This is from my deeply wounded heart:
Yesterday, the University of Louisville Cardinals had, for the first time in the history of college basketball, our championship taken away by the NCAA. I say "our" because the players are the University of Louisville, the coaches and administration are the University of Louisville AND the fans are the University of Louisville.
Firstly, I'll give a brief background of me as a UL basketball fan. I was born in Louisville in 1973. My father went to Western Kentucky and the University of Louisville for a short time. My first major experience with Louisville basketball was the Big Game in the NCAA tournament in 1983. We went to the house of some friends (and my best friend) who were die hard UK fans. My Dad was the only one cheering for UL and my loyalties flip flopped a few times depending on whether I was near my Dad or my friend. This was my first (and at the time, traumatic) experience of UL and UK basketball in the state and how it creates emotional divisions between people who are friends every other moment but sworn enemies when it comes to the rivalry.
We moved to Wisconsin when I was 10 and I had a very hard time adjusting. Louisville basketball became one of my happy places and I would cry when we lost games (especially to Memphis St. Yes, St.) The 1986 National Title was incredible because everyone in my school was pulling for Duke but we pulled for UL. From then on, I was a diehard UL fan, even in times when I've wanted a divorce from the team and the program for my sanity's sake. This is the course all die hard sports fans (millions of them) take from time to time, especially people like Red Sox fans. You love your team so much that you want to quit it sometimes. It's an emotionally imbalanced situation. You're strongly giving your emotions to something you can't control (basketball games) and feel so horrible when your team loses a big game that a short term depression can sink in. UL and UK basketball can be likened to our current president and current political climate. It's a social reality. You have friends talking civilly who suddenly become borderline enemies. That's the passion of fandom. People get emotionally involved. I will take responsibility here for often being an overly sensitive person and I can put too much on a sporting contest. I'll admit that. For the love most people have for a program, I feel that love with a greater intensity. That is a very short summary of my love for UL basketball.
Now is my time as an athlete. I grew up playing baseball religiously and basketball soon after. By HS, even though I was a better baseball player (I was all conference), basketball became my great sports love. I sought games everywhere I could, on playgrounds and open gym at school and I'd spend a lot of time shooting hoops on my basket at home. Anyone that's ever played athletics knows it quickly becomes an emotional experience. Non-athletes, some who've staggeringly become prominent sports writers but have never played sports, cannot and never will understand this emotion. If you get beat playing sports, your pride is hurt. Your manhood (in my case) is hurt. The competitiveness and desire to experience the joy and satisfaction of winning increases. You work harder and harder. All of those Nike commercials? That's emotion you see. That dedication is fueled by passion and desire and love for the game and your teammates and hate for anyone that wants to beat you. That is "The Zone." In that moment, the surreal aspect of athletic competition takes over and people do things they would never go otherwise in the name of competitiveness. Then you play a game and it gets chippy. A guy elbows then insults you. You go down the court and elbow him back and a shoving match breaks out. This is all in the moment and happens when physical games are played. The relevance for this commentary is to put a perspective on the never played sports sportswriters, some of whom have powerful voices yet have no clue about the emotion and passion people FEEL when playing sports. You get involved mentally and emotionally because that's the way it is. We care. We care about winning, we care about games, we care about the blood, sweat and tears we put into them.
The above examples of fandom, especially for athletes, illustrates why people care about sports. There have been and will be many articles written about how UL deserves what it's gotten. They'll point to Rick Pitino and the UL establishment and attack them for former players using sex as a recruiting tool. Everyone, including UL fans, know that Pitino and the UL administration are culpable. No one is quibbling over guilt. We all accept that what happened happened AND we have been 100% gracious as fans over punishments. Just don't take that banner. DO NOT TAKE THAT BANNER!
I will liken our situation to Penn St. Sissy little sportswriters will have a coronary if they read this but, hey, they're sissy sportswriters. Sissy sportswriters are nothing but politicians who play politically correct media games. They don't know anything about athletics but they can sure sanctimoniously stump for a cause and get as many people fired as they like. They're poison pen sports wannabes who sit behind their computers and write articles for big magazines and websites. No non-athlete who never got past T-ball has any business writing about sports for a major sports magazine/website like Sports Illustrated or ESPN. I'll use Dan Wetzel as an example. The Penn St. situation was his baby. He got it into his head that he was going to ride that sucker for all it was worth and get Penn St. wiped off the map. Sandusky was justly punished. Paterno died. The malefactors were punished. Was that enough for Dan and many in the media? No way. Now it was about sanctions and penalties and scholarships removed. What is now the truth? The ones being punished now were the innocents. The players who had nothing to do with the scandal and the loyal fans, many of whom grew up cheering for the Nittany Lions with nothing but love in their hearts. I don't think people like Dan Wetzel mean any harm. Like any morally outraged person that has no idea what they're talking about, his solution to the Penn St. problem was to destroy as much of it as possible, the eternally vague and whisper thin "culture of conformity" or whatever these people call it. That means nailing Penn St. long after the guilty were punished could be perpetually on the table because of the PERCEPTION of ill conduct might be PERCEIVED to still exist. This is like doing a raid on a conquered people. The victors get paranoid something bad MIGHT be going on so they keep thumping their Bibles on continued punishments.
Thankfully for Penn St. the NCAA finally sobered up and thought: "Wow. The guilty are gone and we're punishing the innocent now. Well, let's end that." That's never satisfactory for the Dan Wetzels of the world. Many of whom have far left wing values and temperaments (I'm a moderate.) Molestation happened at Penn St. and wasn't properly reported. KILL IT ALL is the immediate reaction of most of these non-athletic keyboard hotshots. They're Cato the Elder of Rome saying "Carthage Must Be Destroyed" years after Carthage was no longer a threat to Rome. They're the people that are no doubt amazed that dweebs like them are actually listened to and have big jobs associated with sporting sites. It's my opinion that most of them do because they're the most politically correct but that's my view. Who are the guilty parties in the Louisville sex scandal? Andre McGee, a former player not associated with the 2013 title and Rick Pitino, seen as being negligent in not knowing what was going on. How was Andre McGee punished? I don't know? How was Rick Pitino punished? A five game suspension? Rick is still the head coach of the University of Louisville. He's still making millions of dollars.
Outside journalists will be the ones to write the stories of our beloved UL basketball players. They will write books with titles like "Despicable Shame. Why UL Got What it Deserved." As I just wrote ad nauseum, they have no real credibility because they have no clue what it's like to be athletes. They are the "they got what they deserve" people. In light of our current experience, UL fans cannot bother with these people. Even local writer Eric Crawford took this tone, eliminating the fan base from the conversation and even insulting me on Twitter when I brought it up. Other voices, like Pat Forde, are more balanced because he played sports and can see the situation from multiple angles. He understands much more than sports writers with no credibility and people should pursue articles written by people like him if they want the whole story. We can't win with the condemners, the "they had it coming" sportswriters. In that way, they're no better than UK trolls, whose voices will also overwhelmingly be "they had it coming." More on them in a minute.
Now, the NCAA. Like all powerful organizations, the NCAA is a socio-political force with extraordinary power who can shatter programs, if not destroy them for a time (SMU football.) The NCAA has since, many times, admitted that it went too far with SMU and The Death Penalty has never been agreed on since. The NCAA is the ultimate hypocrite. They want "March Madness." They want fanaticism from fans. They want you filling out the brackets for your favorite teams. They put the cameras on crying fans when their teams lose. They ACTIVELY FOSTER and, honestly, understand fanatical love and loyalty of fans for their schools and their teams.
And now, the taking of our title. It is OUR title, too, the title of the University of Louisville and all its fans. We pay for tickets, we buy merchandise, we help make the program millions of dollars. The NCAA had no problem taking our money for when we helped pack the stadium in Atlanta, did they? I had a great family experience in 2013. I went with my Dad and my sister. Dad and I came from Florida and my sister came from Louisville. We had not been to the final game since 1986. That is forever for a top notch basketball program. Every year for decades, I wondered if this was the year. The talent is always there at UL. Would we put it together again? Was this the year? College basketball fans are no different than major league sports fans. Imagine how Cubs fans would feel if you took last year's World Series title from them. I think that makes my point.
So it's 2013. We have a powerful and experienced group back from the previous year's Final Four team. All UL fans knew we had the team to win it that year. We got through a rough patch in the middle of the season and ended up on a mission. Kevin Ware's leg was destroyed in the Elite 8 and our players and fans carried his pain all the way to glory. The wonderful players we had from Peyton Siva to Russ Smith to Gorgui Dieng and Co. we got to see grow before our eyes. We're not one and done. We have to cultivate our players and see them blossom. We rode the roller coaster with our guys for years and finally brought it home. When the game ended, I hugged my sister. I'm also a Packer fan and none of the team's World Championships meant more to me than this. I literally thought "I can die happy." It was the apex of my sports life. The championship we had worked so hard for and the fans had longed so much for had finally happened.
And now, the NCAA is telling our fans: "Gee. You shouldn't have cheered for them in 2013. Didn't you know that they were dirty organization years before it came to light? Well, shame on you for being emotionally invested. Shame on you for thinking you actually won something." Rick Pitino, who honestly loves the UL fans and hates this decision, is still coach. He's still making millions. What about us rummy fans? We had that title. That was ours forever. It's the player's and coaches and our's. We paid for tickets. We bought merchandise. We rode the wave of the NCAA's annual March Madness and came out on top in 2013. So who pays for this emotionally? The malefactors have been punished but they have their money and status. For our contributions to the championship, we have...nothing. The hypocritical NCAA and the hypocritical media are now making us a mockery. They taunt the University of Louisville and will use us as they're typically blowhard example of what not to do. Then there are Kentucky fans and the unsafe environment the NCAA has created for Louisville fans in the state of Kentucky. Kentucky fans outnumber UL fans and have always been there with jeers about "little brother." What are those Louisville fans, the innocent Louisville fans, going to experience at work? Constant abuse that the NCAA has set up. In their short sighted view in attacking a program, they have completely neglected the thousands of innocents who will suffer. Once the investigation is finished, the NCAA will move on to its next self-righteous slam dunk. Left in their wake will be the abused UL fan, emotionally devastated, left open to the abusive assaults of the fans of the less than pure program in Lexington. I used the term "emotional rape" recently. Eric Crawford seemed to think this way funny and insulted me. I have also been insulted by others for using the term. Make sure you've read all I've posted above. If you are a UL fan, do you think the term "emotional rape" IN A SPORTING CONTEXT is too extreme? Kids bullied in school are emotionally raped. Are their experiences to be minimized or forgotten? Is their pain to be minimized and forgotten?
In a perfect world, there would probably be no sports and none of the conflicting emotional states that sports creates. Other than politics, no man (and often woman) is more passionate and driven by the sports teams he/she loves. Now, for the first time in NCAA history, a fan base will have to pay because the NCAA, in its aggressive zeal to "do the right thing" in their eyes, has created thousands of sporting victims. If you're the kind of person that would say "Oh, this is just sport!" and "How dare you compare sports to rape!" (which I'm not doing), you wasted your time reading any of this because you just don't get it. You don't get the passion and emotion inherent in athletes and fans. Is sports more important than life? Of course not. Is sports more important than rape and murder victims and all those things? Of course not. My article is about the HEART of the sports fan, the one that takes the ride and suffers and lives and dies with our players. For us Cardinals fans, the NCAA, in its desire to punish the guilty, have also executed the innocent. They have executed us. Thank you for reading.
#L1C4
