Paul Sullivan: With Aaron Rodgers and Phil Mickelson around, we could all use a break from the world of sports

Paul Sullivan, Chicago Tribune

Like all NHL teams, the Chicago Blackhawks send out daily medical updates about players’ injuries.

Defenseman Calvin de Haan and goaltender Marc-André Fleury, for instance, were excused from practice earlier this week for “maintenance.” This can be general soreness or just a mental break for a player to get his body and mind in tune for upcoming games.

Pro sports seasons are a long grind, and finding a way to keep athletes mentally and physically prepared is an ongoing struggle. The days of Cal Ripken Jr. shrugging off aches and pains to keep his consecutive games streak alive are ancient history.

And with recent changes in attitudes regarding the importance of maintaining one’s mental health, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, no one needs to apologize for taking time off to recharge.

But players aren’t the only ones in dire need of a break.

Fans could use a maintenance day, or perhaps even a week, to help us deal with the current goings-on in the world of sports.

We can start with a moratorium on Phil Mickelson, the golfer who decided to go into hiding after being exposed as the selfish, money-obsessed guy we always suspected him to be. Mickelson told a reporter he considered joining a proposed Saudi-financed rival golf league, despite Saudi Arabia’s alleged involvement in the murder of U.S. citizen and journalist Jamal Khashoggi, just to get the PGA Tour to change its ways — meaning more money for golfers.

“They’re scary (bleeps) to get involved with,” Mickelson said. “We know they killed Khashoggi and have a horrible record on human rights. They execute people over there for being gay. Knowing all of this, why would I even consider it? Because this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reshape how the PGA Tour operates.”

After a public outcry, Mickelson released a statement saying his comments were “off the record” and “out of context” — which author/reporter Alan Shipnuck refuted — while apologizing for the inflammatory words.

“It was reckless, I offended people, and I am deeply sorry for my choice of words,” he said. “I’m beyond disappointed and will make every effort to self-reflect and learn from this.”

Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee called it “one of the worst apologies I’ve ever seen written” and compared Lefty unfavorably with Tiger Woods.

“I’d dare say 100% of the players out there would rather play with Tiger and they recognize Tiger for being authentic,” Chamblee said. “Phil’s always had a reputation amongst the players as trying to manipulate almost every scenario to benefit himself.”

That’s a description that perfectly fits Aaron Rodgers, the Green Bay Packers quarterback who apparently didn’t learn a lesson from last year’s offseason antics when he kept fans guessing about his future. He teased them again last week with an Instagram post expressing “gratitude” to “teammates … past and current,” adding he loved them and would “cherish the memories we’ve made.”

The next day Rodgers appeared on the “Pat McAfee Show,” an outlet that never challenges Rodgers’ views. Everyone tuned in as if it were a reality-show finale, waiting on the big reveal.

Instead, Rodgers told McAfee there would be no news and explained the cryptic post was simply the result of his 12-day Panchakarma cleanse — a holistic healing treatment that includes therapeutic vomiting, detoxification of the blood, yoga and meditation.

The cleanse put Rodgers in the mood for thanking everyone in sight, including former fiancee Shailene Woodley.

“It’s kind of a recentering,” he said. “Takes away mental stress. When I come out (I feel) just intense gratitude. That was just where I was at. Felt an immense amount of gratitude.”

Excuse us while we all induce some therapeutic vomiting of our own to cleanse ourselves of Rodgers’ incessant craving for media attention. We’d all be immensely grateful if he would just go away for a while and detox out of sight.

It also would be nice to be able to enjoy the rites of spring training — hearing real major-leaguers telling us about how they lost weight during the offseason and are committed to having a great season.

Instead we’re treated to the thoughts of minor-leaguers who won’t even make the 2022 roster and seeing grainy photos of Commissioner Rob Manfred emerging from hibernation like baseball’s Bigfoot, trying to heroically settle the owners’ lockout before Monday’s deadline that would postpone the start of the regular season.

Manfred earlier this month bragged that “in the history of baseball, the only person who has made a labor agreement without a dispute — and I did four of them — was me.” Yet this was the first time he has engaged with the union since the lockout began in December, leaving the negotiations to mere mortals.

If he’s such a master negotiator, why wasn’t Manfred involved in talks all along? If you didn’t know better, you’d think that the owners want games postponed to force the players union to cave in to their demands and that they sent in Manfred at the last minute just for show. Talks ended Saturday with no progress toward a deal, making a postponement of opening day likely.

Sports is supposed to be a diversion from real-world problems, a chance to relax and enjoy athletes competing without worrying about wars, inflation, crime, a pandemic or any other modern-day stressor.

Now we all might need a break from the constant stream of idiocy that’s causing stress rather than reducing it.

Anyone up for a maintenance year?

Categories: Sports