Don McPherson, proof the good guys will win (and why you should respect the WNBA)

Be the change you want to see.

That is one thought that has spun out the the story about ESPN's Erin Andrews (you're sick of hearing about it). One can believe fully completely what happened to Ms. Andrews was simply indicative of a sick nut and a criminal act, but treat it as a jumping-off point to express hope some of the sexism in sports perpetuated on the web won't last forever. That's not the same as blaming people for what happened.

It is germane that Don McPherson (pictured) has been in the news while all this is going on. McPherson, who was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame last week, has found a post-football calling as a spokesman against domestic violence. Writing a post about him would have been a bit of a stretch for this site (and to be crystal-clear, no one is trying to draw a parallel between what happened to Andrews and domestic violence). Thankfully, this country's ace football reporter, Dave Naylor, not only wrote a post about McPherson's work but re-posted a 2004 article he did on the former Syracuse QB:

"McPherson has always had a strong interest and awareness of social issues. Part of that came out of his experience as an African American quarterback at a time when the position was mostly open to whites. And part of it came from the uneasiness he felt in the role of a star athlete, everything from the special treatment he received to the impressions the public had about how star athletes were supposed to act.

"When he retired in 1994, he had difficulty moving on with his life and began exploring the reasons why, eventually focusing on the issues of masculinity as they applied to athletics and society in general."

"What came out of it was a career as one of America’s most prominent spokespersons on the issue of domestic violence and the ways in which men deal with the pressures and expectations related to masculinity. Don has spoken to U.S. Congress, been on Oprah Winfrey and crossed North America speaking to audiences of all sorts.

"And with the profile of a retired football player, he is able to reach new audiences with these kinds of talks. He is also the founder and former executive director of the Sports Leadership Institute at Adelphi University on Long Island."

McPherson is not the first person nor the last player who was ambivalent about certain aspects of pro football. It was a big theme in North Dallas Forty. There was a quarterback around the same age as McPherson named Timm Rosenbach, who walked away from the NFL in the early 1990s because "he began to 'despise,' as he said, the dehumanizing aspects of football that 'can turn you into an animal.' " (Ira Berkow, The New York Times, Oct. 3, 1993.) One of McPherson's teammates at Syracuse, defensive end-turned-author Tim Green, also wrote a book called The Dark Side of the Game.

That is relatable. Everyone is ambivalent about certain things in their professions. Typically, one just learns to go along to get along.

There is a lesson in reading about McPherson's work. Here is a person who is trying to engage people and make it clear individual acts of idiocy (and a man striking a woman is idiotic) don't happen in a vacuum. Oftentimes, it is a reflection of a society which will look the other way about such behaviour. As Naylor related in 2004, the gist of McPherson's message includes:

"The good guys must meet the challenge. Male silence is unacceptable.

"All men have women in their lives they care about. Yet male language often casts them as lesser beings. Telling a boy that 'you throw like a girl' insults both him and girls. The impression can last a lifetime."

Eradicating domestic violence, of course, is way more important than changing how women are represented in sports media. However, the "silence is unacceptable" part should strike a note with anyone who has ever wanted to change anything about her/his profession.

As you can guess, on this end that would entail how the sports media in North America depicts women. This is coming from a male feminist, but one who is also a What Is guy.

There was little arguing when Bruce Arthur wrote in The National Post, "This is an industry of men, writing and talking about the exploits of men. Women's sports don't sell, not really, unless sex appeal is involved. Outside of women's tennis — where Anna Kournikova was the biggest thing in the sport, and not for her play — women are largely destined to be cheerleaders, or sideline reporters, or ignored."

Arthur, who's a fine writer, was just stating What Is. It's a minor point to note Women's Professional Soccer has had a successful launch or that the WNBA might add another stand-alone franchise (one that doesn't share an arena with the NBA) and that its has increased sponsorships and stayed lean and mean, much like the CFL, another niche league (an entire WNBA team's payroll is less than $1 million for an 11-player roster). If you believe betting action signifies a groundswell of support for a sport, it's noteworthy that Covers.com, a sports betting site, offers advice on WNBA games, which is proof the league is getting more respect or that gamblers will bet on anything.

It's not clear how one brings about change. On a personal level, while writing features for Sun Media on high school and university-aged athletes the past two years, there has always been an effort to give the young females and males equal space. Write a feature about a girl from the west end one week, then try to find a boy from the east end the next. Similarly, on cisblog.ca, Rob Pettapiece came up with the idea of eschewing the label women's basketball on posts and just using basketball.

Those are small moves, but maybe it's better than directly challenging people. Local actions have universal repercussions, right?

In a sense, the person who violated Erin Andrews was a grotesque. That's a literary term for a reprehensible being who points out a society's hypocrisies. No one is to blame for what happened save for the perpetrator ). Perhaps wanting to believe it ends with the perpetrator is because people don't want to challenge their beliefs. And that is fine. You're not required to use sports for introspection.

However, to some extent, it does "lay bare the Internet culture ... that preaches everything is designed for entertainment." (Chris Zelkovich, Sports Media Watch.) We also know that in Arthur's "industry of men," many conversations take place about women that leave people "mortified," in Jeff Pearlman's phrasing. Perhaps that has to change, little by little.

Maybe if you're a guy, you don't see why you should have to care. Think of Don McPherson, though, who saw something he couldn't abide and has spoken up. There's someone being the change he wants to see. It's probably not easy.

(McPherson's work had come to attention before Naylor wrote about him, but it seemed like a stretch for this site. McPherson played at Syracuse, but that 1987 season was ahead of my time and I am an Orange basketball fan who never paid much attention to the football team even when Donovan McNabb was leading them to the Orange Bowl. You know that was a long time ago.)

Update: Oddly enough, a few hours after this post went up, Ben York wrote a piece for Dime magazine, "Why You Need To Pay Attention To The WNBA."

"The general knock against the WNBA (usually from people who haven’t spent a single minute watching it) is that it’s less fun or enjoyable to watch; the players are faster, better, and flashier in the NBA. To that I have to pull the 'true fan; card. Yes, there is probably more flash, showmanship, and dunking in the NBA … but does that really make it a better league to watch? On the contrary, too often it becomes solely about that and the basic foundations of the game are lost. Hey, I enjoy seeing an amazing dunk or athletic play as much as the next person, but I also love to see good, team basketball. If you’re honest with yourself, this has been lacking in the NBA collectively for years. However, the WNBA is built upon damn near perfect fundamentals and structured (but no less fun) team basketball. Plus, there is so much competition for minutes and a recurring roster spot that no player can afford to take a night off."

Related:
McPherson gets his due (Naylor's Sideline View, July 20)

Mr. Canoehead ...

It's all raisins off an Oldsmobile, friends ... raisins off an Oldsmobile ...

NBA commissioner David Stern insisting players have to spend a year in college when six of the 10 starters in his league's championship series did not. Derrick Rose's obligatory season in the NCAA did wonders for the reputation of the University of Memphis, since he apparently wasn't eligible when he led them to the Final Four in 2008.

Sports media folk who still use "Motor City" in place of Detroit. That nickname should be retired on compassionate grounds.

The logic of typing, "there are children in Hamilton who will begin kindergarten this fall without ever having seen the local CFL team qualify for post-season play." It's hard to believe there are five-year-olds, even in the Hammer, who are that into the CFL.

Being able to respect the WNBA while still finding Family Guy funny. Seth MacFarlane is showing one can still be brilliant, even if he's threatened by tall women. We get it.

CIS Corner: Moving by Stealth; escalating the Canal War

Notes on our athletes/teams of interest from The 613, plus some notes on Toronto's newest basketball team, the Toronto Stealth ...

WOMEN'S HOOPS: The Toronto Stealth semi-pro team began its maiden season in the Women's Blue-Chip Basketball League on Saturday ... suffice to say, Toronto Star hoops chronicler Doug Smith came away impressed:

"It was a rather interesting, and somewhat surprising to me, night at Ryerson on Saturday. I was fully impressed by the crowd – more than 100 doesn’t sound like much but I’ve been at national team events the past without audiences that big and it was a Saturday night of a long weekend for a team no one’s heard of at a gym that you need a GPS to find.

"The calibre of play wasn't the greatest but you have to figure it's only going to get better and that’s the most important thing. There needs to be places for women – and men – to develop their skills during or after their college careers and this is a perfect opportunity.

"Minor league sports, particularly minor league basketball is this (Toronto) market, is a dicey proposition at best and who knows how long the Stealth will actually last. But I think it deserves a chance, and it deserves some support; I presume I'll be back if time permits and if I had a young daughter interested in the game, I'd take her to see the Stealth play some night.

"You should, too."

The Stealth's CIS contingent includes former Brock star Jodie Ebeling, a five-time OUA all-star who was once invited to a WNBA free-agent camp. Three current or former U of T posts, Laila Bellony, Tara Kinnear and Nicki Schutz, are also on the team, along with guard Kim Lee (Waterloo) and forwards Kerri Jilesen (Laurier) and Ashley Stephen (St. FX).

The Stealth's home games are at Kerr Hall on the Ryerson campus, all on Saturday night at 7 p.m. Their home games include:

• May 30 vs. Flint
• June 6 vs. Detroit
• June 27 vs. Detroit
• July 18 vs. Montreal

NOTES FROM A CROSS-TOWN RIVALRY

It would be remiss to not share a comment from cisblog.ca on a post about Shelley Coolidge leaving the University of Ottawa to lead the Carleton Ravens women's hockey team.

"This is only the beginning as coaches realize the wide difference in ability, social skills and production between the 2 athletic directors and commitment to sport at the 2 universities."

FOOTBALL

• The Paper of Record had a nice feature on former Ottawa Gee-Gees footballer Trevor Monaghan's work with Cree youth in Chisasabi, Que., near James Bay.

  "This is the second year Monaghan has brought kids from Chisasabi. Last year, 17 came made the two-day bus ride. This year, 25 have achieved the school attendance level required to come to camp.
  
  Monaghan is planning to start a summer six-on-six tackle program in Chisasabi, a community that doesn't yet have a dedicated football field.
  
  The camp in Ottawa is spring training for players, whom he hopes will bring their new enthusiasm back to other teens in Chisasabi."

  Monaghan's bio says he played for the Gee-Gees from 1997-99 and again in 2001. One wishes him all the best in his efforts.
  
  
• The indispensable Capital Region Football Blog has an update on the collegiate destination if some local gridders: Guard James Lindsay (Nepean HS/Ottawa Myers Riders) and defensive tackle James Young (Gloucester/Cumberland Panthers) are headed to Acadia; linebacker Kyle Norris (South Carleton High School/Myers) is going to Saint Mary's

(Cross-posted to cisblog.ca.)

Related:
Semi-pro league gives women's hoops a boost (Doug Smith, Toronto Star, May 17)

Hoops: The Vancouver rumour, again

The site's own Andrew Bucholtz has post up at Sporting Madness about rumblings Vancouver Canucks owner Francesco Aquilini is side-eyeing the NBA's financially struggling Indiana Pacers.

Please set aside the obvious knee-jerk reaction — Moving a team from the heartland of basketball to a foreign country? That must be where Gary Bettman got the idea! — since Vancouver returning to pro basketball has been something of a blog obsession.

There likely is nothing to this particular rumour (keep in mind, bloggers have "horrible instincts," according to Jason Whitlock). The point is talk of Vancouver returning to the NBA is probably bound to pop up with increasing regularity, so don't take the easy way out (but we're the snark generation! It's alls we know!) and be dismissive. Several NBA teams struggling and the city has a rising profile and an arena suitable for pro basketball.

Basketball is also pretty big in the province; it probably has the best high school championship in Canada in terms of competitiveness and fan interest outside of the participating teams.

The timing and the tide might be a lot more right than it was in the mid-1990s, when the late and lamented Vancouver Grizzlies were sort of a throw-in along with the Toronto Raptors. Steve Nash's success has also underscored a critical point: The way to stimulate interest in a sport is to have athletes with whom fans see a connection with on the floor. People in Germany might pay more attention to the NBA because their countryman Dirk Nowitzki is starring in the league (hey, what if the Grizzlies had drafted him in 1998?), not because the Sacramento Kings played an exhibition there or something.

Getting back to the point with Vancouver, as someone said 18 months ago:

"... it's not that far-fetched to think Vancouver could accommodate the NBA. The city's profile with Americans is improving and will increase exponentially after the 2010 Olympics. The management team of a future NBA franchise would also learn from mistakes and make sure the players get to know the city better and are put more at ease in a foreign environment. Too often during the Grizzles' run, there were instances of players voicing displeasure with the city, which alienated potential ticket buyers, since everyone knows Vancouver is the greatest city in the world (in fact, that's what everyone in Rome, London and Sydney says too, really)." — Oct. 27, 2007

Anyway, please don't dismiss it out of hand. It is undeniable the national TV ratings for the NBA playoffs have been neglible in Canada. However, pro basketball fandom in Canada is similar to the NHL's following in the U.S. — it's great in the cities where the league operates but you get crickets everywhere else. (And as you know, judging the Raptors on TV ratings is a poor metric.)

You never know. Canada Basketball could certain use another pro team in the country (not to mention a WNBA franchise) to raise the game's corporate profile. The national body is actually soliciting donations on its website to help raise money for young players to go to FIBA tournaments.

Related:
Aquilini to bring Indiana Pacers to Vancouver? (Andrew Bucholtz, Sporting Madness)

The last Bastian of my country right or wrong... or myopia, thy name is...

The Olympics are better off without the Our Way Of Life vs. Theirs claptrap that was part of the presentation any time before 1992.

The spirit of sport and competition, all in the service of helping Coca-Cola, McDonald's and Nike sink their meathooks just a little deeper into the planet, of course, knows no borders. The athletes come off as being much less touched by nationalistic fervour than folks back home (well, at least until China's on top of the medal standings). It's reflection of the reality that so many compete for countries they weren't born in, train and compete outside the country, and have foreign-born coaches. The days of calling Soviet athletes "robots" are long gone.

That's why it's odd and off-putting to read that the old way of thinking hasn't completely died out in the good old U.S. of A. Such is the case with Michael Bastian, the American coach of China's women's fastpitch (not softball) team who's been frozen out for aiding the enemy, so-called.

What hurt most for Bastian was the wedge it put between him and the American women he had coached for so many years. Bastian recalls of one player, "I'd trained her for eight, 10 years. I'm a part of her family, and she was like, 'You gotta understand that you're the enemy now, and the way I play the game is that I hate my enemy, so when we walk on the field and you're representing China, it can’t be the same.' "

(snip)

"It's a lot lower-level than going to war," Mr. (Ronnie) Isham (Director of National Teams for USA Softball) says in an east-Texas drawl. "But when you’re trying to develop a program and a team and an individual to be an elite athlete and contend for a gold medal, and you have somebody who’s your neighbor working with a foreign country to do the same thing, then yes, it is somewhat of a betrayal."

Paraphrasing Evan in Superbad, "Calm down, OK. It's fastpitch." (Not softball.)

A couple hardheaded jocks do not speak for a country of 295 million people. Still, it's odd that it only seems to be Americans who get their star-and-stripes boxer shorts in a bunch over all the nation-hopping Olympians.

Back in March, WNBA player Becky Hammon taking out Russian citizenship in order to play for the Russian women's basketball team honestly didn't seem like a big deal. Most pro basketball leagues overseas have an import quota, so a Russian passport increased Hammon's employability. Why wouldn't she take out citizenship? Hammon's choice didn't even rate major attention outside of women's basketball until U.S. coach Anne Donovan -- either channeling Anne Coulter or being the typical Baby Boomer who believes she knows what's best for Generation X -- shot her mouth off about it.

It's sad that the same myopia is writ large among a few involved with the American women's fastpitch team. It's the one sport that's begging for athletes and coaches without borders. It has been dropped from the Olympics, in part due to the perception that it's not competitive -- the Americans beat the bejesus out of everyone in Athens in 2004 and in Sydney four years earlier. They'll probably have another cakewalk to the gold this time. As After Atalanta points out, "Wouldn't quality coaching -- like the kind offered by USA Softball -- exported to other countries help increase the depth of the sport?"

During the last Winter Olympics that great globalist, Don Cherry, used the U.S. team as a bad example, implying they were the author of their sport's demise as an Olympic event. As you'll recall, when the Canadian media was getting all hand-wringy after our women's hockey team beat Italy 16-0, Cherry said, "If you keep it up, you're committing suicide, they'll throw those games out."

(There would have been no uproar if the men's hockey team beat Italy 16-0. That's for another post.)

One prevailing memory from Turin was of Canadian nordic skier Chandra Crawford breaking her pole during a team pursuit race and getting a new pole from Norway coach Bjornar Haakensmoen. It ultimately meant Canada got a silver medal in the race and a Norwegian tandem was bumped from the bronze to fourth place. It reflected a different way of viewing sport than what most of us in North America have been weaned on: It's about winning, but really, what we're here to do is the honour sport and the spirit of fair competition. (As easily exploited as that might be by a multinational corporation, it goes without saying).

It's a shame that this thinking hasn't penetrated a few thick skulls in States and that women's fastpitch, and the players are poorer for it, hoping to get back into the Olympics for 2016.

Us-vs.-them still has a place in sports, but it's kind of become passe at the Olympics. No doubt there a ton of athletes and coaches who have a throbbing hate-on for their rivals, but it's individual, not ideological. Whatever Adam van Koeverden's motivations to win gold are, sticking it to the Commies ain't one of them. It's better that way.

Of course, if China is atop the medal standings by the end of Week 1, all bets are off.

(Note: The personal bias on this end is for the team sports -- which means really wanting to see Canada win medals in fastpitch and in women's soccer. The latter got a great write-up in the Vancouver Province today.)

Related:
An expat coach's Olympic game plan (Jordan Heller, the Christian Science Monitor, Aug. 1)
Now more than ever, Olympic teams go multinational; Increasingly, athletes are switching national alliances – sometimes for money, but also for better training opportunities (Christa Case Bryant and Danna Harman, the Christian Science Monitor)

Looks like the WNBA made it

The time to call for a moratorium on guys smarting off on the WNBA even though they've never seen a game is long past.

The league tips off its 12th season tomorrow, which admit it, is about nine more more than many of us thought it would last when it began play in 1997. There's no great urge on this end to run out and buy a Candace Parker L.A. Sparks jersey. It has to be acknowledged that league seems to have turned a corner.

Fully half of the league's 14 teams now have stand-alone ownership. The Seattle Storm, who were bought by four local businesswomen after the NBA Sonics were spirited to Oklahoma City, are operated by a former project manager turned sports executive, Karen Bryant, while the L.A. team has a pair of businesswomen, Carla Christofferson and Kathy Goodman, in charge after they bought the team outright from the Lakers after connecting as season-ticket holders.

It's not all sunshine and roses. There is a reality that a lot of sports followers, of both genders, will never follow a women's professional sports league. However, why let that point of view take priority? Clearly, the WNBA's found an audience, it's starting to pick up some major advertisers (the widely publicized rookie orientation where players were given lessons on putting on makeup -- hey, what man hasn't needed some tips on grooming? -- could be read as a sop to squeamish ad execs). Recognizing its success doesn't seem too difficult.

NASH BRIDGES GENDER GAP

Hope everyone saw the story about Steve Nash investing in a new women's professional soccer league.


Obviously, as a progressive in a conservative sports world, Nash comes at life from a different place than about 85-90 per cent of the male team sports athletes. It is also a bit of a sad commentary that this story only jumps out more due to the male athlete investing it, not any of the women who will be playing in the fledgling Women's Professional Soccer League. (If it gets Marta on to North American TV and stadia on a regular basis, that would be a good thing.)

Nash doing this does drive the point home there is an athletic class of women in team sports such as soccer and hockey who have the drive to be professionals and deserve to make a living wage. Men who've been blessed with that same gift should feel compelled to help. Look, 12-13 years people scoffed at the notion of the WNBA, saying stuff like, "If I wanted to watch a bunch of people 5-foot-11 and can't dunk, I'd go organize a pickup game," but the NBA saw an obligation and now it has a pretty healthy subsidiary. (A couple WNBA teams even have stand-alone ownership.)

It can be done. Steve Nash always seems to know where things are headed. It goes without saying this should raise questions about a certain pro sports league very near and dear to Canadians and what it's doing -- or not doing -- to foster the growth of women's hockey.

Related:
Cash splash from Nash (Ben Knight, globesports.com)