David+B’s+OpEd+Article

Water polo has lost it's bow tie, it's slacks, it's button up collared shirt, it's vest, and even it's polished shoes. Class is gone; honor, civility, gentry... all gone. I'm not referring to the lack of clothing as the above metaphor may seem to suggest. The speedo is just the rule of the trade, the uniform, the jersey. Where the class has been lost, is in the players. And the system that misled them.

An Olympian on the 1984 USA men's water polo team told me players used to have an honor code, they didn't just throw a punch for no reason. I wonder what that was like...

Last weekend I had a tournament. A kind of tryout tournament for the Junior National Team. (I won't get into the whole screwed up political part where only the LA water polo players get picked) So my team was playing the Souther Pacific Zone A team, supposedly the best, with all the huge guys going to play at USC and Cal and UCLA and all that fun stuff. Anyways, I was just playing like any other game, guarding this giant faced 220lb dude with side burns and the whole deal (Later I found out this guy was going to play at Cal, had been on the Cadet team, Youth team, and was soon to be picked for the Junior team, as well as had kind of a reputation for... rough housing) when I turned to face him and POW, there goes my head underwater and here come the fists: couple punches to the temples, knee to the cheek, blocked the second knee, returned to the air, smiled and thanked him, moved on with the game, scored a couple goals, just another game. Routine, that's the problem. It was not a big deal. Without provocation, this big shot senior from some crazy Orange County high school, decided to take little 16 year old David Birdwell underwater and practice his MMA.

Now it really wasn't a big deal, the referee didn't see it, game didn't stop, I played the rest of the game. This is water polo. Really, the only reason I am writing this even now is because I found out the next day that I had gotten a concussion. I had to sit out two games the second day which I wasn't happy about, and it got me thinking. What happened? When did winning take over morality? Is it really "at all costs" now? At the cost of other humans life possibly? I mean I get physicality, that's the root of the game, but a concussion? I think its uncalled for. Brains are important, so hitting them is a bad idea. Water polo isn't meant to be a back alley boxing match. Maybe in a few years, water polo will catch up to the NFL and start trying to protect the well-being of the players. But until then, without loving it any less, I'll just have to do my best to play the game how it should be played, and keep smiling when nobody else does.