by Isaac Avilucea
Daily Lobo
Oh, how we honor you, William and Joseph.
If “Remember Koman Coulibaly. To hell with Mali,” is the rallying cry the American media chooses to brandish, it’s time for us to cry foul. Thankfully, Coulibaly, the international referee who apparently cost the United States a win over Slovenia in the FIFA World Cup, already did that.
How utterly laughable that a bunch of casual soccer observers have waged a pompous, nationalistic, media-driven crusade aimed at humiliating, buckling and ultimately expelling a proud, longtime official who had the gall to make a call — real or phantom — which didn’t go in the United States’ favor. Never mind that the Americans started the match sluggishly, falling behind by two goals early on.
This manufactured controversy bears semblance to when Pulitzer and Hearst grossly misconstrued or fabricated stories to garner support for the Spanish-American War back in 1898.
Wait, isn’t that just our dutiful jobs as righteous, God-fearing media members — to sensationalize, to speculate and to blatantly convict a man in print?
Yes, these are our standards. By golly, print journalism has to survive somehow. Even more telling is the fact that America’s most prestigious reporting award is posthumously named in honor of Pulitzer, an American newspaper owner linked to the introduction of yellow journalism. Along with Hearst, Pulitzer is nothing more than a proprietor of mis-truths.
And the truth is, this is sensationalism at its finest with disingenuous writers across the country intent upon smearing Coulibaly’s name. One of the most baffling, unnecessarily harsh columns comes from Sport Illustrated’s Peter King.
“FIFA uses a referee — in a game of vital importance in determining who moves on in the biggest tournament in any sport in the world — whose highest previous assignment was the African Cup. That’s got to be the equivalent of a Mid-American Conference ref being assigned the Super Bowl.”
This coming from a NFL columnist strangely assigned to cover the World Cup. Hey, Peter. Fútbol and football are two different sports.
Even more misguided is the scrutiny lobbed at FIFA for not westernizing the sport by instituting replay technology in an effort to eradicate human error. In circumstances involving such controversies, ethnocentricity and hindsight bias are tactics used to reintroduce concerns and push agendas.
Who is America to judge the world’s cultural sporting standards and whether they’re up to par with our nation?
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Glaring blunders should be personnel matters, any punishment handled internally. Just because Jim Joyce, the MLB umpire who admitted to blowing a call that robbed Armando Galarraga of a perfect game, apologized doesn’t mean Coulibaly should follow suit.
What’s more, critics insist upon invoking the accountability card, calling for FIFA to force Coulibaly to explain his decision to penalize the Americans. Let’s get this straight: The land of unaccountability requests that Coulibaly be held in contempt?
Surprisingly, a motion hasn’t been made to extradite Coulibaly to America and have him stand in on a congressional hearing and answer surly questions from squabbling demagogues. What Americans really want is a teary-eyed mea culpa from Coulibaly. They want him to gravel on his hands and knees and beg for mercy.
And even if he did, it wouldn’t matter.
Should the Americans be eliminated from World Cup contention, it will be through no fault of their own. Coulibaly will be a national scapegoat akin to Steve Bartman, the unfortunate soul who interfered with a with an eighth-inning Moisés Alou would-be foul ball catch that is said to have cost the Chicago Cubs a trip to the World Series.
Like Bartman, in all of this furor, Coulibaly’s humanity has been regrettably lost.
What happened to second chances? They don’t come without genuine attrition, green cards or citizenship. Second chances are only afforded to the red-blooded, white patriot and occasionally the self-loathing, repentant American negro.
From World Series to World Cup, it’s obvious that the standards that Pulitzer and Hearst established are still in play. Cheers, fellas. This is why I’m proud to be an American. Here’s to a good toast: “Remember Koman Coulibaly. To hell with Mali.”
