Weep. Weep for the sale of Rights

A coach rants up the sidelines. They’re seething. A game official has made a call they thinks is wrong. It’s an important call. A game changer. And he/she is voicing their lack of agreement.
The official looks onto the field, stoically. Clearly hearing the rant, and knowing in their own mind whether they are certain they made the right call, or whether that’s a call they should not have made. They don’t even turn around, as the coach spews up and down behind them. Listening intently for the mistake that will take this over the long time agreed upon edge. The remark that makes this personal. The coach has until the next play or so to vent. All goes well, and the coach returns to coaching his team…. OR, the coach finally goes too far and starts talking about family heritage. Personal Technical foul time. Will they make the point and put it completely over the edge? Or will they buckle down, satisfied that they made their point?

Later, in the locker room, there is a crowd of reporters around the coach, and he again gives a tirade in defense of his team. Reporters ask about the big call, and the coach tells his side of it. The reporters scribble furiously, and the next day the teams local papers describe the robbery in detail. The other teams papers reinforce their teams dominance in victory. And the national media throws in a few cliff notes and pronounces the winner, regardless of the smaller issues in the game.

Ahh.. Those were the good old days. Freedom of speech for everyone. Freedom of press for every journalist. Like looking back at a mural of american past, the sportsworld and all it’s fanfare and the fans, much like the nation. Its government. Its voters. And the political shoptalk that colored the men and women of America in barber shops and boutiques across the land.

Welcome to the new millennium. The enlightened era. The government seeks to censure opposing views. Seeks to blackball journalists who don’t carry the party line. And to eliminate opposition of government philosophy in a manner that speaks more of Mafiosi strong-arm tactics than any belief in the conviction that the righteousness of their position will undoubtedly prevail.

Look today at the SEC. A body grown rich and powerful by it’s monopolistic enterprises. A body once a partner of the institutions that shared in glory and shame, now turned tyrannical ruler of it’s participants in a way not seen since corrupt monarchies that once marked most all the world’s nations.

Today, the SEC has issued a decree. And Let’s be frank about what the decree is. It is a statement. “We own you.” That’s the beginning and end. Not “We are partners with you.” Not, “We are joint entities.” No, the message was clear. “We have examined the breadth and depth of the state of this conference and have determined we have the might-bestowed right to injure you for your speech, TRUTH NOT WITHSTANDING.” “It matters not if we murder in the streets. It matters not that we steal, lie, or cheat. We are the government of these institutions and we have decided that no grievance we legitimately visit upon you, trumps our right to dictate your freedoms.”

Weep. Weep for more of the fall of America.

Imagine, if you can, the effect this decree would have had on Bear Bryant, Adolph Rupp, and the many, many others of legendary coaches who have walked gridiron or hardwood. Think of the fiery personalities that made them the legendary leaders. The will they exuded. The many quotes and statements they made that were scribbled or taped into infamy. Peers of the game, they were. Think of the statement that Adolph Rupp made when he rebuked the, then not so powerful, sports governments will, and flatly refused to allow his team to participate in their invitational tournament, due to punitive actions they intended to impose that he found unworthy. A statement of strength. A statement of individuality. A Declaration of Independence, if you will.

Where would you find such a will, today? Institutions have sold their rights for profit. And those profits now make them slaves incapable of asserting the rights they willfully squandered, and are now irrevocably beyond recall.

So, where does this last step leave a coach? Where does this leave a program? Where does this leave a fan base? We have no voice. The program surrendered it’s voice. And the coach has had his voice stolen at career knifepoint. Where does this leave us? What’s next for this family run by the controlling Don? He has silenced the critique of players with threats to their career, education, and lives. He has silenced the coaches in a single fell blow with the same. He has created Judas like disciples of the thirteen member institutions with the promise of empty silver.

What will he do next? It seems impossible that he could exclude journalists from media conferences, after they perhaps wrote an unfavorable piece on official conduct, game outcomes, or league maneuvering, doesn’t it? It seems impossible to think that he would reach through his puppeteer institutions and ensure that no contradictory opinion or conclusions can be uttered, doesn’t it?

Where does that leave us? The last bastion of hope. The last layer of desperation. A courtroom. Imagine it. You cannot achieve justice with written or spoken language. Perhaps the last thing we have is the presence of “evidence”. Why not? Each game is taped. Every game shown to thousands and thousands of witnesses. Are we now left to where, at the end of a season, a team like Arkansas, looks back to the bowl slot they were guaranteed barring the obvious misconduct or negligence. Might they then sue the SEC for the loss of revenues due to those issues? There will be ample video evidence. And little reason to think that justice will be achieved in the minds and hearts of men who, once upon a time, could be made to feel shame.

Then again, if you own billions of dollars of institutions, censure public figures, dictate arbitrary punishments to programs, coaches and player, you can probably buy your way into a courtroom as well.

Weep.