Of football and fire
The contrast was being played out on our television screens. There on ESPN, as proper, the pictures and words were about the NFL. Fun and games. On CNN were scenes of tragedy, smoke and flames. One of man at his best, competition. On the other, nature at its worst, destruction. Football as scheduled. Fire as unimaginable.
Athletic heroes, at least in name. First responders and emergency personnel, heroes deserving of the label.
Fire pays no attention to status. We are all at the mercy. It’s merely a question of where the ashes land and where your residence might be. We’ve been through this before in California, but not really anything like this.
Who would have believed the entire Pacific Palisades or several miles away, Sierra Madre, would be razed? Yes, I’m a sportswriter, but I covered news through the years that included fires in Southern California, where I grew up, and Northern California, where I now reside. The Oakland Hills fire in 1991, which destroyed 2800 homes, and the Camp Fire in Butte County were awful, but what has gone on the last week and a half offers a new definition to that word.
The frightening thing is we kept getting warned of the possibility. Not that we could do anything but worry, stay alert, and heed evacuation warnings, although sometimes we disregard the warnings because of the misplaced belief that it will never happen.
But it happened this time.
Warriors coach, Steve Kerr, was one of the victims. The home in which he grew up in the Pacific Palisades, close to Santa Monica, was burned to the ground. His 90-year-old mother, who evacuated, was saved. But all the trophies and awards Kerr collected in his very illustrious career—he was Michael Jordan’s teammate—are gone.
Los Angeles Lakers coach J.J. Reddick also lost his home, and when interviewed on TV seemed understandably shaken. It’s as if what occurred would have been impossible. But as we know, nothing is impossible.
That the National Football League readily shifted the Los Angeles Rams-Minnesota Vikings playoff game on Sunday to the Arizona Cardinals’ stadium outside Phoenix was both necessary and correct. It was an inconvenience for the fans in Southern California, although busloads of them made it to the game, some 200 miles from Los Angeles. Yet the fact that the game was held at all could be acknowledged as a reassurance that the fire would not ruin all sense of normalcy.
The NFL and various outlets including all the networks broadcasting the postseason, kept telling us about how to donate for fire relief efforts. Sometimes those requests are overdone. Not after this fire. Too many lives were lost and too many buildings were lost.
All we can do now is to retain our sense of perspective and know that sport might contribute to providing what little benefit might be possible. And thanks to those who brought us the news good and bad.