The Disgraceful State of Professional Sports

The sports industry in the United States alone generates billions of dollars in revenue per year. They provide hundreds of thousands of jobs for trainers, coaches, facilities management and maintenance, janitorial services. Not the mention the merchandise, food and advertising revenue that comes directly from the fans.

The question is: Is it necessary and should we continue to support professional sports?

I ask because sports have lost their luster and charm. Instead of displaying athletic skill and promising hope they portray cheating and corruption. When I think of sports I immediately think of scandals. Words like steroids and testosterone no longer remind me of biology lectures, rather they link to infamous events in almost every major sport.

Where once cycling fans would jump to Lance Armstrong in their minds, now the besmirched names of Floyd Landis, Jan Ulrich and Ivan Basso hover in and out. What glory and respect Michael Jordan brought to basketball has been stripped away by criminal offenses by prominent figures such as Kobe Bryant. Track, football, soccer, rugby, baseball - you name it - it's had a major scandal in recent years.

What's worse is that the athletes themselves play it off as one of two things. Either they pretend like it's not going on, or if they acknowledge it, they act as if it's okay to circumvent traditional rules. Yes, there are exceptions, honest athletes who play the game for what it is - a game, but they are far and few. Two notable ones are Tiger Woods in golf and Lance Armstrong in cycling. They are individuals who hold themselves to a higher standard then the rest, and are true role models.

As for role models in, say, baseball; who's left? When we watch the game with our kids, the next generation, who do we point to for inspiration? The younger generation doesn't remember pure athletes like Babe Ruth. If they're not immersed in technology, they're watching the scumbags on T.V. who have forgotten what a privilege it is to play professional sports.

Do we really give million dollar salaries to these people so they can bulk up on anabolic steroids? Do we pay them to force women to have nightly encounters with them? Do we pay them so that they can post bail the same hour they're booked for a crime? Are they somehow above the law?

The sad truth is, they may as well be. We enable prominent sports personalities to commit outrageous acts only to forgive them later as they pay a several thousand dollar fine and apologize. Apparently their athletic prowess on the field and court make it okay for them to go beat up random people. Ron Artest now plays for the Sacramento Kings, and fans have embraced him for his court moves, dismissing his past antics.

But let's take a short break. Sports are an integral, and healthy, part of school and university life. Almost everyone does some sort of physical exercise at some point. Physical education is a required school course! And yet, when it comes to star athletes in schools and at universities, the same "above the others" mentality prevails. Academics are often placed on a back burner for exceptional athletes in high school. Colleges and universities tend to give special privileges to "student-athletes," privileges sometimes not even extended to graduate students! They are pampered, provided free counseling, medical care, and even sometimes given preferential meals. USC has an entire dining hall dedicated solely for the use of athletes and their friends.

A barely passing grade in their academic courses is considered excellent for a student athlete. In class, he or she is allowed to doodle, waste time, and generally do as he or she pleases while the struggling "artistic" student in the corner gets the shaft. Again, some schools are exceptions, but the vast majority conforms to the standards mentioned.

And while playing sports can be a very rewarding experience, fewer and fewer athletes continue to play for the fun of the game. The competition found in the professional world dribbles into the high school and college sports, and that isn't a good thing. Professional sports are played for money. This drive is not only to do better than the competition - it's to get the prize. Professional athletes have shown us they are willing to do anything to get that edge. Barry Bonds continues to deny his involvement in the BALCO scandal and refuses to acknowledge taking any performance enhancing drugs. Take a moment. Look at Barry Bonds when he first started playing professional baseball. Take a good look. Now find a recent photo of him. I've said more than enough on that subject.

Even the sports that are supposed to be pure - the Olympics - are tainted. Not an Olympics season goes by where there are 0 scandals reported. The fiasco known as professional sports is not restricted to the United States, oh no, it is a worldwide problem.

The solution to all this is actually quite simple in theory, but extremely difficult, rather near impossible in practice. The entire professional sports industry is supported by its fans. If we were to say "no more b***s***!" professional sports wouldn't last another day. But while that's easy to say, it's hard to act upon. Hell, I'm watching a replay of the Kings - Lakers preseason game RIGHT NOW (Kings won, Lakers suck!). As I said before, thousands of people depend on sports for their jobs. The players depend on us for their occupation. We rely on them for entertainment. And therein lays the problem. Nobody in their right mind would shove away good entertainment - and we shouldn't need to! But athletes need to be held totally accountable. If that means canceling game after game until the truth is out, so be it. If that means cutting salaries and canceling new arenas, so be it. If that means jailing the most popular sports figure in the world for a crime and withholding bail, SO BE IT. Hell, the money not going to the athlete could be used for so many other things: world hunger, poverty, infrastructure, etc. etc. etc.

The bottom line is: We need to step up. We need to bring back the love of the game for the game. Athletes need to return to the days where they acted with integrity and sportsmanship.

Often it seems as if the athletes have unlimited power. But it isn't them, it's us. We have the power. It's a privilege to play the game, and privileges can be revoked.