"60 Minutes" dedicated one of three segments last night to
"unsportsmanlike conduct" in the sports world. Lesley Stahl
conducted four sit-down interviews: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar,
columnist Bob Greene, tennis player Jeff Tarango and peewee
football coach Thomas Hughes. Abdul-Jabbar: "To me, it seems
like the style of professional wrestling [has] started to take
over all sports. ... [It] just seems like a whole bunch of guys
on steroids who hate each other." Jabbar noted the possibility
with fans getting involved in trash-talking and taunting, "it's
going to end up like European soccer." Stahl: "Water cannons
and riot police are not common sights yet, but who knows?"
ALL DEION'S FAULT? Stahl focused much of the piece on the
effect of Deion Sanders. Greene, on "The Deionization of
America": "Any instincts you have toward humility, any instincts
you have toward not showing someone up, any instincts you have
toward not trying to make yourself look good at someone else's
expense, those are worthless now." Peewee coach Hughes: "You
have [youth coaches] attempting to import some sportsmanship into
their kids. But you have TV showing every time Deion makes a
score and he does his dance and the crowd goes wild, he's out
doing a Nike commercial." Tarango, best known for walking off
the court at Wimbledon, said he was not proud of the incident,
but added, "Some promoters, some TV, some sponsors want that
because it just brings another angle into the game -- and right
now it's a hot ticket" (CBS, 11/26).
