Sports as Metaphor

Panem et circenses et inscitia voluntario

...The idea that someone –anyone – could have stopped Sandusky and didn’t because they wanted to protect a University brand, is infuriating. The belief that Joe Paterno, an avatar of moral righteousness, did the “bare minimum” in the face of this, is for many a mark on his character so dark, it shades decades of good works. I am personally far more sympathetic than that. But that sympathy starts by understanding that Joe Paterno was a football coach and a tenured professor, not a saint. He was fallible. He was right that he “should have done more.” He also sure as hell isn’t the only person who should say that.

The Final Insult: Nike CEO Phil Knight Eulogizes Joe Paterno

Emphasis is mine. When you invest your identity in activities or organizations over which you have little or no control, you should at least be prepared for the heart breaking disappointment that will eventually follow. It is the rare bodhisattva that maintains fealty to his ideals and unfailingly puts them into practice.

Avatar of moral righteousnes? Really? Sports are just stupid human tricks with rules, and play is how we learn to build human relationships. Professional sports have turned this beautiful expression of our existence into the same soul crushing, mind obliterating distraction as all others wedded to an entertainment industry run amok.

Continuing directly from the above

The presence of Phil Knight in particular as a defender, does Paterno an awful disservice. In Knight, we have someone whose company, despite efforts at reform, is still being flagged for using child labor under abusive sweatshop conditions. Much of this is subcontracted so Knight can feign ignorance, but that’s a legal loophole not a moral one. Think about children as young as four or five years old in Pakistan on the assembly line. Think about a company that builds factories in authoritarian regimes so anyone who talks worker’s rights, let alone union, would face harrowing consequences. Or just Google “Nike, and Child Labor” and prepare to be assaulted with information of industrialized abuse. Given the gravity of these conditions, I have no problem writing that Jerry Sandusky, if guilty of every charge, would have to live 100 lives to ruin the number of childhoods emblemized by the Nike swoosh.

Dave Zirin @ Edge of Sports

You can put a fork in this country anytime. It's done, y que lastima por los niños.