Monday, October 29, 2007

Sports guys are not "warriors"

I was watching my beloved Buckeyes lay an ol’ fashioned arse woopin on my favorite coach’s team, Penn State, Saturday. In the course of the game Brent Mussburger was talking about a hurt ankle Buckeye running back Chris Wells was playing through. In the course of the discussion it was reported that Wells was told by Buckeye Head Coach Jim Tressel that he needed to “be a warrior.”

I suppose that was extreme hyperbole and Tress meant “warrior” in the sense of fake warriors like Popeye, the Fantastic Four or Conan the Barbarian. Certainly he couldn’t possibly have meant it as a comparison to real warriors such as Lt. Michael Murphy or Sgt. Ray Smith.

Tress could not possibly be comparing a guy playing a game on a hurt ankle to a guy who jumps up on an amtrack to man an M-2 .50 Cal machine gun and single handedly take on over a 100 armed men. Then, after laying waste to his enemy and saving his company, the valiant machine gunner succumbs to several gunshot wounds received in the fight; or a guy who dashes from relative safety, exposing himself to enemy fire, to call for help to save his three comrades. In the process he is shot twice in the back but returns to his position to fight on. Later, he too succumbs to his numerous wounds, but his actions saves the life of one of his men - sort of makes the ankle thing look pretty insignificant by comparison.

Hey Tress, two of these guys are warriors. The other guy is a college football player. Does Tress want to inspire his team with the spirit of real warriors such as Smith and Murphy? Is it like the Indian name in the post below? I hope so. But we knew the we were not real Indians.

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