Sports Sometimes Don't Stink (Before They Quickly Stink Again)

by Dan Masterton

I have always been big into sports – playing, coaching, watching.

After getting married and becoming a parent, two big things changed.

First, I deprioritized watching sports to de-crowd my time for my family. As much as I’d love to turn on every Chicago and Notre Dame game, I know that my kids won’t be able to resist staring at the screen and that I will struggle to multi-task and play with them the way they deserve. I still make appointment viewing out of playoffs, bowl games, and the opening weekend of March Madness, among others, but I just don’t watch as much and follow as closely as I used to do. And that’s mostly ok.

Second, I’ve learned to be a fan differently. My wife, Katherine, was a good enough sport to get mildly into hockey and the Chicago Blackhawks as we dated. She gained an understanding of hockey and can watch analytically, and she got to know some of the star players and big stories. At the same time though, she openly vented about how bad sports fans can be in objectifying players. Regularly, she’d hear me and others criticize players personally, get mad about their contracts, suggest they retire or request a trade, or worse. Her idea: acknowledge their humanity and focus on that first. Criticize their play if you must, but don’t criticize or demean the person. Seems so simple, right? It’s a tough habit to break, but I’m grateful for her influence on me here.

So with this evolving mindset, I may not watch and follow like I used to do, but I certainly read plenty still. And there’s lots to be upset about right now.

Major League Baseball owners and players just completed an acrimonious owner-induced lockout. Even if the players are certainly the more sympathetic side, it still disillusions me as the upper-class and super-upper-class quibble over money, only making the consumption of baseball for fans and families more and more expensive.

The NFL’s Cleveland Browns just shelled out a ridiculous amount of draft picks and record-shattering guaranteed money to acquire a talented quarterback who has an extraordinarily significant quantity and quality of sexual misconduct allegations hanging over his head. And the team claims to have vetted him thoroughly without speaking directly to his accusers or their direct representation. This becomes yet another example of on-field performance overshadowing misconduct off the field.

And our Chicago Blackhawks are slowly limping out of one of the most disgusting sexual assault incidents and mishandlings in modern sports, which directly impacted our own players as well as subsequent athletes who our former coach then preyed upon.

I think bad news is bad news. We don’t have to rub our noses in it; we shouldn’t ignore it entirely. I try to absorb it, think critically on it, blow some steam. And I also try to look for good, even if it’s elsewhere. Luckily, there were two stories of what I’d consider uncommon good elsewhere in Chicago sports this week.

In baseball, the Cubs closed the deal that brought Japanese slugger and outfielder Seiya Suzuki to town. He will make $85 million over five years, and the Cubs will pay his former team in Japan over $10 million to release his rights. The good news here? (Other than generational wealth for the Suzuki family?)

Seiya was a big fish in the free agent market, and many teams wanted him to come to their clubhouse. The Cubs made their pitch over Zoom and then in person, when the general manager, owner, and manager paid a visit, in addition to a future Cubs teammate making his personal pitch through their shared agent.

When Suzuki vetted the Cubs, he spoke with former Cubs pitcher Yu Darvish, one of the best Japanese players ever to come over to MLB. The Cubs famously traded Darvish away, shedding his large contract while obtaining very young prospects whose potential contributions would be many years away. It was sad for fans who loved Yu and knew he was a big part of any success we might gain, and probably a bit sad for Yu who had endeared himself to the fans and become quite beloved in Chicago.

Nonetheless, when asked about the Cubs, Yu gave Seiya a glowing review and assured him he’d be well supported – something you might not expect, given it was an unrequested trade that sent him out to San Diego. It was consoling to me to see Darvish – who remains a good pitcher, a wealthy man, and a fan favorite of a person – set aside any potential bad taste to tell the truth to a fellow countryman looking to make the same difficult leap Darvish had taken a few years back. The Cubs also delayed the formalization of the deal until they could arrange a secret visit to Wrigley Field for him, complete with custom greetings on the giant video boards. (Bleacher Nation collected some of the best notes here, and linked to a couple great articles about the effort to sign Seiya.)

Over on the west side, the Chicago Blackhawks, while also reassembling their social credibility, have to reassemble a hockey roster, and soon hire a new coach. With the trade deadline looming, a few names on our roster were obvious candidates to be shipped out to play for a competitive team, and also net the Hawks some assets that could help us down the line. The chief candidate was Marc-Andre Fleury, our veteran goalie.

Fleury is a particularly potent case when it comes to objectifying athletes. To some extent, athletes are paid handsomely to tolerate lots of travel, being traded (or negotiate clauses against it), spending long stretches away from family, etc.; yet, they are still owed respect and decency, in my opinion. Last summer, Fleury’s former team, the Las Vegas Golden Knights, needed to trade him and the final year of his $7 million annual salary. The Blackhawks had space for his contract and a need for a good goalie, so they completed the deal. The issue?

Fleury had joined the Knights through the expansion draft, after playing the first decade of his career in Pittsburgh. He had lost his job there, and the Knights communicated with the Penguins about selecting Fleury. He had time to prepare for the transition and deeply embraced the chance to start fresh. He quickly fell in love with Vegas and became the face of their brand new franchise. He imagined he’d play the balance of his career in Vegas, allowing his family to maintain its stability, and retire there. Unfortunately, his contract became one of the easier ways for them to do the necessary rework of their roster, so he was likely headed out. They just… didn’t talk to him about it. He got sent to the Hawks abruptly and without communication. Initially, he didn’t think he’d report, instead just foregoing that last $7 million and retiring. The Hawks’ leadership met with him and helped him gain comfort about coming to Chicago, which he ultimately did and quickly endeared himself to a new team and fan base.

The Hawks handled the trade deadline differently for him, and with him, essentially offering him veto power. The team and the player agreed on Minnesota as a potential landing spot, and they were interested. Fleury could join a playoff team and remain reasonably close to Chicago, where he could have his wife and children remain for the school year, with an easy route to visit for the last few months. For their trouble, the Hawks netted a big draft pick and space to play younger goalies. Good stuff all around.

Greed, misconduct, and more do much to muddy the waters of competition and spectating that should be a fun escape. I’m grateful I’m not as compartmentalized as I once was, and can find and value these moments of humanity tucked into the nooks and crannies of a complex landscape. Sports often stink. Then, for a minute, they don’t. And it’s neat to acknowledge and savor it, before they stink again.