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Life's Lessons That empty feeling By: Jack Styczynski Date: 11/03/1999 One 24-hour period earlier this week is causing many fans to pause and reflect... Death comes to the strong, too. America's sporting community paused this week when star race car driver Greg Moore and Hall of Fame football player Walter Payton died long before their time. And within the same 24-hour period, the Hofstra community was also struck when starting offensive lineman John Ciampi passed away as well. All three of these athletes were more than just names to me. Of course, I've been attending all Ciampi's home games the last two seasons, and had walked among he and his teammates several times this year in the Hofstra locker room while conducting post-game interviews for this web site. Learning of his death has placed a dark cloud over the rest of the season for me. Greg Moore Moore was a bit more distant, but not much. I had watched many of his races on television, and had actually attended one of his first "major" races with my father a few years ago. I came away raving what a "great one" he was going to be. Five wins later, Moore was well on his way. I was watching when he crashed horrendously Sunday, and immediately called my Dad knowing there was no way Moore could have survived. He didn't. Then, there's Payton. His death was a bit less of a shock because he had been sick, but it still hit home because I had a connection to him, too. Walter Payton Back when I was a student at Hofstra in the late 80s, I was also a production assistant at NBC Sports, and we were televising the last regular-season game of his career at Soldier Field in Chicago. All week, we worked on a retrospective feature, which combined footage of Payton's greatest plays interspersed with his thoughts on a legendary career. We had Walter sitting in front of a plain black backdrop for his interview. Eerily, that backdrop seems even more appropriate now. What do we learn from premature death? With Payton, it's hard to say. What lessons can be learned when a 45 year-old dies of cancer? With Moore, perhaps we learn that athletes shouldn't be rushing back from injury. Just a day before his fatal crash, Moore was involved in a motor scooter accident, which left his hand seriously battered, yet he still raced. With Ciampi, maybe we learn that spending all hours of the night "partying" is not the wisest thing to do. To be fair, official results of his autopsy have yet to be released. Somehow, I doubt people will learn much from any of these deaths, though. Unfortunately, "risk" has become far more acceptable in our society than "conventional wisdom." To expect people to change behavior is probably folly. Maybe a few will. The wiser ones. Death is a tough pill to swallow. Meaningless death is even tougher. Rest in peace, Greg. Rest in peace, Walter. Rest in peace, John. Please find a way to teach us something from the grave. But hurry, because the pause for you won't last long. |