“…you've got to stand for something or you'll fall for anything…”
Dateline: Between the banks
“Win or lose, do it fairly.” – Knute Rockne
Imagine this, at least half of everyone I interviewed during my gig at ESPN…lied to me.
AT LEAST.
Half.
For 15 years my job as an Investigative Producer for Sportscenter and Outside The Lines was to cover sports crime. Dig out the lying, the cheating, the rule breaking in a high stakes game of chicken in epic proportions.
Lets be clear here, I got death threats covering sports.
Right now, actually at this moment, I have friends, past colleagues at ESPN who are chasing down leads, pouring through documents, working ungodly hours and dealing with the part of humanity that lives and deals in the shade, men and women like you and me who will put themselves in harms way for that 6 minute investigative piece you will watch on the Sunday morning Sportscenter block.
And since I did it and got rewarded for it, and since they are doing it and doing it well let me tell you why I did it, why they are doing it: The Integrity of the Game.
Don’t matter what game you love, you want it to be straight. On the up-and-up.
I never left Bristol, I never wrote a story without you in mind. When you watch your favorite sport you need to know in your heart, it is pure.
When all around us, politicians, big business have questionable ethics, or no ethics at all, we come to sport as an escape, as a TRUSTED escape.
Without that trust, there is no need for the games.
If you take nothing from all the stuff I write, please, please take this…you need to root for the integrity of your game as much, if not more, than you root for those who play that game.
Trust me.
“…never compromise what's right …”
Every once in a while all of us within the game, whatever game it may be, those of us who write of the games, who police the games, who own the games, who play the games, I believe all of us need to periodically get together and do a “system reset’ of the game.
We need to leave our dogs in the fight, home.
We need to look at our game from a fan point of view, from an integrity point of view. We will become better for it, the game will become better for it.
Whatever game it is, those in it cannot be above it.
Sure, over the course of the last few tournaments we have had some issues, I don’t have my head in the sand over that but as a former sports investigative dude I have asked no formal questions, seek no formal answers, as the popular saying goes, “it is what it is,” and it ain’t in my wheelhouse.
Read not between the lines, I don’t dance.
This column though is about integrity. It is about what we do when no one is looking. When no one can see.
For the record I believe that the Bassmaster Elite anglers are elite when it comes to competing and integrity.
No one is around them more than I am, no one knows them more than I do, and yeah things happen, the heat of competition can blind, the financial aspects of all this can blind, ego can blind, but ask yourself this, when was the last time an NBA player stopped a fast break down the court to hand the ball to the referee saying, “Oops, yep, I traveled, you missed it but I did it.”
I covered the NFL for awhile never saw an Offensive Lineman hold up his hand and walk over to the line judge and tell him, “Sorry, I was holding on that play, you need to call it.”
Integrity is when you penalize yourself.
I have heard stories of Skeet Reese doing exactly that, of Edwin Evers doing it, of Shaw Grigsby telling of an infraction and getting DQ’ed and knocked out of the Bassmaster Classic because of his integrity.
This weekend though, I lived through it, lived through the integrity, the honesty, the devastation of doing the right thing no matter whether it was the right thing for the person or not.
My roommate on the road, Paul Elias had six fish in his livewell, when he realized his mistake he called in and reported it, the penalty, 2 pounds were knocked off his catch.
Listen to what it meant to my friend:
He says it knocked him out of the game for 2 hours, I live with him, I saw firsthand how it beat him up, I know he lost sleep over it, I know it cost him more than 2 hours, it cost him the tournament.
And I know it is still eating him up.
Picture this, it is Saturday morning, we, myself, Paul & Shaw Grigsby, we have rented a lakeside house here on Lake Guntersville, Shaw is out competing, Paul is sitting at the dinning room table with me drinking coffee.
Behind him an Elite boat idles into the creek and the angler flips to the dock of the house we are staying in.
Paul never turns around to look, he just stares at me and says…
“d, it comes down to you, you know not you, but me, it comes down to me, it is my personal integrity that is on the line here, I’m the one who has to look in the mirror.”
Paul sips his coffee, bows his head and rubs his face with his hands, “In the end ‘d,’ it could be horrible those 2 pounds could cost me $20,000…ten-thousand dollars a pound.”
And, left unsaid, those two pounds could eliminate him from fishing the 2016 Bassmaster Classic.
“…and uphold your family name…”
“It is like the Scales of Justice, you are faced with a decision, internally you weigh all the factors, toss up do you say nothing and go for the win and the money, or do you go with that little voice in the back of your head…”
This has been a learning experience for me, even with 30 years in the biz, old dogs can still pick up some new tricks.
I got schooled in integrity these last couple of days.
I watched a professional athlete, a Bassmaster Classic winner, a Bass Fishing Hall of Fame inductee, a friend agonize, beat his self up over what he did, but never once did he say HE REGRETTED TURNING HIMSELF IN.
“…back of your head, I couldn’t live with myself, couldn’t look in the mirror…”
Grumble about us, its okay, sure it stings but that is good too. If we are to assume our place as one of the great all American sports we need to listen to the criticism as well as the praise, maybe even more so.
I know firsthand, the goal is to be honorable. We take our bumps, we take our lumps but I haven’t found out here one person out to deceive you.
Had I ever, I wouldn’t be here.
“…couldn’t look in the mirror…because you know what ‘d,’ you know the bottom line, the bottom line is that integrity is the backbone of the sport, without that no one will give a crap about us, or the game.”
“…whatever you do today you'll have to sleep with tonight.”
You’ve Got To Stand For Something
Aaron Tippin
"What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us."
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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