I want to respond to the article, “U of T sings the blues” published in the Toronto Star on Friday, Sept. 12, and its critique of the perilous fortunes of the Varsity Blues Football team.
In the article, a veteran player made some less-than-diplomatic remarks about those players, like me, that had “quit on the team.” At first I was angry with the article. Then I was borderline sympathetic. Then I began to truly think about why I was mad, and sad, about the way this team is portrayed in the media.
In the first place, it is incredibly difficult to perform at as high a level as a varsity athlete in Canadian university sports. It is probably doubly as hard to perform as a Varsity athlete at U of T, for many reasons: the lack of scholarship opportunities for athletes, the indifferent student body, the pressures of the country’s most prestigious academic standards, and the high cost of living.
Because sports at U of T are a labour of love, to say the least, playing on a very good varsity team-such as the men’s soccer team-is probably difficult in its own right. To play on perhaps the worst team in the history of Canadian university football is something entirely different, and something most people could never fathom.
I was a part of that team. It is quite possible that I may again become a part of that team. I cannot say that I am happy with the way the team has performed over the past few years, with or without me.
What I can say is that I can relate to exactly what the players on that team are feeling, after suffering through the first three games of this season. Most outsiders don’t understand. The Toronto newspapers come by once a year to do a write up on how pathetic you are, and then they disappear.
No one takes it upon themselves to make a call for action in stopping your team’s downfall. Nor would you, as a player, ever say you wanted them to. Football players and athletes in general are too proud to want any sort of help from advocates. We would rather take our lumps and play out the string than make a stand which might violate the code of silence that “in-house” business demands.
So, you take the beatings, physically and mentally, and then absorb the ridicule. The ridicule comes from all angles at this time of year. It comes from parents, friends, professors, peers, media, and even from your own mind.
The ridicule is deafening. The ridicule surrounding the Blues, since even before I joined the team, was deafening. The other OUA teams ridicule. The other U of T teams ridicule. The intramural teams ridicule. The Victoria College ultimate frisbee team probably thinks they could beat the Blues on any given Saturday.
About 80 per cent of the Blues team that last won a game, two years ago, has since moved on. Those that remain are understandably bitter towards those that have put the “bad news Blues” behind them. I am a part of the group that has left. I still have friends on the team. The fact that I choose to share my ideas and opinions about the team guarantees that I have enemies in that locker room, as well.
I made my choice, and I can live with it. Those who still play, I wish them the best, but I know that for me, and this goes for many of my friends and former Blues teammates, I had lost my desire to be a part of the team. It is a truism that winning can erase a lot of negativity. There will always be conflicts when a group of people work together, the key is to be able to put aside those conflicts for the good of the group.
We used to joke that the 1993 Vanier Cup team had signed a deal with the devil; they would win the Vanier in 1993, and the team would forever after be banished to the dredges of the league. The veterans on the Blues football team are now, again, stuck in a sort of no man’s land; they were supposed to be the foundation for a rebuilding program -one they were told would be succeeding by now.
But the football team now finds itself again rebuilding. Coach Steve Howlett apparently has the right idea. The administration is, apparently, behind him. There are enough young, eager players that believe in Howlett’s ideology to keep it in place for a while.
Sure, the team has performed horridly. Any writer that says differently hasn’t been watching. However, there is obviously more to the lengthy drought of success than a bunch of poorly prepared players. With luck and the blind faith required to succeed in team sports, the football team will eventually be able to shake their “bad news Blues” moniker. I challenge those that ridicule these players, especially the Toronto sportswriters who enjoy covering the team’s failures, to examine the deeper problems within the football program, instead of glossing it over with a bunch of negative hyperbole. It is quite easy to ridicule something when you are able to glance at it from time to time, but it is much harder to ridicule it when you can share in the emotions.
