March 26, 2006

What I will remember more than anything else from the 2006 NCAA Tournament is not the heroics of George Mason making it to the final four and possibly the complete Cinderella story, or for the fact that all four number one seeds had fallen by the wayside before the final four. My memories will be with the tears shredded by both the league’s top two scorers and not the way that both players and their college’s exited March Madness in dramatic fashion.

NCAA Tournament traditions are all about Pride, Passion, Heartbreak and Disappointment, Joy and Ecstasy and on one crazy Thursday evening on 23rd March all those traditions came out in abundance.

I have already read and heard that most find the tears shed by Adam Morrison and J.J Redick was a sign of weakness. Well I will have to disagree with those comments. This is sports and for every winner there has to be a loser. For every person filled with happiness there’s another that is filled with sorrow. This is sport in the purest form, surely that is what college sport is all about, and why it’s such a distance away from the drug riddled and salary of professional sports.

These boys spend their teenage life’s and early adulthood living their dreams and desires at a chance to win a National Championship and go on to become professional sportsmen. They usually get four chances, but most will only get to live that dream a couple of times before the majority move on to new ventures and away from any chance of a professional sports career.

Whatever is around the corner for these two players, besides being first round draft picks with large pay checks ahead of them, they came to realise on that Thursday night that no amount of money could buy them a championship. Their dreams shattered, their sole filled with sorrow and their stomach empty with pain and anguish. These boys shouldn’t be ridiculed, they should be applauded for their heart, endeavour and skill they displayed and more importantly, for the tears that were evident to us all, how much it meant and how much it hurts.

The emotions we witnessed from Redick and Morrison and probably a few others that the camera’s failed to capture will live with me for a long time. These are the athletes and people that our children should look to as role models, not the ones that lie under oath, cheat with the taking of performance enhancing drugs, have no regard for their fellow sportsman and very little or no respect for sports that pay them handsomely.