ESPY’s Failing Sports

Wednesday night’s ESPY awards exposed to the world that ESPN’s purpose is to no longer stay within the guidelines of sports, but to branch out into the world of political correctness.  Choosing Caitlyn Jenner as the winner of the Arthur Ashe Award was the most telling sign that ESPN has decided to be a sounding board for the downtrodden and misbegotten.  Jenner made a heartfelt speech, but this was not the venue to be used for that moment.

The ESPYs have always kept the realm of sports as its primary foundation.  On Wednesday it became a platform for the transgender community and turned its original purpose on its head.  Where did athletics come into play here?  Bruce Jenner was once a great athlete, a gold medal winner at the Olympics, but that was decades ago.  What has he, or, now, Caitlyn, done since winning that event that has supported athletics in any way, shape, or form?  Nothing of which I am aware.  Shame on ESPN for this display of political correctness that had nothing to do with the Arthur Ashe Award for Courage.

I also think that Caitlyn should have felt shame for not having the courtesy of mentioning any of the other athletes that faced dire circumstances this last year (such as Lauren Hill), yet persevered courageously within their sport to make themselves and athletics stand tall and shine with value.  Caitlyn had a platform and a purpose, and she selfishly dove right into her agenda.  It was a great speech and there were many good points made, though I cannot agree on allowing transgender females to compete against other females.  The fact that she said nothing of any other possible honoree, an athlete that truly deserved the award, was extremely disappointing.

The person that said Arthur Ashe would have been proud of this moment spoke out of place.  Arthur Ashe was a man that wanted fairness and equality for all, this I will agree, but he was also a man that respected rules and structure.  Jimmy Connors’ antics on the court bothered Arthur very much because he didn’t feel a professional tennis match was the proper place for such behavior.  I don’t feel he would have found the ESPY awards the proper venue for Caitlyn’s platform.  I don’t believe Arthur would have fallen into the PC pit as ESPN obviously has.

The Warrior’s Creed, a healthful message to men

A warrior is always ready to die to protect his family.  This is impossible if a warrior is not physically capable.  Each day a warrior must do some form of preparation to be able to achieve this ultimate task, if it is called upon.  His body must be strong, nimble, and quick enough to match and defeat any danger that may befall his family.  He must work his body to attain, and continue to maintain, the physical capabilities necessary to achieve success.
Along with strengthening and training the body, a warrior must gain an understanding toward food, and realize the purpose of food is to energize the body and to help increase muscle mass where needed.  He must designate food in its proper place of need, not desire.  The question of taste does not factor into the reality of need.  Taste, and the craving for it, tend to bend the mind away from its food objective, so the warrior must keep himself aware at all times, for the pleasure of taste is often an enemy in disguise.                                                                                                                                                       Today, many enemies are camouflaged and not easily recognized.  Their weapons are deceitful and rich with desire.  A warrior can identify them if he looks clearly within himself.  External enemies are usually obvious if one is astute. Cunning and awareness will usually get the warrior through.
To begin training oneself to the true uses of food, one must eat only when hungry, eat only enough to feel satisfied, and never go longer than an hour or two to eat when the body is crying for fuel.  Also, one must gain an awareness of food nutritive value and focus on eating the foods most valuable for the body’s needs.  The training must begin immediately with an emphasis to abolish unworthy habits and replace them with healthy habits that can endure a lifetime.  Do not allow excuses to undermine the significance of your training.
Should one experience the event of failure, one must accept it as a positive step toward recovering the shape and care of the body to its maximal possibilities.  Failure is not to be dwelt on, nor is it to be despised.  Failure is a road sign that guides you to where you want to be.  It is not an enemy, it is your friend.  When you meet it, embrace it, learn from it as though it were a wise old man, and then move on toward your goal.
The mind will begin shedding the refuse that has gathered within it once the body begins to come alive again.  All tawdry and wrong thinking will fade from the brain as though it never existed and the warrior’s thirst of life, beyond merely existing, will again be recognized.  Only positive and directed thinking shall be coveted by the warrior, for he will be ready and able to face and defeat his enemies when they expose themselves in whatever form they should take.  The warrior stands aware.

Tom Brady: Whitewash or True Blue?

While we wait for NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to decide on the punishment, or lack there of, for Tom Brady and, in turn, what decisions the Patriots are going to have to deal with this year, maybe we should approach the subject from a different point of view.   The New England Patriots quarterback is at the pinnacle of his career.  No football fan can honestly claim that he has failed as a leader of his team, or as a top-rate player all these years.  Now, when it counts the most, his career has been placed in jeopardy from a single act of which he may or may not have been a participant.
Sadly, it is the Pats organization and his fans that are bringing him down. The reputation of his organization’s past behavior and the extremely supportive and unquestioning fan base create doubt and dubious concern from the rest of the football world.  For years Tom has been touted as the white knight of football, a clean-cut, humble, honest man that represents success through hard work, but now there appears to be a crack in the public’s perception of that belief.
Tom is between a rock and a hard place.  He could not go into the meeting with the Commissioner and accept a lesser penalty.  If he did, he would destroy the fan base that has whitewashed him all these years.  It would appear as if he admitted that they were wrong in their support, and, regardless if you like, or don’t like Brady, there is no way he’s going to do anything to trod on his fans’ faith.
Everyone does it you know, whitewashes the players they love, regardless of the fact that they are human, have fallacies, make errors, and don’t want to reveal them publicly.  In recent years we have witnessed certain athletes falter and fall from grace simply because the pedestal they had been placed on top of was too high, too narrow, and too difficult to stay balanced upon.  When they fell, only the most supportive, die-hard fans stood with them.  The rest scrambled away and hid as quickly as possible.
I’m not a fan of Tom Brady.  I’m not a fan of the Patriots, or their fans, but a part of me wants him to win this case, in spite of whether he did or didn’t cheat.  I feel this way because, if he did cheat, it is not his fault alone.  As a society we love to jump on the blame wagon and cast aspersions the moment a popular athlete does not measure up to our expectations.  The expectations from a fan base can be enormously overbearing.  I wonder how many of us could hold up under such demands, or would our egos and our humanity find an eventual path to failure?
Think about it for a moment.  Even if Tom is true blue, he has spent years existing in a different world than most of us experience.  I remember in college how the students parted like the Red Sea when the athletes were walking through, and that was any member of the team, not a superstar.  Tom’s ego has been stroked consistently for years and he has been pampered with extreme wealth and popularity.  Millions of people love him and would follow him to their doom.  How does one’s brain equate that kind of reality?
I’m not condoning cheating in any way, shape, or form.  I’m just saying we need to accept our part in this as well.  However it turns out, there will probably be an asterisk attached to Brady’s legacy and, very possibly, a question on his HOF ballot, which, if he is true blue, will be a shame on society.