And the winner is . . .
What occurs when the “fill within the clean” line is left empty? On these super-rare events when nobody has earned or deserves the honour?
Onerous to know, more durable to fathom and grasp that this metropolis would ever get to a degree the place nobody rose above the calamity that has change into our sports activities existence on all fronts to the purpose that an athlete can say, “Yeah, the staff I play for sucks, and each different staff within the metropolis sucks, however have a look at what I did!”
An Andre Dawson in 1987. A Bobby Hull in 1968-69. A Frank Thomas in 1993 and ’94. A Michael Jordan yearly earlier than Phil Jackson took over. Walter Payton’s complete profession earlier than 1984. A Kevin Garnett the season he performed for Farragut and nonetheless didn’t win the state championship.
A 12 months when a Chicago athlete has one among them years.
This 12 months, nothing. Not a lot anybody, nobody actually in any respect. Mallory Swanson. Garrett Crochet. Nods given. Consideration accepted. However. Angel (Reese), Caleb (Williams), Connor (Bedard), Seiya (Suzuki), Taylor (Townsend), Boo (Buie). Above respectable, simply to not the extent the place they outplayed the ungreatness of the groups they occur to uniform for. (Though Townsend did win her first Grand Slam in doubles at Wimbledon this 12 months.)
Alyssa Naeher, particularly the best way she went out within the World Cup and worldwide play earlier than retiring from the USWNT, must be revered even when not crown-worthy. Even Mount Carmel’s Jack Elliott and Loyola’s Ryan Fitzgerald (former Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald’s son) should be at least considered for the seasons that they had in doubling up on 7A and 8A chips. However, no disrespect, you recognize it’s dangerous when, in a metropolis whose metro-area inhabitants is just below 9 million with eight skilled sports activities groups and 6 main D-I universities (for those who embrace Loyola and NU), highschool gamers should be taken into sturdy consideration for that metropolis’s Athlete of the 12 months.
What’s extra, simply to offer the Crimson Stars some further love with a 10-14-2 document and being the lone franchise to not less than make the playoffs and for her feedback in testifying earlier than the Illinois Normal Meeting in help of the Fairness Modification through which she championed how “each greenback invested in feminine athletes is an funding within the leaders of tomorrow,” staff president Karen Leetzow ought to be nominated as a Chief Administrative Officer of the 12 months candidate by default and adjoining affiliation. And he or she didn’t throw, kick, discipline, catch, hit, dunk, shoot an eff’n thang.
Think about an Academy Award ceremony through which no movie rises to the extent of being acknowledged for Finest Image. A 12 months when nobody data three minutes of music worthy of a Track of the 12 months acknowledgment on the Grammys. Or no creator writes a ebook or story worthy of a Pulitzer. That is how dangerous it’s for Chicago sports activities proper now. The “fill within the clean” stays clean.
Please get that this isn’t in any respect about or an indictment of the athletes themselves. This not conforming to deciding on somebody only for the sake of choosing somebody is a direct denunciation, for probably the most half throughout your complete panorama, of the groups that symbolize this metropolis. Their pitifulness, the angst and stomach-damaging evocativeness that comes with defending those we experience and proceed to die with.
And, for probably the most half, a mirrored image on how in the case of sports activities, particularly on the skilled and NIL breeding degree, Chicago has change into the American metropolis model of -Rachael Gunn. The laughingstock with no inventory value investing in.
First the Bears purchase Arlington Park, now this.
So who’s going to be king or queen of the dips— sports activities city this metropolis has change into? Who’s gonna carry that weight? Particular person or staff sport, doesn’t matter. Who’s going to discover a method to rise above the entire wreckage to single themselves out in a approach that justifies acknowledging their efficiency regardless of the depths of organizational betrayal and city-spanning damnation? Anybody? Anybody? Bueller? Say much less.
Yeah, there’s that. But additionally there’s this . . .
And the winner of the 2024 Chicago Athlete of the 12 months is: _________. Precisely.
