The Meaningful Collateral

Bob Costas eulogized Howard Cosell thusly: “… his style — part journalist, part carnival barker — made him unique.”  Cosell’s vibrant and occasionally provocative style made him a giant among sports journalists.  It is to his great credit, then, that he was always respectful of the boundary between journalistic integrity and sensationalism.  He certainly set a standard, but the fact that his style was inimitable didn’t stop countless followers from trying.  

These days it is a requirement of sports journalists in general (and soccer pundits in particular) that they have a flair for the dramatic and a gift for hyperbole.  Given the level of media saturation in this day and age, this is hardly shocking — the prosaic just won’t do when you’re competing for reader- or viewership against 100 other outlets.  However, the advent of new media and the meteoric rise of competitive journalism have seen the boundary which Cosell so carefully toed trampled into near oblivion.  The most obvious example in recent memory was last week offered up by Times London scribe Martin Samuel.

Following Chelsea’s victory over Liverpool in last week’s stunning 3-2 Champion’s League semi-final, writers across the globe lavished praise upon Blues midfielder Frank Lampard for his well-struck penalty.  The goal itself was of less consequence than the fact that it marked Lamps’ return to the field only a week after the death of his mother.  Certainly his will and emotional constitution in the face of personal tragedy are admirable, but perhaps Mr. Samuel was overly effusive with his praise when he declared Lampard’s goal “among the gutsiest acts from many athletes, across many decades.”  Samuel further declared that the goal “… was about the bravest act most [spectators] had ever seen from a professional athlete.”  These statements could hardly be further from the truth. 

Lampard’s goal was the act of a professional and little more.  Aside from the penalty (which he did not win for himself) and a key pass or two, Lampard played a rather anonymous game.  His goal was a gift from his teammates and a necessary means of catharsis.  While his tribute celebration was an emotionally charged moment, the event hardly ranks among the “gutsiest” or “bravest” acts by an athlete.  Already this season Liverpool striker Dirk Kuyt and Man U defender Wes Brown have made prompt returns following the death of a parent.  It doesn’t come down to bravery or guts.  Lampard simply did his job, which, mind you, he is paid quite well to do.  Here are a few athletes who might have bones to pick with Martin Samuel’s assessment to the contrary:

5. Mario Lemieux – In the 1992-93 NHL season Lemieux was at the height of his powers.  The Pittsburgh Penguins were coming off of consecutive Stanley Cup wins and despite having played only 64 games in the previous season Lemieux had amassed the near-ludicrous total of 131 points.  In early 1993, while on pace to set an NHL points record, tragedy struck - on January 12th Lemieux announced that he had been diagnosed with Hodgkin’s disease.   Lemieux immediately began treatment and on March 2nd 1993, a few scant hours after his final round of radiation therapy, he returned to the lineup against the Philadelphia Flyers, scoring and adding an assist in a Penguins win.  Lemieux would go on to lead his team to 17 straight wins down the stretch, and he played every game until the Penguins were eliminated from the 2nd round of the playoffs.

4. Lou Gehrig – Gehrig was baseball’s original Iron Man.  His streak of 2,130 consecutive games played stood for 55 years, and had he not been struck down in his prime by ALS, his now eponymous neuromuscular disease, the streak might have continued for some years to come.  Gehrig displayed great courage and poise in facing a terrible disease which no one fully understood at the time, but his bravest act came on May 2nd, 1939 when he told his friend and Yankees manager Joe McCarthy: “I’m benching myself Joe … for the good of the team.”  His production had declined dramatically during spring training for the 1939 season, and while he was not fully aware of the gravity of his situation at the time, Lou (and everyone who knew him) was sure that something was very wrong.  Without a hint of ego, Gehrig ended his own consecutive game streak - and ultimately his career - out of respect for the team and the fans that he loved.  Even opposing fans understood the power of his decision — in his first game out of the Yankees lineup for 14 years he received a standing ovation from the fans at Tiger Stadium.

3. Munich Crash Survivors – In early 1958, Manchester United was the most successful team in English football.  The young side, christened “Busby’s Babes” after their manager Matt Busby, had won the 1956 and 1957 league titles and was challenging for the European Cup.  On February 6th, following a victory against Red Star Belgrade, they boarded a chartered plane for the trip home.  The plane made a scheduled fuel stop in Munich but when they attempted to leave, icy conditions on the runway twice thwarted their attempts.  On the third attempt the plane got off the ground but failed to achieve proper altitude.  It crashed through a fence and into a house beyond the runway, killing 23 of the passengers, including 8 starting players.  Busby spent the next two months in the hospital and was twice read his last rites, while his assistant Jimmy Murphy took charge of the remnants of the team.  Bill Foulkes immediately assumed captaincy of the club from the deceased Roger Byrne and joined fellow survivors Bobby Charlton and Harry Gregg amid a slapdash team of reserve- and youth-team players to finish the season.  Though the team plummeted down the league table, from 1st to 9th place, they reached the final of the FA Cup.  Despite losing 2-0, the final marked an emotional return to the sidelines for their manager, and in the following season Busby rebuilt his stricken squad around the core of courageous players who had continued to give their all for the team in the face of unspeakable tragedy. 

2. Jesse Owens and Cornelius Johnson – The 1936 summer Olympic Games in Berlin were envisioned by Adolf Hitler both as evidence of Germany’s emergence from the specter of WWI and a testament to Aryan superiority.  Owens and Johnson proved to be a wrench in the works.  Their fearlessness in the face of prejudice cannot be overstated, and their Olympic success provided a greater rebuttal to Hitler’s ideal than words ever could.  Together Owens and Johnson won 5 Gold Medals and shattered notions of racial inequality, dealing a striking blow to the public face of Hitler’s Aryan nation.  Owens’ haul of four Gold Medals made him an international celebrity, but contrary to popular belief it was Johnson and not Owens who was snubbed by der Führer.  Hitler chose to leave the arena rather than congratulate Johnson on his Gold Medal in the high jump.  Owens suffered perhaps a greater indignity — FDR refused to even acknowledge his outstanding showing.

1. Jackie Robinson – When Jackie Robinson was signed to the Brooklyn Dodgers from the Negro League’s Kansas City Monarchs in 1947, he knew what he was getting into.  Dodgers GM Branch Rickey famously warned Robinson that in order to succeed in breaking baseball’s race barrier, Robinson or any other black player would need “the guts not to fight back.”  Robinson endured taunts from fans and players, even those on his own team, but he exhibited a quiet strength throughout the year and let his play do the talking for him.  Eventually, thanks to the public support of teammate Pee Wee Reese and manager’s Leo Durocher exhortation that, “I do not care if the guy is yellow or black, or if he has stripes like a fucking zebra. I’m the manager of this team, and I say he plays,” Robinson gained acceptance with the Dodgers.  His on-field accomplishments helped him gain greater acceptance from the rest of the league too — he won the inaugural Rookie of the Year award in 1947 and was league MVP in 1949.