Wednesday, September 11, 2002
Sports looks for its place after 9/11
By Neil Schmidt nschmidt@enquirer.com
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Sept. 11 is a turning point in American history and a sticking point for the sports world.
Various athletic mediums struggled with how and when to tactfully resume in the wake of the terrorist attacks, and how now to observe their anniversary. Though the sports world drew praise for its communal role in the healing process last fall, what remains is uncertainty about what place athletics have in society.
“I'm not sure the world of sports really knows what to do with something like this (anniversary),” said Kevin Grace, a sports archivist and historian who teaches at the University of Cincinnati.
“But to me, sports is primary in all of this. It asserts our particular heritage and also provides a sense of continuity, and that's very important in human affairs. Even if you're not a sports fan, you must recognize this is a sports culture - economically, socially, politically.”
What's different a year later? The games themselves haven't changed. The public's fanaticism and the business of sports are back to normal. Patriotism is still evident, though perhaps to a lesser degree. Security is heightened. And the handling of the anniversary is a sensitive subject.
In a lot of ways, that mirrors society as a whole. Folks are getting on with their lives, but those are lives of less innocence.
“I think it could be debated how significant sports are in the grand scheme of things,” Bengals coach Dick LeBeau said. “But Americans love to compete, love athletics. As such, we are an integral part of our culture. We are no greater or no less than we were before Sept.11.”
The sports world has combined to donate more than $73.2 million to aid victims and their families, according to USA Today. Numerous athletes - including the Mets and Yankees, who switched to caps that signified New York's fire and police departments - had inspirational effects on their communities. Games became opportunities for patriotic tributes and for distraction from dismal headlines.
Yet it's a fine line between respectful and relentless, and some critics contend further emphasis on the anniversary qualifies as overkill.
“I think we go over the top when we continue to have references back to 9/11,” said CBS broadcaster Boomer Esiason, a former Bengals quarterback. “I lost my best friend and a number of other people in those tragedies, and I know lots of families of victims, and unfortunately for those families, they are reminded around every corner.”
All major-league baseball night games will pause at 9:11p.m. today local time for a moment of silence, followed by a video presentation. For day games, including the Reds' game against Pittsburgh at Cinergy Field, those ceremonies will occur during the seventh-inning stretch.
Major League Baseball created a commemorative design that will be displayed on the field, outfield walls and on each infield base. Players will be outfitted in game caps and outerwear featuring the American flag.
Sunday in the NFL, President Bush gave an address that aired on CBS and Fox telecasts and on stadium screens for the 1 p.m. games, followed by bands playing America the Beautiful. Sideline personnel from every team wore 9/11 patches on their clothing, along with American flags.
“The New York Yankees have a full-page ad (in New York papers) advertising that they're having a memorial, like they're trying to capitalize on this,” Esiason said. “Is that tasteless or what? And the NFL puts 9/11 on the coaches' shirts?
“Everybody wants to do something, but it's too much. Just have a very tasteful moment of silence and maybe Taps. After that, enough's enough.”
Major League Baseball is the only major professional sport in action today, with a full slate of 15 games. Yet it had to deliberate on whether to play today. ESPN's Peter Gammons reported that when his network approached MLB about televising games from 11 a.m. until 1 a.m. today to celebrate baseball's dedication to the healing process, ESPN was told it would have to be put out for bid and that it was all about money.
Horse racing will continue nationwide, including live races at Turfway Park and simulcasting at the River Downs
RaceBook. All tracks nationwide will pause at 4:10 p.m. for a 10-minute simulcast service, and Turfway will have another observance at 6:20 p.m.
A sampling of local high schools found that only a few avoided scheduling events today because of the date.
Said Ursuline athletic director Diane Redmond: “Our take on it is, we're having our opening Mass (today), so we're going to deal with it as a school. But then we'll resume a normal day (including soccer, tennis, golf and field hockey events).
“A lot of what we hear from our kids is, "It's been a lot (of attention paid to 9/11).' They're ready to recognize it and try to move on.”
Several local high schools said they planned some sort of observance, most commonly a moment of silence, before activities today or football games this weekend.
A year's worth of hindsight finds few critics of the way the sports world shut down after the attacks. Grace said only two prior events had equal or greater impact on athletics: the 1919 “Black Sox” and the 1951 college basketball point-shaving scandals.
Major League Baseball hadn't missed a day of regular-season play since D-Day in 1944, but it took six days off. The NFL played two days after President Kennedy's assassination in 1963, yet it skipped a week last season. Most Division I-A and I-AA colleges called off their games.
Given heightened security measures and the logistical problems of transporting teams during an airline shutdown, there were few opposed to the measures.
Organizers of the River Front Classic, a football game between historically black colleges to be played at Paul Brown Stadium, canceled the event last year because of the mourning period. Classic president John Pace Jr. hesitated to call off the event, contending it could help the healing process in the minority community following Cincinnati's April race riots. He eventually decided it would be inappropriate to play.
The event returns this Saturday with Morgan State playing Florida A&M.
“Our timing last year was tough, because of the mood of the country,” Pace said. “But what you saw (later) was that sports and entertainment played a major role to get a segment of the country back on focus, giving something to feel good about.”
High schools and smaller colleges and high schools were split on playing that first weekend. Security was not as big an issue for them. Greater Cincinnati was one of the regions that decided to play high school football games. Such events were transformed into community affairs, complete with candles and flags, prayer vigils and patriotic songs.
The scenes repeated in far greater scope when the bigger events resumed. Former baseball commissioner Bart Giamatti once wrote, “Because no single formal religion can embrace a people who hold so many faiths, including no particular formal faith at all, sports and politics are the civil surrogates ... for (an America) ever in quest for a covenant.”
President Bush even urged Americans to carry on with their lives, to go to games and travel to Disney World. The flag that flew over the World Trade Center was paraded at the World Series, Super Bowl and Salt Lake City Olympics. And civil servants were invited to stadiums to be lauded for previously unsung acts.
Bengals assistant coach Kevin Coyle, who said his athletic career previously had made him the golden boy in his family, was glad to see the focus shift to people such as his brother, Harry, a New York City firefighter who helped get people out of the World Trade Center and narrowly escaped one of the towers' collapse.
“The heroes that came out of this tragedy 1/2ndash 3/4 the firefighters, policemen, emergency medical personnel 1/2ndash 3/4 I think it's changed the way a lot of people viewed those people,” Kevin Coyle said.
Said Grace: “Sports fans realize after 9/11 that you cannot call an athlete a hero. A hero is a fireman giving up his life, not someone who hits 50 home runs. We've stopped using the word "hero' as an empty clichi.”
Reds outfielder Ken GriffeyJr. got an e-mail Sept. 25 from Katrina Marino, whose husband, Kenny, was a firefighter killed in the Trade Center attacks. She asked if Griffey could hit a homer for her husband, and Griffey did so that night.
“It affected our nation and what we stand for,” Griffey said this week of the attacks. “Baseball gave people a chance to get away for a couple of hours and have some fun. Football did the same thing. They let you forget about what you do and enjoy yourself.”
The truest signs sports had returned to their original place probably were in negative acts, when booing fans would shower debris on a field, or baseball players threatened a strike. Still, there are some differences. The anniversary of Sept.11 certainly made some players uneasy about a work stoppage. And fans remain subject to increased scrutiny by security at games.
The wave of patriotism hasn't completely evaporated, either. Witness the national anthem.
“When I look back, it's a pretty clear change,” Reds broadcaster Joe Nuxhall said. “Prior to 9/11, I'd see people stay seated and have hats on. I don't see that anymore. There's a respect now.”
What place does sport have in the post-9/11 society?
Meaningful escape or mindless distraction, it's clearly entrenched in the fabric of American society.
“You hate to sound nationalistic, but sport really has proven to be a rallying and homogenizing point in America,” Grace said. “We use sport more as a bonding tool.
“We're more or less back to normal, and that's good. It's exactly what you want. It's fine to go back to arguing about the Bengals or Reds. One of the benefits of sport is the normalcy it brings.”
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Sports looks for its place after 9/11
