For the love of the shame

Thursday night was a big night for television.

On TBS, you saw the Major League Baseball playoffs in which the Detroit Tigers advanced to the next level of play.

On the NFL network, you saw the Tennessee Titans score a game-winning field goal as time expired.

Oh, yeah, and there was a debate.

The vice presidential debate competed for attention with several other, more theatrical forms of entertainment, like sports.

It is already challenging enough to persuade the average voter to be excited about the electoral process.

If a viewer must choose between Vice President Joe Biden or quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan or pitcher Ryan Vogelsong, the sports world is not doing the American public justice.

Sports is a business. The executives who put the schedule together are going to do what it takes to ensure they receive as many viewers as possible. They don’t necessarily care what they are competing against.

The problem is, something could have been done to avoid this conflict.

The League Division series in both leagues spanned seven days. Of those seven days, four of them included two games or fewer.

Networks could have easily scheduled games around the debate, leaving primetime spots available.

The same is true for the NFL. On Sept. 6, the NFL moved a game from Thursday evening to the night before, so as not to conflict with the President Barack Obama’s speech at the Democratic National Convention.

Why would the NFL not make way for politics again?

In a political time in which ignorance is almost tangible, the sports world has an obligation to get out of the way of the common good.

Unless you’re Joe Biden, watching two men talk about their beliefs on abortion, the budget deficit and campaign positions might not be as thrilling as seeing two teams battle in the postseason.

Even so, the sporting world should do what it can to make the political world as available, accessible and exciting as possible.

And, no, Ryan and Biden mud wrestling is not the answer.

­— azoot@indiana.edu