In the aftermath of great disasters, sports columnists are in a fix. They need to write about sports, but they don't want to seem so callous as to not address the national emergency at hand. Hence the "putting it in perspective" genre, in which the writers announce that, at a time like this, sports are pretty silly. Within the genre, though, there are subdivisions. Columnists can declare whether this silliness is a good or bad thing, and opine about how the tragedy has changed the sporting world. Gelf breaks them down:

Sports Are an Unnecessary Distraction

Bob Molinaro, Virginian-Pilot, Sept. 6
Now and always, we need our circuses. But you could also argue that as long as we are so willingly distracted by sports, as well as the latest Jen and Brad rumors, we will never come around to confronting important human and civic issues.

Jerry Brewer, Louisville Courier-Journal, Sept. 4
We seem as concerned with where the New Orleans Saints will play as we are with how they'll muster up the passion to play. We seem as concerned with praising millionaire athletes for their donations as we are with stranded poor people…Maybe we haven't found perspective after all. Maybe that's just our favorite buzzword for these times. Maybe you have found it, but you might want to share it with your buddies. Be sure to do it before they paint their faces.

Rick Cleveland, Jackson Clarion-Ledger, Aug. 30
SEEMS an almost annual occurrence, doesn't it? Football season approaches. Everyone is undefeated. Optimism abounds. Your season tickets have arrived in the mail. You've planned your football weekends, your tailgating, your travel. And then something happens that reminds us that, when all is said and done, football is but a diversion.

Wendell Barnhouse, Dallas Star-Telegram, Sept. 1
But as a city and an entire region face rescue, recovery and rebuilding on a scale that has never been imagined or experienced, even an unfolding college football season seems to be overmatched when it comes to the ongoing and unfolding postscript of this natural disaster.

Sports are a Necessary Distraction

Tom Dorwart, Notre Dame and St. Mary's Observer, Sept. 5
Coaches always say sports teach players and fans about life, about teamwork and about working towards a goal. Now, in the midst of tragedy, sports seem like more than that. They are the very "release" which helps us through challenging times.

Dan Clutter, Bucyrus Telegraph-Forum, Sept. 2
We need the diversion of sports now more than we ever have. But while you have your checkbook out paying for tickets, you might consider making a small donation to the Red Cross for hurricane relief.

Will Graves, Naples Daily News, Sept. 3
Sports can do the same thing. It can remind people there's a life worth getting back to, that the lights will eventually come back on Friday nights in Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama, that the children will play again and the Superdome will roar when the Saints come marching in. Sports can be our security blanket. Now, it seems, we need them more than ever.

Disasters Force Athletes to have Perspective

Roy Johnson, SI.com, Sept. 5.
In short, just when sports was really starting to get on our nerves, it found its soul. We stopped caring about whether T.O. was gettin' love, whether Moss was getting high or David Wells was getting screwed. And it was OK. This time, I feel it may last awhile—as more and more athletes come to grips with the harsh light Katrina shed on those with the least among us, and how we view them. At least I pray that it will.

King Kaufman, Salon.com, Sept. 1
But there was Saints quarterback Aaron Brooks, telling a reporter from the Los Angeles Times that while Katrina and its aftermath seem like the worst thing ever to those who are suffering, there are others who have suffered as much or more. "It's not a 9/11 deal," he said, "but it has the feeling of it." It's not really a point that needed to be made. Nobody begrudges Katrina's victims their woe. But it's impressive that Brooks made it.
Now that rescue operators have gained access to many of the hardest-hit areas of the Gulf coast, it does appear that the casualties caused by Hurricane Katrina are indeed a "9/11 deal," but neither Brooks nor Kaufman knew it at the time. Kaufman was following up on his earlier article about sports in the wake of 9/11. His nuanced view is that Americans are smart enough to know the difference between sports and real life; he wonders why we have to continuously put sports into perspective, but not other pursuits such as art.

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