Rest in peace Muhammad Ali, a huge influence to this Squawker! No, not the boxing stuff. The sass! I was too young to remember most of his most famous fights (I remember Leon Spinks and Larry Holmes more than I do Joe Frazier or George Foreman.) But I do remember him giving great interviews, and having all sorts of funny, boastful things to say. When I was 11, around the time of him fighting Spinks, I saw some particularly outrageous comments in the paper. So I took the family tape recorder and recorded myself doing an Ali-type voice, reading the quotes. My brothers eventually found the cassette and mocked me mercilessly for this impression. I was embarrassed at the time, but now I kind of wish I still had the tape!
Anyhow, lots of people in the sports world wrote tributes to Ali last weekend. One of them was Derek Jeter, who penned — or had his ghostwriter pen — a tribute to Ali at Jeter’s The Players’ Tribune site. Jeter said that he heard stories about the boxer from his father, and that he met Ali a few times. Then he wrote a few words about Ali’s influence on him, and on other athletes:
“He was one of the first athletes to speak his mind, and that opened the door for the many who do so today. He always stood up for what he believed, no matter what the cost.
“Ali was also the first to bring real personality to sports, and by that I mean he was always himself, no matter who he was with or where he was.
“He freed us all in that way.”
New York Daily News sportwriter Ebenezer Samuel took offense to Jeter writing this. In a strongly worded, vitriolic column, Samuel was pretty tough on the former Yankee shortstop, saying: “Never had such eloquent words of Jeter’s PR flaks rung quite this hollow, the most inauthentic athlete of our time celebrating the most genuine.”
“Forget personality, Derek. It was how Ali utilized his personality and charisma that mattered. It was Ali’s willingness to tell everyone that “No Vietcong ever called me n—–,” (words that no journalist could ever spin) that made his “personality” so great, not his ability to use that personality to garner the endorsements of Jeter, the human MLB bobblehead.
“For two decades in pinstripes, Jeter wanted no part of authenticity. He made a career out of not speaking his mind, unless Gatorade or Rawlings or the Steiner Sports memorabilia machine were paying him to speak on their behalf. For 20 years, he stood in front of his locker and addressed the media and stood only for his right to stand for absolutely nothing.”
Samuel also called Jeter “the anti-Ali,” and said the Yankee “stood completely out of place paying tribute to Ali’s greatness outside the ring,” especially in comparison with LeBron James, Chris Paul, and other athletes “who have used their platforms to push real change.” He says their standing up on racial issues are examples of the boxer’s legacy, while Jeter, “the blank Yankee billboard who spent his career waiting to be bought, had nothing to do with Muhammad Ali’s legacy at all.”
Samuel ends his column this way:
“But maybe that’s not Jeter’s fault. Because on Saturday, Derek Jeter, at his most tone-deaf and most generic, proved that he doesn’t have anything useful to say, anyway.”
Wow! And people think I’m harsh on No. 2!
Look, I think Samuel has a few good points. But I also object to a few things as well.
I agree that it does seem ridiculous for Jeter to talk about how Ali “freed us all” to have a personality in sports, when the Yankee captain never really exhibited a personality as a Yankee. Not to mention how The Players’ Tribune, the ghostwritten, “state-run media” for athletes, has such bland pablum for most of the “exclusive” articles it touts at the site. (And lack of fact checkers, too. Their “first-person” piece on Francisco Cervelli had him say he “wasn’t even on the postseason roster” in 2009, when he actually did play in the ALDS and ALCS! How does an athlete forget that he played in postseason games?)
And for Jeter to say that Ali “was also the first to bring real personality to sports” is both ridiculous and untrue. Really, Derek? Ever hear of a guy named Babe Ruth, dude? Or how about Ted Williams, Satchel Paige, Jack Dempsey, Ty Cobb, Bill Russell, Jackie Robinson, to name a few? C’mon now.
That being said, I think it’s unfair for Samuel to say that Jeter “stood only for his right to stand for absolutely nothing.” Not only did No. 2 make a big contribution to making the world better with his expertly run Turn 2 Foundation, with $20 million in grants given out to help healthy lifestyle programs for children, but Jeter was a great role model.
Yes, Ali actually stood for something. He missed over three of the prime years of his career due to his stance against the Vietnam War, and was willing to go to jail if he had to. And his stance also arguably cost him his health. Because he ended up competing in matches he may not have otherwise taken, in order to recoup the huge financial loss he suffered from missing those years — not to mention the legal costs.
But you know how many athletes have done what Ali did? Very few. Ever. A few people, like Curt Flood and John Carlos, did sacrifice for their beliefs. But I’d argue nobody did quite what Ali did. Which is why we still talk about it, nearly 50 years later. It’s like Ted Williams playing in a doubleheader in 1941 when he could have sat the games out and gotten .400. (He ended up playing both games and finishing with a .406 batting average.) We still talk about *that* because it’s so rare.
Anyhow, I do find it a little odd for a member of the media to call out Jeter for a lack of bravery when most of them weren’t exactly profiles in courage when it came to calling him out when he was actually playing. You can name on one hand and still have a finger or two left to count the writers who criticized Jeter for being a jerk to A-Rod over the years and hurting the team. Or the ones who criticized his self-aggrandizing endless retirement tour.
Michael Jordan got a lot of grief for reportedly saying that Republicans buy sneakers, too, which is why he didn’t take public political stances.
But you know what? Think about the flipside of Ali. There is a now-retired pro athlete who fits Jeter’s description of someone who is unafraid to speak his mind, no matter what the cost. Who is always himself. That person would be Curt Schilling. After the bloody sock game(s), when he was practically deified in New England, he campaigned to get George W. Bush re-elected that fall, putting Schilling’s popularity on the line in a political contest. And for that, he was called “divisive” by some of the very same people in the media praising Ali for his political views.
That’s the thing. It all depends on whose ox is being gored. If sportswriters think it’s important for athletes like Derek Jeter to take stands on the big issues of our time, then they should think about how they would feel if Jeter supported things they despised.
Squawker readers know there are a bunch of things I think Jeter has done that I didn’t like, such as those obnoxious, obsequious commercials with everybody kissing his tuchis, but can I fault him for not taking a political stance? No. Part of having freedom in this country is the right to keep one’s mouth shut.
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