[The Globe and Mail]
Violence in sports isn't as simple
as black and white
Thursday, December 17, 1998
Allan Maki
Calgary -- Say it once, say it
twice, say it until your vocal cords
are as raw as steak tartare: This is
not about race, it's about sports
and stupidity. Go ahead. Have the
faith of your convictions. Just
don't expect everyone to agree with
you.
That a white football player would
receive only a one-game suspension
for attacking his coach while a
black basketball player received
close to a year's suspension for
attacking his has once again lit a
stick of racial dynamite. In the
United States, where both incidents
occurred, the arguing is heating up:
Why should Carolina Panthers'
linebacker Kevin Greene get off so
easily compared with former Golden
State Warrior Latrell Sprewell?
Weren't their crimes the same? Why
should one be punished any less than
the other?
Sadly, that sound you hear is the
race card being smacked down on the
table. There are observers in the
United States who feel Sprewell was
jumped on and given the boots
because he was black and because the
coach he tried to strangle was
white. Several American sports
columnists, including one from the
Washington Post, believe the media
has played down the Greene incident
of last Sunday because it involved a
white player attacking a white
coach.
Based on facts, not race, the two
attacks were different in nature --
uncalled for and stupid, but still
different.
Sprewell attacked his National
Basketball Association coach during
a practice last season. He
threatened to kill P. J. Carlesimo
then, after a few minutes of cooling
down in the dressing room, he came
back and tried to get at Carlesimo
again. After being suspended without
pay for the balance of the season,
Sprewell spent more time arguing his
punishment than saying he was sorry.
Greene attacked his position coach
on the sidelines during a National
Football League game. He didn't
threaten to kill Kevin Steele and
within minutes the two men were
shown standing together, talking
things over. After the game, Greene
apologized and accepted his
punishment.
Think about it further: Basketball
is a physical game, not a violent
one. Football is as violent as it is
vicious. That's not to condone what
Greene did. The man deserves more
than a one-game suspension. But
given the heat of the moment and the
brutality of his sport, how come
Greene reacted less violently than
Sprewell who actually had his hands
around Carlesimo's throat and was
choking the life out of him?
The point here is that
confrontations between players and
coaches need to be examined on an
individual basis. Not everything in
sports is a matter of skin colour.
Not everything is a social
injustice. Usually it's some guy
with a big ego and bad temper saying
terrible things to another guy with
a big ego and bad temper.
Here are a couple of examples of
that: On the same Sunday Greene was
manhandling his coach, Pittsburgh
quarterback Kordell Stewart and
Steelers' coach Bill Cowher had a
nasty screaming match on the
sidelines. Stewart was red hot about
being benched. He and Cowher
exchanged words. At one point, you
could almost read Cowher's lips
saying, "Not here." Stewart was so
incensed he actually broke into
tears.
Did the player slug the coach? No.
Was it portrayed as a racial problem
between a black quarterback and a
white coach? It wasn't. It was
simply an emotional blowup, a bit of
spontaneous combustion. Neither man
may be happy about it but neither
one has to publicly apologize for
what took place.
Recently, Montreal Canadiens'
defenceman Igor Ulanov and assistant
coach Dave King got into a debate
during a National Hockey League
game. They were mad at each other
for days until they settled things.
No punches were thrown. And two
years ago in a Canadian Football
League playoff game, Montreal pass
rusher Elfrid Payton took a poke at
Alouettes' assistant coach Scott
Spurgeon. Payton is black, Spurgeon
is white. Payton was disciplined and
told to keep his hands off the
coaches. He apologized. It was
barely considered a story in
Montreal, let alone in the rest of
the country.
The last significant difference
between the Greene and Sprewell
incidents has to do with how they
were handled. The NBA came down like
a ton of bricks on Sprewell. The NFL
allowed Carolina to set Greene's
punishment. Come next season, the
NFL should make attacking a coach a
league matter subject to an
investigation and serious
punishment. In doing that, the NFL
wouldn't leave itself open to
grumbling that white football
players are less guilty than black
basketball players.
That's what some people think. They
see racism and prejudicial
treatment. Some of us see jerks
allowed to act like goofs in
professional sports leagues that
need to get their act together. We
call that stupidity. It has a way of
transcending most things in life and
sport.
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