How To Dishonor A Sport, A School And Yourself Immediately.

As a Xavier Alumni, I look forward each year to the "Crosstown Shootout" between the Cincinnati Bearcats and Xavier. Two fine schools with rich histories of athletic performance in basketball. Both are typically ranked early in the season, and with Xavier, this is no exception getting off to a very hot start of wins. But apparently, earlier in the week, the "trash talk" began, and to the dismay of fans everywhere, culminated to nothing short of a barbaric brawl at the end of the game, certainly shaming each school on a national level. So much so, the fact that Xavier pounded them athletically was completely lost by the actions of the players during the final few seconds.

Coaches scramble during the post-game interviews to defend or "fix" what had happened, most likely because their jobs now lay in wait for potential termination. And while I feel the Cincinnati coach actually did a great job making his point, I can still only wonder what motivated him honestly to say what he did? What happened in 30 seconds will now not only mark these schools forever, it will mark the players as well. Sportsman-like conduct isn't just some fantasy saying to make us all feel good. It is a code of ethics, it is respect for the game itself, but more importantly...it is respect for yourself!

Heed what happened in your sport. Learn from this valuable display of childlike, gangster behavior. It was wrong on more levels than we have time to contemplate folks.