It's Not All Fun and Games

I was thinking while I was driving in to work Friday how glad I am this work week was about to end. It hasn’t been a fun week. Sports is supposed to bring joy, excitement, happiness. This week has yielded none of that.

The Skip Prosser tragedy was beyond belief. It still hasn’t sunk in that the Wake Forest basketball coach died so unexpectedly. At 56, with so much energy, loving what he did and believing that he had so many good years in front of him, it’s shocking to know that he won’t walk the sidelines again. Just so sad. I will miss him.

Then there’s the Michael Vick story that, unfortunately, will stay with us awhile, just like it did all this week. He pleaded innocent on Thursday to charges of running a dog-fighting operation. It would be nice if it is so.

Reading some of the charges in the indictment makes me sick. As someone who loves animals and is an animal guardian, I’m just appalled and angry. How could anyone condone this? How could anyone enjoy this? I do believe in innocent-until-proven-guilty, but something brutal and evil was going on at a property owned by Michael Vick.

He says he’s looking forward to clearing his name. But even if he does, the public’s perception of him will never be the same. If found guilty on all charges, he faces a $250,000 fine and five years in prison. His trial is set to begin Nov. 26.

Tuesday, I watched the normally articulate NBA Commissioner David Stern haltingly get through a most difficult news conference. You could tell how devastated he was at the charges that one of his referees, Tim Donaghy, had bet on NBA games − and to make it worse, games in which Donaghy officiated. The FBI is involved.

This just rips at the heart of the sport. Part of any game has always been razing the refs − you know, about their eyesight and questionable calls. You can boo the referees and blame them if your team lost. In the old days, fans used to sing “Three Blind Mice” when refs took the court. How many times have you heard fans yell, “He’s on the take!” even though they never really believed it. All of that was part of the fun.

Now, fans won’t be sure. Stern says it was an isolated, rogue referee, and oh do we hope that’s true. If fans don’t believe in the honesty and integrity of those who play and officiate the game, then the game has a cancer for which there may not be a cure. Fans have to know and believe that the games they watch and love are aboveboard. We have to be able to believe the often-used statements about “the integrity of the game.”

Point-shaving, game-fixing are horrible sins. I was just a kid when the point-shaving scandal hit the ACC back in the early 60s. It tore apart the late Everett Case at N.C. State, who couldn’t believe that “his boys” had betrayed him. Friends say the Wolfpack coaching legend never recovered.

I came to the station Wednesday, and the first thing I heard was, “Did you hear about Eric Staal?” I said no, I hadn’t − but soon found out that the Hurricanes’ young star had been arrested in Minnesota on misdemeanor charges of drunk and disorderly conduct during his bachelor party. He had to spend a night in jail. Sure he’s young and things happen, but it was an embarrassment to him and the Carolina Hurricanes − and to his fiancee.

And on top of that, we learned that N.C. State sophomore offensive lineman Jeraill McCuller was charged with driving while impaired, speeding and reckless driving. Court records say that he was driving 52 mph down Hillsborough Street. Stupid? You bet. He was lucky he didn’t hurt himself, much less innocent bystanders. State coach Tom O’Brien says appropriate team action will be taken. Knowing what I know about O’Brien, I believe that to be true.

Finally, we’re still on the joyless Barry Bonds watch. To many this is much more a wake than a celebration. The surly Bonds, who was accused of, but never charged with, taking illegal performance-enhancing drugs, is about to pass the legendary Henry Aaron as baseball’s all-time home run king. Like a bad storm in the distance, it will happen, I will admit to you I wish it wouldn’t. I met Aaron once at the old Durham Bulls Athletic Park. He was kind and gracious, everything I’ve heard that Bonds isn’t.

And gosh, I forgot to mention the leader of the very much tainted and basically now irrelevant Tour De France being kicked out of the event by his own team for missing random drugs tests.