Over the years of being a sports journalist and broadcaster, I’ve come to enjoy and appreciate the beauty and drama of competition, the athletes who hone their skills to the finest degree and the power and dynamics of sports to our lives and society. Also, I’m amazed by the stupidity that sports sometimes produces. Two recent examples is the producing of not one, but two insensitive, inappropriate “training films” by the San Francisco 49ers, and the misleading, indifferent way the Defense Department and the military handled the unfortunate way former NFL player Pat Tillman was killed fighting for his country in Afghanistan. Both have a sports connection and are a sad commentary about how we view our fellow man.
I’ve been in San Francisco since 1977. When I arrived, the 49ers had just been sold to the DeBartolo family and their 30 something son Ed DeBartolo, Jr. It was the beginning of a transition time in the NFL in which new, young owners began joining the staid, established NFL. Despite a rocky start, Debartolo, Jr. created an organization, along with an innovative coach, Bill Walsh, that set a standard for success on the field and became the goal of every other team in the league.
Debartolo matched their five Super Bowl Championships, on field success, with an off field, first class organization that cared about their players, got involved with and gave money to community needs and connected with the ethnically diverse San Francisco bay area. They understood and embraced the cultural and sexually diverse area their team represented. “Eddie”, as the fans affectionately and respectfully called the niners owner, always understood the San Francisco 49ers greatest assets were the people who worked in their organization and the fans they represented. When one of his players suffered a career ending injury in a game, DeBartolo rode to the hospital in the ambulance with the player. One time outside the stadium, before a 49ers game, he encountered a group of young kids. They asked for his autograph. He asked if the kids had tickets to the game, and when they said they didn’t, he made sure his assistant gave them tickets, and also made sure they had money to get something to eat at the game. Whether it was a player, a fan, or a kid, he made sure they knew the team cared. He made sure success, kindness and consideration ran throughout the 49ers organization.
Success or failure starts at the top. That was proven true by the 49ers “training film” escapade. Debartolo transferred team ownership to his sister, Denise and her husband John York in 2000, and from that point on the team has been in decline, on and off the field. John York has turned what was a classy, respected, successful team and organization into a losing, uncaring, insensitive, late night show monologue joke. The “training film” showed that York has no clue about how to run a sports franchise, an NFL team and doesn’t understand the community his team represents. How he could let the Niners’ management fall into such moral disrepair and insensitivity is beyond my comprehension. The stupidity of alienating your fans, the area you represent and the mayor, whose help you want to get to build a new stadium, can only be attributed to his arrogance and his dereliction of team and corporate responsibility. York, the captain on the bridge of the 49er ship, should be relieved of his command and forced into retirement. Respect and confidence in his judgment and his ability to run the 49ers is beyond repair.
Just as shameful is the way the Department of Defense and the Army handled the tragic killing of former NFL player, Pat Tillman, by “friendly fire” in Afghanistan. War is not pretty and tragic mistakes happen. Tillman is not first, nor will he be the last soldier to be killed by his fellow soldiers. However, he will forever be known as one of the most famous to have been. Tillman surrendered a successful NFL playing career, and millions of dollars, because he believed he should contribute to something more important. He was what we read about, but rarely see. He was a patriot and had moral principals. He wasn’t perfect, but he was at peace and committed to his decision to fight for his country. Being a highly principled and highly motivated person, I think his reaction to the tragic circumstances that took his life would be, “S**t happens.” No one makes the committed decision he made to give a up a successful career and go to war and not know that you might die for that decision, even possibly in the most tragic way. What would piss him off would be that his Army and his country couldn’t be honest about it.
In the “fog of war” decisions are made and actions taken that you come to regret. The initial release of information of how Pat Tillman was killed is one of those decisions, and it was unnecessary. The military knew of Tillman’s NFL career and the sacrifice he had made. He was the “poster boy” for everything good about America, a military recruitment dream tool. The military could say, “Be like Pat.” When he was killed, why was it necessary to say how he was killed until the details were clear? The only plausible reason is that the Army and the Pentagon wanted to cover their ass. If “poster boy” Pat Tillman could be killed by his own troops, then who the hell would ever sign up to serve their country? Tillman’s family says their son was disrespected by the way the Army initially told them and the world of his death. They’re right! But the saddest part is that if our government had to tell his family anything but the truth, then they’ve not only disrespected Tillman, they’ve also disrespected what he stood for, the commitment he made and the ideals we all hope still exist.
In the final analysis, the commonality between the 49ers’ “training film” fiasco and the way the government handled Tillman’s death is respect and commonsense. In both cases, neither existed. And, in both cases it came from the lack of leadership and good judgment at the highest level. The best that can be hoped for is that both these sad examples will lead to a long memory of them, and they’ll lead to a consideration of the right, sensitive way to deal with people. If that happens, then both of these incidences will ultimately have had a positive purpose.
I’m Ron Barr.
Ron Barr is an Emmy award winning writer and the host of the nationally and internationally syndicated sports talk show, Sports Byline USA.
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