SPORTSMANSHIP

Where I stand, sportsmanship is an ethos or personal disposition to enjoy a sport activity solely for its own sake,  with due consideration, come what may,  for fairness, ethics, moral values, respect and a sense of sincere fellowship with one's opponent.  As a component of morality in sport, it is made up of two intrinsic and overlapping elements: fair play and character.  As such, it has evolved two other popular terms in our contemporary sports jargon: "good sport" meaning a good "winner" as well as a good "loser," and "sore loser" which is as self-explanatory as the first.   Each  characteristic in turn applies not solely to the player per se but but also necessarily extends to his supporters as well.

Truly lamentable, indeed, was the news report that two of Manny Pacquiao's most trusted "alalays" -- his assistant trainer Buboy Fernandez and his close adviser Michael Konez -- had collaborated in assaulting photo-journalist Al Bello, while the latter was taking shots at the face-down fallen Pacquiao at the end of his fourth encounter with Marquez.  The assault has been amply supported by photographs showing Konez grabbing Bello at the back of his shirt while a comparatively bulky Fernandez was kicking the photographer.  I regret to say this, but whether one likes it or not, the deplorable incident has inevitably put Pacquiao's image into some kind of a sore loser before the eyes of boxing afficionados worldwide -- although only via "extension."  

It has been known that the assault was precipitated by a prior request of Manny's chief trainer, Freddie Roach, that Bello refrained from taking a shot of Manny as he laid unconscious on the canvass following his sixth-round knockdown by Marquez -- which request, Bello, as a professional journalist, had of course firmly declined, as indeed he must.  To be sure, I don't recall a similar unfortunate event reported in the aftermath of British Hatton's monumental knockout by Manny several years ago.

That Roach had so far shown remorse and duly apologized for such request, whereas Fernandez and Konez have opted to just remain silent, truly leaves very much to be desired,. This has in turn compelled the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines to issue a strong statement denouncing what Konuz and Fernandez had done and urging Manny to penalize Fernandez and Konez for their clearly unfair and arrogant behavior.

Maybe -- well, just maybe -- Manny Pacquiao, who has always been a true sportsman in all his fights -- has just not been able to entirely wake up into and accept the painful reality of his unforeseen defeat.   I am sure that, soon as he does, given his widely acclaimed humility, he would what he must:  put his two favorite, yet grievously remorseless, confidants to task, ideally meting them appropriate censure for their manifest behavior as sore losers.    It could have been much better, of course, had any such action from Manny not been simply overtaken by the unfortunate news reports.    For, indeed, true sportsmanship, like a fountain, flows naturally from one's character; it is not something merely "urged" by external happenstances.       

Incidentally, when recently interviewed on this issue, Manny Pacquiao was seemingly evasive, saying he was not in a position to comment on it.  Alas, So Be It!