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 glory?
Laborious to know, tougher 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 crew I play for sucks, and each different crew 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 whole 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 in every of 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. (Regardless that Townsend did win her first Grand Slam in doubles at Wimbledon this 12 months.)
Alyssa Naeher, particularly the way in which she went out within the World Cup and worldwide play earlier than retiring from the USWNT, needs to 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) need to be at least considered for the seasons that they had in doubling up on 7A and 8A chips. However, no disrespect, you realize it’s dangerous when, in a metropolis whose metro-area inhabitants is slightly below 9 million with eight skilled sports activities groups and 6 main D-I universities (in the event you embody Loyola and NU), highschool gamers need to be taken into sturdy consideration for that metropolis’s Athlete of the Yr.
What’s extra, simply to provide the Pink Stars some additional love with a 10-14-2 report and being the lone franchise to a minimum of make the playoffs and for her feedback in testifying earlier than the Illinois Basic Meeting in assist of the Fairness Modification by which she championed how “each greenback invested in feminine athletes is an funding within the leaders of tomorrow,” crew president Karen Leetzow needs to be nominated as a Chief Administrative Officer of the Yr 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 by which no movie rises to the extent of being acknowledged for Greatest Image. A 12 months when nobody information three minutes of music worthy of a Track of the Yr acknowledgment on the Grammys. Or no creator writes a e-book 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 characterize this metropolis. Their pitifulness, the angst and stomach-damaging evocativeness that comes with defending those we journey and proceed to die with.
And, for probably the most half, a mirrored image on how in terms 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 crew sport, doesn’t matter. Who’s going to discover a technique to rise above all the wreckage to single themselves out in a means 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 Yr is: _________. Precisely.
