While conducting an interview with Jerome Jenkins the other day, I asked him about his opponents for Sac State?s first exhibition game. The schedule reads TCS for its team name, and when I asked Jenkins, he didn?t know what the initials stood for. He then asked his assistant, who scheduled the game, and he didn?t know either. Sports Information didn?t know?nobody at Sac State had any idea who the first exhibition game for men?s basketball was against. It was the TCS mystery.

That?s why I found it humorous when I got to the game Saturday and read one of the TCS jerseys which said in fancy letters, “Tribe Called Sweat.” They are a sports club from the Bay Area, comprised of former San Francisco State basketball players, who are now in their late 20?s and early 30?s. For Sac State, it?s a nice way to get in a good scrimmage before the season starts, but for the TCS players, the game was serious business.

At first glance of this team, I laughed?not because of the players, but because of the pun related to the well known rap group, “A Tribe Called Quest,” that they named their team after. But then I thought about how sad the situation actually was. These guys really don?t realize that they shouldn?t be playing organized basketball at this time in their life.

This is a group of guys who have yet to let go of their basketball careers, and they can?t get ahold of the fact that they just can?t hack it anymore.

The back of their warm-ups have the inspirational saying, “whatever it takes,” and I guess on Saturday that meant bickering to the referees about obvious fouls, and having a tissy-fit by kicking chairs when the call didn?t go their way. They complained to the ref that, “we didn?t drive all this way to get this kind of treatment.” Well, news to the tribe: You guys are lucky to get a game?period.

Some of the guys were in great shape, but the others were slow, overweight, and looked like they should be dominating the church league, not playing against a Division I opponent. The reason that they got called for fouls is because they couldn?t keep up. Sometimes TCS fouled for no other reason than that they were too slow and the talent that they once possessed has simply diminished.

It?s sad that these guys keep playing. I respect that they want to keep the competitive juices that they?ve had their whole life flowing, but there comes a time when you just have to give up on being an athlete. It?s something that everybody who plays a sport eventually has to deal with. Whether your career ends after highschool, after college, or if you go on to play in the pros until you?re 40, it has to end somewhere. At some time in an athlete?s life, he or she has to grow up, realize that life isn?t about a game that they play, then go out and live. Finding a new niche in life may be difficult, and the sense of stardom fades as one leaves the game that they played for so long, but the true meaning of life will make itself available if you just go out and find it.

So, while TCS was a nice way for Sac State to wrinkle out a few of their first game wrinkles, I plead to them as a sports fan: Hang up the sneakers! Use a little bit of that education that you earned at San Francisco State and make your life something more than the game of basketball.

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