Athenian Pride

By Mac VerStandig, Columnist

There was a time when tens of thousands of people would gather in a coliseum and watch human beings get savagely mauled. As these grotesque events took place, onlookers would include great leaders like Nero, Tiberius, Julius Caesar, Marc Antony, Barry Alvarez and Joe Torre.

Yes, this past weekend proved that Ohio State linebacker Robert Reynolds and Boston pitcher Pedro Martinez are as savage as an ancient Roman beast, and law-enforcement officials, who have declined to press charges in both cases, have the same regard for humanity as the civilians who cheered from the stands 2,000 years ago.

For those of you who don’t follow the modern, normally humane arena sports of football and baseball, some background is in order. Wisconsin quarterback Jim Sorgi had to leave the game Saturday after Reynolds choked him following the conclusion of a down, rendering the UW senior incapable of calling plays. On the same day, Yankees bench coach Don Zimmer, a 72-year-old man who more than looks his age, was thrown to the ground by Martinez during a bench-clearing brawl, sending him to the hospital on a stretcher.

A spokesman for the Suffix County District Attorney’s office, which would have jurisdiction over the assault on the geriatric bench coach, commented, “Frankly, it’s being treated as an on-the-field incident.”

Dane County District Attorney Brian Blanchard felt similarly about the Sorgi choking, explaining his decision to not press charges against Reynolds, “Has to do largely with context … we don’t charge racecar drivers with reckless driving.”

(The UW Police put forth another version of the story, however, as Lt. William Larson claims the decision to not charge Reynolds came only after the department contacted Sorgi — it’s nice to know we live in a society where police don’t take dangerous criminals off the streets unless previous victims so desire.)

Nonetheless, while Blanchard is clearly correct in not giving Jeff Gordon a moving violation for speeding at the Daytona 500, he would be errant in failing to ticket the same driver for not using his turn signal on an interstate.

The question now becomes one of just where the athletic arena ceases to be a criminal sanctuary and commences to be part of the law-bound republic. The answer is that the fine line lies at the point where actions rise beyond the degree of the risks athletes are asked to reasonably assume when entering a field of play.

Jim Sorgi was well aware, entering the Ohio State dethroning, that he was subject to brute tackling force anytime he had the ball in his hands and a play was in progress. But he had no reason to be on guard once his shoulders hit the ground and the whistle blew — anything that happened thereafter was outside the parameters of the game and within the realm of policed society.

Similarly, Don Zimmer entered the dugout knowing that a sharply hit foul ball or fragmented broken bat could accost him after any pitch. But his consent to be hurled to the ground by someone nearly a third of his age was no greater in Fenway Park than it is when he walks down 7th Avenue.

The explanation frequently offered by athletes for these sorts of brutal acts is that they occur in the “heat of the moment” and are merely results of the sort of intensity that yields passionate athleticism. Reynolds, in a press conference, simply stated, “It’s a violent game.”

But this is where athletes must be accountable. Any Joe can take a cheap shot at a senior citizen; very few people can throw a 95-mph fastball with accuracy.

Athletes are paid — handsomely — to exhibit their talents. And don’t be so naíve as to believe that Reynolds isn’t compensated — the Kentucky native is attending an out-of-state university where he is majoring in “Sport and Leisure Studies” (OSU apparently does not have quite the same academic self-respect as Wisconsin).

Martinez, of course, is paid in a more traditional manner, as money from ticket sales finds its way into his bank account.

Understanding athletes essentially work for the public, it only makes sense that they be asked to exemplify society’s democratically enforced ways. They cannot use their sports as excuses to commit criminal acts where other athletes become victims, and they certainly cannot use their heightened profiles to parade through America with judicial immunity.

Moreover, many athletes are representatives. Martinez is, in a way, one of Boston’s delegates to Major League Baseball, and Reynolds is, similarly, one of the OSU’s delegates to Big Ten football. When they show a lack of the sort of control which ordinary Bostonians and college students are asked to always exhibit, they reflect poorly upon their backers.

The City of Boston should want nothing to do with a batterer and should relegate Martinez to its jail cells. Ditto OSU, which has practically patted Reynolds on the back with a one-game suspension as opposed to taking the more appropriate action of excusing the savage from the university.

But Reynolds shouldn’t have much trouble finding work if OSU gives him the boot — he’d be well qualified to serve as Siegfried’s new partner.

Mac VerStandig ([email protected]) is a sophomore majoring in rhetoric.