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permalink I don’t follow sports as much as I used to, but as a metaphor for life, there’s little else on TV that is as unpredictable, inspiring, or disheartening (“on TV” being the key phrase). Recently after a game a college football player got heckled by an opposing player and landed a punch (pic above). Lagarrette Blount had to be restrained by players/coaches as he left the field. What Blount did is an example of poor sportsmanship. For the 99.99% of people who don’t become professional athletes, sports’ primary function is to teach how to accept and build off of failure (or modest success). Obviously Blount failed to learn this lesson. As a result, he was suspended and went from being a middling NFL prospect to a non-entity. The punch may have cost Blount millions. Let’s compare this to Michael Vick. Vick is a convicted felon who took dogs and ripped out their teeth, strung them up to trees, drowned them in pools, and took them out to the backyard to be shot. He’s making a million dollars this year because everyone deserves a second chance. At least this is what the Philadelphia Eagles believe - the real reason he is getting paid a ridiculous salary for a 29-year-old convicted felon college dropout (I mean, any hedge funds filling exec-level positions with convicted felons who didn’t graduate college?!) is because he is an athlete’s athlete. Michael Vick runs, jumps, and throws as well or better than anyone, ever. Remaining a millionaire and wielding demigod-like powers over America’s younger, impressionable football fans is not a second chance. A second chance is holding a steady job or going back to school. Maybe eventually Vick would be seen as a role-model, if only among a small group of people. If sports is a metaphor for life, and sports punditry a metaphor for news reporting, than the lessons we learn are similar to those we learn as children at the local fair: some mirrors make us look tall, others fat, but the truth is that these reflections are distortions that we can choose to disbelieve.

I don’t follow sports as much as I used to, but as a metaphor for life, there’s little else on TV that is as unpredictable, inspiring, or disheartening (“on TV” being the key phrase).

Recently after a game a college football player got heckled by an opposing player and landed a punch (pic above). Lagarrette Blount had to be restrained by players/coaches as he left the field.

What Blount did is an example of poor sportsmanship. For the 99.99% of people who don’t become professional athletes, sports’ primary function is to teach how to accept and build off of failure (or modest success). Obviously Blount failed to learn this lesson. As a result, he was suspended and went from being a middling NFL prospect to a non-entity. The punch may have cost Blount millions.

Let’s compare this to Michael Vick. Vick is a convicted felon who took dogs and ripped out their teeth, strung them up to trees, drowned them in pools, and took them out to the backyard to be shot. He’s making a million dollars this year because everyone deserves a second chance. At least this is what the Philadelphia Eagles believe - the real reason he is getting paid a ridiculous salary for a 29-year-old convicted felon college dropout (I mean, any hedge funds filling exec-level positions with convicted felons who didn’t graduate college?!) is because he is an athlete’s athlete. Michael Vick runs, jumps, and throws as well or better than anyone, ever.

Remaining a millionaire and wielding demigod-like powers over America’s younger, impressionable football fans is not a second chance. A second chance is holding a steady job or going back to school. Maybe eventually Vick would be seen as a role-model, if only among a small group of people.

If sports is a metaphor for life, and sports punditry a metaphor for news reporting, than the lessons we learn are similar to those we learn as children at the local fair: some mirrors make us look tall, others fat, but the truth is that these reflections are distortions that we can choose to disbelieve.

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