By MONTE DUTTON
Here’s a scoop. There are things out there that I can’t figure out.
I can’t figure out why it apparently bothers so many people that the world’s best tight end is seeing the world’s most famous woman. Traaaaviiiis … Way to go, dude. Did folks get this bent out of shape when Joe DiMaggio married Marilyn Monroe?
Since when do ballplayers and musicians and movie stars have no right to their opinions? Everybody in America has a right to his or her opinion. It is the height of hyprocrisy for a pipefitter in Kankakee — who spends a good deal of his (or her) free time providing the world with his opinions on social media — to demand that Taylor Swift – or Sean Hannity or Stephen Colbert or Charles Barkley or Meryl Streep or Beyonce or Chuck Norris or various and sundry Kardashians – shut up.
They’re celebs because folks pay attention to them. No one is forcing agreement.
Most folks don’t mind opinions as long as they are their opinions. Most fans raising hell about Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift probably didn’t like the Kansas City Chiefs anyway.
And they have a right to their opinions, too.
Let freedom ring. Don’t let it rattle. Too many people put a great deal of thought into what they believe, then decide everybody else has to believe the same things.
Too many people take personal responsibility for nothing. We live in a world of faults and responsibilities.
On fourth down, a receiver drops a pass. It’s the player’s fault. It’s the head coach’s responsibility. His job is not to catch the pass. His job is to call the play and have the ball thrown to a receiver who will catch it because he has learned how to do so.
As a general rule, coaches bear this responsibility. They shield their athletes. It’s considered bad form not to. But they can’t make the shots or score the touchdowns. Their role is to find athletes who make big plays and put them in position to do so.
“Culture” is one of those overused words that inexplicably become linked to sports.
- the arts and other manifestations of human intellectual achievement regarded collectively:
“20th century popular culture”
- the customs, arts, social institutions, and achievements of a particular nation, people, or other social group:
- BIOLOGY
the cultivation of bacteria, tissue cells, etc. in an artificial medium containing nutrients:
“the cells proliferate readily in culture”
- maintain (tissue cells, bacteria, etc.) in conditions suitable for growth:
“several investigators have attempted to culture biliary cells”
Not a lot of sports there.
Young athletes pay too little attention to where they want to go to college. They end up, in many cases, going to whichever school wants them.
When I went to college, I went to a school I liked. I still like it. I go back every chance I get.
When kids commit to a school, reporters typically ask them why, and most of the time, they have a hard time coming up with an answer.
I just like the people. I like the coaches.
A kid should go where he likes the business department. Or the math department. Or the biology department. Or at least one department that is not the athletic one.
Furman is successful in sports because most of its athletes like being there.
Athletes who don’t enjoy being there have many more opportunities nowadays to move.
It isn’t new that athletes go to school to play ball. What’s new is the revolving door.
The young man or woman who said he was going to to State because it was his lifelong dream now moves on to Tech because it’s offering a grand more in NIL money.
I remember a signing many years ago when a blue-chip athlete announced where he was going to school. Asked why, he said he wanted to be a criminal-justice major.
“Oh, so, you want to be a police officer?”
Nah, man, Ima be a lawyer.
He didn’t even know what his chosen major was.
Going where he or she likes the coaches has a flaw. What happens when the coaches move? What happens when the coach has no interest in taking the athlete with him?
He or she is back to square one.
Thanks so much for the contributions. I’m aware that folks appreciate what I do, particularly the kids, coaches, parents and fans.
Blue, Green, Purple & Red cannot solely be funded by advertising. There’s not enough room.
I used to list an address to send a check (DHK Sports, P.O. Box 768, Clinton, S.C. 29325). I finally got it through my thick head that not that many people write checks nowadays. For example, me. A more convenient means is sending a contribution to DHK Sports on Venmo. It keeps the site going, both in the balance sheet and on the road.
Support the advertisers, and help keep the site – the game stories, the blogs, the photos – alive. If you choose, make a monthly donation via Patreon. The Laurens County site is here. The Furman site is here.
Or, indirectly, purchase my books at MonteDutton.net. They’re entertaining in spite of the fellow who wrote them. Two of my novels, Cowboys Come Home and Lightning in a Bottle, are available in audio versions. The latest, The Latter Days, is about baseball. I’m closing in on a 10th novel.
Photo galleries are posted on Instagram @furmanatt and @laurenscountysports.
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