Churchill Downer

photo by circulating

Imagine if Tom Brady suddenly collapsed and died in the tunnel back to his locker room after he sustained an internal injury in the Patriots' defeat at the hands of Eli Manning and the Giants in Super Bowl XLII. What would the public reaction be? Would there be outrage among sportswriters and the general audience over the brutality that is the sport of football?

Of course not. "It's just part of the game." At least during the Super Bowl-era of professional football no player has died of injuries sustained on the field, and this can be attributed to changes in rules through the decades and increased protection worn by the players. Every few years or so, a new freak injury reminds us of simply how violent the game is, with the most recent case being the catastrophic neck injury to Kevin Everett of the Buffalo Bills. Everett is seemingly making a strong recovery. Sadly, we can't say the same for Mike Utley.

Lately injuries sustained by NFL players and their lasting effects have been in the forefront of discussion with the recent debate regarding the NFL's retirement plan for former players. But none of it revolves around any discussion about an abolishment of the game. We've come to accept the nature of the sport and live with it every time the season rolls around again.

Things are different with the recent death of filly Eight Belles at Churchill Downs this past Saturday in the 134th Kentucky Derby. After finishing second behind the favorite Big Brown, she collapsed on the track after breaking both of her front ankles and was immediately euthanized on the spot due to the nature of injuries that racehorses can sustain. Naturally, PETA was quick to react calling for a suspension of jockey Gabriel Saez with the absurd claim that he was aware of Eight Belles' injury in the middle of the race but kept her going. I don't know about you, but I don't think I could keep running, much less finish second, after I broke my ankles in a race.

PETA has backed off that claim at least on their website and, smartly, has focused more of the attention towards the cruelty of the sport in general. Washington Post sportswriter Sally Jenkins wrote after the death of the filly that she "ran with the heart of a locomotive, on champagne-glass ankles for the pleasure of the crowd," drawing attention to the fact that Thoroughbreds are being bred more for speed and less for stamina and durability. Unlike football, race horses are unwilling participants putting their health and life on the line for our own entertainment.

Collectively, we're all trying to cope with this crisis just over a year after the death of Barbaro. Remember him? We can debate endlessly if horses are being "overbred" for speed, if we should use artificial racing surfaces, or if we should race them at an older age than 3 years old but it's rather pointless. It would be impossible to change the breeding regimen in a sport where the point is raise an animal to go as fast as possible (how do you demarcate the amount of genetics that are geared toward speed and durability anyways?) and injuries will happen no matter what surface they race on or what age the horses are.

There is practically no middle ground in this debate. What it ultimately comes down to is whether or not you accept horse racing as an institution and with it the nature of the sport and the inevitability of more horses breaking down on the track in the near future. As the players, writers, and fans like to say, it's just part of the game.

Fantasy Congress... no really

Photo by: James Morrison

See that there? That's an absent Congress, right before the war in Iraq, actually. There's one guy there, talking to himself about how much it stinks that his fellow Congressmen/women aren't there to have a legit debate on the upcoming war.

Though it doesn't seem like he's scoring high in the esteem of his peers, this guy would kick major congressional ass at fantasycongress.com!

And isn't that what matters?

The name of the game is simple, technically: much like fantasy football, you get to draft congressmen/women to your "team" and compete against people in your "league." You're scored by how many bills, of what import, and how far those bills make it through the House and the Senate.

The whole while, you're ditching lazy congressmen/women who have poor attendance records and votes you disagree with and draft better legislators once you've built up some "political capital."

Honestly, the best part about the game is that it really involves you in finding out how your congresspeople are doing. There's a facet of the website that lets you look in at the actions of all the Congress so you're constantly in the know about what's happening in the 2nd branch of the government.

Leave it to Americans to make politics into an actual sport, but whatever, participation is participation.

Anybody want to start a TTTM league?

Silly games

They always say the three taboo subjects are as follows: sex, politics, and religion. But no topic draws up the greatest amount of emotion from the fires within people quite like sports. Talk to any Duke fan and they'll go boo-hoo over the seemingly inexplicable amount of hated slung at their team (and then go boo-hoo over another early NCAA Tournament flameout). Wear a Giants hat in Los Angeles and you won't be invited for any more Scrabble Nights at your neighbor's. Show any sign of affinity for the Dallas Cowboys and I'll immediately remove you from my "Top Friends" on MySpace. In our democratic, open, and tolerant society that we enjoy, SP&R are so old-hat. But if another team from Boston wins a championship, then the terrorists have won.

With that in mind, what better place to incite political and social discussion than your weekly dose of Monday Night Football?

Sports serve as a microcosm of the world we live in, as the small segment of the population that we watch compete every day on television is put under a microscope. Every move the athletes make on a playing field or within an arena is scrutinized, and so is every aspect of their lives. The unfortunate death of Sean Taylor (age 24 at death) served as a reminder that "the leading cause of death for black men 15 to 24 is homicide." The probable bolt of college stars Michael Beasley and Derrick Rose to the NBA only adds to already low graduation rates among black students from college. UCLA star freshman Kevin Love has stated that remaining in school for another year is not a "financial issue" for him. I don't know what the financial situation is for Beasley or Rose, but with millions of dollars in their future as high draft picks I don't find it to be just a coincidence that Kevin Love is white and from an affluent suburb (Lake Oswego, Oregon) while Beasley and Rose are both African-American and came from predominantly black urban areas (Baltimore-Washington, D.C. and Chicago, respectively).

Lest we forget the revelry of George Bush throwing the first pitch of Game 3 of the 2001 World Series in Yankees Stadium in the wake of the terrorist attacks of September 11th. What could be more political than the leader of the free world bringing back a sense of "normalcy" by appearing in the home of the most popular team of "America's Pastime," who also happen to don an Uncle Sam hat in their logo?

With the Summer Olympics looming on the horizon for China, it's safe to say the Chinese Communist Party is nothing short of embarrassed over the turmoil erupting in the disputed province of Tibet and the protests and discussion that it has sparked worldwide. Having experienced their collective excitement firsthand in a trip to China last year (here's a picture of me in front of the newly constructed Beijing National Stadium), the people and government of China are treating the Games as more than just a global revelry of sports and nationalistic pride, but as their welcoming party into the world stage. Having long been the 1.3 billion-large Communist elephant in the room of global politics, the Chinese people are viewing the Summer Games as their globalization bar mitzvah.

That's fine and all; as I said before we've always attached an inflated sense of value to what is basically men and women playing a game and there is nothing wrong with that. So then why are people backing off from the notion of a full boycott of the Olympic Games saying that the Olympics are not a place for politics? The Olympics are a perfect place for politics. If that's not the case then Jesse Owens showing up Hitler in his own backyard, the Black Power salute in the 1968 games, and the Miracle On Ice are all just another moment in the dominance of the United States in international competition and nothing more. What other time do you have every nation of the world represented in a forum where the spotlight is shining down upon them and millions of people are watching? Last time I checked, the General Assembly of the United Nations doesn't draw a high Nielsen rating.

So this August when the Games start, don't forget the charter of the Olympics aims to "create a way of life based on the joy found in effort, the educational value of good example and respect for universal fundamental ethical principles." I'm not calling for or supporting any sort of boycott of the Olympics, but I don't want people to let the Chinese government's blatant abuse of human rights not only in Tibet but throughout their country swept underneath the rug in the midst of the seemingly benign Games.

Sports are just fun and games, but they can be so much more than that. And that's why I love them.

photograph by shalvas