Throughout my seventy-six years’ (and counting) tenure in this life, sports have always occupied a major part of my attention, even though I have more in common with the late Howard Cosell, of “I Never Played the Game,” fame, than with those who participate.  I’m just too inept and clumsy to play, and I was always the last one picked in school phys ed.  (I survived the psychological trauma, by the way.)  As a spectator, however, I excelled. 

Even though I never took the field (except for one embarrassing incident that I will not describe), I was nevertheless exposed to the sports ethic: hard work, practice, and respect for the coaches and referees.  Contrary to Vince Lombardi’s famous dictum, it is indeed how you play the game that matters.  Winning may be “the only thing,” as he said, but the true score is measured off the field, in the game of life.  Therefore, when it comes to sports and athletics, I am a winner, in the sense that the sporting ethic has taught me the values of self-discipline and rigorous effort.

Then there is the WNBA, the women’s sector of professional basketball.  I confess that I have never watched a minute of it, but I have seen the news clips involving Caitlyn Clark, who was the target of a so-called “hard foul” by player Chennedy Carter during a game.

Fouls occur in every sport, sometimes even consisting of a deliberate, unsportsmanlike act of violence, as seems to have been the case here.  This one, however, gained notoriety because there were overtones (or undertones) of racism.  Other hard fouls in the WNBA reportedly get less attention because they are considered “black on black” violence, a category of embarrassing news that exists on the fringes of coverage.  This one, however, was black-on-white violence, a more emotion-laden category, and therefore momentarily attracting more public attention than the sport itself.

Whether or not the foul in question was an act of racism is less the issue than the theater of it.  The WNBA is not a profit-making enterprise.  It desperately seeks a wider audience.  If it can compete with women’s mud wrestling, perhaps an increase in spectatorship will result.  Violence, even if only theatrical, sells tickets and advertising slots.

Another WNBA player who gained a measure of notoriety is Angel Reese.  Instead of physical violence, her foul was to have openly displayed disrespect for a game official.  This is a far more significant breakdown of the sports ethic than may be apparent at first.  It is a microcosm of the social disorder beginning to permeate the culture, especially among the so-called Wokesters.  During my youth, professional and college sports led the way in inculcating into young people a sense of fair play and respect for valid authority.  Since those days, the decline is obvious.

Not all is dismal, however.  Riley Gaines is unambiguously a heroic figure in sports, and in womanhood.  She entered the public consciousness upon having been initially denied recognition for taking first place in a swimming event, even though she tied for first.  Her opponent was a man who claims eligibility status as a woman, a preposterous situation made all the more absurd by the complicity of leftists who promote transgender ideology.

Riley fought back, not merely for herself, but for all female athletes who are subjected to similar injustices.  In one instance, she was attacked by a violent mob of college students (LGBT activists) who actually imprisoned her in a locked room for a time, demanding ransom for her release.  These people are bullies, the antithesis of what Riley Gaines is, and she rises above them.

Sports should never have become overtly political, but the reality is upon us, and we have to deal with it.  With heroines like Gaines, we can at least make the best of it.

Image via Raw Pixel.