Morning musings: August 17
It’s 2020. Really, now?…
As much as the sad inevitability of BLM already losing steam in our collective consciousness is taking place, I’d like to use this moment to mentally Shift+F5 our consciousness on another larger than sports issue, which is the double-standard and mistreatment of female sports media members.
Too often confined to the back pages, tokenism, or lesser events and leagues, it’s sad to see that, in 2020, there are still members of the sports world perfectly content to publicly launch insults towards women without batting an eye. The latest? Mark Grace.
I’d like to offer a poignant commentary on the matter but the only thing I can muster is a SMH and sad sigh that this kind of attitude is still so pervasive.
The comments field: a place one should never venture…
Professional athletes, politicians, celebrities in general, are unfairly scrutinized, often held to much higher standards than we put on ourselves (with varying degrees of justification or not). All too frequently, however, I have come across the opinion that players’ dedication and priorities are misplaced when the mere idea of not participating in their sport amid this pandemic.
It’s why I want to go even further in celebrating the exceptionally difficult decision by Tuuka Rask to leave his team, mid-playoffs, to be with his family. An elite player, in his prime, on a championship calibre team, is choosing his loved ones over ______, … and let’s be honest, is there any end to this sentence that should not be perfectly acceptable?
Let’s get back to the social progress discussion…
So it’s clear someone spent their Sunday taking in thought pieces on social progress in sports, the best of which might have been this deep dive into Manny Malhotra’s evolution as a player, coach, and human being throughout his professional career.
As an indigenous Canadian, he’s tackled issues in his personal and sporting life I can’t imagine having the strength to overcome. He rose to top of his game and, at the very peak, was forced into the difficult decision of completely redefining himself. I was left ever so impressed by his humility and ability to do so.
It also speaks to the potential for athletes, despite Sir Charles’ take, sports stars can be role models. If you can spare the 15 min, I strongly encourage soaking up every word of his story.
