Character (Un) Revealed?
Article by Dr. Jesse Godding
Dr. Jesse Godding, the Athletic Director at Nelson University and a man I deeply admire, sent me an email after I published “What Replay Can’t Fix” a few months ago. His response was so well thought out and thought provoking that I asked if I could run it here. He agreed.
Before you read it, one thing from me. I am by no means perfect in dealing with bad calls or officials. But I believe bad calls and having to deal with perceived unfairness is one of the lessons sport is supposed to teach. Jesse takes that further than I did, and I think he’s right.
Character (Un)revealed? by Dr. Jesse Godding
Recently there was an article posted concerning video replay and the lessons that could be learned. As usual, the insights provided were challenging and profitable. I am in the camp of grudgingly accepting the inevitability of video replay becoming entrenched into various team sports. Concurrently, I bemoan the cost to small, cash-strapped athletic departments. Like other technology costs, the initial investment and subscription costs will slowly escalate under the guise of better capability and a rewarding student-athlete experience. Full transparency, within the athletic department I oversee there are detractors on my opinion of the cost not being worth the benefit.
As stated, the comments on the profitable aspects of video replay are insightful. As I read the article I thought about possible byproducts of video replay that may be cause for lament in character development in athletics. These are items that athletics will miss as video replay overtakes humans.
Athletics reveals character and provides opportunities for positive or negative (unfortunately) character development. Since the inception of sport someone has been arguing a ruling made by an official. Participants have had to live with the capacity to be wronged and the consequences of not having a redress of wrongs in the sport arena. The opportunity to have character revealed and learn from being on the negative side of an official’s ruling has been both an individual and corporate lesson for performers and teams.
Enter video replay. Like an over protective parent, video replay swoops in to set right the perceived injustices done to student-athletes. Let’s ensure this call is correct so student-athletes, coaches, and fans will not have to deal with the character revealed through a negative (or positive) officials ruling. This byproduct of video replay robs athletics of one of the great opportunities for character development. When video replay is introduced, it makes game calls more accurate, and makes games less like the microcosm of life we hear so much about from proponents of character-based athletics.
The reality is life’s rulings are not always fair and just. For generations of us who played athletics prior to video replay, part of the athletics is a microcosm of life mantra was things were not always fair and just. Line calls were missed, basketballs out of bounds were awarded incorrectly to the wrong team, and fumbles weren’t fumbles in that microcosm. We would all like a world where injustice does not exist, and the wrong is always righted. That is not the life we participate in unfortunately. Other people get the job, the recognition, or favor. Doctor’s reports don’t always come back with no issues. The generations of student-athletes and coaches prior to video replay knew this and adapted (or didn’t) to the call made by the officials.
Does video replay, in fact, hurts character development. In a pre-video replay athletic arena, coaches taught how to overcome unanticipated “wrongs.” Anger, frustration, resolve to persevere and a myriad of other emotions needed to be dealt with and appropriately channeled for participants to maintain the civility to continue participation. This is now replaced with mechanical civility as participants in the athletic arena need only turn to the monitor and avoid the developmental aspects of dealing with emotion in a productive manner.
How unfortunate that the lesson of video replay steals from student-athletes about real life is replaced by a lesson that there is no reason in life for you to struggle through an injustice or overcome something that is no fault of your own. For years I heard it stated that life was not a video game where you could just hit the reset button. We know that is true, but another opportunity to learn that lesson for college athletes is now gone as video replay swoops in to right the wrongs of athletic injustice.
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