Monday, 7/14/97 Tyson’s ear bite makes sense in violent sport,
violent society OPINION: Brutal sports have distracted fans from
politics since Roman era
All it took was one bite at the Las Vegas carnival to create an
outpouring of emotions. Most of us were raging mad. Most of us felt
disgusted. Most of us were shocked. With Holyfield’s dented ear
plastered on the cover of Sports Illustrated, most of us wanted
Tyson to pay. I did not. Now, do not call me cold-hearted or mean,
but when I heard what Mike Tyson did in his boxing match, I
laughed. I smirked, then smiled, then laughed. People were calling
Tyson a barbarian, an animal. But Tyson is not a barbarian (Conan
holds that duty) nor an animal (actually, he is a mammal). Tyson
gave America what they wanted: something new in violence, a better
way to vent their discord at the world. What do you expect? Two
guys pounding at each other, trying to cave in each other’s skulls:
why would a bite be considered animalistic? Turn on ESPN and you
will hear the boxing commission complaining that Tyson ruined the
sport. Funny statement. I thought hitting someone till they fall to
the ground is more detrimental to the sport than a human bite.
However, the humorous part is that every sport in the world is just
like boxing. But, you may say, how could soccer be the same as the
ultimate fighting championships? How can baseball be the same as
high-sticking in hockey? The answer lies right around the corner
from the MGM hotel where the fight took place. Go around that
corner and visit the other hotels on the Vegas strip. They all tell
the history of how sports are becoming a political outlet of
frustration, and will help rationalize why Tyson did what he did.
First, let us visit Caesar’s Palace, where the dominant motif is
the Roman Empire – as in gladiators and chariot races. Here is
where violent sports were first instituted as a political outlet.
Augustus Caesar invented gladiator fights to keep the Roman
populace’s mind off his tyranny and keep it on entertainment.
Caesar moved the political frustration from the Senate, where it
should have been, to the arenas. Emperor Nero would later build the
coliseum and continue the practice of throwing Christians to the
lions. What most people don’t know is that Nero had to keep
one-upping the previous emperor’s violence, ultimately leading him
to flood the coliseum with water and fill it with hippos and
crocodiles to attack the prisoners. For the dictatorship to survive
in Rome, violent sports were necessary to preoccupy the minds of
the Romans. Eventually, the Romans would run out of exotic animals
to put in the arenas, causing great discord. As we all know, the
Roman Empire crumbled. Now, wait a minute. What does this have to
do with Tyson? Surely two gladiators wielding blades are more
violent than two boxers punching each other to death, right? Tyson
was a pawn of the American public. The public wanted violence and
they got it. The world has been using sports as a way to channel
its disdain for the political system. If it didn’t, would we see
another society collapse? Would America fall like Rome once did?
The answer to that question lies up the block and to the right.
That is where the grand, concrete sphinx lies. In the luxurious
Luxor hotel, the Egyptian motif floats through the air like the
smoke wafting in the casinos. Earlier in the month there was a
soccer match between two rival clubs, el-Ahly and el-Zamalik, in
Egypt. No violent acts occurred at the stadium, but when el-Ahly
won, violence erupted outside the arena. A fan of el-Zamalik was
murdered near his house, and six were injured in a cafe where the
match was being shown on television. What would lead people to
injure or even murder a neighbor just because they like a different
team? I hope that no one reading this article would kill me if I
went to a Dodgers- Padres game and rooted for the Padres. The first
possible answer that arises is that the murderers were inebriated.
However, in this case, none of them were. Besides, would that even
explain the murder of Andres Escobar, who during the 1994 World Cup
scored a goal against his own team and was assassinated by a fan?
No, of course not. What drives fans to commit heinous acts? Soccer
fans in other countries put all their emotions into soccer because
it defines their sense of pride. The soccer game is one of the only
places where everyone’s voices can be heard. During the time when
the Berlin Wall stood, there were many large brawls at European
soccer matches. People’s ideas and opinions were sheltered from
government input, so they took out their frustrations at soccer
matches. At matches, people could say all they wanted to without
fear of punishment. A great idea, but eventually it got out of hand
as the economy became stagnant. So why does this apply to America?
Doesn’t government provide us with a voice? Of course. In America,
the people’s voice has become diluted without people noticing. In
Columbia, no one had a voice, and the society was full of violence.
After all, 70 percent of all Columbian soccer teams are owned by
alleged drug traffickers. In a society full of violence and lacking
any way to voice frustration, the violence has been focused on
soccer. In America, people still have a vote, but violence is
starting to spread throughout the country. Holyfield’s ear will
attest to that. Violence reciprocates in America like a carousel.
If the society is violent, why wouldn’t a sport that exists in the
society be violent? If the sport is violent, the people who
participate (in this case, Tyson) are bound to be a little on the
rugged side. So he bit someone’s ear. Give him an eight-clap. Tyson
only provided the American people with a mirror. Thus, as everyone
criticizes Tyson, they are just criticizing themselves. The last
stop on our trip down the hotel strip is the blinking hotel. It
looks like one huge Christmas light warehouse: Circus Circus. This
is the hotel of the future. Sports are quickly becoming a circus or
carnival, where anything that can happen, will. Can it be possible
that Tyson will have to fight a lion who jumps through flaming
hoops? Anything can happen. The circus will have a House of
Horrors, filled with people who destroyed the quality of sports.
Walking down the hallway, we will see Augustus Caesar, Tanya
Harding and Mike Tyson. But wait – don’t leave just yet. There is
one last window of infamy. Stare at it hard, for the last destroyer
of sports rests inside. It is you and me. The American public.
Tyson gets first ride on the carousel. Rocky Salmon Previous Daily
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