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Athletes need to be classy
One of the things you will see me focus on a lot on this blog is the community involvement of the Bills and their classy or classless behavior. On the eve of the 1st ever Bills game in Toronto, the team was found at a pep rally in Toronto for the game. Hanging out with past Bills and fans north of the border to give Toronto a little ownership of the team. Great. Score one point for Bills and Rogers Centre management to coordinate this one.
One another more worldy stage, I would like to point out some classless behavior.
Swedish wrestler Ara Abrahamian threw down his greco-roman bronze medal in protest on Thursday after his bid for Olympic gold was ended by a decision denounced by the Swedish coach as “politics.”
I do not care who you are, but the human element and “politics” have to be expected, especially at an event like the Olympics. Ara Abrahamian is a disgrace to the sporting world and to his country, and if he decides to balk on his talk of quiting the sport completely and he attempts to compete again, hopefully Sweden will tell him to get lost, so that they may maintain some elements of dignity. Just because you thought a decision against you was personal gives you no reason to disrupt an almost sacred act (the medal ceremony) and slap the host nation and your own nation in the face all at the same time.
[...]and if he decides to balk on his talk of quiting the sport completely and he attempts to compete again[...]
Ya know, you could have saved yourself some typing by phrasing the above as “…and if he decides to pull a Brett Favre…”
Anyhoo, didn’t Abrahamian also throw some kind of tantrum at the Athens Games four years ago? The Swedes must have (or at least should have) known this guy was bad news, yet they let him on the team anyway. They deserve each other.
August 14th, 2008 at 9:12 pm