The great Greek tragedies we had to trudge through in “World Literature 101,” have not gone away, they have simply taken on new forms in different places. Men and women still self-destruct, and in the process, bring down their hopes and dreams.
Enter Will Mahone, stage left.
Mr. Mahone was a receiver for the University Of Notre Dame. I use the past tense with intention, because he didn’t exactly do the school proud last week and he messed up so badly that his coach has indefinitely suspended him from all football activities.
He lives in Austintown, Ohio; a modest town of about 30,000 about 90 minutes from Cleveland. To the best of my knowledge there is no Greek amphitheater in Austintown; we will have to make do without it. There is a nearby jail, and for at least a few days, Mahone was locked up in the Mahoning County Jail. It is his stage where he will be forced to think.
On Saturday, June 14, 2014, according to reports, Mahone got drunk, then got into a fight, then started to damage nearby vehicles, then went back to fighting several people. When the police arrived, the following occurred (Tom Coyne of the Associated Press):
“Police say when an officer told Mahone to get on the ground; Mahone yelled an obscenity at him and called him ‘white boy.’ The police report says Mahone wouldn’t comply when the officer tried to handcuff him and after being handcuffed and told he was under arrest he told the officer: ‘Take these cuffs off and I’ll kill you.’”
The account continued:
“The report says Mahone tried to break free from officers as he was being brought to the police car and hit his head against the head of a police officer. The report says Mahone then continued to threaten to kill the officers and tried to kick out the back window of the police car. Police say Mahone then began spitting on the windows and seat of the police car so they had to put a spit mask on him.”
As he had suffered a laceration under his eye, he was taken to the hospital for treatment where he cursed the hospital staff and threatened them as well.
Time machine
Let’s go back to about a year before. Mahone was initially tried out as a running back and then he was switched to a receiver. He played in a couple of games and while he didn’t do much, even a back-up receiver at a school such as Notre Dame is a big deal.
As happens in the sport, Mahone got injured; a foot fracture. He had surgery last March and while he might have been recuperating and working to make himself better for the coming season he was instead busy raising $75,000 to bail him out of jail.
He has denied the felony charges against him. While I’m a firm believer in due process, Mahone is going to have a huge uphill battle to convince anyone of his innocence. He has self-destructed. It is his fault. He must own up to it.
Not about the alcohol
This is not the story of a typical 20 year old who is unable to hold his liquor. Thousands of idiotic 20 year olds are arrested each year for not being able to hold their liquor. Thousands more are arrested for trying to assault authority figures and then parroting a victim’s mentality for their actions.
Will Mahone is not typical. He was good enough to play for one of the best Division 1 teams in the nation, and even if his football career amounted to nothing, he could have taken advantage of the tremendous educational activities of the university.
He is tragic.
However, he is not to be completely blamed.
Over the years, I have grown increasingly concerned with the whole area of sports ethics. I grew tired of the Will Mahone’s of the world taking potentially beautiful careers and turning those career’s to dust. I firmly believe that on-going, sports ethics training must be a part of every athlete’s off-the-field education.
Mahone didn’t mess up because of an on-the-field penalty. He didn’t mess up because he pulled a muscle while lifting weights. He messed up because no one sat down with him and told him that stupid actions lead to serious consequences.
He is at the crossroads. He can choose to blame everyone else or he can take ownership for his lack of ethical responsibility to his team, to his school, to his family and most of all, to himself.
Can he recover his reputation? As someone who is heavily involved with reputation management and teaching sports ethics, I would say “yes,” but it is a qualified yes. He needs to understand and gain insight; he needs focus and clarity. He may need to start over somewhere else and he needs a heavy dose of forgiveness. He must learn to forgive himself.
The road starts and ends within the boundaries of his actions. It is what we learn from tragedy – and hopefully, from triumph as well.
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