Egad! The sky is falling.
Recently, the NBA announced the withdrawal of the 2016 All-Star game from the city of Charlotte for the state’s stance on Transgender laws. Can it be long before Michael Jordan threatens to move the Charlotte Hornets out of state as well?
Prior to the NBA announcement, the NCAA stuck its finger into the eye of Indiana for the state’s position on religious freedom by threatening to remove Indianapolis as the site for any future Final-Four games. Will the Indianapolis Colts threaten to leave Indiana?
Corporate America is also flexing its muscles but that is an argument for another day.
So who are these paragons of morality passing judgment on the rest of us? Should their voice make any difference at all? Let’s begin with the professional side led by the NFL and the NBA followed by other professional sports:
• Babe Ruth once said, “If it weren’t for baseball, I’d be either in the penitentiary or the cemetery.
• Professional sports teams are overridden with “…young millionaires equipped with an army of enablers and a ton of free time.”
• Consider the following names who have made more recent headlines…Aaron Hernandez, Ray Rice, Michael Irvin, Warren Sapp, Lawrence Taylor, Michael Vick, etc. The list is too long.
• Consider the crimes include drug-trafficking, gambling, embezzlement, murder, and manslaughter and drug suspension.
And do these young professionals begin their careers of crime at the professional level? Look at the collegiate level and the quagmire of the NCAA:
• One in three college sexual assaults are committed by athletes.
• Florida Gators had most crime suspects from 2000-2014.
• UNC recorded the second most sex offenses of all schools in 2012. Maybe that’s why they need special protection in North Carolina.
• NC State ranked in top 10 for aggravated assault and vehicle theft.
• Florida and Florida State ranked at top of athletes who were charged with a crime but had the charges dropped.
• Remember Jerry Sandusky, Art Schlichter and Maurice Claret just to name a few of our collegiate namesakes?
Where does it all begin? Consider:
• Only 2 of 25 top schools do a background check on recruits.
• 20 percent of college football recruits (coming from high school) in top 25 Division I teams have criminal records.
• Jim Tressel, former OSU coach said, “We don’t really go into anything outside the school system.” Which maybe is why OSU was ranked at the top of list for criminal offenses.
Supporters will argue the positive economic impact of a sports team. No one can argue that NCAA sports teams mean huge returns for colleges and athletes alike. However, a recent University of Kentucky study came to the same conclusions as previous studies regarding professional sports teams:
• There is little or no economic impact at all.
• Cities offer tax incentives to come and have to offer further tax incentives to stay while driving up the costs for families to go to a game.
• This is corporate welfare at its worst.
At some point in time, states and cities will be strong enough to tell their professional teams to take a hike. And they clearly need to clean up their cities and universities to, once again, be a beacon for students…not athletes who won’t graduate. And as fans, we need to stop glorifying violence in sports and remind ourselves that when we need a moral compass… it cannot be found in sports at any level.
Oh well, two more weeks to kickoff for the NFL. I can hardly wait to find out who is drugged out, beating their girlfriends or shooting themselves or someone else.
Richard Sobieray is a resident of The Villages.
