Is Chris Benoit Really Sports News?

You may read the headline on this column and then double-check what site you're reading it on. At first, it may seem hypocritical to torch the media for covering a pro wrestling tragedy on its sports pages, and then write about that issue in my own sports column. But it's not the first time professional wrestling has graced this space, and it's not the last time, either.

I'm a casual fan who has written about "sports entertainment" dozens of times in the 10 years of this column, and not just if the feces hits the oscillator. When Chris Benoit goes nutso and kills himself and his family, I'm not a Johnny-come-lately sportswriter jumping on top of the pile.

Bu haven't there been a few of those in the past week, since this horrific story broke? Every major sports news outlet has assigned a columnist to opine about Benoit, the murders, the steroids, and, of course, the long sad history of tragedy in professional wrestling. It's like everyone who ever aspired to grow up to be Frank Deford decided to become Phil Mushnick for a day.

In an ever-tightening world of journalism, where newsworthy events like the NHL Draft are ignored out of cost or a perceived issue with relevance, why is Chris Benoit a sports story? Do we hear "steroid testing" and immediately file the story next to Jason Giambi's? If so, would a similar story about overly-muscled extras from the movie "300" fit in the same space? Because, you know, just like wrestling, it's scripted fiction.

Is it because wrestling takes place in a boxing ring, inside sports arenas? Is it because the word "wrestling" indicates some similarity to a sport, despite the fact that neither the Greeks nor the Romans probably ever envisioned anything like Doink the Clown and The Honky Tonk Man?

Is it because the WWE uses the term "sports entertainment"; if so, did I miss the sports coverage of the "Major League" and "Mighty Ducks" films?

Is it because children watch wrestling, which means each and every one of our impressionable young boys and girls will now want to get drugged up and kill their families; because, you know, they saw it on "Law and Order" the other night?

To quote Bill Maher, "new rule": if a columnist wants to write about professional wrestling in the same space he or she uses to bash the NFL pension plan or Kobe Bryant's attitude, they must write at least one column a year that covers its soap opera storylines. That means when Jemele Hill of ESPN.com decides from her throne that a scripted television program shouldn't kill off a character because there is already an "appalling number of real wrestling deaths," she'll quickly understand the subtle differences between fiction and reality — because she'll have previously written about Papa Shango making the Ultimate Warrior sweat green goo with a voodoo curse.

You know, because that happens in every other "sport"...

The screed above comes from a place of utter frustration with the sports media echo chamber and the things it loathes. Wrestling deaths equals hockey violence equals no scoring in soccer equals women can't play basketball. It's the same damn tunes sung by the same damn people whenever there's something to sing about. They have no fresh take on the matter, and they sure as hell don't dare take their valuable time away from the Tank Johnson affair to gain some context by exploring the subject.

To read someone like Hill — whose writing usually comes from an informed, off-the-radar place that I appreciate — suggest that Congress grill the WWE for steroids like it has Major League Baseball is laughable. Comparing a professional sports organization whose buildings are constructed with public money and which has a government anti-trust exemption to what amounts to a traveling circus? Please.

Should we get Cirque du Soleil in front of the House and Senate for a stricter policy on mixing amphetamines and light fabrics next? (Not that they're using amphetamines ... but are they even testing for them? What about the kids!)

Do wrestlers take steroids? Of course. Does the WWE test for them? Yes, but so does Major League Baseball and ... well, we can still both do the math on that.

The most important question: Why do so many wrestlers die tragically? I think it's because there are two types of people attracted to the profession of sports entertainment: physical freaks and off-kilter, mentally unstable stunt men who are willing to pay an amazing physical price for fame.

Sometimes the physical freaks die young: Andre the Giant and Big John Studd went at 46, Bam Bam Bigelow at 45, Earthquake at 42, and Yokozuna at 34; none were models of health, and all of them lived the grueling life on the circuit for years.

But so many other deaths fall into that latter category. Brian Pillman died at 35 because he was addicted to prescription drugs for years before a heart condition claimed his life. "Crash Holly" OD'd on painkillers at 32. Eddie Guerrero died at 38 due to past excesses of drugs and alcohol. For every Davey Boy Smith — the British Bulldog whose death was linked to steroid abuse — there are a dozen other wrestlers whose lives ended the same way so many young actors' or musicians' lives ended: having lived a reckless life of excess.

The horrible, criminal end of Chris Benoit's life has been used by many writers as just another piece of evidence in the case against professional wrestling and, more to the point, Vince McMahon. The problem, as usual, being that they have no use for context. I'm sorry to continue picking on Hill, because she's not the only one to use this analogy, but can there be any link established at all between a deranged Chris Benoit snuffing out his family and Owen Hart's harness malfunctioning in the rafters of the Kemper Arena in 1999, sending him to his death 78 feet below in the ring? Besides the company they both from which they both collected a check?

What are sportswriters trying to say about professional wrestling when the murder-suicides are lumped in with the drug abusers, the cognitive heart failures, the car accidents, and the fat guys who died because they were fat? That wrestling's full of tragic ends? Gee, when's the column about the "Poltergeist" trilogy?

Perhaps these columnists should just stick to sports, and leave the scripted television to the entertainment writers.

Greg Wyshynski is the Features Editor for SportsFan Magazine in Washington, DC, and the Senior Sports Editor for The Connection Newspapers of Northern Virginia. His book is "Glow Pucks and 10-Cent Beer: The 101 Worst Ideas in Sports History." His columns appear every Saturday on Sports Central. You can e-mail Greg at [email protected].