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Sports Illustrated Article Commentary
By Joe Nemelka
Mapleton, UT
E-mail: jnemelka@yahoo.com

My wife walked into my office and handed me the Sports Illustrated (SI) January 28, 2008, magazine and said that she thought I would be interested in reading one of the articles. Having been a participant in the Vegas Classic and having attended race day with my family I knew exactly what she was referring to and I had been looking forward to reading the "Vegas Classic" SI article for several months. Later that evening I finally had the time available to read, ponder and bask in the article written by Chris Ballard entitled The Birds.

For perspective, I have considered myself a "pigeon racer" for 27 years even though I took almost 10 years off from physically participating in the sport to attend law school and after law school to move around the country (actually around the world as my family and I spent one and half years in London, England) trying to climb the corporate ladder. Even though I didn't actively participate in races, I would subscribe to and devour every pigeon magazine that would cross my path. Throughout my life I have always told everyone that my favorite hobby was pigeon racing to which I always heard the common "What did you say? Pigeon racing? Are you serious?" Even when I lived in London I received that same response. I have, and continue to, wear my love and passion for the sport on my sleeve and will talk to anyone anytime about this hobby. Much like most of us, I would have to believe, I rarely got/get a favorable initial response to my passion for pigeon racing.

Having been involved in many more traditional sports through my high school years and being a bit of a sports enthusiast I have always enjoyed reading the most popular sporting journal in the United States - Sports Illustrated. Now here I was reading about pigeon racing in this multi-million circulation magazine icon of a sporting journal! Wow! Awesome! As I started on The Birds article, I was obviously anxious - and quite nervous - to see what Chris had said about my favorite hobby and hoping he would provide seeds of legitimacy and credibility that our sports has struggled with from John Q. Public.

As I finished the article, I must say that I was impressed with the article and thought it was very good journalism and quite entertaining…I even found myself chuckling a few times. I told my wife that I thought that article was very entertaining and I was going to have it framed and placed next to some of my bird photos, awards and diplomas as I thought having our sport profiled in SI was about as big of event in my life as any pigeon racing championship I had won.

I talked with some neighbors and friends about the article and we joked about Gustavo and his stick and some other items in the article, but they all thought it was an entertaining and informative article. In each discussion it led to many other inquisitive questions about my hobby. Does a good pigeon really cost $200,000? Can you really win several hundred thousand in that race? Do pigeons really fly that fast for that long? I thought to myself many times "Thank you SI and thank you Chris Ballard!!"

I then started to receive e-mails from other fanciers and 9 out of 10 were upset with the article and some were downright belligerent and extremely upset! Whoa, what had I missed? I went back and read the article again…and again…and again. What had I missed? I even read a web posting from the wife of a pigeon racer who was calling for a boycott of SI and asking for all of us to bombard SI with e-mails and letters expressing our displeasure and asking for Chris' head on a platter. I read all kinds of allegations that Chris didn't want to the write the article and that was obvious from the tone of the article; Chris had an axe to grind on our sport; Chris was mocking the sport; etc.

Again, what had I missed? Initially, let me put a couple of these allegations straight. I got to know Chris a little bit at the race and we even had some mutual acquaintances as I used to own a company that provided technology solutions to the NBA and Chris is a senior NBA writer for SI so we talked about some of these acquaintances. Chris and I have continued to exchange e-mails and he shared with me both verbally and via e-mail that he wanted to write this article. In a recent e-mail exchange he stated, "I wish I could convince my editors to do more stories like this but it took over a year to persuade them to let me do this one." (E-mail from Chris Ballard to Joe Nemelka dated 1/28/08). Make no mistake…Chris wanted to write this article.

As I have contemplated how I could be so comfortable with the article while so many others are so upset I would like to share some thoughts - I might even call them realities - for our sport. As much as we would like to believe otherwise, we are a unique and peculiar people. Ninety-five percent of the people living in the United States probably don't even know the sport exists. There are approximately 13,000 pigeon racers in the United States out of over 300,000,000 million Americans, which means that if you race pigeons you are 1 in 23,077. No matter how much we would like to think otherwise, that certainly doesn't make for a well-known and "mainstream" sport. They could pack EVERY pigeon racer in the United States in a small college basketball arena. How can we be 'offended' when people hear or think of pigeons and they think of common pigeons that they see practically every day soiling statues and buildings?

What was Chris' ultimate attitude and the attitude from his efforts to understand and write about our sport? I think Chris said it best in response to Mike French's question "What did you think?" - he stated "Can't say I'll be buying birds, I tell him, but I no longer find it all that strange." What more could we have realistically asked for from Chris?

I am confident that if we all would read the article with a view that it is a piece of journalism that was written for informational and entertainment purposes and not as a public relations piece that we will appreciate the article.

Oh sure, there are statements that we wish weren't written and we could take offense to, but I am sure we can also find many, many statements that are complimentary, accurate and informative. Again--not that many of us didn't wish it were otherwise--this is not a public relations piece meant to talk about all the positive and endearing aspects of our great sport. I would encourage all of us to consider carefully how we share our comments about the SI article with those that are not involved in our sport. Many can certainly be upset and disappointed, but I would say that if we express that to others it will do nothing but reinforce some of the stereotypes made in the article. Laugh it off and talk about the positive aspects of the article and we can certainly dispel some of the negativity in the article.

I am very confident - actually 100 percent confident as it has already happened-that this article will stimulate positive interest in our sport. We need to respond to any inquiries positively and not negatively. One web posting I read stated that it would be a great travesty if we don't aggressively express our displeasure to SI regarding this mean spirited article. Actually, I think it would be a great travesty TO aggressively express our displeasure. Let's learn how to recognize and embrace our uniqueness and the many qualities in our sport. As I said in a letter I did write to the editors of SI: "While the sport may be different, it ultimately is about the athlete and I hope to all those that read the article they will think of those one pound balls of feathers and their amazing athletic attributes that allow them to return home from 300-400-500 mile races for the love of home and a few meals a day. Further, to most of us pigeon racing is a family event that occurs weekly in our back yards and does not involve Elvis, drunks or gambling and that is why we love the sport." I would guess that the preceding sentence is how 99 percent of us feel about our sport so let's not take offense when an article is written about an event that to us isn't even our main reason for participating in our sport.

Now let's be frank about what bothered us most about the article. It was the portrayal of the participants…not the sport. I thought the article placed proper emphasis on the quality of our pigeons, the cost of our pigeons and the amazing athletic ability of the birds (i.e. the reference to Charles Barkley who was one of the 50 greatest players in NBA history…not a bad comparison). The problem I would proffer up to our sport was the way he portrayed a few of the fanciers that attended the Vegas Classic.

Again, I was there and there were many fanciers following Chris around who were, quite frankly, extremely drunk, obnoxious and overbearing. It also sounds like many didn't leave Chris alone even after the race and continued to embroil him in the controversy regarding the clocking. I did cringe when I read the opening line of the article, "I knew I was too involved when I got a frantic call from Gustavo." I thought to myself, "Why the heck would someone make a frantic call to Chris?" "What was the point of that?" "How many other people were calling and harassing Chris and airing our dirty laundry regarding the challenges with the Vegas Classic?"

Our frustration regarding the article should be directed at those few individuals that really embarrassed themselves, embarrassed Ed Sittner and embarrassed the sport. That is the tone of the article that we, including myself, should take offense to. So if you are offended by the article, don't take it out on SI or Chris...express your displeasure to those referenced in the article that were a bit overbearing and obnoxious. Other than that, let's appreciate the article for what it was…informative and entertaining and not for what it wasn't...a public relations article