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Let the Athletes Have Fun

By LeMont Calloway
Black College Wire

LeMont Calloway

Who remembers one of the common plot elements in children's cartoons and movies, a faraway land where there was no fun, no enjoyment, no creativity and no expression?

Do you remember it took that clever superhuman figure, like Michael Jackson in the Epcot Center's "Captain EO," to provide the fun?

I feel as if I should dig deep inside myself and find that superhero who will enable me to jump-start the fun and creative sparkplugs of the sports world. If I don't, who will?

I know it won't be NBA Commissioner David Stern or the NFL's competition committee.

At recent NFL league meetings in Orlando, the competition committee voted 29-3 to limit the newfound creativity of touchdown celebrations made famous (or infamous in the eyes of a select few) by wide receivers Steve Smith of the Carolina Panthers, Chad Johnson of the Cincinnati Bengals and Terrell Owens of the Dallas Cowboys, among others.

In the opinion of the committee, the celebrations had begun to get out of hand.

In one, Johnson appeared to perform CPR on the football while Owens held the ball as if it were a waiter's tray. Celebrations as elaborate as these (too "showboaty" in the eyes of some) will now result in a 15-yard penalty assessed on the kickoff.

As if the dress code adopted by the NBA in the off-season weren't enough, the NBA is considering banning the compression tights that many players, including Kobe Bryant and Dwayne Wade, have sported this season.

The old guys running the league believe it to be a fashion statement from these "hip-hop thuggish ballers."

Not true.

"It's something to keep you warm," Joe Smith of the Milwaukee Bucks told the Associated Press. "It keeps my knee from swelling up, keeps some tightness around it so it won't blow up on me when I'm out there."

Sounds like a good enough reason to me. After all, the NBA would love to see its star players, the ones they're eating off, healthy and in shape. Right?

We know Bill Russell didn't wear tights, but Walt Frazier had his own eclectic style of fashion. We know Bart Starr wasn't a flamboyant figure, but "Broadway Joe" Namath sure was.

Nobody attempted to put a stranglehold on Frazier or Namath when they did their things. Call me too hip, but what's the big deal with stepping out of the old school and allowing our sports stars to define the new?

When this country experienced terrorist attacks and disasters, who did the public seek out to take their minds off the madness? Athletes and professional sports.

These athletes are supposed to allow common, everyday working people to free themselves from the rigors of bills and jobs and provide them with entertainment and a good time.

Why can't athletes use sports to free themselves from their everyday lives and have a good time as well?

LeMont Calloway, a senior newspaper journalism student at Florida A&M University, writes for the Famuan. He can be reached at [email protected].

Posted April 17, 2006