Yellow Journalism and Maroon Jerseys

Couple of things to wrap up that have really been bugging me the last few days on two different topics.

First, yesterday's Daily Southtown ran with a full-color photo above the fold, with one the most inflammatory headlines I've seen since the San Francisco Examiner ran with "BASTARDS!" after 9/11. Not to compare the two events at all, but rather the objectivity and inherent message of the headlines. The Southtown's headline, "ARE THESE FANS DANGEROUS?" took up nearly half the page, and the article did nothing to help an already tense situation between Chicago Fire front office, fans, and Toyota Park security.

Among the errors, albeit somewhat forgiveable...
1.) Section 8 Chicago does not have a membership base. It is akin to saying that any college's student section has "members." It's just the location where we all sit.
2.) No flares have ever been lit or thrown on the field during any MLS match at Toyota Park.
3.) There is a difference between a flare and a smoke bomb. One is dangerous in close proximity. One is not.
4.) Section 8 has never organized violence, despises racism, and doesn't use the games as an excuse for a political platform or chance to fight like other groups around the world.

The headline and article did nothing to disspell the worst, most negative stereotypes of soccer fans.

The Section 8 PR aside, it's time to focus on something else that has been bothering me, and that is the manner in which professional sports teams are responding to the Virginia Tech massacre last week.

This weekend, Houston Dynamo and DC United will wear special Virginia Tech-inspired jerseys, and auction them off with the proceeds going to the Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund. Dynamo have gone one step further and have offered to donate $8 from every ticket sold after entering "VT" as a promotion code online to the fund.

Don't get me wrong, I think it's great that the teams are chipping in to help the victims of this terrible tragedy, however, I'm not entirely sure how I feel about the way they're going about doing it (stay with me, here). I mean, it's not as if the issue is starving for media attention. For example, the US Women's National Team will wear pink-trimmed jerseys on Mothers Day, Major League Baseball will follow with pink bats to raise awareness. Even though Breast Cancer is a terrible illness and killer, it still needs to be kept in the public eye because of its subtlety and inherent "non-news-worthiness." Follow? Coverage of the Virginia Tech slayings was the opposite of subtlety, everyone knew about it within hours, so no one is at a loss for awareness of the event.

On the sports side of things, I really don't like it when teams change their colors for one-off games just for the hell of it. It reeks of minor league sports. I mean, imagine if Marquette said, "For our game on Valentine's Day, we're going to wear red and white jerseys." There would be an uproar at wearing rival UW-Madison's colors. The Bulls-Celtics game last march looked like an intersquad scrimmage. That just bugs me to begin with.

But back to my main point, and that's "the way to chip in to help Virginia Tech." When the Washington Nationals took the field the day after the tragedy wearing maroon and orange VaTech caps, I thought that was a nice gesture, much in the same way that the Yankees wore caps honoring the efforts of the NYPD and FDNY after 9/11. (I'm not sure if those caps were auctioned off, but they should have been.) It was a show of solidarity because these teams were ingrained in the fabric of their communities that had suffered a tragedy. On that night last week on East Capitol Street, I'd imagine there were more than a few Virginia Tech alums in the crowd or watching the game on TV. However, Dynamo and United are going about their charity the wrong way.

Again, don't get me wrong, I love that the teams are chipping in and sending donations to the Memorial Fund, but what connection to the VaTech community does HOUSTON have?

Likewise, if DC United wanted to do something similar to the gesture the Nationals gave last week, why not wear it at their next home game (1 week from today), instead of on the road this weekend against Columbus? I'm not saying this was the team's intention, but someone unfamiliar to the discussions might say that teams like Dynamo with no connection to Virginia Tech other than through the news broadcasts are piggybacking the coverage and the tragedy to grab the spotlight for themselves, and use people's sympathy for the victims to sell more tickets (They're giving 8 bucks from each ticket to the fund, but only if you enter a code and buy them online. I wonder if they're offering the same cut from those fans' parking and concessions revenue to Virginia Tech.)

If the teams wanted to hold a fundraiser or make a donation through their charitable arm, that's fantastic. Way to go. But when a team changes their colors (and in Houston's case, to that of one of their rivals!) it looks like someone dropping money in a Salvation Army bucket at Christmas, and yelling to anyone within earshot to come and take a look at how much he's giving.

That's my $0.02.