Pondering Pro Sports

I am having a hard time with pro sports lately. I stopped watching a few years back because of all the greed that went on. Somewhere along the way, mid eighties maybe, all the athletes stopped playing because they liked it and started playing for money even more. And this week when one of my favorite baseball players got traded from my favorite baseball team, it soured my want to watch the rest of the season. It was actually the nail in the coffin for this season as they are sliding further and further away from the playoffs.

I hear fans speak and wonder about why they don’t see the kind of plays they used to like Ahmad Rashad flipping through the air and bobbling a catch as he falls to the ground over an Oakland defensive back, or Lynn Swann jumping high in the air and taking a ball away from a Dallas back.

I attribute this phenomenon to greed. They don’t play for love of the game anymore. Not as many athletes anyway. I mean yes, they deserve to be paid well for punishing their bodies the way they do for our enjoyment and entertainment, but come on, the salary system sucks for this arena. Let me provide a comparison and explain how greatness still comes into play in professional sports yet the fans don’t carry the price for that excitement.

Golf.

In Golf, the pros play for a purse. The better you do the more money you get. There’s no salary. And if you don’t do well enough for the year, you go back to the qualification tours to get another shot at the pro tour. You want to make more money, by all means, sign some endorsements and get sponsors. There is nothing wrong with that at all.

I would love to see the NFL, NBA, NHL and MLB move to that kind of a pay structure. Pay the athletes a salary commensurate by position and what is expected of that position only. Then have a purse for each game sponsored by different companies as they do in golf. Next, playoffs; provide more incentive in player contracts for playoff and super bowl performance as well as participation and wins. Then let them get their own contracts for endorsements.

This would undoubtedly drive fan costs down increasing attendance and still making money for the teams and owners while driving up profits and endorsement monies while in the end driving for true athletes to perform at their best and give us the show we have missed for so long.

I watched the Players Championship this year, the Open and the Masters and they were all so exciting and good it was amazing. Even my wife who I know is bored to tears by Golf on TV was commenting and watching the Masters as the greatest players in the game today fought it out to the end. Lead changes over and over and down to a three way tie with a wonderful golfer comeback story for Angel Cabrera. Just a great exciting finish. And what is so cool, if I had wanted to see it in person, it would have cost me about $20.00 and I would have been able to walk the course and watch Phil Mickelson, Tiger Woods, Angel Cabrera and many, many others within ARMS REACH. And guess what, they aren’t but holes about their fans either. They talk to you and sign autographs much easier and are much more personable. They set up more funds and help more people out just because they want to, and not because a team corporate office wants to improve its image. They give back and think more of the common man than any other athlete.

So imagine setting down to watch a football game, and you begin seeing the plays like old times. Dan Fouts to Kellen Winslow in a triple over time playoff game where players are carried off due to fatigue of trying to just win one game and every play was their best effort. Not the best they decide to put out because there contract says once they hit 1000 yards they get a bonus, but because they love what they do and they do it well.

There were many more outstanding and wonderful athletes, moments, games and feats because they weren’t paid more than doctors and lawyers.

We have a few athletes now that definitely play to that level and do it relentlessly but they are very few that have the character to play that way and not be greedy. I definitely enjoy watching them and seeing them do well. But I still often think, how well would they play if it were just because they wanted to play. Imagine a whole team with Peyton Manning at Quarterback, Mat Forte at RB, Brandon Jacobs at Full Back, Larry Fitzgerald at WR, and Marvin Harrison on the other side. All these guys just playing. The talent that we would see in action and the drive would be awesome.

But we’re stuck with paying exorbitant amounts just to see a game on TV if it isn’t in our viewing area and tickets to some games are now at $120.00 a piece!

Something has to be done but I doubt an overhaul of that nature will never be acceptable and the corporate entity has let it all go too far and we will always have the greed outwin the talent and our teams will always be uneven and lopsided depending on the bank books and the smartest CPA’s.

Just me thinking and wishing.