Sports role models are fading away
What’s happening to our sporting role models?
You know who I’m talking about; the ones who are supposedly inspiring our youngsters to live wholesome, productive and, hopefully, commendable lives.
If you read my buddy, fearless Phil Mushnick in the New York Post, you’d rapidly get the impression that noble sports heroes are gone with brontosaurus, stegosaurus, the dodo bird and the exit of Derek Jeter.
Mushnick’s most recent Exhibit A is Marshawn Lynch who has accompanied a few of his notable moments on the gridiron by grabbing his crotch.
Had that pseudo-obscene celebratory act taken place just once, we all could write it off as a bedbug bite, easily treated with calamine lotion. But we know better than that.
This is an act not unlike the rantings of ex-Rangers coach John Tortorella and other sports cashews seeking attention in a rather negative way.
Not that they are fooling the sensible sports fan such as my friend Rich, who happens to be a lifetime follower of the pigsk in.
“It’s all about these characters (like Lynch) getting their name out there any way they can,” says Rich, “and to hell with everybody else. For the most part, manners in pro sports have gone to — You-K now-W here.”
Just for the heck of it, I asked him how he explains Lynch’s crotchgrabbing interlude.
“It’s all about trying to prove he’s a big star. When he does that crotch grab, he’s saying to everyone watching, ‘Hey, look at me.’ He’s trying to prove he’s a big star.
“If this was a sports era from the distant past, Lynch would have been run out of town on a rail.”
Boss man Roger Goodell — in case you haven’t noticed — does not possess such a rail.
“It starts from the top,” Rich concludes, “and from my viewpoint, the Commissioner is not very smart. Then, it all rolls down from there.”
Rich is not naive enough not to know that the Commish is more interested in dough-raking -- which his NFL does very well -- and television ratings.
Guaranteed, if ratings plummeted because some exhibitionist ball player was acting the idiot, you could bet your deflated football that more severe action would be taken.
And until that happens, the same brazen behavior will take place whether Mushnick, Your’s Truly or Brother Rich like it or not
THE BRODEUR BRUHAHA
Metropolitan Area Hockey’s answer to Derek Jeter has been Martin Brodeur; no question about that.
For more than two decades Brodeur played goal for the New Jersey Devils, won three Stanley Cups and enough accolades to eventually become a Hall of Famer on the first ballot.
Unlike Jeter, Brodeur did not want to gracefully exit center stage. He wanted to hang around although his skills were noticeably diminishing after New Jersey went to the 2012 Stanley Cup Fina l.
If Marty had followed the Jeter Plan, the Devils goaltender would have announced his planned his bye-byes at the start of the 2013-14 season and received a suitable sendoff as Jeter gracefully accepted last year.
But Brodeur wasn’t satisfied and suffered a egregiously mediocre 201314 season sharing his net with up-and-coming Cory Schneider. It was an unwise move by Marty and, by this time, Devils management knew he could not effectively work with Schneids.
With that in mind, Lou Lamoriello refused to resign Brodeur, allowing him to test the free agent market; which he did last Summer and Fall to no avail.
The only NHL job he could get was as a temporary backup-to-the-back up in St. Lous where he played a handful of games until the Blues regular injured goalies recovered.
Now Marty claims he’s “retired” and will work as an “advisor” to Blue g.m. Doug Armstrong. Of course, Marty isn’t really packing it in; he’s waiting for more St.Louis goalie injuries so he can move into the spotlight again.
As for the Devils team that gave him his break and the fans who enthusiastically supported him in New Jersey, well, they’re as forgotten as stegosaurus.
Or, as Devils season ticket-holder puts it; “He’s abandoned us and now we’ll abandon him.”
CONCLUSION: Jeter had it right.
Author-columnist-commentator Stan “The Maven” Fischler resides in Boiceville and New York City. His column appears each week in the Sunday Freeman.