Do You Really Care?

I try to stay away from current events.  Mine would just be one more voice in an ever increasingly chaotic din.  However, I need to get something off my chest.  And considering I’m correct, it’s really more of a public service announcement.

When it comes to our sports viewing, why do we care about anything except on field play?  On an almost daily basis I hear from co-workers, radio, television or newspaper about the evils of professional athletes.  They always seem to be under suspicion of something, getting arrested for something else, or squawking to the media about themselves.  Who cares?

If Steve Jobs was arrested tomorrow for drunk driving, would you give up your iPhone?  Doubtful.  If Bill Shor or Larry Page were in the news saying that Google was more important than life itself and that they deserved a raise (even thought they are multi-millionaires already), would you stop using the world’s most comprehensive search engine?  Short anwer – no.  If it turns out that “The Social Network” was even close to correct, and Mark Zuckerberg is a complete dick and maybe somewhat of a criminal, will you close your Facebook account…HAHA!!

So, why do we impose a different set of values on athletes?  Rhetorical of course, because there actually are some answers that I’ve heard.  Higher visibility, we’re more emotionally invested in our sports teams, we’re more financially invested, etc.  BULLSHIT!  I don’t want to hear it.

Don’t we root for laundry anyway?  Free agency in every sport assured that.  Players move around so much you need a score card to tell who’s on your team (no pun intended).  That started their facelessness.  I say amen.  I just want them to perform well.  I want my teams to win.

Hell, we’re not even doling out our scorn equally.  Everyone hates Michael Vick because of the dog fighting.  He got caught, went to jail, paid for it, and will be paying for it one way or the other forever.  And people are boycotting him, the Eagles and the NFL entirely for that.  If you’re one of those short-sighted folks, more power to you.  Freedom of choice and all.  However, did you boycott the Phillies when Brett Myers was beating his wife, got away with it, and got a raise?!?  I doubt it.  Did you stop watching baseball when every home run king (in the modern era) was found to have taken a drug to make their game better?  Hardly.  Have you stopped watching basketball because of the rampant drug use and illegitimate child bearing that is admitted my most of the league?  Of course not.  So please pick your arguments correctly. 

Let’s face it; the personal lives of these players don’t affect you at all, and you know it.  Get off your soap box, relax a little, and enjoy a sporting event for what it should be…a few hours of entertainment.

That brings us to salaries.  Players, most of them, are millionaires.  Owners, most of them, are billionaires.  So why should I suffer because of their petty financial arguments?  Well, I shouldn’t.  But, unfortunately, we contribute to this one.  Every time you bitch about player salaries, ask yourself how much sports related stuff you own.  Hats, shirts, jerseys, posters, an endorsed glove or bat, etc.  It all adds up.  The players and owners each get a piece.  Do you purchase food or drink that the players individually or sports leagues as a whole endorse?  Do you purchase anything advertised during any sporting event?  Do you pay for tickets to go see the games?

I content that if the answer is yes to ANY of those questions, then you have no leg to stand on when it comes to complaining about how much they make.  If we all stopped drinking Budweiser and Coors Light (aside from showing good taste) the sports teams would need to re-evaluate the almighty dollar, but that’s not realistic any time soon.

I’m not absolving myself of all these things, but I also don’t whine about Ryan Howard’s $20,000,000 per year contract.  He asked, the owners agreed, good for him.  I may not be able to afford Eagles tickets, or more than a handful of Phillies tickets a year, but I’m OK with that.  Frankly, I’d rather watch from home anyway.  And I can sleep very well at night in my Eagles PJ’s.

That is all.

Ralston Has Spoken.