About half the sports movies ever made feature a stock character, the Dirty Player. Sometimes the Dirty Player is a goon. Other times he is a skilled player who has gone over to the dark side. Or a misguided youth under the influence of the Evil Coach or the Frustrated Father.
The Dirty Player's role is fairly circumscribed. Sometimes he takes out the Home Team's Star Player. In other stories, he distracts the Home Team from playing its Own Game. The Home Team usually has to lose a few times before it Learns Its Lesson.
Soon, it's time for the Big Game. How will the Home Team get revenge on the Dirty Player? Will the Fat Kid pressed into a starting role knock the Dirty Player into the stands? Or will the Home Team resist the Dirty Player's tricks to compete and learn to win As A Team?
Will the Dirty Player be humiliated? Will he end up in tears when he realizes how others have misunderstood his competitive fire? Will he See the Light and turn out to be a Good Guy after all? Or will Evil Win, forcing the Home Team to learn a different lesson?
You have seen all these movies and have predicted all their plot lines.
Now figure out the real game being played.
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Rahelio understands how Michael Brodkorb takes the Home Team out of the game when we respond to his elbows and leg whips. (I wrote this before seeing his updated version of the post that exempts this blog from his indictment.)
We should expose his tactics. We should clarify his connections to the people who really matter — the Team Owners paying him and benefiting from his dirty play. And when he is occasionally right and makes a good play, we should acknowledge it rather than twist ourselves into contortions to avoid facing the truth.
At the same time, we should resist stooping to his tactics. We should not think he is our friend because he shakes hands when the clock has expired. We should not under-estimate that he is very, very good at being a Dirty Player. And we should not confuse the Dirty Player with the Big Game.
Because then he wins. And worse, so does his team.
