Why can't we all be a little more like Jason Russell?
If you don't know who Jason Russell is, you need to learn more about him. The whole country does, especially the Woke and Cancel cultures. Then they need to attempt to emulate his grace, decency and ability to forgive what was undoubtedly a fairly difficult situation. Especially for a parent.
For the uninformed, Jason is the father of Tennessee Volunteers catcher/outfielder Evan Russell, one of the top players for the country's top-ranked college baseball team.
Troy Eklund is an ESPN announcer and a former Arkansas Razorbacks baseball player. While broadcasting Friday night's Oklahoma State-Missouri State NCAA tournament game in Stillwater, Oklahoma, Eklund accused young Russell of not playing in the Vols' 10-0 victory over Alabama State in the Knoxville Regional that day because he had failed a test for performance-enhancing drugs.
Eklund added: "So Evan Russell is suspended for the rest of the season. So Tennessee's going to have the whole rest of the team tested tomorrow."
Turns out neither of those statements was true. Evan Russell didn't fail a drug test. The rest of the Tennessee team was never tested.
What murky source Eklund relied on to make such a scurrilous claim remains unclear.
And you could certainly argue that it was a fireable offense on a couple of fronts. No. 1, Eklund either can't or won't come clean about the exact source of his unreliable, unsubstantiated information, which is a 1,000% no-no in the media business.
No. 2, this isn't like saying Russell can't hit the curveball right before he swats one out of the yard to win a game. Such accusations as failing a drug test - especially a performance-enhancing drug test - could damage Russell's professional possibilities moving forward as either a player or a coach.
To his credit, Eklund did quickly recant his charges, saying on Saturday: "I'd like to take this opportunity to apologize to Tennessee's Evan Russell and the Volunteer program for inaccurate, unsourced information I used Friday night during the Stillwater Regional. It was used in error and should not have been referenced. I regret any hurt or harm that it might have caused."
Obviously, the 55-year-old Eklund should have known better. If ESPN were to suspend him for a game or a weekend, it wouldn't seem an unfair punishment given that many believe the announcer got his false information from an online message board, of all things.
That said, it was one mistake. He apologized. Russell - who didn't play in the Friday game due to a medical issue - was back in uniform Saturday as the Vols beat Campbell. Hopefully, it's now a nonissue moving forward.
But it's what Jason Russell said via Twitter after Eklund's on-air apology we could all learn from, and should, if only to practice the Golden Rule of doing unto others as you would have them do unto you.
Wrote Russell: "Troy Eklund, your apology is appreciated and accepted. No anger in any form or fashion. God bless!!"
Amazing, though it is also sad that a simple act of forgiveness must be considered amazing in these divisive, bitter, pound-of-flesh, pay-through-the-nose times for every verbal slight, however unintentional. Oh to be able to, at least occasionally, put the Woke Culture to sleep and cancel the Cancel Culture, if only to encourage a wee bit more forgiving and forgetting as opposed to the rapidly expanding rush to crush anyone who makes a mistake.
We used to be a better, more understanding society. In these terrifying shoot-first, ask-questions-later times we seem to be living in, we need to preach and practice the Golden Rule now more than ever.
Words may never hurt as much as bullets, but until our feckless leaders are willing to ban access to bullets for those who shouldn't have them, learning to forgive hurtful words and actions in the way Jason Russell did might at least allow us to turn down the heat on what is quickly shaping up to be the longest, hottest, angriest, most tragic summer ever.
Mark WiedmerContact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @TFPWeeds.