I have a pretty regular routine when I wake up in the morning usually somewhere between 6 and 6:30 a.m. I roll over and pick up my phone and scan the headlines. I read the sports pages first.
This morning, two stories caught my eye each of which were distressing in their own way and were a clear reflection of where we are as a society in February, 2025.
Sports, as a cultural phenomenon, is a reflection of our society as a whole I think. So the two stories I read added to the anxiety I feel about the massive change that is taking place in America as cruelty and recklessness seem to be taking hold.
We are seeing mass layoffs, mass incarcerations, family breakups, misapplication of law, and institutional distrust coupled with a jarring lack of care about consequences or harm to fellow humans.
And now it seems that our sports are a reflection of that overall change.
The first story was about a hockey match between the United States national team the Canadian national team in an NHL-sponsored tournament called Four Nations Face Off that also includes national teams of professional players from Sweden and Finland.
Modern international sporting competitions like the Olympics, or the World Cup exist to foster peace through competition and an understanding of our human and cultural differences. They have not been intended to exacerbate political disputes on the field or the ice.
But at the Canada – USA hockey game last Saturday, Canadian fans lustily booed the performance of the American National Anthem, on the heels of the American government pursuing a new tariff regime against its neighbor and ally while also floating the idea of annexing Canada as the “51st state.”
In response to the Canadiens’ disrespectful booing of the anthem, a U.S. hockey player dropped his gloves as soon as the opening puck was dropped and the players started at fisticuffs. There were three fights in the first nine seconds.
And many Americans applauded this show of “American power.” But it is doubtful that this type of behavior can help cleanse America’s image on the national stage. Bullying is still bullying and most still abhor a bully.
The second incident occurred at the NBA’s All-Star weekend extravaganza. During a skills competition attended by a sell-out crowd of NBA fans, two NBA stars, Victor Wembayama who will be the face of the league for the next decade, and Chris Paul a veteran who has had a distinguished NBA career, discovered a way to make a mockery of a skills competition in an effort to “win” by exploiting a loophole in the game.
They did not even try to execute the required skills of shooting and passing for the paying crowd. They just tried to complete the requirements in the fastest time. They knew they were not exhibiting the skills that they were being paid to exhibit. Yet they chose to make a mockery anyway and disappoint the crowd.
It showed a complete lack of respect and a lack of awareness of the place they hold in the American pantheon of great athletes.
Where have the ethics and morals gone? And is the loss of ethics and morals a reflection of the loss of ethics and morals at the highest levels of our society? Is this what awaits us in our broken society that seems eons removed from the “greatest generation” that gave all of themselves to freedom and liberty around the world?
Today I am dejected. I hope it gets better. And I hope that as a practitioner of law I can help right this badly listing American ship.
The Law Office of Eric R. Brown 
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