Remember the Ten – OTL on the Suttons

This video wasn’t as painful as the one about Nate Fleming but it was no less impacting. Sports make it very easy for us to sit back and compartmentalize life because we’re so detached from the players, coaches, and programs. We relax and step out of reality to enjoy a game and sometimes we forget to remember that that is their reality. There’s nowhere for them to compartmentalize to, it would be as if somebody sat behind you and watched you bang out Excel spreadsheets all day at your job. You’d lose your mind.

And yet we still find a way to lambast men (and women) for the physical and mental effort they exert within their own occupational arena (no pun intended). That’s not to say that we can’t ask fair question and challenge solid points, I’m only saying that one must be careful about tossing the first stone.

I think the plane crash had a deeper and more far-reaching effect on the Sutton family and the athletic program as a whole than anyone really ever let on. I don’t think, as Eddie insinuated in this video, that it was the cause for his abuse of alcohol, I just believe the reverberations were probably felt for years.

That’s why I posted this, not to acquit the Sutton family for any of their public transgressions, but to bring a little perspective and levity to the situation as a whole. Sports are…sports, but this is life and I hope we don’t confuse the two.

Plus, I’m an absolute sucker for any Desmond interview I can get my hands on.