In a football game this season between Digital Harbor and Reginald F Lewis high schools in Baltimore, an act of sportsmanship and generosity showed that high school athletics is about much more than winning or losing.
“Dream come true for Reginald Lewis team manager Michael Gardner, a cancer survivor with a prosthetic leg who scored a touchdown on his first day in a Falcons’ uniform, thanks to the generosity of Lewis coach Donte’ Foster, Digital Harbor coach William Brandon, and all of the players,” the Baltimore Sun wrote.
According to a video attached to the story, the two coaches had agreed to a score swap at the beginning of the game in order to give Gardner a chance to feel what it’s like to score a touchdown in a real football game, despite having had one leg amputated when he was 8 in order to prevent the spread of bone cancer.
He took a handoff and scored a touchdown on the first play from scrimmage and then scored on the 2-point conversion after the touchdown. Then Digital Harbor scored a touchdown going the other way, made the game even, and, in the process, fulfilled a wish.
Moved to tears, Gardner told the Sun that crossing the goal line was “like waking up on Christmas morning.”
The ugly side of non-sportsmanship
Baltimore Sun columnist Don Rodricks said this sportsmanship was a strong contrast to the lack of sportsmanship shown by the captains from the University of Maryland football team in yesterday’s Big Ten match-up against Penn State. Captains PJ Gallo, Stefon Diggs, and Sean Davis refused to shake hands with Penn State’s captains before the game.
The Big Ten conference issued the following statement:
The decision by Maryland team captains to not shake hands with Penn State team captains during the pregame coin toss ceremony was exceptionally regrettable. For many, many decades the intercollegiate pregame handshake has been in place to reflect a spirit of good will and utmost appreciation for your opponent, the game and the institutions that sponsor your sport. Selection as a team captain is an honor that carries with it a greater responsibility to act in a manner consistent with those principles.
It is our opinion that the pregame handshake isn’t the place for trash talking; it is the place for, at a minimum, civility. The venerable University of Maryland should immediately dismiss these three players as captains and should take a lesson from the high school football story described above for information as to how respect is shown to players, fans, and institutions of higher learning.
The conference fined the school $10,000 and suspended Stefon Diggs for one game as a result of his role in a pregame skirmish, ESPN reports.
Here was Diggs’s exact statement:
I sincerely apologize for my conduct prior to kickoff this weekend. I let my emotions get the best of me and did not properly represent myself as student-athlete and leader of the University of Maryland football team. My behavior towards the officiating crew and the Penn State football team were unacceptable. I take accountability for my actions and will do everything I can to support my teammates in preparation for our next game against Michigan State.
What is unclear to me from his statement that he “let [his] emotions get the best of” him is whether he means he was unable to control his emotions or unwilling to control his emotions. Of course, this statement might have nothing to do with the actual facts of Diggs controlling his emotions, but it is interesting that he lists that as the reason why he acted aggressively and disrespectfully toward other people.
Some traumatic brain injuries suffered by football players, in the course of play or practice, have been linked to those players’ inability to control their emotions and the ensing violent behavior that often follows.
A study last month out of Boston University found a possible link between traumatic brain injuries and behavioral changes that may include domestic violence. Dr Ann McKee, et al, write in the Journal of Neuropathology and Experimental Neurology that chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, “is associated with memory disturbances, behavioral, and personality changes.” CTE is involved when football players suffer concussions or other non-fatal brain damage.
And although specific behavioral changes aren’t listed in the report from this current study, Dr McKee and others have documented the personality changes from CTE very well in previous work. The changes, scientists say, may include apathy, depression, irritability, impulsiveness, and an increased desire to commit suicide.
The notions of impulsiveness and irritability are practically defined by an inability to control one’s emotions. It’s just interesting that Diggs said he let his emotions get the best of him and he’s a captain on the college football team, probably the victim of a few blows to the head.
There’s still no excuse for his behavior, just as there can be no excuse for Ray Rice’s behavior in the Atlantic City elevator, but more study is needed to understand the seemingly increasing rate at which good football players are unable to control their emotions.
