I don’t wish to offend, but the point of this post is that such ruminations shouldn’t be offensive. I’ll skip past the perfunctory statements about who Chris Henry was and how sad his early passing is. I’m commenting on a related phenomenon: When athletes die, sports kabuki follows. In the wake of a wake, famous deaths get used by the less principled for sleazy ends (see: the aftermath of Reagan’s death). Sports are no different. Subconsciously or consciously the big sports leagues seek to maximize their benefit from tragedy. And we’re stuck in the sand—frozen by social mores, and a powerful impulse to avoid the ‘Not cool, dude’ chide.
Last Sunday was disgusting. Chad Johnson probably feels real pain for his lost teammate, but all of that is mixed in with a staggering narcissistic streak. He cries for the cameras, claims he’ll wear Henry’s jersey, dress in his locker, whatever. Dude…it’s not about you.
Perhaps it’s Ocho’s way of dealing with the pain, but he certainly doesn’t hate the attention. And neither does the NFL. This is drama, a chance to further hype a marquee matchup between two top teams. By all means, keep the cameras on Chad as he weeps on the sidelines! How compelling! It’s also a chance for the NFL construct an alternate memory of who Henry was, and deflect the casual fan from thinking ‘human crimewave.’
Look, I hate when guys like Colin Cowherd jump into these stories as though someone rang a racial paternalism bell. But I also hate how we scrub history clean in the name of sensitivity. We don’t have to cruelly say ‘he deserved it,’ or dismissively say, ‘it wasn’t surprising.’ We don’t have to act as though (this is directed at Cowherd) a freak incident is the perfect template for shaking our fists at young black athletes—as if Henry is indicative of some grand social problem that must be solved right NOW. What society should do is stop large corporations from manipulating our humanity. I wish some sportswriter would say, “Gee, NFL, CBS, it’s death, not a commercial for your game.”
The power of sports kabuki prevents us from doing this. We have to ‘mourn’ the loss, turn Henry’s life into an acceptable narrative (Chris Henry was reformed! Pat Tillman was a hero!), and help the NFL squeeze as much good press as they can from the contrived emotion. Any major figure who questions this dance will be chucked into the realm of deviancy faster than post-911 Bill Maher. Perhaps it doesn’t matter, but I like veracity. Not ‘oh-so-serious’ NFL bullshit kabuki. What I saw last Sunday just didn’t seem honest.
Ironically sports are all about emotional manipulation. They are totally trivial without our collective feeling irrationally poured in. But a ‘NBA on NBC’ Marv Albert-narrated montage gooses your feelings in a positive way. The NFL appealing to your sensitivity for the sake of its own ratings and image just erodes your capacity for sympathy from a distance. If media companies constantly gun for our empathy, we become a cynical, silly people. I don’t have the Hollinger stats to prove this, but Jacko death hysteria+Tiger Woods hysteria+ongoing wars+feudal healthcare system = a country without emotional perspective.
This entry was posted on Saturday, December 26th, 2009 at 4:56 am and is filed under Random Thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
