Every sports fan, and American for that matter, recognizes the names Babe Ruth, Michael Jordan, Brett Favre, Michael Phelps, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Tiger Woods, etc. Fewer can identify Toni Kukoc (Won 3 NBA Championships), Larry Izzo (3x Super bowl champion), or Matt Biondi (8 Olympic Gold Medals for USA). While all great men, no one would refer to them as public intellectuals. President Barack Obama is the perfect example of the public intellectual. A Public intellectual is someone who is outspoken, well respected in their field, stands out in the crowd, unafraid to tell the hard truth, uncompremiseable, and rarely known for national popularity. This is the description of Frank Deford. It’s a slim minority of sports fans that when the name Frank Deford is mentioned are aware who your talking about. Even someone who can rattle of batting averages for random baseball players, or the wonderlic scores for upcoming NFL draft prospects, will be puzzled by the question; who is Frank Deford? And yet Frank Deford is the modern day public intellectual. Given his biography, if you have read Sports Illustrated, listened/ read NPR, or watched HBO:Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel, in the last 50 years, you have viewed a report by Frank Deford. Then why is it that he isn’t a household name? Frank Deford is indeed a modern day public intellectual, highlighted by a individual writing style leading to numerous awards during a lengthy career as a sports journalist/author; however the majority of American’s unfamiliarity with Deford proves that there isn’t a “decline of public intellectuals", but rather a "decline in the intellectuality" of Americans, as showcased by our recent decline in global education.
To say the least, Frank Deford has long been a lingering figure in the world of sports journalism. He has written for countless newspapers, sports illustrated, NPR, HBO’s; he’s even authored 16 books. He has written four completed movies; two adapted from his books, along with two of his original screenplays. ESPN even aired a TV documentary about his life and work entitled “You Write Better Than You Play”. This man and his work are out in the public.
Undoubtedly there are only a handful of writers with an extensive catalog of work that matches Deford’s, and even less that can match his awards resume. According to NPR.org,
“As a journalist, Deford has been elected to the Hall of Fame of the National Association of Sportscasters and Sportswriters. Six times Deford was voted by his peers as U.S. Sportswriter of The Year. The American Journalism Review has likewise cited him as the nation's finest sportswriter, and twice he was voted Magazine Writer of The Year by the Washington Journalism Review. Deford has also been presented with the National Magazine Award for profiles, a Christopher Award, and journalism Honor Awards from the University of Missouri and Northeastern University, and he has received many honorary degrees. The Sporting News has described Deford as "the most influential sports voice among members of the print media," and the magazine GQ has called him, simply, "the world's greatest sportswriter." In broadcast, Deford has won both an Emmy and a George Foster Peabody Award."
This guy knows what he’s talking about when it comes to sports. His resume and awards, along with his graduate degree from Princeton University get the message across, but this is not solely what makes him a public intellectual. Compare Frank to Lisa Dillman, LA Clippers beat write for the Los Angeles Times. Lisa is, by all accounts, a fine journalist. She typically writes stories related to the Clippers games and organizational moves such as this. Frank Deford also writes everyday articles like, "Rex Ryan: The future of coaching” in which he summarizes how Rex Ryan, New York (Football) Jets, is becoming a great coach in the NFL; A common and popular observation of a guy fresh off his second consecutive trip into the final four teams. Only it’s the way that Frank does it that makes him stand out,
“The New York Jets may have lost Sunday, but whoever wins the Super Bowl, in many respects the most memorable character of this NFL season was the Jets' roly-poly coach, Rex Ryan. And, please, I'm not talking about the foot-fetish business. It is Ryan's ebullience, his braggadocio, that make him so unusual. Football coaches tend to be phlegmatic, even distant personalities —There's been a tendency to mock Ryan as a big-mouthed clown — perhaps all the more so that he's fat and garrulous. But I think his critics, who have been most everybody except his players, have missed the point. Football players have changed.
They're not the strong-but-silent little varsity soldiers of gridiron lore. They're brash, narcissistic showoffs. They literally beat their breasts. You may not like that, you may hate the dancing and prancing in the end zone, but it sure is the way of the football world now. Why do you think these swaggerers wouldn't want someone whose personality matches their own as their boss?"
Deford's words would scroll the pages of a best sports poetry book; if one so existed. That's why he stands out. On top of that he also finds time to tackle the important, and not so obvious, stories that bring true light to the subtleties of sports. The way he writes is making a commentary on society itself, taking it much behind the realm of just sports journalism. Take, for example, one of his recent pieces, "For Young Athletes, Knee surgery opens the door to pain" in which he touches on ACL surgery and it's long-term effects on athletes, as well as why surgeons are hesitant to keep performing the surgery. He delivers the news on one of the most common season ending sport surgeries in such a unique light,
“I've spoken to horribly disabled old football players who told me they'd do it all again, whatever life's sacrifice, just to have played the game. How many players have taken performance-enhancing drugs without any concern about the possible side effects? So many athletes will do almost anything to compete. But now, in an ironic twist, some surgeons have come to feel terribly conflicted about their part in salvaging an athlete's career. Doctors know that because the surgery allows young athletes to continue to compete aggressively and put stress on that damaged knee, a significant number will, in as few as 10 years, suffer degenerative osteoarthritis. That is so much more debilitating and painful — and must be endured for the rest of one's life. Some may even require knee replacement.”
That is what separates the sports writer and the public intellectual. In a time when the sports writer is typing on about how the star player needs to have ACL surgery so he can return to play ASAP, Frank is bringing more awareness to the risk and side-effects of a fixing serious, life changing, injury. He is talking about what no one else will, or for all purposes agrees with. ACL surgery is "Undoubtedly one of the worst sports injuries that someone can have" and yet you don't hear about many pro or college athletes electing not to have the surgery. After delving into some of his work it's clear, not only how he won all those awards, but that Frank Deford is the Public Intellectual.
Given that Deford is a public intellectual, why aren't the majority of Americans familiar with him? Maybe it’s because some people don't think sports is a major influence to our society. If that’s true explain the multimillion even billion-dollar businesses of NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA, and WNBA. If that's not enough proof, read this article claiming that twice as many people watched last year’s super bowl as this year's State Of The Union address. Hell, President Obama even mentioned the Super bowl in his STOU this week. Really shows where America’s priorities are, but nonetheless points out that sports, fan or not, is a major part of American society. Then how can it be that one of the most documented and celebrated sports writers of the century is not a common name amongst Americans? Perhaps it's people's perception that sports aren't intellectual and pro athletes are thugs/ snobs. Solid point, however one spot of mold will always make a loaf of bread appear rotten. For instance, Myron Rolle, attended FSU on a football scholarship, completed his degree, and then passed on the NFL and his chance at hundreds of thousands of dollars to fulfill his Rhodes scholarship in Cambridge in the hopes of one day becoming a brain surgeon. Sports figures like Myron aren’t the ones who make headlines. The sports world is not chalk full of public intellectuals. Though indeed, some form of public intellectuals exist here such as: Bill Simmons, Muhammad Ali, John Wooden, Lou Gerig, Magic Johnson, Bob Costas, Keith Olbermen. The question still remains, how do people not recognize Frank Deford?
There are many factors to consider into not the "Decline of public intellectuals", but rather a public "Decline of intellectuality". A strong correlation to the lack of awareness of Frank Deford's work, or any other public intellectuals, can be caused by the decline in America's education standards. This decline in interest may, by definition, be just that, or maybe it’s something deeper. It’s not that there is a “lack of interest", but there is transitionally a “lack of desire to be intellectual". This could stem from the fact, simply put, that Americans are getting dumber. According to studies,
“USA scores the lowest in national average IQ among the developed countries of the world, at a national average score of 98… the national average IQ score of Americans at 98 is below 22 countries (including Switzerland, United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, North Korea and China). The low Intelligence Quotient (IQ) score of United States puts the Americans at a lower intelligence level on an average as compared to the other industrialized nations.
American high school students scored 483 in the test Program for International Student Assessment.[Math Test] The average scores of American students were way below those of top scoring countries like South Korea, Japan, Switzerland, Germany, Ireland, etc. all of whom scored between 503 and 544 (significantly higher than US scores).
American adults in general do not understand what molecules are (other than that they are really small). Fewer than a third can identify DNA as a key to heredity. Only about 10 percent know what radiation is. One adult American in five thinks the Sun revolves around the Earth, an idea science had abandoned by the 17th century.”
Obviously something is wrong with America’s education system, but there must also be something wrong with Americans. In this new technological age we accept dumb down simplistic versions of information, instead of using deeper analysis to really understand it. This must be the case for Richard Belfrey, who wanted to spend $3 Million, the average price of a 30 second commercial during the super bowl, to air this Jesus Hates Obama Ad. Right wing Americans may not like the guy personally, but the super bowl is an American tradition, that’s the United States President; their free to speak, but please do so logically and intelligently. And don’t bring Jesus or religion for that matter, into it.
Anyway this simplistic view has taken a toll on the existance of the public intellectual. The fact is that there hasn’t been a “decline” in public intellectuals. For example look at all these people. However in the shortened attention span age of Facebook, Google, Wikipedia, and twitter, Americans must truly believe that that they shouldn’t concern themselves with public intellectuals. Worst off we aren't even aware of what/who public intellectuals are,
"The Russian masses (such a crude and ugly word) of a century ago were no more attentive to their intellectuals, public or otherwise, than we are today. And to hear American intellectuals tell it, that’s setting the bar pretty low."
If Frank Deford cared what twitter was, he would be lucky to have a hundred thousand followers. In comparison Chad Ochocinco has 1.6 million. Shaquille "Shaq" O Neal has 3.5 million. Luckily Barack Obama trumps any sports figure (6.4 Million), only barely holding off Asthon Kutcher, but still getting smoked by Lady Gaga (7.9 Million) and Justin Beiber. If Americans are more concerned with the daily public messages of an estranged music artist or an annoying teen heart throb, rather than the most well-known and publicized current public intellectual, then it’s obvious why the work of Frank Deford goes unnoticed. Most Americans aren't even aware of what/who is the public intellectual so how can we be expected to pay attention to them. John Donatich, also agrees with these view that,
"It seems to me that there is a central conflict regarding American intellectual work. How does it reconcile itself with the venerable tradition of American anti-intellectualism? What does a country built on headstrong individualism and the myth of self-reliance do with its people convinced that they know best?"
Americans knowledge of the public intellectual is quite similar to their knowledge of how their water heater works. If you asked an average American how they take hot showers, they will say that they pay their water/gas bill. If those people turned on their shower one day and only cold water came out, with some diligent searching they would eventually discover that it’s a miniscule flame at the base of their water heater, called a pilot light, that's essentially responsible for heating the whole tank. Most though will simply give up searching and call a plumber. In this case the public intellectual is like that small pilot light in that people can’t find or worse don't even attempt searching for them. In contrast it has been said that,
"The fiction of America’s anti-intellectualism has been debated adnauseam since Richard Hofstadter popularized the phrase a half-century ago. Without replaying the whole debate, two points will suffice: One, the fact that academic institutions wield enormous financial, technological, and cultural power—and the fact that, more generally, education continues to be the centerpiece of some of our most cherished social myths (i.e., “the “American Dream”)—are both powerful reasons to doubt that Americans suffer from some instinctive hostility to intellectuals. Two, what is sometimes identified as anti-intellectualism is in fact intellectual—that is, a well articulated family of ideas and arguments that privilege the practical, active side of life (e.g., work) over the passive and purely reflective operations of the mind in a vacuum."
This is a sound and logical argument; only it also provides some evidence that those unaffected by the newer less intelligent America are a small minority. It's the majority of Americans who don't care for intellectualism and prefer simplicity. These are the people who aren’t going to college, they are affected by America’s poor education system, and they are the ones who have given up on the public intellectual.
If you ask the typical American how he/she analyzes sports, most will just say they watch Sportscenter, or they read sites like Rotoworld. People only want to see scores, highlights, stats, or injury news and fail to search for the analysis; Such as the analysis of Frank Deford. Americans either don’t care enough, or just aren’t well enough informed to know that sports, like everything, are so much deeper than the box score. Clearly it does because there is an intellectual side to sports; as evidenced by the work of people such as Deford. They fail to search for those like Frank Deford or even know who he is. This is what has happened to the public intellectual, it’s not that they aren’t out there, but more that Americans are no longer looking for them. They simply accept the easy way of learning and have no desire to become truly informed. The Average American gets their sports opinions from famous athletes like LeBron or Kobe. They hear the news from Sportscenter anchors like Stan Verrett. To them these are the public intellectuals. And that is a troubling reality for the future of the public intellectual in sports.
