Attention sportswriters: A home run is not a heroic act
Let’s re-examine the sloppy verbiage that creates myths while devaluing our real heroes
I’ve had it with sports heroes. Or, more accurately, I’ve had it with sports journalists, headline writers, and commentators who refer to athletes as heroes.
And I don’t mean Pat Tillman, the former NFL player who left the game after the 9/11 attacks, enlisted in the Army and was killed in Afghanistan defending our country.
And I don’t mean George Hill, the NBA player whose courage led the walkout of NBA players during last year’s playoffs to protest the police killing of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
And I don’t mean Billie Jean King, the tennis player who blazed a sports trail for all women and women athletes as she spoke out, organized, and won.
Those three, I would be comfortable calling them heroes or heroines of various degrees.
No, I mean this, from Monday’s Star Tribune of Minneapolis.
“CLEVELAND — Kyle Garlick seemed like the most unlikely of heroes (my emphasis) for the Twins’ first extra-inning conquest of the season. Perhaps even to himself.
“The 29-year-old backup outfielder, somewhat of a surprise inclusion on the Opening Day roster though he has stayed solidly in the majors since, has said many times he knows his role. Namely, play a little left field here and there and be one of the few Twins players who can successfully hit against left-handed pitchers.”
A hero for hitting a home run by a self-described role player in a baseball game in May?
Or this headline Monday from ESPN.com,
“Khris Middleton plays hero in overtime as Milwaukee Bucks take Game 1 over Miami Heat.”
A hero for hitting a last-second shot in the first game of the first round of the never-ending NBA playoffs?
Or this one from a few days ago from NBC Sports’ website calling Gustav Forsling of the NHL’s Florida Panthers an “unlikely hero” (just like our Twins “unlikely hero” Garlick) for scoring a Stanley Cup playoff goal.
I’ve never met Messrs. Garlick, Middleton, or Forsling. If you’d like, I’ll stipulate that they’re fine fellows. But what did they do that raised them to the level of “hero”?
Nothing. Absolutely nothing.
The Random House Dictionary of the English Language defines a hero as “a man of distinguished courage or ability, admired for his brave deeds and noble qualities.” (I’ll gender-neutral that to apply to heroines, too.) It goes on to define a hero as someone who performs a heroic act. The example: He was a local hero when he saved the drowning child.
And what’s the definition of “heroic”? “Having or displaying the character or attributes of a hero; extraordinarily bold, altruistic, determined.”
A home run, a last-second basket, and a goal-scoring slapshot don’t qualify as acts by heroes. They are why professional athletes are paid more than the rest of us. They are highly skilled physical and mental performers. Winning games is what they’re supposed to do.
Such hyperbolic, sloppy, and misleading language is what maintains the mythology of sports and athletes. The news media promote that mythology and the leagues and agents giggle. I watch games all the time. I enjoy watching them. As a one-time sports reporter, I covered games and athletes for years. I know about how such myth-making verbiage elevates sports institutions and businesses to increase ratings, sell tickets, and attract eyeballs to websites and print publications. I was a part of the machinery for three decades. I bet I called some athlete a hero along the way.
But it’s time — in these days of “true heroes” like unvaccinated, masked frontline health care workers during the COVID death surges — to stop with the athlete-as-hero nonsense for on-the-field achievements.
Off the top of my head, when I think of heroes, I think of Genevieve Hansen, the Minneapolis firefighter who pleaded with police to save George Floyd’s life, was rebuffed, and then testified at Derek Chauvin’s trial, riveting testimony that helped convict the murderer.
I think of the three Americans on a train in France in 2015 who thwarted a terrorist bent on killing as many as 300 passengers. Talk about a game-saving tackle: Alek Skarlatos, Spencer Stone, and Anthony Sadler made a real one.
Or if you want to mix sports and heroism: how about Tommie Smith at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics? He seriously damaged his career to courageously raise his gloved fist to protest racism in the United States. He was a determined and bold man way ahead of his time.
Call those people heroes. I won’t mind.
But fellow members of the sports writing (and sports headline writing and editing) sorority and fraternity, can we please drop the notion of “hero” or the equally cliché ridden “unlikely hero” from our daily game story drivel?
In so doing, it will stop the minimizing, devaluing, and denigrating of the real heroes among us.
