is OK. You have told that it is OK to any other player that wants to deliver mayhem to a member of his family. Maybe he should have kicked the crap out of a dog then he would go to jail, ask Michael Vick.

By the way. The team’s owners and management need to have their heads cracked (symbolically) so they can react with some dignity and anger to the problems. And it is up to us fans to show disgust with that behavior by the players and by the teams. Where have all my heroes gone?

 

That is my take – you decide.