This is what they're supposed to do

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By GARY SHELTON

© St. Petersburg Times,
published September 21, 2001

This time, America's athletes have really messed up.

This time, they have shown us their better side.

Now that we have seen it, will we settle for anything less?

In the worst of weeks, we have seen the best of them. We have seen humility and perspective. We have seen compassion and grace. We have seen heart and humanity.

We have seen Jets serving in soup lines and 49ers waiting in blood lines. We have seen Curt Schilling's letter to America, and we have seen Keyshawn Johnson's paycheck go to the Red Cross. We have seen Vinny Testaverde place a hunk of the rubble over his locker so he would not forget.

We have seen Jason Sehorn among the volunteers to stack bottled water for rescue workers. We have heard Derek Jeter talk of wanting to get autographs from the firefighters, not give them. We have heard of Paul O'Neill's two visits to Ground Zero in five days.

We have heard Mark McGwire chastise his own league for not getting out of the way sooner. We have heard Barry Bonds, even before he knew baseball would play 162 games, say his pursuit of the home run record was not important. We have heard the Mets, every one of them, announce plans to give today's pay to charity.

Almost everywhere, the athletes of America have acted the way you would have them act. They have stepped back, moved out of the way, accepted their roles as something less important.

The more time you spend around professional athletes, the more you are aware of their propensity to say absolutely the wrong thing at absolutely the wrong time. After all, for most of their lives, they have been led to believe the world revolves around them. And eventually, many of them come to believe it.

So you wondered if someone would say something selfish, something stupid. (If you don't think it was possible to say dumb things over the past week, please see Falwell, Jerry.)

But not the athletes and not the commissioners. For instance, has Paul Tagliabue ever seemed more human?

Consider that every head of every sports league in America seemed to be waiting for the NFL to take the first step in order to bail them out. Still, Tagliabue, whose job is to put games on for money, made the wise, patient choice.

America's sportsmen have never been more admirable than they were the past week. You didn't hear people grouse about the possibility of losing money or records.

We imagine pro athletes somehow represent us, but most of the time, that's fiction. They have different backgrounds, different goals, different income brackets. But in this crisis, they have become less distant, more like the rest of us.

And on it goes. Everywhere you look, someone is doing something that makes you smile. Bobby Valentine. Derrick Brooks. Jim Fassel.

Which leads us to this. Now that we have seen so much nobility from the athletes of America, why don't we demand they show it all the time?

In recent years, we have developed too high a tolerance for the knuckleheads of the sporting world. We shrug, and we moan. But mostly, we just accept. Apathy. Sloth. Drug abuse. Spousal abuse. Rule breakers. Lawbreakers. Excusemakers.

Now, more than ever, the teams they work for, and the fans who watch them, should not put up with them.

Oh, they are still out there. If you're paying attention, the bozos have come back to work, too. Did you hear about Carl Everett, the Red Sox outfielder from Tampa?

As the rest of America's athletes are talking perspective, Everett showed up late for a workout. When he was told to go home by his manager, Joe Kerrigan, Everett became enraged, screaming, worried only about himself.

We can do without the Carl Everetts of the world, thank you very much. We can do without self-absorbed, out-of-control athletes with no compassion for a nation and no respect for their employers. He can go find some other sort of work, some other boss to berate, and major-league baseball will be just fine.

Did you hear about R. Jay Soward, the Jaguars wide receiver?

It came to light this past week that Soward was arrested at an Orlando theme park for swearing at security officers and threatening them with a plastic room key. Police said he was "intoxicated on something other than alcohol." A sugar high from the cotton candy, no doubt.

We can do without the R. Jay Sowards of the world, too. We can do without his embarrassing antics, and without his comments, according to the police report, where he said he didn't have to obey the police because he had paid his money.

Also, the report says, Soward said, "Police kill people. ... I'm from California." We can do without someone using Rodney King as a defense because they weren't allowed to swear at security guards while visiting Mickey.

The best part of the past few days is that athletes such as Everett and Soward appear to be such a small percentage of the athletes of America. Maybe they always were.

You know who should be ashamed of Everett and Soward?

Every other professional athlete who has acted so honorably as of late. They should pack up the personal items of such an athlete, shove him out the door and lock it behind him. They don't need such an athlete cluttering up their locker rooms or their new image.

Major-league athletes have earned themselves a clean slate.

It would be nice if it stayed that way for a while.

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