The truth is you can't handle the truth

First appeared on October 28th, 2009
in The Lebanon Reporter

When Titan’s head coach Jeff Fisher stripped down to his Peyton Manning jersey recently the ensuing fallout reminded us once again that ours is a hypersensitive world. Far too often Americans gorge themselves on a twisted reality of what their lives should be before ultimately gagging on the truth. If there is a lesson to be learned here it is that clearly too many people are incapable of handling the truth (pardon my Jack Nicholson).
Let’s be clear, Fisher’s motivation was not misguided. At 0-6 he may be the captain of a ship that has no hope of staying afloat, but he is still far too intelligent a man to be thumbing his nose at Bud Adams (his boss) and the Titans ownership (his employer) by pulling some corny stunt (wearing a Colts jersey in Tennessee). More than a stunt, the truth for Fisher is that this was the closest he could come to being lighthearted while his world is crumbling down around him. Wearing the jersey and commenting that he “wanted to feel like a winner” both came from a healthy respect for Tony Dungy (the man he was brought in to introduce).
What else was Fisher supposed to do? Is there anything about his season that anybody is going to want to hear when his team is 0-6 and was just creamed the day before by the Patriots 59-0? “Well, despite Brady’s five touchdown passes-I liked our energy in the second quarter.”
At some point we must applaud Fisher’s moxie for donning a Manning jersey as his life and future are being swept up by an F-5 Tornado of rumors. When it comes to athletes and coaches in tight spots we as the general public get bombarded with anything but the truth that we all too often come to expect window dressing. Perhaps this is why so many had a hard time with his so called stunt; they were expecting something they had heard before and when they didn’t get it Fisher was labeled an incompetent nut.
The negative reaction to Fisher’s stunt however is just another example at how hypersensitive our world has become. America as a whole is getting softer by the day. Participation trophies and the “we’re all winners” mentality are driving a stake in the heart of true competition. The world is full of countries making up ground on us daily, some arguably passing us by as you read this. All because there are workers, students and children in far flung parts of the world whose lives are so tough they are naturally hungrier and more driven to succeed.
A few years ago a Little League coach created a national episode by calling on the much used strategy of walking the opposing team’s best hitter to face someone else. Ripples spread nationwide as the “next kid up” in this championship game turned out to be a cancer survivor. Nobody could ever argue cancer is anything but ugly and horrible, but isn’t the fundamental idea behind Little League to help kids discover those things they can and cannot do?
The biggest difference between us and those nations closing the gap on us is the truth. Far too often American’s are busy playing hide and seek with it while the lives of people in other parts of the world are so difficult they must embrace it early on. Chasing dreams is the natural born right of any free person, but at some point we all must face the realization that people pay hard earned money to watch professional athletes with good reason. The sooner this lesson can be learned the better off we’ll all be.