PITTSBURGH _ I was lucky. I was a young guy in Pittsburgh in the 1970s and saw the Steelers unite the city like nothing before or since in my lifetime with the exception of 9/11. It didn't matter if we were black or white. We loved our football team. We hugged in the stands and the bars and on the streets when it won those four Super Bowls. We commiserated together on those rare occasions when it lost. That football team made us proud to be from Pittsburgh when the rest of the country felt sorry for us and saw us as living in a dark, smoky, sooty city that was headed toward financial chaos because of the collapse of the steel industry.
That was the power of sports.
It was a wonderful, beautiful thing.
Now, I'm thinking I have lived too long.
Sunday was the worst sports day of my life, the deaths of prominent sports figures aside. I'm still trying to come to grips with what happened at the Steelers-Bears game in Chicago and at every NFL game around the country. I'm still blown away and sickened by the reaction to all of it. A Steelers war hero apologizing for standing at attention and facing the flag during the national anthem. A Washington County fire chief using the N-word to describe Mike Tomlin in a Facebook post after the Steelers remained in the tunnel for the anthem. The director of the Michigan State police referring to players who don't stand for the anthem as "degenerates." Terrible Towels being burned. A swastika being painted on a Steelers flag. Friends taking sides and straining if not ending friendships. The divisiveness is horrifying. One side says every player who kneels or sits during the anthem is anti-American. The other side says every player who stands could be against racial equality. Both are fallacies, of course, although you would have a hard time convincing our president _ the most powerful man on Earth _ who unconscionably labeled every player who doesn't stand for the anthem as a "son of a b----."
I never thought I'd live long enough to see that or see a young black player, Cleveland Browns rookie quarterback DeShone Kizer, react to it by starting his post-game news conference by saying, "I know for a fact that I'm no son of a b-----." I wasn't just embarrassed to be an American that Kizer was put in a position he felt he had to say that. I was embarrassed to be a member of the human race.
This is what sports has become?
Sunday might be even worse. The Steelers play the Ravens in Baltimore in one of the NFL's great rivalry games. Those who haven't sworn off the Steelers and the NFL in a kneejerk reaction to last Sunday's events will tune in, but they won't be watching so much to see if Ben Roethlisberger can get his sluggish offense going or if Cam Heyward and his defense actually can tackle somebody as they will to see what the players do for the national anthem. Is that as sad to you as it is to me?
And why?
Alejandro Villanueva, the Steelers' war hero who served three tours in Afghanistan, and David DeCastro said it perfectly last week, relaying a message from their offensive line coach, Mike Munchak. To paraphrase: Every clear-thinking person respects the flag and honors the brave servicemen and women who have sacrificed and are sacrificing so much to make this the greatest country in the world. Every clear-thinking person also detests racism and hates that far too much inequality remains in our society.
Yet we have reached this point?
Everyone has an opinion, but I'm not sure anyone shared his or hers more eloquently or powerfully than Ravens coach John Harbaugh.
"America is created on a great ideal," he said. "The greatest idea ever. The idea of liberty for everybody. The idea that all men are created equally under the eyes of God. I'm praying for that. I'm praying that we come together. I'm not praying for divisiveness. I'm praying for unity."
Amen.
The controversy and even hate started in the NFL last season with Colin Kaepernick, although infamous protests involving the flag or the anthem go back to at least Tommie Smith and John Carlos raising gloved fists at the 1968 Olympics. Kaepernick sat or knelt during the anthem throughout the season to call attention to police brutality of people of color. It has cost him his career _ at least to this point _ because hypocritical NFL owners who were united in expressing outrage at President Donald Trump's remarks and tweets last weekend, blackballed him from their league. Those same owners, by the way, have accepted millions from the Department of Defense to honor military personnel during their games, prompting a question: Is paid patriotism really patriotism at all?
It's fair to argue Kaepernick picked the wrong forum to deliver a very legitimate message. (You can't possibly believe that Washington County fire chief is alone in his racist beliefs). I'm with you 100 percent if you say the anthem isn't the time to make a political statement. Unlike our president, I respect Kaepernick's and the other players' right to freely express their opinions _ Villanueva will tell you that's one of the reasons he put his life on the line in Afghanistan _ but I'm to the point I'm in favor of eliminating the forum. Keep the players in the locker room until the anthem is played. That's the way it used to be. If you must, eliminate the anthem at sporting events. It long has been a traditional part of our games, but things change. I remember when television stations used to sign off at night with the anthem. They tell me it used to be played before the opera, movies and plays. Times change. People survive and move on.
The Steelers-Ravens game should be about sports, not politics. I want to see a great game and not have to worry about who's standing and who's kneeling during the anthem. I want to hear Roethlisberger and Arthur Moats explain after the game why the Steelers won or lost, not how they were distracted by all the anthem talk. I want to hear Tomlin talk about his almost unbelievable choice to kick off in overtime, not how a great American such as Alejandro Villanueva shouldn't have to apologize for being a great American.
Is that too much to ask?
