Wither Pro Sports?

I’m a fan of professional sports – not an avid, must watch ESPN and subscribe to Sports Illustrated fan – but a fan nonetheless. It’s a great social lubricant – hey did you see the game last night? What about that play? You get the idea.

However, the older I gets the less enamored I become with it – it becomes seedier and less honorable. (And in a time of war, it seems silly to call star athletes, “heroes” anyway.) You realize it’s just another business.

Alas, the professional leagues aren’t helping themselves out any. In baseball, Barry Bonds, as I write this, is just a couple of swings away from eclipsing Henry Aaron’s record for the most home runs in a career. Yet, in Sunday's New York Daily News, it seems that perjury and tax evasion indictments will be handed to Mr. Bonds by the end of the season.

Michael Vick, as noted on these pages, is in a world of hurt. He’s just the current face of the problem that the NFL has been facing (and to it’s credit – combating) of late.

Now the NBA is having the credibility of its games come under question as a referee is under investigation for fixing games he officiated for his own personal gain.

Hockey and soccer, like professional women’s basketball, simply aren’t part of the bit time.

None of this is really new. Gaylord Perry used a spitball for most of his career; the 1986 Mets were anything but honorable schoolboys; Lawrence Taylor claims to have been on drugs and O.J. Simpson, lest anyone forget was a gridiron favorite. And in basketball, who can forget the Malice in the Palace?

What’s interesting though is how these events are coming to the fore like a 1-2 punch combination.

I’m sure somebody will come up with a stupid notion like having some federal sports authority monitor the games but that won’t help.

No, this part of the rot that’s affecting our society – in our culture, in our politics, and in our lives. Sports is no different.

Perhaps this is a low moment for pro sports but I fear that this is merely a tip of a very unforgiving iceberg.