My Life and Times

Posted on Tue, Nov. 23, 2004
IN MY OPINIONFans, athletes both losers in pointless battleLINDA ROBERTSONlrobertson@herald.com
Another episode in the most bitter rivalry in sports played out Friday night in Auburn Hills, Mich. Again, there were no winners. Only losers. Athletes 0, Fans 0.
Ron Artest, provoked by a spectator who threw a cup of beer at him, stomped into the stands, fists swinging, and a basketball game turned into a brawl. Even after incessant replays, TV footage of the crazed punching still evokes cringes of revulsion. And a shameful but undeniable feeling that each side was getting exactly what it deserved.
By the time the welts from Malice at the Palace started to subside, Artest was suspended for the rest of the season, the Indiana Pacers were decimated, the NBA was humiliated and athletes and fans were more contemptuous of each other than ever.
Discourse on this latest example of polarization in America should no longer center on whether the punishment of Artest is fair, because it is. He has a self-destructive history of being unable to control his anger. He had the same options we all have to prevent anarchy when confronted by jerks -- call a security guard or a police officer. Or, most deflating to the pathetic slob, completely ignore him.
The fans who were aggressors in the melee should not get off as lightly as the Pacers' Stephen Jackson, who also climbed into the stands and pummeled people even though he had not been harassed.
But there's no point in playing the blame game. The vicious cycle of alienation between sports stars and the fans responsible for their very existence has gotten so blurred it's hard to tell what the relationship is. Co-dependency, most likely.
Athletes, as entertainers, say they want to please their audience, yet they often avoid fans at all costs. Tiger Woods can't tolerate the sound of a camera shutter, Barry Bonds can't be bothered to sign autographs, Bryan Cox flips off spectators.
UGLY PLAYERS, FANS
Fans, as loyal customers, say they love their heroes, yet they heckle them mean-spiritedly, rant about them on Yell (also known as Talk) Radio and pulverize them on the Internet. A lot of NBA fans took a lot of glee in the U.S. Olympic basketball team's struggles in Athens.
Then the players strike back. Texas pitcher Frank Francisco hurled a chair into the stands and bloodied a woman's nose.
Then the fans strike back. They throw batteries, bottles and cellphones or run onto the field and attack a first-base coach.
Money is cited as the wedge. Athletes become so wealthy at such a young age they cannot relate to the working-stiff public. Unlike the days when the New York Yankees used to ride the subway to games, today's Yankees are insulated from the world in their 16-bathroom mansions and private planes.
Fans, while paying rising ticket costs, are disgusted by the salaries, excess and Latrell Sprewell whining that he needs another $7 million a year because he has a family to feed.
Our sports stadiums and arenas have become simmering cauldrons of displaced aggression.
Yet there was no evidence of that resentment over the weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway. It was a love-in. NASCAR drivers and fans are devoted to each other. At least for now.
The drivers walked through the garages and, polite as can be, paused to give autographs, shake hands, kiss babies. Fans are allowed to buy pit-stop passes and hang out within tobacco-spitting distance of the drivers. Lots of beer drinking, but no beer throwing.
LOVE-IN
After the Nextel Cup Ford 400 concluded, fans swarmed onto the track to ogle the cars and chat with the drivers.
''This is the Everyman sport, and the drivers and fans appreciate each other,'' said Jerry Gow, a Mark Martin fan. ``I quit watching baseball when Alex Rodriguez signed that $252 million contract.''
NASCAR has worked hard to cultivate the image of down-home accessibility and cater to its NASCAR Nation base in the Red states, where, as any voter would tell you, values still count for something. Also, the racial tension of other sports hasn't saturated NASCAR because its athletes and fans are almost all white.
As NASCAR becomes more popular and the reality sets in that drivers are less blue collar and more blue blood, will a wall go up between heroes and hero-worshippers? Dale Earnhardt Jr. fan Glenda Rager lamented how it has become tough to get an autograph from Little E. She left happy to have an autograph from Earnhardt's cook.
She made friends -- even with Jeff Gordon fans, who gave her Band-Aids for her blisters. The mood at the Speedway was so much more pleasant than it is at Pittsburgh Steelers games, where ''somebody pees on your head and somebody else curses in your ear,'' said Rager, who is from Johnstown, Pa.
How long until NASCAR catches NBA-itis? For now, drivers are beholden to their sponsors, who don't want fans to switch from, say, Miller Lite to Coors Light because they're offended by the behavior of Rusty Wallace.
NBA players sign long-term deals and are beholden to no one. But they better be careful. Someday there might be no fans left in the stands.
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