By Ryan Dennis
TheSportsLovers.com
2011-01-26
My view of the story helps me remember just why I Love Sports the way a Sports Lover should. To help me, help you, understand what I mean, I’m going to metaphorically combine my two loves. Food and sport.
In all seriousness, hear me out on this.
Everybody loves pizza. And everybody loves sports. If you know someone who doesn’t love one of these two, there’s a guarantee that someone in their immediate family does. Sport is like a massive pizza of epic proportions featuring toppings like cheesy enjoyment, saucy entertainment and perfect play. This pizza comes in all flavors and thus can be enjoyed by all cultures, creeds and classes. And just like food, sport transcends the things that separate us as a race of humanity. It can bring people together. It can feed a hungry child’s hopes. Today I learned that sports can save a man’s freedom.
This Sports Illustrated report by Jon Wortheim is not only covered with eloquence and depth, its contents are inspiring. Terry Harrington was a football star in high school that saw an early end to his bright football career. He was suspected and convicted of a crime he did not commit, and went on to serve 25 years in prison for it. When imagining high school football players, the term “criminal” may not correlate to the image immediately. Yet in many places, these jocks have targets on their heads, especially if they’re highly talented. Being at the wrong place at the wrong time is difficult to avoid for outgoing young athletes in rough and tumble neighborhoods.
The same way sports gave this man a sense of dignity and hope as a young star, it gave him his saving grace. She asked the same question I would have liked to have asked. Why would a young man with his whole future ahead of him, commit a murder? Despite having no legal background, former prison barber Anne Danaher helped Terry Harrington get his freedom back. This video is worth watching just as the story is worth remembering.
