The State Of Professional Sports

Before I say another word about this, I'll admit that I'm fired up on this issue. I'm a big fan of many professional sports, especially football. However, I'm so disgusted with many elements of the game and the apologists out there.

Most mornings, when I take my kids to school, I listen to Mike and Mike in the morning on ESPN radio. There are two issues that they have talked about recently and many times that have proliferated professional sports. The first is the use of steriods, and the second is cheating.

There was one comment the Mike and Mike show said that made me laugh out loud: that somehow the gambling that Pete Rose did on baseball was worse by a long shot over professional athletes that use steroids. I'd like them to tell that to the parents of a child that died from the use of steroids to compete with the cheaters. I'd like them to tell that to the player whose professional career was cut short because they were cut but the steriod cheater was retained. I'm not excusing what Pete Rose did.....but it pales in comparison to the use of steriods in professional sports. In addition, if Rose bet on his team in baseball to win, I'm not sure that his gambling changed how he coached the game. The last time I checked was for the coach to put forth a game winning plan.

Another issue that makes me cringe is when any professional athlete (including Golic) states that they would not turn in a fellow player if they new they were using steriods. The over riding belief by this show, and others in the sporting community, is that the penalties imposed on players for using steriods by sports teams is sufficient. Not me. Simply put, there should be zero tolerance. If an athlete chooses to use, and gets caught once and it is confirmed, the penalty is a lifetime ban. It's time the sport gets cleaned up. This is the only way to do it.

Recently, there has been discussions around something in professional football called "Spygate." This has involved the New England Patriots having been caught taping another team's (New York Jets) play calls. It gives the team that does it a competitive advantage against others by knowing what are the best plays to call against certain play calls. Again, the apologists from the Mike and Mike show claim that opening up further investigations on this matter (allegedly there is more evidence that the Patriots cheated on more games than originally thought) is overboard and a waste of time. They are not sure what the point is. I'll try to break this one down. The loss of the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl brought a smile to my face in breaking their "perfect" season. This team cheated against an inferior New York Jets team earlier this season, and was penalized inappropriately for it. The powers that be should have done the following: the game should have been forfeited by the Patriots, and all fans that wanted a refund for attending a game that had cheaters should have been given a refund by the New England Patriots. The bottom line is that the tickets sold were done so under false pretenses: had some fans known that cheating was going to take place prior to the game, they may have chosen not to go.

An interesting discussion took place recently with the Mike and Mike team and Senator Arlen Specter from Pennsylvania. Specter has a request out to have additional discussions with the commissioner of football regarding possible additional cheating in football. Again, the Mike and Mike team minimized this request by saying it was foolish. When pressed by the radio men, Specter said that using the excuse it has been "going on for a long time" would be the same as saying "so has the theft of automobiles," neither one being right and both should be stopped. Mike and Mike then said that to use that analogy was off base. Here is my response: cheating in professional sports that results in one team given an unfair advantage can have significant impact: If in a Super Bowl, it could mean tens of thousands of dollars difference between each player on the winning versus losing team. It could mean a better contract for a player. Ultimately, it means more money in the pocket of the winning, and possibly cheating team. If this request for a meeting by Specter results in one less cheating scandal or exposure of just one that we did not know about, it is well worth it.

This brings me to the end and final thoughts on this long diatribe. We as fans and a society are the reasons why professional sports are out of control. We have an insatiable appetite for it, and we let the teams and management get away with it. It's a supply and demand issue: As long as we continue to pay the prices that continue to rise, continue to tune it in when these sports are littered with steriod use and cheating, we ultimately have no one to blame but ourselves for the outcome. If we want $5,000 per seat Super Bowl tickets to be a thing of the past and reclaim fair sportsmanship, it's time to tune out and stop paying.