Sports have been reduced to a drug-infested, money-making industry
There was a time long ago when sports were a shining beacon of respect and admiration. Today sadly, it has diminished, the splendor becoming a moneymaking industry. The game has been infected with drug infestation at all levels.
Football and the fans have been reduced to a Roman Coliseum mentality. The University of Michigan constructs a colossal, ostentatious structure to house the elites, the alumni, or anyone that can afford suites. While the students sit on cement slabs, huddled together like sardines, watching their idols perform mostly with unsportsmanlike conduct. After a vicious tackle the player prances, grinds his foot into the turf thumping his chest like a gorilla, both arms raised in conquest to his adoring fans, which in turn gives him a thumbs up.
Scandal, indulgent fans, super egos, over-paid self-anointed superstars, and drugs are the mainstay of performance, where only steroid producing clones break records. Barry Bonds, McGuire, and hundreds of others make a travesty of the sports world and should be ashamed of themselves, as athletes and men. The accomplishments through the aid of drugs should be erased from their career statistics and their legacy trashed.
What kind of role models endorse products made by 5- and 10-year-old children in Bangladesh, earning pennies an hour, living in horrible poverty? Have they no honor, or respect for anything outside their self-centered world?
Fans do not care that Michael Vick was involved in a dog fighting conspiracy that slaughtered dogs. Killing them in horrible brutal ways, the true-blooded American sports fan still willing to pay a $130 million salary to watch a criminal play football.
We are an anti-intellectual nation, worshiping the lowest denominator of society. A lost generation living in an artificial world of hypocrisy. Where have you gone Joe DiMaggio?
- Pat R. O’Malley, Ann Arbor
Comments
KeepingItReal
Mon, Nov 30, 2009 : 2:44 p.m.
Stunshif: When I Originally read your post, I thought that you were from another planet. Now I know. You want to blame College/Pro Football and Basketball vor all the ills of the games but what about these sociopathic coaches, greedy agents, not to mention excessive television contracts, Nike endorsements, and that criminal activity called Hockey. I've never seem people go absolutely out of their mind when they see someone crack another human being across the face or in the mouth with a hockey stick. It would be my recommendation that Hockey be outlawed.
stunhsif
Mon, Nov 30, 2009 : 9:05 a.m.
zulu, I never even referred to Michael "sick" Vick or said anythinga about a Gorilla.I do wish Vick had met up with a gorilla in his prison cell, perhaps the gorilla could have helped to even the score for all those dead dogs he killed. Regarding football funding other sports, to a certain degree, that is true. Prostitution also allows many women to put food on their table and feed their kids so two "wrongs" don't make a "right". Regarding the doping scandal in cycling and the ice skating incident with Tanya Harding. You cannot be serious. The number of criminal incidents in sports other than football and basketball are extremely rare. What percentage of pro football players have been arrested? What percentage of college football players graduate from college, perhaps 50%. What percentage of pro football players have been arrested for any reason, about 50%. Get rid of college and pro football and basketball and these bad examples of athletes would dissapear. For that I would say, "good riddance"!!!
Basic Bob
Sun, Nov 29, 2009 : 6:45 p.m.
Remembering when sports were a shining beacon.... Black Sox, Ty Cobb, Jake LaMotta, Pete Rose, SMU football, Tonya Harding, Ed Martin,.... Yep, those were the days before sports became infested with criminals like Bonds and Vick.
KeepingItReal
Sun, Nov 29, 2009 : 11:15 a.m.
stunshsif: You mentioned these other sports. Do you realize that college football fund these other sports and that if football didn't exist, these other sports would probably be nothing at all. Also, keep in mind that Lance Armstrong doping scandal and the knee scandal some years ago in ice skating. Hockey is the most uncivilized sports there is. People get their teeth knocked out, bloodied faces and look at how rabied the fans are for that sports. The reason that you don't here about scandals in other sports is because most of them are so boring that people other than boring people watch them. They don't generate money and the level of excitement is not as great. Also, I'm curious about your reference to "gorilla", criminal behavior as it refers to Michael Vick.
mermaid72
Sun, Nov 29, 2009 : 9:59 a.m.
This letter is wonderful, and true, and well-composed. You have put words into "our mouths". At least those of us who are sick to death of sports & sports fans. And the big money-grubbing business of sports. And worst of all the "athletes" such as Vick, who are a disgrace to the human race. Thank you Pat.
stunhsif
Sun, Nov 29, 2009 : 9:47 a.m.
Pat, I could not agree more. The truth is though, if you got rid of college and pro football and basketball, you would get rid of 99% of the problem. Other college and pro sports don't have these problems. Look at hockey, track and field,baseball,swimming, gymnastics,field hockey, soccer etc. Very very few issues with these sports.
srburns
Sat, Nov 28, 2009 : 4:10 p.m.
gorillas? While I agree with the authors comments on the "drugs and money" culture which infects much of the sports world, there is another side to the story. We should not ignore the inspirational stories of class acts like Zoltan Mesko (First-team Academic All-American) and Brandon Graham (four-year captain and a leader on and off the field). For every Michael Vick, there are many athletes who quietly work to give back to their communities, but they rarely if ever make the headlines. Maybe that's where the problem is: we WANT to hear the nasty stories. Perhaps we should make an effort to counter every article like this one with two or three articles on inspirational, intelligent, talented athletes!