It’s been more than 48 hours since the final buzzer on the Wisconsin men’s basketball season sounded.
While worlds have come crashing down and all hope seems lost, believe it or not, there are worse things in this world than losing the national title game.
Life is bigger than sports.
I saw that first-hand two Wednesdays ago, as The Badger Herald sports squad (Eric Kohlbeck, Dan Corcoran and myself) were waiting for a flight out of Milwaukee’s Mitchell Airport en route to cover the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight in Los Angeles.
The incoming plane we were about to board carried the bravest person in the world: a fallen United States soldier.
The soldier’s family gathered at the base of the plane where the bags normally come out. Not this time. Fellow soldiers awaited instructions to load the American flag-draped casket into the hearse with the Marines’ seal painted on the door.
At least 100 people gathered in the terminal to watch through the large, glass pane windows, all of our hearts bleeding for the family experiencing the worst day of their lives, wishing them comfort in their time of need.
One middle-aged man on the tarmac was noticeably devastated — hands on his face, looking at the sky, probably wondering how this could happen. A brother? A husband?
It was the most heartbreaking moment of my life.
It bothered me to the point that I whipped out my laptop in a downtown Los Angeles hotel room and found out the soldier’s name — Kerry Kemp. He was 27 years old and died during a helicopter crash while on a training mission in Florida. He leaves behind his wife, his high school sweetheart Jenna and a one-year old daughter. Imagine what they’re going through right now.
Pain is relative. We learned that Monday night. Yes, the Badgers lost. Yes, the greatest season in program history has seemingly gone to waste.
You may have cursed and screamed and cried at the final buzzer. You may have drank yourself silly to forget what had happened. But you woke up the next day. You can root for the Badgers today, tomorrow and as long as organized athletics exist (forever).
Maybe the man I described before is a Badgers fan. Maybe this weekend he had the chance in the midst of his mourning to turn on the game and watch Wisconsin knock off Kentucky. I can only pray that, for just a millisecond, his mind wandered from his tragedy, and in that millisecond, he could concentrate on something else.
The scene reminded me of when I spoke with former Wisconsin women’s basketball forward Jacki Gulczynski. Her brother was killed in Iraq in 2008. She put her brother’s initials on a wristband she wore on her left wrist every game, to keep her brother’s spirit with her every time she took the court. Basketball brought her and her fallen brother together.
That is the beauty of sports — the connectedness and collectivity. The win or loss column is irrelevant compared to the idea that sports allows you to become a part of something else — a fanbase, a team. The feelings of success and despair. The high-fives with friends at the bar and the taunting of opposing teams. In those moments, it may seem like it’s the only thing that matters.
While some of us eat, breathe, sleep and drink sports, there has to come a point where we must realize that a losing score isn’t as bad as a lot of the other problems going on this world. It’s our job to keep that in perspective.
I’m just as bad as the next. I’ll sulk after a loss; I’ll act depressed. But after what I saw that day, I’m not too sure anymore if I’ll ever act like that regarding one of my sports teams. And if I do, shame on me.
Sgt. Kemp’s family won’t ever see him again. There will be no more holidays or birthdays, only memories to cherish.
That’s what Badgers fans have left with the 2014-15 team: memories. There’s plenty of good ones to go around, from Big Ten championships to a second-straight Final Four run and the program’s biggest win in knocking off Kentucky in the national semifinal.
No matter how bad you want to forget now, cherish this run, because you never know how sobering life can really be.
