Needed Change Appears to be Unfolding in Arkansas Athletics

Nothing soft about Pittman protecting himself, players from hateful people, getting Arkansas athletes help with mental health

Author:
Kent Smith
Publish date:
Sep 26, 2023 4:26 AM EDT

In this story:

Arkansas Razorbacks

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – There's a story radio host Dave Ramsey used to tell about a lady who kept cutting her husband's favorite part of ham off and throwing it away before cooking the rest. Eventually he got fed up and asked her why she kept throwing away his favorite part of the ham.

His wife responded that she does it because her mother used to do it when she was little. So the husband demands she "call the crazy old bat and find out why she's throwing away good ham." Well, they call up the wife's mother and she explains she does it because that's how her mother always did it, so she thought that's what's supposed to be done.

So the man had his wife call up her grandmother to find out why so much good ham has gone to waste over the years. When they get ahold of her and ask, she exclaims "Well, I don't know why you idiots keep wasting good ham. I just cut it off because my pan was too small."

In the world of sports, there's been a lot of time spent a lot of time making people feel bad because things might be done differently than how others did it before. People complained about doing things differently when athletes of different colors began playing sports together. Eventually, most Americans (unfortunately not a full 100%) got over it and the world became a better place as a result.

Soon, women were allowed to play sports. They were even allowed to, dare anyone say it, play the entire length of the court in basketball and not just half. Opportunities expanded to other athletic pursuits, and as mad as it made some because they thought athletics was no place for women, the world became a better place for it.

In the 1990s, coaches started allowing their players to have water breaks a few times per practice. When people in towns across America began hearing about this, they called the young men and women soft. Football players especially got an earful even though players across the country were dropping dead from heat stroke.

Turns out, those players weren't soft. Basic science says they were actually able to play a tougher game because of the improvements being hydrated makes in a body's ability to perform. Today everyone from the football team to the color guard walks high school hallways with a gallon jug under strict orders from coaches to drink the whole thing by day's end. The world is a better place because of it.

Of course, history always repeats itself. Today's target for those who want something to hate in the world of sports is mental health. Why someone would get angry over players getting help dealing with matters that can often lead to deep depression and suicide makes as much sense as the people who got mad because players got a drink of water.

Why get angry over something that doesn't directly affect your life? If anything, if it does have an effect, it would be for the good because the player is able to get good rest and focus better on the game. Still, much like in the water situation, people are coming out of the woodwork. That fans are having to come to Sam Pittman's defense for talking about taking care of his mental health and his players by stepping away from social media and counseling players is simply baffling.

What's more mind boggling is those fans are having to do it not only because of out of touch fans, but even former Razorbacks. For every 10 ex-Hogs who spoke up and said they wished they had received some sort of help with handling the mental issues that come with being a high profile athlete and simply adjusting to life in college on your own for the first time, there's one popping off calling players are soft.

Let's address a few things right away. Those of us who are older grew up in a much different world. If someone at school harassed us, it maybe happened during one common class and lunch. Beyond that, we were left alone to focus on class and enjoy time with family and friends at home. It was also usually limited to a peer who was bigger and potentially tougher.

That's not the case for these kids. Because of social media and electronic devices, the harassment never stops. They get filmed when they aren't looking, posts go up about them for literally everyone in school to see all at once. The person going after them doesn't simply sneer and make threats when the teacher isn't looking in a single class or from the other side of the cafeteria. That person is with them wherever they go by way of a phone. And because that device is so powerful and it's easy to hide an identity, harassers of all shapes and sizes relentlessly pursue their targets.

Go to the bathroom. There.
Try to look up something for class. There.
Go on vacation. There.
Wake up in the middle of the night in your bedroom. There staring from the glow of a phone on the night stand.

Plus, those of us who are older only dealt with high school kids or people at college. If you played sports, the harassment ended once the game ended and you cleared the parking lot.

Now, fans from other teams can go after athletes 24/7. Middle-aged men can harass a high school player who dropped a pass, missed a block or didn't choose the college he wanted them to pick all day and night. It's no longer a person or two in school. It's now potentially hundreds of grown adults and salty teenagers in as man as 30 states harassing a kid.

As for athletes and coaches, if things were really on the up back in the day, there might be one radio station with an afternoon call-in show where a handful of people might say something about the play calling or refereeing. Now it's almost impossible to be out of reach of all-day sports talk shows that cover everything from high school to pros and no one holds back anymore.

Somewhere over the last decade, basic decorum disappeared. People don't know how to treat others respectfully anymore or how to see another person as a human. The high school kid at the local fast food restaurant used to be able to make a mistake, offer a free apple pie for the trouble and move on with life. Now, they get screamed at and berated and before the customer gets the car cranked to speed out of the parking lot for emphasis, he or she is on social media calling that kid out and then blasting them on Yelp in hopes the teenager loses a job.

As a result of so much screen time, a lack of scored competition at young ages to teach kids to cope, and a life where someone's value is determined not by character, substance and real-world relationships, but by likes, dislikes and shares on a screen, science has shown the brains of the current generation has physically changed.

A generation that grew up with social media is wired differently than the rest of us. While some of us, Pittman included apparently, have the will to simply shut it off and be done with it, they can't. It's why there are so many stories of teenagers acting out violently when their devices are taken away. In their world, it's a part of them and the backlash is extreme for many if cut off from it. People say schools and teachers should take devices away in class when they become a problem, but so many times students attack teachers as a results and parents see teachers as the enemy now, not someone to be respected. Almost monthly, news stories about parents taking away devices only to be killed pop up.

The generation of players Pittman is working with is built differently. If it were possible to shut down all social media for players and coaches at Arkansas, in the long run, everyone associated with the program would be healthier and better able to perform. Pittman doesn't need people calling him fat or talking about his chest. What's that got to do with winning football games? Getting rid of social might hurt recruiting, but absorbing constant abuse is a price that is going to eventually drive a lot of good people out of coaching.

How does allowing hundreds of people to attack the offensive lineman throughout the day give the Razorbacks a better shot at beating Texas A&M? Cutting these hateful people off so an athlete can sleep and focus on school work might help, but Jim on his toilet over in Mena calling a player twice his size who could break him in half if they were in person every name under the sun followed by a string of insults and threats to the player isn't going to help him stop Edgerrin Cooper from blitzing and possibly injuring KJ Jefferson this Saturday.

Just because you and your daddy and his daddy didn't receive help with mental health doesn't mean things have to keep being done the way they always were. It's OK to change. Progress in sports is good. Losing any young person to mental health troubles is too much. If Razorback athletics can do something to provide help then so be it.

Remember how sad everyone was when Arkansas lost Brandon Burlsworth? It's still just as sad when it's not a car that causes it. If someone could have stepped in and kept Burlworth from driving that day because they could see where things were headed, would people have complained?

If not, then don't complain about this. It's often the coaches and teachers who see the dangerous path young men and women are on even before the families. If Pittman and his staff and those within the university can change the direction a player is going and make life enjoyable again then so be it.

It will be a welcome change in athletics. The world will once again be a better place because of it.