When you work for a newspaper in Chattanooga and your assignment for today is to write about the biggest sports stories of 2014, the accomplishments of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga’s football and women’s basketball teams over the past 355 days would seem a cinch to fight for the top spot.
After all, the football Mocs not only reached the FCS playoffs for the first time in 30 years but won their way to the quarterfinals, barely losing on the road to the overall No. 1 seed (New Hampshire).
Not to be overshadowed, Hall of Fame coach Jim Foster’s women Mocs shocked their sport by knocking off then-No. 4 Tennessee and No. 7 Stanford in a span of three weeks, perhaps the most amazing athletics accomplishment in school history.
Yet as big as both those moments were, the most important sports story of 2014 began in a parking-garage elevator at the Revel Casino in Atlantic City, N.J., in the early-morning hours of Feb. 15.
That’s when former Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice and his soon-to-be wife, Janay Palmer, were wrapping up a Valentine’s Day date with a heated argument.
That’s when Rice was caught on video dragging an unconscious Palmer from that elevator as if she was nothing more special than a heavy duffle bag, at one point leaving her halfway through the doors, an object rather than a person.
That’s also when — though it sadly took too many months after that for such abhorrent behavior to properly enrage us as a society — we began to hold accountable even the richest and most famous among us, to view domestic abuse and violence for what it is: a serious crime and character flaw.
Because while each community in this country may have its own UTC-type athletic moments to revel in this year, accomplishments dear to that region only, the Rice story touched every community. It opened dialogue and lifted awareness of what may be our nation’s single most destructive, self-perpetuating crime — a cowardly act that some studies show occurs as often as 7,400 times a day throughout the land.
“We definitely have seen an impact,” noted Regina McDevitt, senior director of this city’s Family Violence and Rape Crisis Center at the Partnership for Families, Children and Adults.
“We average about 10,000 calls a year to our domestic abuse hotline. We’ve seen a 10 percent increase since the Rice story broke. This has raised the level of information being put out there. It’s raised awareness. It’s gotten people talking, which is very encouraging.”
Added Karen Murphy, the organization’s resource development director: “For the first time in my mind, men started talking about this issue. It got men talking about what an appropriate punishment is for this type of crime.”
It took too long, of course. The first video of Rice dragging Palmer, the mother of his child, out of the elevator surfaced on Feb. 19. That act initially earned him a two-game suspension from NFL commissioner Roger Goodell.
Not until Sept. 8, 201 days later, did the country see what led to Palmer’s unconsciousness inside the elevator. Only then did the public watch Rice punch Palmer in the face, knocking her to the elevator floor, another troubling story of a big, strong athlete wrongly believing that might makes right.
If a picture ever truly was worth 1,000 words, that video image was it. The Ravens dismissed Rice within hours of the video first surfacing. The NFL pledged to change its conduct policy. Other sports spoke of doing the same.
“In the beginning, the NFL didn’t appear to take it so seriously,” Murphy said. “But now everyone is taking it seriously. So we appreciate the exposure to it. We just hope people appreciate understand it happens at all socio-economic levels. It could be happening at the house next door.”
Added McDevitt of those 201 days with minimal discipline or loud public condemnation: “Would it have been better if it happened earlier? Yes. But for (the NFL) to finally say that this is unacceptable was a great step forward. I hope this helps my 12-year-old son better understand the value of a healthy relationship. Our young people need to learn that.”
She paused, then swiftly added, “This is certainly a case of better late than never.”
In a much lighter vein, “better late than never” could serve as a theme for the good work done by the Mocs in football, as well as their big brother Tennessee Vols 116 miles to the north up I-75. Ineligible for bowls the past three seasons due to three straight losing regular seasons, the Big Orange finished 6-6 this autumn under second-year coach Butch Jones, despite losing quarterback Justin Worley to injury midway through the season.
Their reward is a trip to the Gator Bowl opposite Jacksonville on Jan. 2. After four straight losing seasons and five in six years, it’s impossible not to rate UT’s return to the postseason among the top five sports stories in the Tennessee Valley.
As for the fifth story on that list, you could certainly go national with cyclist Taylor Phinney’s shattered leg during the U.S. Cycling race through our town on Memorial Day. That wreck, as he flew down Lookout Mountain’s Scenic Highway, was caused by the presence of a race motorcycle that was going too slow. Motorcycles and cars long have been a part of professional cycling, but with Phinney’s career now in jeopardy, there is at least some discussion in the cycling community about the possible need to change some guidelines for those whose fuel doesn’t come from power drinks and energy bars.
Yet because it’s my list I’ll choose local firefighter Jason Greer, who lost more than 60 pounds from a pretty ample frame so he could complete the grueling Chattanooga Ironman requirement of swimming 2 miles, biking 116 miles and running 26.2 miles, all within 17 hours.
To make Greer’s story twice as good, he was doing all this as a way to honor his son, Tristan, who’s been battling cancer for more than four years.
A single recycled quote from the week of that Ironman competition to better appreciate Greer’s goodness:
“I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen him drive 15 hours from Michigan (for Tristan’s treatments), drop his family off at home, then come straight here and work a full shift,” said Richard Britt, a fire captain at the No. 19 station in Hixson. “He and his family are going through such a difficult time, and to see him accomplish this is remarkable. You’ll never meet a nicer, better person in your life than Jason Greer.”
The Scenic City may never enjoy a better sporting calendar year from the UTC athletic department than this one almost completed. Especially in football and women’s basketball. And UT football should improve dramatically from this point forward under Jones and his rapidly improving talent pool.
Our town may also have few more inspirational citizens than Greer and fellow Ironman finisher and Signal Mountain resident Elizabeth Baker, who’s legally blind.
But as our local domestic violence leaders already have seen, the Ray Rice situation has directly impacted lives far beyond sports, hopefully delivering a positive change for all society. Better late than never, indeed.
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.