Junior Seau

There is a darkness that permeates professional sports.
I didn't hear about Junior Seau until I got home from work. My immediate reaction was surprise; he seemed like a cool dude to me, a cut above, a positive individual.
I don't claim to know the man; my impression is formed from seeing him being interviewed, and from his professional accomplishments.
My opinion was confirmed as I watched ESPN and player after player after coach after friend cried and expressed shock that he would commit suicide. They all talked about how upbeat he was, and how you can never know what's going on in somebody's heart. They all made very clear how willing any of them would have been to help him if he had reached out, as he had done for them many times.
The very next story concerned further punishments handed out to New Orleans Saints players for Bountygate. A bunch of a**holes paid to injure fellow players.
Earlier in the day I listened to Tedy Bruschi go ballistic about criticism that Spygate tainted Patriots championships. Ranting about how proud he is of his three rings and his teammates, completely ignoring the question put to him. Even though PATS cheating does taint their legacy.
The world of professional sports is consumed with negativity ranging from the trivial to the tragic. Sex scandals, payoffs, drugs, cheating, lying about cheating and above all, health issues and death.
Football is taking a lot of heat. So many former players die young and suffer from dementia and other diseases. Suicide is too common.
Hockey is getting there too. Sidney Crosby, drafted first overall in the draft in 2005, blew into the NHL and owned it. Last year he suffered a concussion that kept him out for TEN months. He played eight games this year until the symptoms returned; he was out again from December to March.
Baseball had the steroid scandal which continue to be a problem, a basketball player deliberately elbows an opponent in the head resulting in a concussion and then lies about it or chest bumps a ref and pretends to have tripped into him. Red Sox players drink beer and eat chicken in the clubhouse and insult and undermine their two time World Champion manager. Chad Knaus, crew chief of five time NASCAR champ Jimmie Johnson, has been suspended four times and penalized nine times in the last eleven years for cheating. It gets passed off as being competitive.
Plaxico Burress drops a gun which goes off in a club; Michael Vick tortures and kills dogs for fun and profit.They both go to prison. They both return to multi-million dollar contracts.
Professional scandal is not new. You got Pete Rose, you got Paul Horning and Alex Karras. But it is happening in all shapes and sizes in greater frequency and with a much bigger downside.
I haven't even touched on college sports or even Olympic scandals.
No level of competition is exempt from this darkness.
I want sports to be pure. I want to come home from work and watch superior athletes compete; I want to be thrilled and amazed. I want awe.
I do not want cheating, lying, pettiness and a pampered, jaded approach from these athletes.
But I also do not want concussions, premature death and suicide. Health issues are huge and the implications are immense, especially for sports like football and hockey. And boxing, for that matter. I cry when I see Muhammad Ali.
I don't know how these sports can deal with these issues without fundamentally changing the nature of the game. Which I would hate to see. I love football and I love the violence. But I don't agree with the "these guys know what they're getting into" attitude either. Too cold.
I hate the darkness that is affecting sports; darkness of every level and intensity. It has destroyed the beauty of competition, the grace of a finely tuned athlete. The next few years may change the landscape of professional sports and I don't know what to expect.
But less death, less crime, less cheating might be a good place to start.

ASIDE: I despised the "coverage" given to Junior Seau's mother last night. That wasn't news, it was reality TV. Watching her meltdown with fifty microphones stuck in her face nauseated me. I don't know if it was her idea or if she was pushed into it, but it never should have been televised. This is the level that TV networks have sunk to; every executive at every station should have killed that footage. Instead they put it out there for the reality TV crowd to gobble up. For ratings, not as news. News should inform. News should not expose a mother's grief as entertainment.
Absolutely disgusting.