Joseph Ossai and the necessity for empathy

Joseph Ossai made the largest mistake of his younger profession on Sunday evening. The type of play that will have been the worst mistake of a profession lasting many years, Desperately making an attempt to make a play and maintain the Chiefs out of subject aim vary, the Bengals’ second-year defensive finish bought misplaced within the second and didn’t understand that Patrick Mahomes was out of bounds when he made contact, shoving him to the bottom and getting flagged for pointless roughness.

We will litigate the character of the penalty and whether or not it deserved being flagged, however I gained’t change two extraordinarily apparent truths:

1. It led to Kansas Metropolis being in place for the game-winning subject aim
2. There was nothing about Ossai’s actions that indicated maliciousness

It was simply a type of performs. It occurs. Athletes get caught up within the second, they make a mistake — and extra of than not they’re allowed to maneuver on. Sadly for Ossai it occurred on the worst potential second, on the worst potential time, within the greatest recreation conceivable.

We noticed stay as Ossai sat alone, inconsolable on the Bengals bench — figuring out his actions probably price his group a spot within the Tremendous Bowl. Destiny would have determined in Cincinnati would return, however Ossai ensured that didn’t. It carried into the locker room, when Ossai was surrounded by the media, nonetheless in tears, and barely in a position to maintain it collectively whereas teammate BJ Hill backed up his teammate and helped deflect probably the most biting questions.

It’s superb that Hill was there to again up Ossai, however such a rattling disgrace we wanted him to. How did attain a degree the place a participant must be the voice of motive in a press pool? How did the decline of fundamental human empathy plummet so precipitously that somebody thought it was acceptable to ask a 22-year-old, in tears, on the lowest second of his life:

“How laborious is it to not, possibly, not pull all that weight on you?”

Ossai made it just a few phrases, choking out “it’s extraordinarily laborious, man” earlier than breaking down once more — solely to have Hill intervene and cease the query. What was to be gained by asking that? What potential reply do you count on as a reporter?

I’m not a journalist. I don’t declare to be one. I’m not on the bottom doing crucial reporting on information points that form the worlds — however one factor that also sticks from a journalistic ethics class I took in school was when a professor of mine mentioned “irrespective of the topic, irrespective of the story, always remember your humanity.”

It’s why I’m so completely floored once I see one thing like this. I perceive everyone seems to be making an attempt to hit deadlines and get quotes from the largest story to shut the sport, however ought to that come on the expense of so blatantly ignoring the humanity of a topic? Is it price making a 22-year-old cry simply to get a half-choked out reply saying “sure, it’s extraordinarily tough figuring out I damage my group”?

Anybody with a modicum of observational consciousness may have crafted a narrative in regards to the second with out cornering the participant himself. A lot extra of this second may have been informed by means of describing his physique language, how teammates rallied round him, getting quotes about Ossai from different gamers, exhibiting their help for his or her teammate — moderately than pouring gasoline on the worst second of a participant’s life.

If we need to focus on when a participant may and may have performed higher we additionally need to be prepared to be introspective. We will all do higher on this trade, not solely to regain belief, however present just a little fundamental empathy and never attempt to make a horrible state of affairs for somebody worse. It’s not that tough.