_PNG.png)
this is a little late, but i was thinking about it tonight…
there’s a reason why i like high school and college sports way more than professional sports.
although there is a lot wrong with amateur athletics, for me, it is still a place where the love of the game is celebrated, values are taught, teamwork and loyalty are forged, life lessons are experienced and effort is praised and rewarded. far from perfect, but still a great stage.
professional sports are different. although it shares some of the same characteristics of amateur sports, it is a different animal altogether.
professional sports are about four things: entertainment, winning, profit, and ego. and before you get all bent out of shape… you need to know that i’m totally okay with it.
i’m okay with lebron dumping his beloved hometown and moving on to south beach. it’s his right…his privilege…his life. he owes nothing to anybody. if it produces greater entertainment…a cherished championship ring…lucrative financial bonuses…and a larger stage to massage and magnify his legacy, i say go for it! it’s why professional sports exist.
personally, i’m tired of people bringing ethics and morality and loyalty and values and honor and character into the realm of pro sports. those characteristics stand in complete opposition to the purpose of pro sports! why do we get our noses out of joint when our beloved pro stars act totally in character and consistent with the world they live in?
why are we expecting something out of professional sports that it is not wired to give?
this may sound hypocritical coming from someone who actually cares deeply about morals and character and integrity and compassion and loyalty and servanthood, but it really doesn’t matter much to me in the world of pro sports…
i’m okay with winning at all cost.
i’m okay with over-paid, over-blown, under-achieving athletes…as long as they’re not on my team.
as much as it bugs me that there is inequity in sports franchises ( i’m a small-market whiner, i know), i’m okay with the rich getting richer and squeezing the small into oblivion and irrelevance. in the realm of pro sports, i’m a total darwinian. it’s survival of the fittest, plain and simple.
i’m okay with pro teams signing criminals. no “morals clause” is required for me. as long as they can help my team win a championship, i can overlook just about anything.
in pro sports, cheating is only cheating if you get caught. if the other team is dumb enough to let it happen and the refs are too slow to figure it out, so be it. winning is everything.
no winning = no entertainment…no financial success…no ego stroking. nobody supports a loser.
that’s what pro sports is all about. so get over it. more power to you, lebron.
to me, watching a professional sport competition is nothing more than watching a movie. i can watch movies that include bad morals and corrupt values…performed by actors with questionable character and personal lives that i would never imitate. i’m smart enough to know that it is just a movie and i need to separate it from real life. and i was smart enough to teach my kids the same lesson.
but i can still be entertained by it. as a matter of fact, some of the best movies i’ve ever seen have been made by some of the most corrupt and unethical people i know of. geez…i’m a bauerhead, for crying out loud. but i don’t expect movie characters (or the actors who portray them) to be my role models.
and i don’t expect anything more from my professional sports stars either.
it’s a little crass, i know…but it’s how i feel.
Comments