Big kids should play fair, too

It should have been in the police blotter, not the sports section: Nehemiah Ingram, 22, assaulted John Bryant, 22, on Tuesday, Feb. 22, 2005 in Philadelphia, Pa. As a result of the attack, Bryant suffered a broken arm.

Ingram was not arrested or even charged for this incident, despite the presence of a prosecutor's dream — seven thousand eyewitnesses. Because Ingram is a forward for the men's basketball team at Temple and Bryant a forward for St. Joseph's, this case will probably avoid the criminal court system entirely.

When Temple head coach John Chaney sent Ingram, a rarely-used senior, onto the court, his mission was not to lead a comeback. His objective was to retaliate for what Chaney felt were illegal screens that the referees weren't calling.

"I'm sending a message," Chaney said immediately following Temple's 63-56 loss to St. Joe's. "I'm going to send in what we used to do years ago — send in the goon."

It's fitting — or perhaps ironic — that the game was played a week prior to March 1, the day designated as the 15th celebration of National Sportsmanship Day. This year's theme is "Defeating Gamesmanship," which is defined as "the use of ethically dubious methods to gain an objective."

Translation? It's the same admonition that countless boys and girls have hurled at playmates: "Play fair."

Children seem to understand that fair play applies to games ranging from Hide-and-Seek and Capture the Flag to sandlot touch-football. Even in the absence of strict rules, children promote and embrace the concepts of fair play.

And yet, big kids have forgotten or are ignoring these basic principles.

It's not just Chaney instructing his players to retaliate. Stories of gamesmanship have dominated the sports pages as of late, none more so than the Major League Baseball scandal — an indisputable "ethically dubious method" of improving performance.

All together, it raises an important question: Is fair play an outmoded principle for collegiate and professional sports?

A few years ago, the major issue with sportsmanship concerned parental rage during children's sporting events. Now, it seems the challenge is to reteach some coaches and players that, though all may be fair in love and war, sports are not life-or-death events. Even in the competitive world of sports entertainment, a victory fairly attained is more worthy than one captured by dubious means.

Fortunately, protectors of fair play continue to abound. There is an almost total absence of support for Chaney's actions last week. Though debate rages about the equity of his punishment, the clear message to all is that what he did was wrong and must not be tolerated.

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Most players and coaches understand where that fair play line is and when "dubious methods" undermine sportsmanship. But as Chaney's transgression and other recent examples demonstrate, not everyone gets the idea.

Where does this leave Bryant, a senior whose injury will cause him to miss the rest of the season? After being suspended for only three games by Temple, Chaney came up with a harsher self-imposed punishment — prohibition from coaching in the Atlantic-10 Championship Tournament. Chaney stated that because Bryant could not play, he should not coach, showing admirable sensitivity but doing little to preserve the last games of Bryant's basketball career.

It will take more than punishment and penalty to reinstill those childhood concepts of fair play and sportsmanship throughout collegiate and professional sports. Until this is achieved, though, the publicity that bad apples receive will continue to overshadow the ideals of fair play.