Spotlight On 2013

Bully for You

Spotlight On
by Clark Westfield
Deember 2013

It probably began in ancient Greece during the first Olympics when the athletes used to compete au natural. I can hear Achilles verbally chastising Agamemnon for his “limited equipment” with Themosticles and Odysseus goading him on. The “Hazing of Hector” was all the talk in Athens during the day with Greeks weighing in on both sides of the issue. And so my friends, bullying in the world of sports began. And it lives on today, only now it has TV, Twitter and Talking Heads to expound on the message.

What is it about grown men acting as if they were 12-year old rugrats on the school playground? Granted, the aggressive nature of competitive sports can certainly bring out the beast in a hormone and sometimes steroid-fueled player. But the culture that supports and even encourages this behavior will sweep under the rug and blur the lines any incident that threatens the sanctity and (let’s not forget) the profitability of the enterprise. Team above all. But not everybody is on the same team on the issue. The problem is now containment. It’s not about the bullying as much as it is the cover-up. No one wants their dirty laundry aired on ESPN or Twitter, but everyone has a smartphone and incidents are being recorded. That has caused players to come forward, knowing they have the weight of the truth behind them. As Warner Wolf would say, “Let’s go to the videotape!” Yes, the camera never lies (just ask Mayor Rob Ford of Toronto). Who can forget the Rutgers basketball coach verbally abusing his players on the court? Anyone who has seen the tape of that infamous practice session where he slaps, pushes and throws basketballs at his players will never forget it. Result? Coach gone. Athletic Director? History. So we put it all behind and move on. Or do we. It seems that the problem is just as prevalent as ever. In the professional ranks, the Miami Dolphins have barely just survived a crisis in which a player was so bullied that he quit the game he loved and was paid handsomely for. I thought it ironic that the player taunting him was named Incognito. Not any more pal. And the problem unfortunately is alive and well in New Jersey. In addition to the men’s basketball scandal, the football program has just undergone a similar upheaval, with a player accusing a coach of bullying.But what is bullying? Can one man’s level of tolerance be another man’s breaking point? At what time do we say, “Yes, this is going too far?” No one seems to agree. One of the problems in our super-saturated media environment is that it is not what can be proven, or even what is true. It is what’s on TV. What’s on Facebook. What Steve Trevalese is talking about on New Jersey 101.5.

Were you ever bullied on a playground, a football field or baseball diamond? Did you ever have a coach threaten or accost you? Were you ever ostracized by teammates in a locker room or dugout? We’d like to hear your stories, anonymously of course.
This problem will not go away until people take a stand on universally saying “Enough!”

More to come…CW

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