Dear college athletes,
Have some respect.
Jack Taylor has scored triple digits in two college basketball games. Yes, a single person scored over 100 points by himself in a basketball game. He has gained nationwide fame from his scoring success, but is he really what college basketball and college sports are about?
College athletes certainly are not supposed to be smart. That is not why they are out there performing for everyone. But they should, at the very least, try to be respectful. Is that too much to ask? Yeah, I’m talking to you, Florida State players who recently played hangman on the sideline during their game.
Sports are an opportunity to display physical talent first and foremost, but they are also an opportunity to display respect and sportsmanship. But with Jack Taylor and some college football athletes, they seem to be all about the physical showcase and not about the respect.
There is no reason for anyone to have to score over 100 points in a Division III basketball game. Especially when Taylor’s school, Grinnell College, won the games by a combined 125 points. The only reason this guy is scoring that many points is so he can become famous for being “the guy who scored over 100 points.”
Taylor received hundreds of emails requesting interviews, as well as tweets from tons of different NBA stars congratulating on him on accomplishing this feat. I guess if that’s what he was shooting for, he got it. But that is not basketball. That’s not even sports. That’s doing something purely with the hope of gaining noteriety. Along the way, he must have forgotten about the other team Grinnell was playing and the fans that were watching .
I think everyone was excited to hear about someone scoring so many points. People who love sports love records, and they love seeing records get broken. I was even excited to see someone score that many points. But watching the highlights and seeing Taylor shoot 3 after 3 while his team was already winning by so much did not make me happy to see a record broken. It did not feel like I was even watching competitive basketball.
Highlights and records are great, but college athletes, you are not teaching young people the right way to approach sports. Sports should be seen as a way of learning how to respect and treat others, not about doing whatever it takes to break a record in Division III college basketball. To be fair, Taylor is not the only one who has shown disrespect while playing collegiate sports, but his story is so out there and ridiculous that it serves as a good example of disrespect.
College athletes are not paid and they can’t receive endorsement deals, but that does not change the fact that they are in the public eye. Some even argue that college football is more popular than the NFL. These athletes are on ESPN, magazine covers and anything else anyone who wants to make a buck off of them puts them on. In Taylor’s case, he used his athlete status to gain fame that a Division III player normally wouldn’t have access to. But is that really how you want to be remembered, college athletes? What kind of message are you sending?
And Jack, when ESPN sent Rick Reilly out to Grinnell to see you play after you scored 109 points, you really should have put up more than three points on 0–5 shooting.
Sincerely,
Alex Moore
Vanguard Sports Desk