Wilbon at the University of Maryland: Reason Among Greed

On Monday, April 28^th, I had the pleasure of seeing Michael Wilbon speak at the University of Maryland. For those who don’t know, Wilbon is the co-host of the show Pardon the Interruption on ESPN, and is a columnist for the Washington Post.

Not knowing what to expect, I sat down and clapped as Wilbon approached the podium. He spoke for approximately 20 minutes about how he got to where he is today, which was fascinating in its own right. But the highlight of the evening was when he fielded almost two hours of questions from the audience, ranging across the sports spectrum. I will only discuss the overlap between previously discussed issues on this blog and Wilbon’s take on the issues, but he spoke about a lot more.

One question asked was about the sponsorship of his show. Wilbon acknowledged the show is geared towards high school and college students, but the show is sponsored almost exclusively by alcohol (Red Stripe, Smirnoff, and Guiness). Wilbon’s response is that he knows the paradox here, but he also knows people will always drink and the sponsorship of the show won’t change that. He also recognizes the capitalist motivation of ESPN, which he mentioned in his responses many times. One of the most astounding parts of his answers was his awareness to the money-driven aspect of sports. Many sports writers, such as Jay Mariotti and Skip Bayless, completely ignore the fact that everything in sports is driven by money, and it often makes their arguments a moot point. Yet, Wilbon is the complete opposite, and it is a refreshing tone in sportswriting.

Another major point Wilbon often made was that of American domination of the sports world, socially and economically. He pointed out how basketball is no longer an American dominated sport, but is still perceived as one, though wrongfully so. The future of basketball is likely going to come from outside the US, mainly China and Eastern Europe. On a similar note, he ranted about the unfair expectations of Central and South American baseball prospects, and why they would be tempted to lie about their age or take illegal substances to get their families out of extreme poverty. It was enlightening and refreshing to hear such logic come from an industry that is often driven by greed, not reason. 

Below is a clip of Wilbon and his co-host, Tony, goofing around about the release of Madden '08. But notice the logo that comes up after the introductions. Also, during each show, after the second commercial break, a voice announces who presents that episode, almost always Guiness or Smirnoff. 

If You Can't Win the War on Drugs, Find A New Drug to Wage War On

Sports and government. I never thought I would have to utter those words in the same sentence. Much to my dismay, it has become a popular debate in the last three years or so, ever since Congress got involved in the steroids investigation in Major League Baseball. WHY congress thought they had the right to intervene in sports, or the responsibility to, is beyond me.

Everyone has commented on all the other issues Congress SHOULD be paying attention to, such as Iraq, health care, or just any other issue ever mentioned in the news in the past three years. Yet, that is not entirely fair, since only one committee has taken issue with sports. That committee does not have jurisdiction over all the other issues.

Yet, what is fair is considering the autocracy of sports. Sports have always solved their issues without the involvement of the government. All leagues have always encountered issues, and have solved them with the players union and gradual rule changes. Steroids would have been more of the same. The MLB had plenty of investigative powers to reveal the widespread steroids use in the 1990’s. George Mitchell, who wrote the Mitchell Report, which named over a hundred current or former MLB players in the use of steroids, was a wild witch hunt which served nothing but to tarnish the name of many players. Most of the evidence was either hearsay or unconfirmed reports. Roger Clemens will never be seen in the same light, even though only one man said he did steroids.

Yes, before you bring it up, I understand it is important to show children and such that cheating is wrong, and I do not deny that. But it is not Congress’s job to do so. The message should not be “if you cheat, and everyone else cheats, eventually the mighty hand of 

the government will fall down upon you and cause everyone to hate you and reject your accomplishments.” The emphasis for the steroid era needs to be less on “look how no one respects these guys” and more on “look how this guy got pancreatic cancer after taking steroids.”

The fact of the matter is, the fact that we know Barry Bond’s name is good enough for some people to take steroids to get famous, even if they are revealed as cheaters. It is important to emphasize the incredibly harmful effects of these drugs to your body, not your public image. After all, once you sign a 100 million dollar contract with the San Francisco Giants, you can always hire a PR rep.  

I'm Not As Think As You Drunk I Am

Anyone who has been to a professional or college sporting event knows intoxication is a major part of the event. Even if you are not intoxicated yourself, you will invariably have a run in with a severely inebriated individual. They can be obnoxious, rude, vulgar, and downright disgusting in many instances. I have been to 29 different sports stadiums across America, and hundreds of sporting events. One thing has been common across the board: drunk fans piss me off.

In Fenway Park during a Yankees vs. Red Sox game, I have had beer thrown at me, pizza thrown in my face, peanut shells stuffed down my back, and if these fans are to be taken at their word, they violated my mother many times. I was twelve at the time. This is not to pick on Boston; similar experiences can be seen everywhere, from New York to Seattle to San Diego and Miami (especially Europe, where the vulgarity is organized into stadium-wide chants).

Often times, this public display of hatred extends beyond words. During this Cowboys-Redskins game, drunk fans came to blows. They literally pummel each other as hard as they can while yelling obscenities at each other. The most interesting part: listen to the Redskins fans cheer them on! They are hard to hear, but if you listen closely you can hear one fan yelling "Kick His Ass!"

How do the fans get so intoxicated before the game? Tailgates. In Washington at a Redskins tailgate, I personally witnessed already drunk fans pour three beers into a road cone and force other Redskin fans to drink the stream of beer. In Buffalo, the fans played a game before the Bills game, where they made anyone who walked by their tailgate chug a beer. Nearly everyone agreed, and soon the entire party was hammered. There was still five hours to game time.

These practices are not uncommon by any means. An HBO show, REAL Sports with Bryant Gumble, did a piece over the summer about this exact topic. I tried to find the footage on youtube but to no avail. In fact, they had a film crew capture the road cone incident mentioned earlier I witnessed with my own two eyes. They interviewed writers who call to a stop of such behavior, and police in charge of keeping drunk fans out of games.

I am not advocating this kind of wide-sweeping change in policy. As a die hard fan of all sports, I recognize alcohol, partying, and inebriation is a part of the experience. To some extent, it is half the entertainment. You never know what you are going to find, or what you're going to hear people yell. Not only that, but leagues cannot have it both ways and sign multi hundred million dollar contracts with beer companies for sponsorships AND tell fans to drink responsibly. If they want to reap the financial benefits of alcohol being paired with sports, they have to deal with the social consequences. The fact of the matter is football games are no longer places to take young children. At the Buffalo game I attended with another family, who has two little girls, one extremely drunk fan even threatened to rape the little girls. I kid you not.

Not ALL drunk fans piss me off, but when you threaten to rape an 8 year old girl or pummel another fan with your clenched fists because you are too drunk to know your first name, then you have gone too far (obviously). It no longer is just your problem, its somebody else’s problem as well. Everyone who has to put up with your obnoxious behavior is being distracted from the game at hand. I do not look forward to the day when I have to tell my son he isn't old enough to come to a sports game with his Dad because he will hear things he is too young to hear. But I don't want my son being the type of fan that tells another to shove an air horn up his ass and blow it real hard. Because one day the fan that thinks he is the baddest on the block will meet one who will show him what its like. 

Above: tailgates are any real fan's tradition before a big game: grill food, get a tv going to watch the other games, chat with family and friends. But sometimes it goes too far.

Oh, Great, Another Beer Ad....Get Back to the Game!

It is simple supply and demand economics. When a product is in excess demand relative to the supply, the price goes up. Its hard to fathom a place where alcohol is viewed as in less supply than its demand, yet such a place arguably exists. Within the confines of a professional sports stadium, alcohol is behind only a win and a crushing hit in demand from fans. What is the evidence? The win and the hard hit is met with the loudest cheers, and the alcohol costs an astronomic 8 dollars a bottle.

 Walk into FedEx Field in Landover, Maryland, home of the Washington Redskins, and you will be greeted by forty foot banners advertising Bud Light. Watch a football game on television, and you will see an average ratio of beer commercials to all other commercials of about 1 to 4. Coors Light is the official beer sponsor of the NFL, but that doesn’t mean it is the ONLY beer sponsor of the NFL. Coors spends $300 million dollars over 5 years (sportsbusiness.com) to be the “official” sponsor of the NFL. Anhauser-Busch and Miller both offered rivaling contracts.

 If you have ever been to a professional football tailgate in your lifetime, you know the demand side of the equation more than makes up for the 300 million dollars spent by Coors for the title of official sponsor of the NFL. By game time, the lot will literally be littered with beer cans and bottles. It would be easy to believe Coors makes this money back nationwide in one month of the season, tops. If you talk to lifelong football tailgaters, and you ask them what to drink with their burgers, hot dogs, or steak sandwiches, they won’t answer “beer”, they will ask you, “Lager or ale? Pale or Brown?” It is a foregone conclusion you will consume alcohol before a football game. Even with the early start times of 1 PM.

 It is a part of the NFL culture. It comes with the territory of the lure of the 16 game season. With every game vital to a team’s success or failure (many teams every year miss the playoffs by one game), each game takes on the mentality of live or die, win or go home. Every game has the atmosphere of a big game, unlike baseball, hockey or basketball, which all have over 80 games in the season and multiple game series as a playoff format instead of single games, like the NFL.

 With the combination of sponsorships and the big game atmosphere of the NFL, it has become a traditional pairing. Does this carry with it negative connotations? Of course. Do fans often go too far? All the time. But, it is tradition. By now, beer goes with football as naturally as Thanksgiving goes with Turkey (and football, which subsequently goes with beer. Man they covered all their bases). Without trying to make too much of a grand statement about society and culture, I simply find it ironic that many phases of society are attempting to promote responsible alcohol use, and the dangers of alcohol are being taken as seriously as ever. Yet, at the same time, from the time a child watches his first football game, or goes to his first baseball game, he is taught to never think of a professional sports outing without considering first, Coors or Bud?